Adhd - Can anyone help with simplifying my wardrobe please?

[Littlemiss74]

I’ve been diagnosed with adhd at 47 which explains alot! I’ve always struggled with clothes, eg impulse buying, then getting item home to find I have nothing to wear with it. I find it hard to put outfits together & am often left staring at my wardrobe wondering what to wear which then makes me late.

Wool & any other jumper type material make me itch & hot, even worse now peri menopausal. Don’t like anything round my neck or anything too tight although I do like skinnyish jeans as long as they don’t go saggy round knees!

I am 5’3 size 12 with bit of a tummy. I am an autumn colouring but most of my clothes are black or grey or navy as I am not confident enough to wear colour or can’t find the right colours. I would love to donate the majority of my clothes and just start again with a minimal wardrobe that can all work together but I just can’t seem to do it. I’m fed up of wasting money & time buying things only to have to return them or keeping but not really liking them.

I need clothes for I work in a casual dress office, dog walks & then something nice to wear for a lunch or dinner out. I do find pictures online I like but then the clothes are either too expensive or the material puts me off.

Has anyone else done this & can help me please? I feel overwhelmed by the clothes piles in the house & I really want to simplify things. I just want to look nice but with minimal clothes but
feel like a lost cause & its affecting my confidence massively. Thank you

My wife has ADHD and I’ve been helping her with her wardrobe. We’re doing it one type of clothing at a time - started with jumpers. So I would start there, and look at capsule wardrobes on Pinterest, that is usually very helpful.

This website is very American. But it is also very well organised and has some interesting and practical ideas. Please, please forgive me if I'm being inapproriate - I don't know whether you might find this helpful or stressful. I can see how perhaps it might have that effect either way. But the author has ideas about planning, choosing and organising collections of clothing that some people have found worth thinking about.
www.theviviennefiles.com/start-here/.

I was Dx at 32, I’m now 36.

I’m 5ft 2 and around 8st 7lbs, but have a tummy due to having 3DDs and a severe diastasis recti that just will not fuck off.

I can pretty much wear whatever I want at work, (Masters student and work for one of my lecturers), one day I’ll wear high waisted jeans with a band t shirt and Converse, the next I’ll be wearing a midi dress from somewhere like Disturbia/Hell Bunny with Docs, or Run and Fly dungarees, on very bad MH/sensory days I will wear Tikiboo Diamonds (gym clothes).

My outfits are all put together in my wardrobe. So one pair of jeans with the 3 or 4 tees that feel comfortable with that particular pair, my dresses with the tights/thick leggings that feel comfortable, etc. Takes a tad longer when putting it away but means I can reach in and grab when I’m half asleep at 6am and know I’m getting something I can tolerate for the 10 hours (inc. 2 hour commute)

If I buy something new, I have to donate or sell something, otherwise, before I know it, my wardrobe is rammed chaos. I also know that 9/10, I’ll send something I ordered online back, so it’s a waste of time all round. I despise clothes shopping in person and avoid it at all costs.

@PeachMelba78 thank you, that’s a really good
idea. I get so overwhelmed at all the choices for clothes. Could do with just having a decent pair of jeans first! I do like pinterest for outfit ideas but find it doesn’t always tell you where the clothes are from.

@Littlemiss74 agreed about Pinterest, or it’s an American only brand etc.
I usually go through those things with my wife and then look for similar stuff and send her links - I like shopping so it’s easier. Do you have a fashionista friend who could help you?

@Littlemiss74 also for jeans I have got a straight leg pair from New Look. I’m a size 10 thanks to my peri menopausal tummy and these are a great shape - I turn them up at the ankles as I am quite short so it gives me some length - these are not mine but similar -
www.newlook.com/uk/womens/clothing/jeans/blue-ankle-grazing-hannah-straight-leg-jeans/p/810287240