An Organized Wardrobe
For Men

Designing an organized wardrobe that works for all men is impossible due to the individual needs of each man at various times in his life. The better way is to analyze and plan your wardrobe for the different roles and parts of your life.

Most men will have a job, career, business or vocation that they use to earn a living.

This will range from jobs at fast food restaurants to being the CEO an international business empire and everything in between.

You may need only one uniform that you wear every day to having hundreds of expensive Italian suites as part of your organized wardrobe.

Because most men are busy earning a living I think that they don't spend much time planning an organized wardrobe.

You need to have this part of your organized wardrobe well planned because it is the most important part of your life.

Making a living is the most important thing a man does. Your wife, children, religion, friends, family, charities, hobbies, collections and other interests all come second.

You need to have clothes that work for you for the type of work that you do. You need to spend the most on the clothes you wear to work and you need to concentrate on keeping those clothes clean and maintained.

My goal is to help you understand how to have an organized wardrobe will make getting ready for work easy, maintaining your clothes simple, shopping for them a pleasure and looking good every day a part of your life.

I have listed the areas of my life and the clothes that I need and/or want to make that part of my life work well.

Once you have read through my lists you can your make your own organized wardrobe lists and start down the path of being a well-dressed man with an organized wardrobe.

My work as a civil engineer is in an office. I only go to the job sites infrequently and I do not have too many meetings. My work involves designing/drawing on large sheets of paper, performing calculations on paper and the computer, making phone calls, emailing and working with the other people in the office.

It is normal to wear cotton khakis type pants and button down shirts. The general rule is to be presentable but comfortable enough to roll up your sleeves and get a lot of done.

My work organized wardrobe includes:

1. 5 long sleeve button down shirts for winter and cool weather.

2. 5 short sleeve button down shirts for hot weather.

3. 3 pair khaki colored cotton pants.

4. 1 pair black cotton pants.

5. 1 pair whitish colored cotton pants.

6. 5 white undershirts.

7. 5 boxer shorts.

8. 1 black belt.

9. 1 brown belt.

10. 1 pair black shoes.

11. 1 pair brown shoes.

12. 3 pair black socks.

13. 3 pair brown socks.

14. 2 or 3 sweaters for cold weather. I like the vest type.

15. Leather winter coat.

16. Black leather gloves.

17. Windbreaker type jacket for spring/fall.

The number of clothes is chosen so I can go all week without doing laundry if I need to.

It should be obvious that you wear black socks with black shoes and a black belt and brown shoes with socks and a brown belt.

Also, the pants should go with the shoe and the shirts with the pants. I say obviously, but many men seem to be color blind and without much fashion sense. I am not the best dressed man around but I think it is important to convey a professional image and at least not look like a fool.

There will be other clothes from your other areas of life that you may wear from time to time but the above list would be sufficient if you work in a field similar to mine.

As you go through life you may accumulate more money. In that case you would just buy higher quality of the above clothes. For example you could then buy a higher quality cotton type pants at the Department Store instead of at Wal-Mart.

These ideas for a well organized wardrobe work for clothes you get at Goodwill, Wal-Mart and all the way up to the most expensive custom made suits.

You may work your way up the ladder and find that you should be wearing suits or at least dress pants and ties. In that case you are really not a working engineer but more of a manager or executive.

The beginning manager /executive organized wardrobe are listed below:

• 4 suits.

• 1 dress pants.

• 1 navy blue blazer or sport coat.

• 5 white or light blue cotton shirts.

• 2 pairs of shoes that go with suits.

• 2 belts that go with suits.

• 5 white undershirts.

• 5 boxers.

• Long trench coat, lined for winter.

• Leather gloves.

The number of clothes in these organized wardrobes is kept to the numbers stated because you will be washing your clothes or getting them dry-cleaned at least once per week. If you have lots of closet space and lots of money for clothes, you could just expand these wardrobes and not need to do the laundry so often.

Since I believe that less clutter in everything helps me to be more organized, I believe that having a week's worth of work clothes is enough.

I would then go shopping as clothing starts to become worn or I get tired of wearing it and want something new.

I have found that work clothing can last for years. Shopping would only be needed occasionally as clothes wore out or when you find exceptional deals.

I live in southeastern Wisconsin. The winters are quite severe, but they are not as bad as northern Wisconsin or other northern parts of the country.

My winter organized wardrobe includes:

• Heavy shell type winter coat with removable liner.

• Lined leather coat.

• Pack boots.

• 3 pair wool socks.

• Long underwear.

• 1 pair lined denim pants.

• 2 flannel shirts.

• 2 wool sweaters.

• 3 winter hats.

• 1 pair very heavy mittens.

• 4 pair gloves.

• 3 heavy sweatshirts.

• Scarf or neck cover.

• Lined barn coat.

• Rubber boots that slip over dress shoes.

I lift weights and use the cardio machines at a commercial gym. I have found that I would much rather have fewer high quality workout clothes. It feels better to have nicer workoutclothes both for the comfort while working out and to look presentable.

It is better to wash these clothes often because the sweat makes them smell, so I don’t want them hanging around for more than a day or two unwashed.

My workout organized wardrobe is listed below:

• 2 pair workout pants (sweats).

• 1 pair cross training shoes.

• 3 gray cotton t-shirts.

• 3 sweatshirts.

• 6 Pair white socks.

• Boxer shorts. I just wear the boxer shorts I wore that day under my sweats.

My after work organized wardrobe is listed below:

• Two or three very nice long sleeve dress shirts for evening wear.

• Two or three really nice short sleeve dress shirts for evening wear.

• Three long sleeve casual shirts (like denim).

• Four long sleeve pullover shirts.

• Four short sleeve golf shirts.

• Four of five pairs of nice jeans.

• Five pairs of nice shorts.

• Four nice T-shirts.

• White undershirts, 14.

• Boxer shorts, 7.

• Black socks, 7.

• Brown socks, 7.

• White socks, 20.

• Lounging pants, 2.

• One pair of nice casual tennis shoes.

• Work boots. 1

• Hiking boots, 1

• Black boots, 1

• Black dress shoes, 1

• Moccasins, 1

• Slippers, 1

• Slip on shoes,1

• Sport Coats, 2

• Leather jackets, 2

• Barn coat, 1

• Flannel jacket, 1

• Fleece jackets, 2

• Fleece pullovers, 4

• Sweaters, 2.

As you can see, I have plenty of clothes and this is after I have made a conscious effort to reduce the number of my clothes.

You can easily have a huge number of clothes that you rarely wear because most people just wear their favorite clothes most of the time.

I now always try to wear my better clothes as much as I can. At one time I thought I should be saving my good clothes. At some point in my life I threw away that stupid idea and started only wearing the clothes I like the most.

I used to be a person who would wear my old ratty clothes while saving my good clothes for later.

Sometime down the line I made the switch to not waiting for later. I started wearing my favorite clothes now. My life improved.

Here is a link to a good article on what clothes to have to wear:

Mens Clothing from the Art of Manliness

My Story of How I Started to Change my Mind on Clothing

It was still warm when I started my freshmen year of college so you could still wear shorts. I had 3 or 4 pairs of nice shorts and 1 pair of shorts that were very strange and made me look foolish.

I mostly wore the strange pair. I was so intent on saving my good ones for later that I only wore my strange ones. I was a freshman in college and away from home for the first time. I was trying to make a good impression and look good and I insisted on wearing clothes that made me look like a goof ball.

I was saving my good shorts so I would have them to look good and in the meanwhile I was looking stupid.

I wish I could go back and throw the strange shorts out. That is what I do now. I get rid of clothes that make me look bad.

I really do not know why I thought that way. I am not sure where that idea comes from, but I have it and have to always work on it. If you are going to have good clothes, why not use them? What are you saving your good clothes for?

Obviously, if you have an expensive suit that you only wear for weddings, funerals and job interviews, I would say to save it for those occasions.

I am talking about normal day to day life. Wear your best jeans when you go out at night. Wear your good clothes to work.

The easiest way to ensure you only use your good stuff is to get rid of the bad and worthless and old things that are not suitable anymore.

My rule is that if something new comes in, something old goes out. Now, whenever I get something new and that I really like I will get rid of something in its place. I want to wear the best clothes that I have. I want a really well organized wardrobe.

Your life is now. Now is the most important time Wear your good clothes now.

Enjoy your life now.

Get rid of the clothes that look bad on you, that don't fit or need repairs.

I only want the most comfortable and best clothes that make me feel good because they make me look good.

Isn’t that what clothes should do? I think you should be going through your clothes many times a year and giving away the clothes that no longer fits the criteria of being part of your organize wardrobe by either not fitting well and making you feel good when you are wearing them.

Besides, giving your clothes away to a charity is a great thing. I buy clothes at Goodwill. Keeping clothes in your closet doesn’t help you or anyone else.

Go ahead; pull out 10 or more items today. Put them in a bag, put the bag in the trunk of your car and get to your nearest charity within the next week.

Giving away things is great for you and for others.

Here are links to the Goodwill Home Page and the Salvation Army Home Page for finding the store nearest you so you can drop off those clothes and anything else.

Your closet will be more open, you’ll get the thanks of the charity, the tax write-off, the good feeling when you give something away and most important, and more space for your organized wardrobe.

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