I’ve recently finished the task of switching my children’s clothes around for the season change. I made a dreadful mess,
and in the middle of it all, I definitely wanted to shut the door and quit dealing with the piles of clothes.
I’m happy to report, though, that clothing mounds are no longer obscuring the floor in my children’s rooms, and I’m even happier to report that I don’t think I’m going to have to buy a single item of clothing for any of my children this summer. Thanks to hand-me-downs galore(I had so many, I was able to share with my sister-in-law!) and some previous clearance purchases(remember this one?), they are more than equipped for the hot season ahead.
This is the case more often than not when I do the seasonal clothing switch, and it never fails to thrill me. If I had to actually go out and buy a full-on wardrobe for my older two(the younger two could wear hand-me-downs from my oldest daughter), it would put a serious dent into my clothing budget, and I’m so thankful that I’ve only HAD to buy new items for them a few times.
Of course, I do sometime succumb to the temptation of a new clothing item, but for the most part, my kids manage better than fine with (mostly)free clothes.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I haven’t even started doing this yet! I know my older two are going to need some summer clothes, but the baby has 3 bags of hand me downs from her sisters! I plan to hit goodwill when I do buy their clothes. My middle one is especially bad about turning a nice new outfit into rags within a day.
I remember my mom had boxes in the closet full of gifted clothes, that said one of our names on it, and the year that she thought it would fit us. I was always amazed that she knew what size I would be in what year!
I use Luvs boxes for storing clothes, too!
I have two grocery bags and one huge department store bag of gifted clothes to go through for my little munchkin. I plan to do that this weekend, as it’s starting to get too warm for long sleeves, and that’s all he has in his dresser right now!
How do you handle storing all the clothes? We have very limited storage space, and I’m already near the limit, and the munchkin is only 10 months old! We plan to have 4 kids, so I’m very reluctant to get rid of anything.
@EngineerMom
I would recommend raising your beds on blocks in order to provide more storage. Raise them high enough so you can put those large clear plastic bins underneath for your clothes. Hope this helps!
Kristin,
How lucky you are to receive so many hand-me-ups. I just don’t know the right people or something. Do friends just offer them to you or do you come out and ask? I’ve looked on our local freecycle and there’s just about nothing out there. I’m so amazed that you get free furniture, never mind clothing.
Engineer Mom, I’ve been fortunate to always live in houses/apartments that had fairly impressive closet storage. I store most of my extra clothes in those big boxes that hold reams of paper, so they stack nicely.
I am always very happy when my kids are done with clothes and I can get rid of them, though! I get rid of Joshua’s as soon as he’s done with them, and then I get rid of Zoe’s too.
Kayleigh, I get them from family and friends. I plan to post about this topic at some point, but I have a policy of always saying “yes!” when people ask me if I want hand-me-downs. Eventually word gets around that you are the go-to person when someone wants to get rid of clothes!
Unfortunately, as the kids get older, hand-me-downs disappear. Waaahhh! My teens don’t get any, and my 9-year old son gets lots of shirts, but few pants (boys are SO hard on pants!).
I used to try to stretch our clothing budget by selling kids’ clothes at resale shops, but I realized that I appreciated hand-me-downs, and it was better to give our outgrowns away. It feels good to bless other families!