I need a valet - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Dressing

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

I need a valet

Jessikams

(website)

Veteran

I’m trying to get in the habit of dealing with my clothes each day, right after walking in the door. By “dealing with” I mean trimming any loose threads I noticed during the day, cleaning off my shoes a bit, pretreating any stains, shaving any sweater pills that have accumulated.....

But I’m not gonna lie, it’s a pain in the patootie and I’d much rather be sitting down at the end of a long day with a cup of tea.

When do you guys do this sort of thing?? I used to do it in the morning but always ran out of time.

Dressing

29 replies

Latest reply was from Jessikams

rachylou

Veteran

I do this stuff while watching a spot of tv at night. As for stains, ya, I’m way too lazy to pretreat... I use stain specific removers, which allow me to avoid this for the most part.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I don’t do our shoes every day, but a couple times a week, when I’m not coherent enough to read anything more complicated than social media, and it’s too early too go to bed, I’ll plop down and brush, clean, and treat our suede shoes. It helps that I have to walk past them on the way to/from the kitchen. If they were out of sight, they might slip out of mind.
If you’ve gotten something on your clothes that day, it does make sense to clean that right away, before the stain can set.

Anonymous

I do it on the weekends when doing laundry and creating my weekly outfits-but its still a pain in the patootie!

Sisi

Veteran

Never ! I confess that I have a bad habit of taking off my clothes and leaving them where it happens (sofa, chair, bed - and then the cat goes to sleep on them). Sometimes I shake them in the fresh air (out in the garden) and hang them on a hanger and feel proud of myself. Shoes are cleaned when necessary. I never get stained, the rare times it happens I just toss the garment into the washing machine. All the remaining maintenance - trimming threds, re-attaching a button, shave pilled sweaters - when I am in the right mood, that is, almost never.

Sisi

Veteran

Oh, and one of the dreams of my life is to have a butler ...

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Am I weird? I usually notice and do these things as soon as I see them. Or if it's something like pilling on a sweater and I don't have time to do the shaver thing, I'll set it aside on a shelf in my closet (with any other "to-do" items) and catch up with the pile when I have some spare time while getting dressed or putting away laundry.

But I'm also the kind of person who has to fold and put away laundry right away, and I can't stand clothes on the floor. I've always been that way. Clutter and mess make me feel anxious.

Christina F.

Veteran

This kind of maintenance is very hard for me. I am trying to be better at it, but it's been hard this year because I've traveled a LOT, thus taking away lots of free time (weekends) that I'd have for this sort of thing. I like to put it on a weekend to do list. Right now, I have cleaning and polishing some of my shoes on the agenda.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Jeeves! Jeeves, where are you when we need you?

Cee

Veteran

Malfred has a little time to spare !

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Laughing at Sisi

Like Janet, I handle these things as soon
as I see them. Too much of control freak to wait

But usually with tea in hand. I’m addicted to tea...

Diana

Veteran

Ugh, me too. My current thing is the little tags from the dry cleaners that I keep finding in my coats. For some reason my dry cleaner puts like 4 of them on every coat, and invariably I'll find one somewhere after I've left the house, so I'll rip off the paper tag but the little pointy plastic thing is still there, and by the time I get to work or home or somewhere with access to scissors, I've forgotten about it until the next time it pokes me when I'm wearing it. Sigh. There's currently one in the sleeve of my grey coat that I've been getting stabbed by all week when I'm nowhere near a pair of scissors. It's such a dumb little thing that will take 5 seconds to rectify, and yet I haven't managed to remember to do it yet.

So I think one problem for me is that when I get home at night, I just want to take off my clothes and get into loungewear ASAP, and it just slips my mind to do the maintenance right then and there. I do hang up (or throw in the laundry hamper) my clothes immediately though - that is one habit that I had to train myself on but now it's second nature. Now if only I could get my husband to stop throwing his clothes on the floor! (But I also refuse to pick them up for him, he's a grown man and can do it himself).

Re: stains. I keep tide pens in my desk at work and they come in very handy for lunch/coffee stains and the occasional ink stain. At home, since i usually wear easily washable loungewear, I don't really care if it gets stained.

Sara L.

Veteran

I usually do it as I notice them. If not, I change into lounge clothes, leave my clothes on my bed and get to them later that evening while getting the kids ready for bed. They need to brush their teeth, take showers, I read to the littlest, turn lights off, etc. So I'm down at that end of the house but I can't really relax yet. I use that time to set out my clothes for the next day, clean shoes, put clothes away, etc - small tasks that I can do in between dealing with the kids.

Jessikams

(website)

Veteran

I seem to always notice these things when out and about, far from scissors and sweater shavers.

Anonymous

Yeah , I’d like a valet too please . I am going to bed after everyone else lately and moving around in the dark - not able to be banging around in my closet hanging up clothes . Hence : big unattractive and irresponsible pile on bedroom chair . I need an assistant .

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

More likely to act on the way out than the way in. I am a morning person. Would like a robot valet actually.

Anonymous

Yesterday I had to trim two of my fingernails at work with dull, huge old craft scissors - much to the consternation of my boss who noticed this bizarre behaviour . I also need a personal makeup and nail artist at home . And a chef , decorator , cleaner , chauffeur , and grocery shopping person .

Gigi

Veteran

lisa p, you are too funny!

For stains, I deal with them as soon as I've taken the clothing off. For things that take longer, I usually deal with them as I'm doing laundry.

If you have several items that need some attention, you could make yourself a list and then set aside some time during laundry or other miscellaneous tasks to deal with them. That way you can keep the items in rotation for wearing in the meantime.

Jessikams

(website)

Veteran

Good point Gigi- I fear putting things aside in a pile, and then I will have nothing left to wear!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I wish I had Janet and Angie’s “compulsive” ways. Our home wold be so much better!

But what I really wish for is someone to manage “paperwork”, whether on paper or online. Jeeves is after that. Probably a cleaning person in between them.

elpgal

Veteran

LisaP, you are a hoot

I have a sewing basket where I keep my 'mending' and try to tackle it every few days or so. I feel like such a domestic diva when I do this.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Epigal, I’m impressed. Then again, I didn’t get to all the hand laundry before the move, so I tossed it in with stuff we were sending right away. It got here, and I decided it was high time to wash whatever was in that bag. I kid you not, one of the sweaters for DS was from at least six years ago.

Style Fan

Veteran

I am on Angie's and Janet's team. Ms. Neat and Tidy. I use to clean my room and organize my bookshelves when I was a child every Saturday. All my clothes were organized in categories. They still are.
I travel with my scissors and other necessities.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

SF, I’ve got that part down—once accused a roommate in college of not returning my shirt after borrowing it. Turns out she had put it, a long-sleeved shirt, in with the short-sleeved shirts. How did she expect me to find it there? Lol.

Windchime

Veteran

A valet, cook, gardener, and a manager would be great! I almost always immediately put my clothes away—or in the laundry pile—right away after wearing them. I know I’m way too crazy busy when a pile of clothes starts building up in the bedroom.

Greyscale

Veteran

Wardrobe maintenance has become the thing I do to feel productive while avoiding the things I really need to do.

cindysmith

Veteran

I let these things pile up until I start twitching. Like, I'll save up all the sweater de-pilling until I don't have any unpilled sweaters left to wear and then I'll bust out my sweater de-pilling stone and deal with them all at once. I make this less onerous by keeping all the fuzz in one ball and laughing at how big it gets.

I do the same thing with ironing. When i have nothing to wear but unwrinkled clothes, I'll break out the iron and deal with it all at once. My boots & shoes all get cleaned and polished on the same day.

Sometimes, all that maintenance happens on the same day and my feelings taste like chocolate.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Greyscale, I can relate!

jussie

Veteran

Haha you guys are funny. I almost never do this stuff...... how many pilled sweaters and stained clothes are you all getting??
I do polish shoes though..... probably every couple of months I’ll sit down and do them all at once.
I put clothes away straight away, for some reason I find it therapeutic.
I’d really like someone to take care of paperwork for me.....

Jessikams

(website)

Veteran

It’s a good question Jussie- I don’t know if I’m extra hard on clothes or what, but every day there is at least one part of my outfit that needs help by the end of the day. Today I snagged my sweater on a loose screw sticking out of a countertop that I was leaning against. Yesterday I caught my heel in a sidewalk grating and it ripped part of the leather off the heel. Etc. etc!