Romanticizing your night routines

One of the easiest ways to romanticize your nighttime routines is to change into a cute set of PJ’s. There’s just something about a matching set of PJ’s that makes you pause for a second and think, “Do I want to just go through the motions of the rest of the night messy, or do I want to take a few extra minutes to put myself together and feel cute as I wrap up the day?” When I choose the latter, I get a mood boost that feels incomparably better than choosing the former.

Even if you can’t splurge on some PJ sets right now, you can be more intentional about which t-shirts to pair with which pants. The point is to remind yourself that you are cute and to feel good even as you go about all the tasks left on your to-do list. It makes tidying up the house and doing chores feel much more doable–aesthetic even, like you’re the main character in a TikTok weekend reset video.

After you’ve changed and tidied up your hair (it only takes like 5 minutes), now you can think about what you want to listen to as you start your evening routine. Is there an album a friend shared with you? Do you have a favorite podcast? How about a Korean drama? (I love those.) When you have something in your ear that you enjoy listening to, the hours spent doing laundry, cleaning the house, etc. feel much more enjoyable. Plus, you look cute right now, remember?

The errands of life are way more time-consuming than people give them credit for. It’s no wonder, then, that houses tend to get messy if the owners are going through a mentally difficult time. Maintaining a clean home takes resources, whether that’s your time, your energy, your money, or all of the above.

So if you’re going through a tough time and your house looks like it needs some desperate tending to, try not to beat yourself up about it. Instead, treat yourself with kindness, put on something that makes you feel good, and take things one step at a time.

Here are some PJ’s that caught my eye lately: