Wardrobe Strategies

The pressures, stresses, endless sequestering of your precious mattress-resting hours to the relentless requests of the alarm clock (set at your behest, let's acquiesce, but itself especially resentful at missing the blessing of your nightly rest, itself left to sleepless nights, sat wide-eyed by your side, your time-keeping mechanical somnambulist). This routine is familiar enough to those with early starts, albeit perhaps not worded quite like that.Different people have different responses to the antisocial demands of work – some learn to love the early mornings. Islamic countries hear the first call to prayer at around five in the morning (at least, that is the case in Istanbul, where I am currently based), and many people get up hours earlier than necessary to pray, have a leisurely breakfast and enjoy a bit of time with themselves (and, of course, God) before work.Others, like me, try to make the most of an antisocial situation. The pre-dawn can be a great time for creativity (although perhaps the opening paragraph is not my best effort to date). It is also possible to buy some very clever alarm clock phone apps, which are capable of detecting your sleep patterns using their in-built gyroscopes, and thus choosing the best moment to wake you up without giving you that groggy feeling that being startled awake mid-dream produces.But there is another, equally imaginative strategy that perhaps the world's more fastidious people often turn to. (If you do this, you may have thought you were the only one – but rest assured, plenty of people do it). Do you spend hours rearranging your wardrobes to make the daily task of picking out clothes as easy as possible? I will freely admit to having spent entire evenings at it - perhaps there is something therapeutic in there, to boot.The big question tends to be that of where to position your pyjamas. Unless they go under the pillow (which is far too overtly Victorian for me) they are likely to go back in the wardrobe – but where do they go? Do they take pride of place to make your morning easier, or are they tucked away at the top (not the bottom, of course - that is for shorts and things you never wear and should not, being sensible, even own)? The question is one that clearly occurs to kids, too – parents may notice their boys and girls pyjamas continuously moving about their bedrooms and wardrobes. One has to presume that they have noticed your own frantic marches about the house each morning to get them ready and yourself to work on time. They little dears, they are getting at least one life skill 'under the belt' early.Of course, this is perhaps reading a little far into things. We probably, being honest about it, just love arranging and rearranging things. And that is a love that seems to arise incredibly early on in children (thus the timelessness of dolls houses for girls and toy armies for boys). It is also one that dies hard. 'Young at heart' may be merely idiomatic, but when it comes to choosing where to put your boys or girls PJs, it is absolutely provable. Which is just as well, because with everything else you've got to do, you might as well take your fun where you can get it.And, of course, your alarm clock isn't going to help matters.