Four seasons, or 6-8-week "blocks"?

Awhile ago, I read with interest a post here by someone--you're out there, but I don't remember!--perhaps the lady who lives in India?--about 6 or 8 seasons or something instead of the traditional North American 4 seasons.

I was intrigued by the idea of 6 -week or 8-week "blocks" instead of seasons. Or I guess you could be like the hobbit-meals in LOTR and have pre-spring, spring, pre-summer, summer and so on.

I like it because while I run cold, I run temp-picky also and so wear different degrees of "warmth" within a single season. And because while I tend to think I have a mix-and-match wardrobe, in fact not every single thing goes with everything, of course, so there are capsules within capsules. So instead of thinking about what's up to wear for the next several months, or a rigidly named season, I might do better saying, here are the __ capsules and outfits that are most likely to take me though the next 6-8 weeks.

The organization point of all this is that I currently have all my slacks in one section, tops in another, tops by sleeve length and solid vs print, or some semblance of that, bu I don't really need to be able to choose from all of them all of the time. Most of my closet is double-rod (upper and lower) due to not wearing many dresses, so I can have "primo" space right at my nose and lower space. I already do kind of move stuff around, but haven't really tried more of a discipline of thinking about putting basically 10-12 outfits out there.

It would be kinda like the one-week outfit plan, but expanded. Since I don't mind repeating outfits and there would be no law against my wearing anything any time anyway, I'm just wondering if some approach like this might do even more to help me get dressed faster.

The other advantage is that I think I tend to miss that great opportunity for great outfits for transition season dressing--like right now, even though I did some pre-Labor Day wardrobe reviewing, very early for me, I still got taken by surprise by the cooler weather that cropped up this week.

What do some of you do in this regard? Do you extend capsule thinking to time periods, like "my Feb-March capsule" in order to simplify pulling together outfits and getting dressed?

13 years ago

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Veteran

I stick with categories in my closet, dresses on the left, pants on the right, shirts in the middle and skirts on a tiered rack on the door. I don't pre plan outfits, except maybe if I know I have a certain occasion coming up (concert, travel, whatnot).
As for seasons, I really think in 3, not 4. I think hot, cold, and temperate. Temperate covers both late spring and early fall in Tahoe. In FL it covers early spring and late fall instead. So, I have my hot shirts - tanks, my temperate shirts - short sleeved, and my cold shirts - long sleeved. Works for me!

deb

I basically have the same system as Mo. My closet is organized much like yours and find it easy to adjust quickly for the weather and my current body temp each morning. I may have an outfit selected the night before ready to go, jacket, shirt, pants, but morning brings warmer weather than I expected. I can then exchange the jacket with a lighter sweater or change the pants to a skirt. This gives me the flexiblilty I need for the temp changes and my own mental crazyness.

Glory

I have my closet organized by type and colour. So all long shirts of similar colour - also hanging backwards so manage whether I am wearing something. When I wear it I turn it around.I work in 3 seasons: spring/summer, cold and fall. There is some overlap between cold and fall. In the transition time I have both sections avl but then I box them all for the season. I do have some items for special occasion which are by themselves hanging in the closet

Sara L.

I tend to separate my clothes into hot, cold or in-between categories. The temperatures here in the spring and fall tend to fluctuate so much that I wear both the hot and the cold stuff. It was in the 90's last week and then a couple days later it was in the 60's. I would have problems with 6-8 week capsules due to the inconsistent weather, but if that works better for you and your closet, it makes sense to me.

milehighstyle (Linda)

This actually kind of appeals to me, as I have a LOT of clothes and probably (ok definitely) overlook some things when I have an entire season in my closet at once. I currently switch out my clothes and store the off season things in the basement 4 times a year. Some things stay all year round (I think we discussed this in a previous post). If I were to divide each season in half I would need more storage bins in the basement, and it would of course double the time I spend switching things out but the closet would be more easily navigated and more things would get worn. That being said, I'm probably too lazy to tackle this every 8 weeks. Or maybe busy, yes let's go with busy.

Anonymous

Yes, that was ManidipaM that talked about that, and I really jumped on board with it. After a while, I realized that our "endless summer" in AZ really does have a distinct spring, summer and fall, they're just different than in the rest of North America.

One thing that works for me is to pull out or put away a few items to change things up at the beginning of a new season. I'll probably stop carrying my straw bag, stop wearing linen and put away any prints that just scream "Summer" (like my sea shell fringed top that looks like it was made from a sarong). Now I can stand to wear a 3/4 sleeve blouse or a short sleeved sweater. Adding a bit of burgundy/maroon (still in summer fabrications) sounds like fun to me too. It helps mark the time and mentally helps me feel like I get to participate in Fall like everyone else.

unfrumped

I can see ways it would not work so well. I still want to keep most everything right there in the closet. I think I just either a) have too many clothes or b) need to be a bit more intentional about kind of emphasizing certain outfits and items during the optimal "season" so I get more use out of them. Like milehighstyle, let's go with option b!

Another reason for the mental breakdown --er, the analytical breaking down of capsule dressing--is that, as part of my goal toward more season-less wardrobe, meaning the ability to combine pieces and layer/unlayer to manage seasonal transitions--I'm trying to think more about what does the outfit "need" to be more suitable for this month compared to last. clearlyclaire, your comments are aligned with that. Colors, textures, jewelry, layers are all part of that and I might be simple-minded enough that I have to plan that out a few weeks at a time or I'll forget at 7:00 a.m. or even 9:00 pm the night before.

I probably need to leave Luddite-ville and do Pinterest or similar to be a reminder of outfit ideas.

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