Purchasing kid's clothes seems like something we are always doing. Every time we spot a cute top at Target, we splurge for our little ones because, they can never have too many clothes, right?
Wrong. They can and they probably do.
How many shirts, pants, socks, undies, etc. do our kids actually need?
I was prompted to ask myself this question after tears came strolling down my face from frustration over the endless piles of laundry scattered throughout the house. Always doing laundry. Even after a day of doing laundry.......there's more laundry. Where does it come from? How do kids go through 5 outfits in one day?? I had no idea, but I knew I had to get a handle on it.
Having three kids share a bedroom results in going through everything and getting rid of items such as toys and clothes that they aren't interested in anymore. I'd say once a quarter we gather and go through things one by one. Keep or donate? But I knew this time I had to give them a number because they still have too much they want to keep.
Here's what I came up with:
10 Tops
It was a lot harder to get this number down to 10 because this is where kids express themselves. They love their character shirts and their favorite color shirt or the hand me down from their favorite cousin.
You can keep 10 short sleeves for warm months and 10 long sleeve shirts for the colder months. Jut put away the off season clothes in a bin so they can't be thrown on the ground and cycled into a dirty laundry hell.
7 Bottoms
Pants, shorts, skirts, legging. Pick 7 bottoms to keep.
10 Underwear
Now is a good time to get rid of underwear that may be too small or too stained or just faded. Slim down the number to ten pairs of undies.
10 Socks
I tossed out my bag of sock singles. WOOHOO! I don't need to keep socks in the hopes that maybe they'll show up. If they haven't been mated in over a year....toss em!
2 Pairs of Shoes
My kids don't/won't wear rain boots or sandals. They have 2 pairs of sneakers-a sportsy pair and a "cool" pair like vans r converse or light up paw patrol sneakers.
1 Sweater
1 Jacket
1 Swimsuit
1 Set of Pajamas
And then of course a couple dressy outfits for church or special occasions. Don't go overboard though!
My End Result Of My 4 Years Old's Clothing Keepers
(He was the only one out of the 3 that couldn't get his shirts under 15)
If you can't commit to donating the clothes, store them in a closet to see how things go before you donate. You can also rotate clothes. When they go through the clothes in their dresser, replace with another set while you wash and store the previous week's clothes. With this, you still have control over the amount of clothes they are able to get their hands on.
(What I was able to donate/throw out. Look At those socks!!)
If you have kids like me, they can change multiple times in an hour. Water spills-change. Feel like a different person-change. With just a handful of shirts and pants, they won't be able to do this as much.
Good luck!
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