#11: wardrobe-o-matic (an ultra-geeky how-to)
I live & die by my Trello boards (a productivity/kanban tool that essentially allows you to create cards and arrange them into lists) – I have one for my main to-do’s, one for each trip I take, one to categorize my fabric stash and one beastly, kitted-out behemoth to organize my wardrobe & track my outfits.
When I posted about it on my IG last year, a friendly follower said “you’re basically Cher Horowitz!” which, beyond being inscribed on my future tombstone, is a fashion-geek compliment of the highest order. However, unlike our pal Cher, this wardrobe-o-matic doesn’t just serve as a way to luxuriate through my countless tartan skirts as I browse my closet computer; instead, having each piece as a card – with the ability to sort them into lists, randomize them into outfits and offload into storage for each season – allows me to make the very most of my dark 1/2 closet and endless under-bed drawers.
If this method of closet organization interests you at all, then this newsletter is for you! I am about to get INTO it and do apologize if any of this is confusing – while Trello is quite user-friendly (and free!), there are some optional automations I’ll take you through that you can take or leave for your own board.
*Note: I’ve included a few GIFs to show how things work, but these may not work on your pocket computer. I’d recommend viewing this email on desktop to see how the pudding’s made!
Cher did it first.
Setting Up Your Board
Create a Trello account. You’ll be able to use automations on the free version – I’ve since upgraded to the paid which gives me unlimited automations, but the free should be more than sufficient for these purposes.
Download my basic template here. This will give you the lists I use, and provide templates for how I set up each card. This (sadly!) won’t copy over the more involved automations and buttons I’ve built, but I’ll take you through them below if you want to get fanc(ier) with it – feel free to pick and choose what suits you best!
Here’s a snapshot of what my basic set-up looks like. I have a list for tops, bottoms, dresses/jumpsuits, outerwear (this includes cardigans and anything that works as a top layer), shoes and accessories. I use labels to note each piece’s season (I’ll explain how this comes in handy later), and Custom Fields + automations to track wear count and date last worn. The “Outfits” list is where I create my daily outfits. I’ve also created a Custom Field dropdown to list the adjective(s) of each piece, which can be helpful when building a balanced outfit.
This should serve as a basic categorization system for keeping track of your closet, but if you’d like to dig a bit deeper, I’ve gone through the automations I’ve set up using Butler (Trello’s automation service) below. I’ll take you through their purpose, and share the commands so you can set up something similar for yourselves!
Add to Outfit Card Button & Wear Count
This command creates a button on each card – when pressed, “Add to Outfit” creates a copy of the original card in my “Outfits” list, sets the “date last worn” field to the present day, and updates the wear count. This button is important if you'd like to make copies of each card to preserve their information (vs. dragging them in and out of your daily outfit list and potentially losing them).
Butler Automation:
Random Outfit Generator
Truly the crown jewel of this system, this generator pulls a random card from each list to create some truly unhinged (and occasionally, brilliant) outfits. While I’ll rarely wear each piece of the suggested outfit, this has the effect of dumping out your entire closet and seeing what you find: it’s often just chaotic enough for you to see your stash in a whole new light. (Set it up in Automation > Board Button.)
Butler Automation:
Favourite Outfit Tracker
Whenever I (or the ever-stylish AI) come up with a particularly primo outfit, I wanted an easy way to earmark it for later, so I created a Board Button that sends me an email with an itemized list of the cards currently present in the “Outfit” tab. I then set up a filter in my Gmail to drag all these “Favourite Outfit” emails into a separate folder I can browse at will when I’m feeling listless!
Butler Automation:
Clear Outfit
Instead of deleting the duplicated cards on my Outfits list each day, I hit my “Clear Outfit” Board Button instead, which will move today’s outfit to a “Past Outfits” list. If you’re really fancy, you can set up an automation to send you a regular (say weekly or monthly) email with an archive of your outfits.
Butler Automation:
Seasonal Switch Over
Remember when I mentioned my seasonal tagging system? This is where it comes in handy! Just as I store my out-of-season pieces in tubs or our storage locker, I want them off my main board as well. I created an "Out of Season” board that, when paired with the below automation will move all the correctly-labeled pieces into digital storage. (I’ve got a mirrored button on my storage board that will return them when the seasons change again!)
Butler Automation:
Phew – if you’ve made it this far, I’m truly thrilled to be in the presence of another fashion & organizational systems nerd. Hopefully a few of these tips & automations have inspired you to go above and beyond and create systems that work for you! (And, obviously, please share them with me immediately. I’m dying to geek out w/ you.)
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