How to Stop Stress Shopping Before Vacations
Our last trip of summer is coming up and happily, I don’t have any Amazon emergency orders being delivered and I absolutely won’t be setting foot in a store (except Sephora to exchange a lipstick color I already bought and Target to grab a few more travel size toiletry bottles to fill). In the not-so-distant past, this often was not the case for me.
Before a vacation, I’d stare at my closet, rifle through my clothing and try on countless outfits I’d then decide weren’t good enough for some arbitrary reason. All of this resulted in frustration.
I was frustrated because I didn’t have things in my closet that allowed me to put together outfits I envisioned—outfits I could see myself wearing on vacation.
I was frustrated because I didn’t like how certain clothes looked on my body.
I was frustrated because nothing in my closet excited me (or so I thought).
I was frustrated—most importantly—that I allowed all of this nonsense to frustrate me!
What happened next was I would go shopping. I’d waste my time at some of my usual go-to’s and often leave empty-handed. Typically I’d end up at Target and seriously stress shop for “just in case” things; I had gotten to the point where I knew I wasn’t going to find what I thought I needed so I would buy a few “kind of” pieces–things that were kind of what I was looking for but not really. In the most dire of times, I’d order something from Amazon which never went well.
Satisfied with a few new “kind of” pieces, I’d overpack my luggage and head on vacation. You probably know where this is going… but just in case you don’t, I’ll tell you what happened next.
I went on vacation, had an amazing time and wore a small fraction of what I packed and almost never wore those new “kind of” pieces. Instead, I wore outfits I loved and–gasp–had worn many times before. And I survived. And I had a fun vacation!
(The only frustration was schlepping back to Target or wherever I bought those “kind of” pieces and returning them because they didn’t fit in my wardrobe.)
I eventually had enough of vacation stress shopping. My closet isn’t perfect but it mostly contains pieces of clothing I love and wear all the time. More importantly, it’s home to clothes that work together and offer me a lot of versatility so when I go on a trip, I have more than enough options. I can wear outfits I love from my regular rotation, or I can mix and match them to create new-to-me looks.
Do you aspire to stop stress shopping before vacations?
The sarcastic side of me can’t help but hear in my mind, “What, like it’s hard?” from Cher in Clueless. Putting an end to stress shopping before you travel is not hard! It’s about mindset and choosing to stop the cycle. It helps to have a strategy.
Think “day-to-night” and “night-to-day.”
Commit to wearing clothes (and shoes) more than once. Unless you’re prone to spilling or otherwise giving your clothes a reason to be laundered after one wear, you can (and should) wear things more than once. One of my hacks for this is transitioning a piece of clothing from a daytime look into a nighttime look by swapping one component of the outfit. For example, if I’m wearing a t-shirt during the day, I’ll continue wearing the t-shirt out to dinner that evening but I’ll add a blazer and trousers to elevate the look. Alternatively, if I wear an outfit to dinner in the evening, I might repurpose that outfit for breakfast/the first half of the following day.
Mix and match.
The reason you hear about mixing and matching on an endless loop? It works! This might be obvious but packing pieces you can easily mix and match in a variety of ways is the best way to minimize the clothing you need for vacation. I have examples of how I did this in my Italy and Japan travel guides.
Vacation people have never seen your outfits!
Remember, the people you see on vacation have never seen your outfits. That outfit you always wear for date night because you love it and feel hot (not menopause hot but sexy hot) when you wear it? Take it on vacation! It doesn’t matter that it isn’t new–no one will know and you’ll feel good.
If you don’t wear it in real life, you won’t wear it in vacation life.
You know those memes you see about vacation packing and how you don’t need to take the tuba you’ve never played once in your life because you’re not going to start playing it on vacation? The same is true with clothing. If you know you’re not going to work out on vacation, keep your gym clothes at home. (🙋🏼♀️GUILTY)
Always be editing.
While there is a time and place for an exhaustive closet edit, maintaining your closet by always editing out pieces that no longer serve you means your closet will always be filled with clothing you like, wear and fit you well… so when it comes to packing for a vacation, you already have everything you need.
If you’re a stress shopper before vacation and could use help making sense of what’s in your closet, my travel styling service is for you.
Do any of these tips resonate with you? Tell me about it in the comments. ⬇️
