In a recent post on organized emotional shopping I touched on how important it is to listen to your head and your heart during the wardrobe planning and shopping process. A related point I also want to make is that a practical detailed shopping plan should be relatively short term, with a list of items that you intend to purchase in the next two to three months. 

The simple reason for this is that things change. In particular, your situation and your needs might change. But perhaps more importantly, the way you feel about certain items, styles, colours and trends will change too. How you feel in an outfit is very important. A high happiness factor for new items will ensure that they get worn and make it much less likely that they end up being wardrobe orphans. So adapting your plan to your feelings is essential.

Note that this doesn’t mean no long term plan at all. By all means, if you are into long term planning then outline what you would like to purchase over the next year. But if you note down that you need more pants and in six months find that you’re more into dresses than pants, change the plan. Put dresses on your short term shopping list.

The reason I say two to three months for the detailed shopping list is that this is what has worked best for my clients and me over the years. Keeping the plan short term allows us to make better purchasing decisions because we’re acting on our most current sartorial preferences, lifestyle requirements, and figure flattery priorities.

So if you’re a die-hard planner, resist the urge to create a detailed plan that goes more than three months into the future. If you do have a long term plan, keep it very flexible and reassess your requirements regularly.