Children’s clothes can quickly get out of hand because they grow out of them so fast. Kids also are not the best at putting their dirty clothes in the hamper, at least mine don’t, and they can change their clothes multiple times a day.
My solution:
First, I only give my kids access to clothes that 1) fit them, 2) are season appropriate, and 3) we have room for.
1) A lot of clothes can be passed down to siblings, cousins, or friends. Clothes that don’t currently fit anyone go in totes out in the garage. I put each size in a bag in the tote. In March and September I bring the totes in and we go shopping for “new” clothes. Soaking everything in Oxi-clean before and after storage keeps the clothes looking and smelling fresh. I keep a basket on top my dryer for clothes that don’t fit anymore to keep them out of the way before they go out to the garage or mailed to my nieces. I donate worn or torn clothes to be recycled.
2) In KY we have all four seasons approximately when they fall on the calendar, but we say, “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” During the summer we mostly need shorts and short sleeve shirts but I keep a long sleeve shirt for each kid and some long pants out. I do the opposite in the winter.
3) Each of my kiddos has one drawer to put their clothes in plus hanging space in a closet for church clothes. Our rule is that all your clothes have to fit in the drawer. This allows them to only pick their favorite clothes from the hand-me-downs and only buy what will fit. The drawers are nice and big (girl(12) can fit 10 full outfits in it) and they really do not need anymore than that.
Second, we do a load of laundry every day and we only wash what makes it in the hamper. We have four hampers in the laundry room; one for towels, one for whites, one for delicates (hand knits and some of the girls dresses), and one for everything else. If it’s in a hamper together, it gets washes together. By only washing what ends up in the hamper the kids (mostly) learn to put their clothes where they belong.
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