Unlike Cate, up until the pandemic, I’ve never been much of a work from home person. I’ve been a pretty strict compartmentalizer. In my usual life, I relax at home and work at work (mostly). I wear work clothes at work, gym clothes at the gym, bike clothes on my bike, and PJs (or PJ adjacent yoga pants) at home. A change in clothes signals a change in activity.
But there are no boundaries any more. Life is one big blur of working at home, exercising at home, and relaxing at home. I occasionally look at my shoe collection in puzzlement. Will I ever wear real shoes again? I still have underwire bras hanging off a doorknob, neglected, and I’m wondering why I ever thought they were a good idea. These days only my comfiest of sports bras are in regular rotation.
I do wear earrings once a week or so but that’s just so the holes in my ears don’t grow over.
I’m not wearing anything that requires dry cleaning. And mostly I’m wearing clothes that also do double duty as workout attire. But I’ve now got a broader definition of what that entails. In the blog post #StayAtHome Sam Looks Different I talked about working out in sports bras. That’s still true, especially Zwifting in a heatwave. But I am also doing yoga in machine washable dresses with sports bras and fitted shorts underneath. If it’s hot I whip off the dress.
On a good day I walk Cheddar the dog in the morning, lift weights or use resistance bands at lunch, and either do Yoga with Adriene or Zwift at night. The only bit of specialized clothing I’m wearing are bike shorts and my bike socks. I still have too many bike jerseys but they are not getting much wear.
So now my wardrobe, like my life, has blurred into one or two laundry hampers of clothes. I’m wondering when I go back to working at the office, with people, how much will change? I’m not throwing out the underwire bras and the fancy shoes just yet. But my social media newsfeed is still full of ads for leisure wear and “relaxed, comfort pants.”
What you about? What are you wearing to work out at home? What are you wearing to work at home?
I still wear bike jerseys…because they are very durable and I normally cycle in walking shorts anyway even if the distance is 50 km. or more.
At home, T-shirts and shorts. I rarely show myself on video in work meetings from home.
When working from home I’ve been wearing either: sports gear that can double up as my running gear so I can just have the one outfit for the day if I’m going out for a run, or I just change out of my pyjamas and into sweats and an old t shirt…. I have 4 t shirts on rotation just now that are being worn to death! On those days, if I want to do a wee HIIT workout in the afternoon/evening, I just change into a sports bra and do the workout in that and my knickers – less leggings to wash and no one can see me anyway!!
I feel left out….workout clothes are my life no matter what….I wish I had occasion to get dressed up.
When working at home, I always get dressed into work type attire (that’s jeans and a smart polo shirt for me). Like you said above “a change in clothes signals a change in activity.” I like that line a lot. I am not as productive if I stay in my PJ’s! 🙂