Do you mix & match work clothes & non-work clothes?

[TheVeryThing]

or do you keep them completely separate?
I know it's ridiculous but I always seem to get bogged down by this. Obviously, if you have uniform for work, or have to dress very formally every day then it doesn't apply.
I need to be fairly smart for work (trousers, nice top and often a blazer, or a dress for more formal meetings etc) but I seem to have very few nice clothes for days at home, and nothing for going out in the evenings.
I could wear 'work' tops with jeans (or even a work outfit with different shoes or jewelry) but I seem to have a mental block about it and end up looking really scruffy on my days off.
So what do you do?

All the same here, I wear smart casual all the time

I work very part time, so my 'work' clothes tend also to be my smartish going out or away for the weekend clothes, whereas at home I tend to be in jeans or yoga stuff. When I worked full time there was a bit more of a separation as I bought stuff specifically for work, but it's not worth it now.

Thanks, that sounds very reasonable.

I think my problem is that I have had to invest a bit more in work clothes over the last year, after a promotion, and I have a very limited budget so struggle to buy anything else.

Some stuff is too formal to wear outside of work but I think I need to look at them as just clothes, and wear whatever looks good and is appropriate.

There's a slight chance I'm overthinking this

No.

I hate wearing work clothes out of work, even though at work I only have to be 'smart casual' and that's how I dress at weekends.

No I like to keep it separate, some of my work tops could be non work and some dresses too but I like the boundary of work / non work.

How do you decide what is 'work' and what is 'non work'?

My work stuff is entirely separate and I would never wear it outside work, unless I had to go to a funeral or personal business meeting of some sort. Also, I'm more scared of mucking it up as my home life involves children, dogs and a garden

Lots different approaches, which is not helping with my overthinking!

beachyhead is your work wardrobe very formal then? I have some clothes which I obviously would never wear to work and a few things I would never wear outside of work but most could be mixed and matched.

katiegg I bought a dress last summer which I wore for my 40th, and then to a couple of work conferences. I'm also planning to wear it to a wedding next month and am no longer sure what category it falls into!

I just wear clothes, I don't separate them into work & non-work

When I had a job I found stressful and difficult I kept them separate as I didn't want to be reminded of work when I wasn't there.

Now I have a job I love I don't feel the need to keep them separate at all, in fact it follows through in other ways too, I do work stuff at home, hone stuff at work, it is all nicely blended.

Mostly separate though favourite tops and useful cardigans do get crossed over. I'm more casual at home

Hmm, bit of both. I tend to wear dresses for work so I probably wouldn't wear them out of work. But I've been known to wear tops for both.

I do much prefer to keep things separate if I can!