Imagine this scenario:
It’s winter.
It’s cold. So very, very cold.
You and your small kids haven’t left the house in DAYS.
Your toddler keeps asking you to retell the story about the time you guys took a train to the toy store (which, by the way, has never happened), and your other child is eating Play-Doh.
It’s 4:30PM and you forgot to put dinner in the slow cooker, and so far today you’ve only consumed coffee and string cheese (okay, okay, and half a bag of Goldfish, WHATEVER).
You have approximately 600 loads of laundry to do, and your brain feels like it is actually buzzing with the amount of items on your to-do list. (One of these items is to give the dog a flea bath, so that buzzing may in fact be fleas. Not sure.)
THIS, my friends, is why you need a stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe.
Because you’ve got enough on your plate without worrying about throwing together an outfit at 5:17AM when your toddler wakes you up asking for whipped cream.
Not sure what a capsule wardrobe is? No problem.
That cute linen shirt that you bought three years ago and haven’t worn once because it’s Dry Clean Only?
Nope. Not in your capsule wardrobe.
Your trusty, really, really soft bathrobe that you like to wear around the house for the first eight hours of the day?
Yup. You bet your bippy that’s going in your capsule wardrobe.
Having a realistic stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe will make getting dressed each morning a BREEZE.
Even if you haven’t slept in three years.
HOW TO MAKE A REALISTIC STAY-AT-HOME MOM WINTER CAPSULE WARDROBE
First, head to your closet to assess the damage situation.
If your closet has not been relegated to the weird spare room hellhole filled with bins of baby clothes, old bouncers, and bags of toys that need to be donated, well, you’re off to a great start.
Scope out your existing wardrobe.
Is there a color palette that jumps out at you? Perhaps you’re more drawn to jewel tones, or pastels, or clothes that aren’t covered in spit-up, applesauce, and dog hair.
Take note of these preferences—your capsule wardrobe should consist of classic pieces in your favorite colors.
Weed out all of the clothing that you no longer wear (your old work wardrobe, too-small pieces, your “I Love Roseanne” T-shirt, etc.).
Donate pieces that you don’t need or want, and store items that you aren’t sure about. Either way, GET THEM OUT OF YOUR SIGHT.
You should be left with a collection of somewhat decent clothing that you wear on a semi-regular basis. This is where we’ll begin our work.
Now, let’s break your capsule wardrobe into a few categories: Tops, Bottoms, and Accessories.
TOPS FOR A STAY-AT-HOME MOM WINTER CAPSULE WARDOBE
Your Tops category will likely consist of the following:
Sweatshirts
Flannel Shirts
Old T-shirts
We’ll start with my personal favorite: SWEATSHIRTS.
SWEATSHIRTS
Sweatshirts form a crucial basis of the stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe.
I’d recommend starting with a minimum of twenty. Maybe thirty.
Don’t be intimidated!
We can divide these into a few important categories: Casual, Fancy, and Special Occasion.
CASUAL
These are your day-to-day sweatshirts. The ones you can pair with ANY of your bottoms, even the red velour sweatpants, and they still look great.
Choose sweatshirts with clean, classic lines, in the color palette that works best for you.
Aim for sweatshirts with a timeless feel—nothing TOO crazy should go in this category.
A few examples:
-Your trusty black sweatshirt that is always covered in dog hair!
-That super comfy grey sweatshirt with the mysterious stain on the gut!
-Your favorite XXXL hoody from your college days that has great pockets for concealing snacks from your children!
FANCY
Let’s say you have a play date with a new mom friend. Or you’re scoping out that artisanal coffee shop in your neighborhood. Or maybe you need to head down to City Hall to get your power turned back on.
Whatever the occasion, you need to dress to impress, and all of your casual sweatshirts are covered with Peppa Pig bubble bath and glitter (let’s not get into it, okay? I said it’s been a long winter).
Head on over to your Fancy Sweatshirt section, and prepare to dazzle!
SPECIAL OCCASION
You may have a few special sweatshirts that you like to wear for holidays, date nights with your partner, or legal depositions.
That’s where your Special Occasion Sweatshirts category comes in handy. Sweatshirts that you don’t wear everyday, but are far too beloved and just straight up elegant to part with.
Now that your sweatshirt collection is complete, let’s proceed to our next category: FLANNEL SHIRTS.
FLANNEL SHIRTS
Essential for winter (and especially handy for breastfeeding moms), flannel shirts are an easy way to feel both put-together and cozy with minimal effort.
You can stay on-trend by doing a half-tuck into the waistband of your pants, or for an even TRENDIER vibe, tuck your flannel into the huge maternity underwear that you still wear (I ain’t never going back) and spend 40 minutes pleading with your child to eat something other than Paw Patrol yogurt drink.
Either way, flannels are your friend.
Steal em from your partner or find them at a thrift store, because you’re going to want a few in your stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe.
OLD T-SHIRTS
Another essential category in the stay-at-home mom wardrobe is OLD T-SHIRTS.
A surprisingly vast category, old T-shirts will take up at least two of your dresser drawers, and will be worn almost daily.
The great thing about this category is the sheer variety.
-Need an XXL Buffy the Vampire Slayer shirt? Old T-shirt category.
-Are you in the mood to wear a promotional shirt for a company that you’ve never heard of but you received for free on the street five years ago? Old T-shirt category.
-Feel the sudden urge to wear a faded shirt from your unfortunate tie-dye phase of twelve years ago? Old T-shirt category.
Our Tops category is now complete!
How are you doing? You still with me?
This may be a good time to take a little break: have a snack, maybe a nap, perhaps watch some kind of documentary about prison on Netflix; whatever relaxes you, really, before we head into our next category: Bottoms.
BOTTOMS FOR A STAY-AT-HOME MOM WINTER CAPSULE WARDROBE
Ah, pants.
There’s nothing a mom likes better than trying on many, many pairs of old pants to see if they still fit, right?
Oh wait. No. That shit is actual torture.
But that’s the beauty of your capsule wardrobe! You know that every single pair of pants in there fits you like a dream, or, at the very least, will keep your post-baby gut contained and your butt reasonably covered.
I’ve broken down the Bottoms category into the following:
-Leggings
-Sweatpants
-Pajama Pants
-Fancy Pants
We’ll start with by FAR the most important category: LEGGINGS.
LEGGINGS
Perhaps the single most important item of clothing in a stay-at-home mom’s wardrobe, leggings will make up the vast majority of your bottoms.
I’d recommend having the following:
-60 pairs of plain black leggings (Ideally, at least ONE of these should have no holes along the inner thighs. This might not be possible. I understand.)
-2 pairs of workout leggings (for when you need to sit around the house, but actively)
-1 pair of funky fresh leggings (AKA patterned leggings for when you’re feeling feisty)
-And maybe a few more pairs of black leggings.
SWEATPANTS
My personal favorite category, sweatpants are a cute, fun alternative to when you need to wear pants but want to be wearing a blanket and crying.
You’ll need a variety of colors, including classic grey and black. I like to stick to my color palette and add a few jewel-toned sweatpants in there as well—beautiful plums, bright rubies, stained grey.
And if you have a full-on sweatsuit with a matching hoodie? Even better.
PAJAMA PANTS
You’ll probably notice that pajama pants have been slowly becoming more and more a part of your day wardrobe. This is normal.
With the right pair, pajamas can easily be woven into your winter capsule wardrobe and worn 24 hours a day.
The key is to think timeless!
–A pair of crisp black and white polka dot pants
-Understated burgundy floral
-Classic leopard print
-Cartoon milk and cookie print
Stick to clean lines and elegant designs, and soon you’ll find yourself wandering the aisles of a grocery store at 2:30PM, pairing your casual sweatshirt with your pjs and asking a worker if there’s any more of the toilet paper that’s on sale in the back.
FANCY PANTS
(AKA jeans)
While jeans may no longer have a vital role in your life since becoming a stay-at-home mom, you may run into a few occasions where sweatpants and leggings are not socially accepted.
These situations are best avoided at all costs, but if you must, try to include the following in your wardrobe:
-17 pairs of jeans that no longer fit, yet will remain in your closet until your last dying day
-1 pair of jeans that actually fits but you don’t really like because they show your butt crack whenever you move in the slightest
-and 60 pairs of leggings that you wear instead of ever wearing jeans again.
Seriously, girl. Leave that shit behind.
Whew! That should cover you (literally) in the Bottoms department.
Time to round out our stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe with the Accessories category.
ACCESSORIES
Just because you’re a stay-at-home mom doesn’t mean your outfits need to be BORING. With carefully-chosen accessories, you can remain just as stylish as ever!
Recommended winter capsule wardrobe accessories include:
-20 pairs of fuzzy socks
-Three large comforters (aim for different fabrics, like flannel, chenille, or quilt) to drape around body
-2 winter hats to wear over extremely greasy hair
-1 unwashed bathrobe
-1 pair of house slippers/sandals to wear with fuzzy socks
-1 spoon for eating peanut butter directly out of the jar
Check-in time: How are you doing? Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed? And maybe kind of hungry and also pretty lonely and having a hard time grappling with the fact that all life is suffering?
Ha ha! Me too! Well, anyway, here’s a handy guide to print out and refer to while creating your capsule wardrobe!
And there you have it: all the basics you need to for your new wardrobe!
We did it, friends! Excellent work, everyone!
Okay, now that we’ve created our stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe, let’s see it in action!
Here are a few examples from my own trusty winter capsule wardrobe. Feel free to use as inspiration when styling your own outfits!
Coloring looks GREAT when you’re rocking Classic Black Leggings and a Flannel Shirt!
Funky Fresh Leggings and a Fancy Sweatshirt are the perfect combo for sensory play with your kids!
Extremely large Grey Sweatpants, Fuzzy Socks, and some kind of Old T-shirt that you picked up off of the bedroom floor work well with reading the same goddamn Elmo book 15 times in a row!
An Unwashed Bathrobe, Pajama Pants, and Slippers are the perfect combo when you need to whip up a quick dinner for the kids!
A queen-size Comforter, Winter Hat, and No Pants will keep you both cozy and stylish as you hide in the bathtub while your children scream the lyrics to “Frosty the Snowman”!
I hope these examples help guide you on your quest for the perfect stay-at-home mom winter capsule wardrobe.
And now I want to hear from YOU!
How did you do? What essential pieces are in YOUR winter capsule wardrobe? How many pairs of black leggings did you decide to keep? What’s your go-to outfit for Day 74 of being stuck inside with your children?
Let’s chat!
Looking for more mom life fashion tips and style advice? Be sure to check out these pieces, too!
Hahahaha. My favorite picture was you despondent in the bathtub . 😂😂😂😂. I’m going to need a few more pairs of leggings to meet my quota!
You can totally just increase your sweatpant count if you prefer! Just not the jeans. Good lord, not the jeans. The great thing about a stay-at-home mom wardrobe is the flexibility of it. Should you do 20 or 30 pairs of fuzzy socks and dirty old T-shirts? The world is your oyster!
Come for a visit so we can hang out in my bathtub together while the kids run feral!
I have the entire capsule, including the grey sweatshirt with gut stain!
YES GIRL! You are ready to roll! (…into bed. Or maybe the grocery store? Nah. Too much work. Definitely bed.)
Timeless. Thank you for this guide! LOVE the accessorries infographic. Think I’ll add my tattered stretchy bra from Walmart to this category. I find the burgundy linty straps a welcome accent to my oversized sweatshirts.
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