fashion

"An Instagram mood board completely changed how I get dressed every day".

 

Some people are motivated to get out of bed by exercise. For others, it’s the prospect of coffee and vegemite toast, or a new lipstick they’re dying to try out. Me, I’m motivated by getting dressed.

I’ve always loved putting together an outfit, but I’m not one of those people that preps their look for the next day beside the bed. Never will be.

Instead, I rely on a really simple trick to find outfit inspiration every single morning – and it’s eliminated the need for endless scrolling. And I need to share it with you.

It’s the Instagram ‘save’ tool.

Now, if you’ve been doing this since Insta rolled it out then kindly ignore me and skip to the next article. But after sharing my hack with friends and colleagues it became apparent that a lot of people don’t know the app has this nifty function, which is essentially exactly like Pinterest (except you don’t have to scour the internet for references.)

Let me explain.

Rather than screenshotting every time you see an outfit or item you love on the ‘gram, and then losing it in the depths of your photo album, instead, you save it.

I can promise that if you follow this guide, after a few days of regular scrolling and absent-mindedly saving, you’ll end up with something that looks like this:

moodboard
Hello, instant mood board.
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Every morning, when I'm not feeling a vibe for the day, I jump into my Insta folder and see a bunch of approachable looks I've been loving. It literally inspires me to get out of bed and try something out - a printed shirt tucked into boyfriend jeans and cinched with a belt, or a plain white tee with a midi skirt and sneakers.

And it doesn't just work for wardrobes. I have a style collection, a beauty collection, ones for travel, wellness, home, hair, shopping, fitness, career, food - and, yes, my wedding. Because I'm honestly too lazy for Pinterest.

'home' inspo
My 'home' inspo dump.
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And I'm not even a "Type A" person. I don't thrive on organisation or schedules or spreadsheets - which is why this is such a good hack for me. It takes approximately no time to get your creative sh*t together and curate what culminates in a killer mood board.

It has helped me feel more organised and motivated in almost every part of my life (the notable exception being my finances.)

When my partner and I are talking about our next trip, I go to the travel folder to see what I've been wanderlusting over - cafes, beautiful beaches, specific hotels...

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travel board
Oh, the places I'll (probably never) go.

When I'm going to the hairdresser I jump into the folder to see what celeb hairstyles I've been liking (instead of ripping them out of a mag like I used to.)

I also have feelgood quotes and techniques that help with tackling things like burnout, which I file in Wellness.

But mostly, I just keep filling up my style folder and soaking up the inspo.

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Keen to try it out? Here's exactly how to do it with lots of handy screenshots.

To save a post, tap this button:

Button
Tap the flag-shaped button in the red circle.

That automatically puts the posts you save into what's called a Collection.

To find your saved posts, tap this button on your profile:

saved posts
You can find your saved posts here.
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Then you'll get a screen that looks like this. Tap 'Saved.'

Saved
Click on 'Saved' to dive into your folder.
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Once you've gone into your saved posts, you can make a new "collection", which is a folder of images.

To do that, tap the cross in the corner:

Tap the cross
Tap the cross to get started!
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Next, name your collection - for example 'Outfit inspo' or 'Shopping' or 'Travel.'

category
I name mine by category, for example 'style inspo' or 'travel'.

Then, you can pull any posts you save into that collection.

When you go to save a post, if you hold down the save button, it'll pull up a screen that looks like this:

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Saved post
Then just add it to the right folder.

From there, whenever you scroll and see something you like, get in the habit of quickly saving it to the folder - it literally takes two seconds. And voila. You're mood boardin' like a boss.

Will you be trying this trick? Or do you have another way of collating your favourite references? Let us know in the comments.