Tips on Storing Children's Clothing
Dear Kristen,
I know you do a lot of reorganizing in the summer, and at this point you must have stored and organized and reorganized about a million pieces of children's clothes. Our kids are five, two, and seven months. Our house is small but our collection of clothing GROWS! I was wondering how you organize and store multiple sizes, seasons, and genders without losing track of your collection and filling the entire house. I thought you might have some interesting pointers and frugal ideas.
Thanks!
Amanda
Oh man....children's clothing. It's a tough thing to deal with, especially when you're trying to balance frugality with a low-clutter life.
If you keep lots of stuff, then maybe you won't have to buy anything, but your house will be full.
If you get rid of a lot, your house will be cleared out, but maybe you'll have to buy a bunch of clothes for younger siblings.
Since we're done having kiddos, I'm at a pretty easy place for clothing storage. I don't have to keep a stock of every size around, and since Sonia and Zoe are so close in sizes, I can move Sonia's clothes right down to Zoe without even needing to store them!
And of course, once Zoe's done with clothes, they go straight to cousins.
Only keep timeless styles for larger age gaps.
If you have a big age gap between siblings of the same gender, give away the trendy stuff after your older kid outgrows it.
Girls' clothing especially pretty speedily, and you'd hate to use space storing something that won't even be useful by the time the younger sibling can wear it.
Get rid of what didn't get worn.
The level of use clothes get with one kid is a good gauge for what you should keep.
For instance, when I help Sonia clean out her drawers at the end of a season, I pay attention to the number of clothes she wore, and I give away the stuff that ended up being superfluous, passing the rest down to Zoe.
I figure if Sonia made it through a whole season without needing every last one of those clothing pieces, I don't need to keep every single thing for Zoe.
Keep less than you think you need.
Ages ago, I used to keep more clothes around, just in case. But every year, I tend to get rid of more and more clothes, and somehow, we always still have enough.
I've decided kids need fewer clothes than we tend to think they need.
Remember that there are more hand-me-downs/secondhand clothes out there.
If you DO accidentally get rid of more than you should have, it's not like it will be the end of the world. There will probably be more hand-me-downs available to you, or if not, there certainly will still be thrift shops/online secondhand shops still available.
(and clearance racks!)
So, don't let fear cause you to keep thousands of items of clothing in your house. Try to make wise decisions about what to get rid of, and then just rest in knowing that you can probably do a frugal job of filling in any gaps for the younger siblings.
Use consistently sized boxes for storage.
I've always stored our extra clothes in large paper ream boxes which are great because they're all the same size and they stack nicely.
Clear plastic bins work well too; stick to the same size and shape if you can for easy stackability.
Keep seasons together.
Since sizing varies so much, I store clothes by the season they were worn in rather than by their size. For instance, I might label a box, "Girl, cold weather, 10-12", and I throw everything in the box that they wore that season, even if some of the numerical sizes are outliers.
Use hanging closet storage if you have it.
If your house has extra closet space, hang up things like dresses, coats, snow pants, and other items that fill up boxes in a hurry.
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I hope some of those ideas were helpful for you, Amanda.
Readers, if you have some helpful kid clothing storage tips, would you add those in the comments for Amanda?
Years ago I committed to keeping almost NO kids clothing and have stuck to that with great success. It really depends on the family and how the kids' ages and genders line up. For example I have:
Boy 18, Boy 15 then Girl 13, Girl 10, then Girl 6, Girl 4 and finally Boy 1.5
Boy #2 could get Boy #1's hand-me-downs, but my boys wear their clothes until they're threadbare and only fit for La Poubelle.
Girl #2 could get Girl #1's hand-me-downs, but the girls have totally different styles and body types. My 10 yo will take the 13 yo's clothing, but she won't ever wear it because it just doesn't look right on her. However, it WILL clog up her dresser causing it to break and making it impossible for her to close the drawers or actually FIND the stuff she does like to wear. I have hence forbidden the 13 yo to give 10 yo clothing without my approval (I can tell at a glance whether she'll ever wear it).
Girls ages 4 and 6 wear the same size (body types again!) so hand-me-downs are a moot point.
And the baby wears a conglomeration of secondhand stuff given to us by friends and consignment shop/yard sale finds. And after he outgrows it, it's trashed or resold (because I don't know anyone with a smaller boy to give it to.)
So for now, saving clothes doesn't really work in real life.
Saving clothes didn't actually save me ANY money, it only increased the stress and hassle and clogged up my closets. Of course, every family is different.
I wrote a post about this linked above. 🙂
Your family arrangement is a classic case where saving boy clothes could be a huge waste of time...even if the 15 year old had some good stuff to save, by the time your baby is that age, those clothes will likely be quite out of fashion.
I store clothes I find second hand or on sale for the upcoming season. I roll clothes instead of fold them then place them in banker's boxes based on season, all sizes in one box. The biggest space saver for me is there are 7 outfits per child per season (winter/summer only). I wash laundry by hand so I like to keep clothes to a minimum.
I basically refuse to store that stuff. My kids are 7 and 3, a boy then a girl, and they are getting to an age where hand me downs get trickier. We moved from Indiana to Nevada and back over 11 months, so I took that as my opportunity to purge purge purge. What I kept is stored on my daughters closet shelf where I can see it so it doesn't get forgotten.
This is a topic that is very relevant to me right now. I have 4 girls ranging in age from 3-11. Plus, I have very nice people in my life who give me their children's hand-me-downs. I used to keep every single thing, even the stained clothing (thinking they would use those clothes to play outside with). Here's what I've learned:
1) If a child likes an article of clothing, she will want to wear it anywhere regardless of its condition. Therefore, I get rid of all stained clothing, so as not to cause myself irritation and grief by handing down that item. Caveat: My 5 year old loves dresses and will be obedient enough to wear the stained dresses to play outside in, and save the nice ones for church. My three year old does not understand this yet!
2) When going through clothing with each child when the great switch happens, I am ruthless. We go "shopping" and then the clothes that the child didn't want, I just go ahead and get rid of (give away, hand off to a friend, etc.). I used to keep them for the next one, but like Kristen says, kids don't need as many clothes as we think. Plus, relatives will always want to get them clothes for holidays and birthdays.
3) I used to keep baby clothes, but then I realized that people are ALWAYS trying to get rid of their baby clothes. I got rid of everything under 18 mos. after my 3rd child (except for a few favorite items), and I seriously had no problem getting more baby clothes for #4. I'm doing the same thing again.
4) If you have girls, up until they are size 7-8, you can usually always get a ton from friends and find them easily and cheaply in thrift stores. I'm having more trouble getting hand-me-downs with my oldest (who is 10-12 or 14-16), and finding things in thrift stores that work for her. So, my advice would be to keep the older kid stuff, but feel free to toss younger kid stuff!
5) Since I have four girls, we have a ton of dresses. I keep most of those on a single rack in my laundry area downstairs (all sizes together), and so on a Sunday morning, if they want, a child can run down there to see if there is a dress she wants to wear. Some of their favorites are already up in their rooms, but it's always fun to see if there's something new. We have a shortage of closet space upstairs, so this is the make-do for me.
I would say it kind of depends on the gender of your children. I have three girls (three year old and one year old twins). We are done having kids, so I have the clothes from my older daughter stored in three totes for the twins. I don't buy them anything (we shop only at garage sales) unless I have noticed it's something we are lacking or the transition of seasons didn't line up with their size. I shop ahead for my older daughter and I put these items in accessible bins above her closet. I shop ahead because I would rather buy her jeans for. 25 than for $10 in the winter when there aren't garage sales and she has grown. If my five year old was the same gender as my 7 month old I would be pretty ruthless with going through clothes if I didn't have a lot of storage space.
That last should read *wasn't.
Two opinions isn't exactly a flood, but I'm surprised that neither FG nor Carrie seem to consider it appropriate to hand down clothes between girls and boys.
The other issue I see that someone could address, is how to store hand-me-down you get, before your kids fit them.
One method I use to determine what clothes go unworn, is to put the washed clothes on the top of the pile in the drawer. After a season or a year, the clothes on the bottom are the clothes that you don't wear.
Except for baby clothes (neutrals), snow pants and other snow gear, I can't think of an instance where I've handed down Joshua's clothing to the girls. The cut is just so, so different even for things like t-shirts.
If my girls were less slim, perhaps that could have worked, but they all really prefer tshirts that are less boxy than boys shirts.
The hand-me-downs ahead of time: those I store the same way I store clothes when we're done with them. I sort through them, keeping only timeless stuff that I am 99% sure my kids will wear, put them in a labeled box, and get them out when the kid reaches that size. I think it's important to be really, really picky about that kind of thing, or you can end up with a bajillion boxes of possible future clothing that you never end up fully using.
I see why shirt cuts can be different for teenagers and adults, but is that also true for pre-teens & pre-adolescents?
Oh, yes.
Joshua's grade school shirts were definitely cut differently than my girls' grade school shirts. His were straighter and baggier...like, the kind of tshirt that would look pretty silly worn with skirts (which is what my girls like to wear in the summertime, especially.)
If I had girls that leaned a little more toward the tomboy end of things, it might be different!
Unfortunately, the different gender cuts for clothing starts in infancy! My daughter, now 21 months, fits in her brother's old clothes just fine, but girl baby tops are so tight around the shoulders and belly. It is so annoying! I wish clothing was a little more fit neutral, rather than baggy and boxy for boys and super fitted and short for girls.
That's terrible. And stupid.
I will say, I've handed clothes down from my son to my daughter, but as they get older, things don't appeal to both of them very often, and my daughter is catching up so fast that I'm literally running out of hand me downs. That being said, some of her favorite tshirts are "boy" shirts that belonged to her brother, and I often buy her superhero/character shirts from the boys section.
My daughter wears boy shorts almost exclusively (we hand the down to my nephew).
This is because the length of girl's shorts irks me. Sure I can find board shorts and walking shorts, but so much of what is available is tight and way up her thigh.
Because Kristen is right, and girls' clothing IS cut differently than boys', and I think that's crap. My seven year olds body is no different than that of a boy her age.
Thanks so much for featuring my question!
I use paper boxes too. My mama brings them home from work. I like the size, stack-ability, and price.
After I wrote you I decided to do a major clean out. I ruthlessly edited down to a manageable amount of clothing. I took out anything that was at all stained or stretched or pilled. I also pulled out anything that I don't remember the kids wearing much. I sent a bunch of it to Thredup, so we'll see if we make any cash off of it.
It is nice to have some breathing room, but at least while they are little but growing fast, it seems like a constant battle to have the right size and season for each kid out and everything else packed away.
I wrote a very similar question a few months back: three kids in similar sized clothing (with a fourth on the way) and way too much to store. Since we have the same name, I'd wondered if Kristen had edited my question because it was too verbose.
Like you, I decided to majorly purge what I was storing. I just have way too much and am moving cross country in a month. I condensed all of my boy clothes into one Rubbermaid tote, and the girl clothing is getting purged during nap time today. It feels wonderful to pass on so much to others who need it while reducing clutter! 🙂
Oh, that's funny that two Amandas wrote in!
For a report back, I managed to collect two garbage bags of clothes and one grocery sack of clothes to donate. I'm going to do a second look through as I organize everything back in the bins tomorrow (napping kids woke up), and I'm guessing I'll have even more to donate. Thank you for motivating me to finally tackle this chore.
Next up: purging kids toys (with their input) later this week.
I love the approach of "kids don't need a lot of clothes." This rule also goes for adults, and I've slowly been trying to build an effective capsule wardrobe. Sometimes less really is more. 🙂
With this in mind, it's better to buy good-quality things since they will be worn and washed more often. My daughter and I shop at Once Upon a Child for clothes for her three kids, ages 4 1/2, 2 1/2, and 6 months, and we exclusively look for the better brands such as Gap, Gymboree, Ralph Lauren, etc. while they may be one dollar more than the old Navy or Target brands, they will last longer and look better. I skip the Walmart stuff altogether, as I can buy that new, for practically what OUAC sells it for.
We did save clothes, using space bags in the attic as our best storage option since we have 5 children and three bedrooms with small closets. We had been given many beautiful dresses for our girls and they were stored in my closet, along with swimsuits and white garments, which didn't weather the attic as well as everything else. With time, it does get easier to look at an item and know whether or not a child will wear it and like Kristin, we tend to get rid of more and more as we go along. Most of us tend to have a few favorite things that we wear over and over and the rest just hangs in the closet taking up space until mom helps people purge the closet.
I have two boys so far-4 and 2- and have kept almost everything.. I've found it so helpful! I do go through and pull out stained/unworn things when I make my shopping lists for a big twice a year children's resale. I keep the off size clothes in under bed tubs; that way I can keep the size growing out of and the size growing into tubs in the room for easier switches.
I only have one daughter and I'm finding keeping the clutter down an insurmountable task as family members seem to like giving her stuff that she'll never wear and/or never use.
That reminds me, I need to donate a ton of clothing and Ages 3+ toys that people keep giving my eight month old daughter.
We have stored and re-used a lot of stuff. There have been a few hiccups in it, though. For instance, the favorite pieces tend to get worn down, which makes them not good as hand-me-downs. We have successfully passed snow pants, jackets, pajamas, socks, etc. between boys and girls, but my one girl pretty much refused to wear most of the boys' pants and shorts. She only likes leggings, so there we go. We keep stuff in boxes in closets, generally labeled with the gender and size.
I wonder if William, who commented above, has much experience with kids. Girls and boys rarely like the same things. This is nature, not nurture.
I must respectfully disagree. My 4yo son has almost exclusively his 9yo sisters hand me downs in his wardrobe - she wore a pretty equal mix of 'boy' and 'girl' clothes and still does. Because my son has always had access to shorts/jeans/skirts/dresses and we have never made a fuss out of any of them, he wears them all pretty much equally depending on what he feels like in the morning.
Not true. Pink was for boys and blue was for girls up until about WWII. Colors are for everyone and so are Legos and dolls.
My boys are 14, 6 and 6 and my daughter is 19, so hand-me downs never really worked for us either due to the large age gaps or being twins. There are some good-quality jackets and dress clothes I have kept from my older son to my youngest two, but only if I really like the item, the style is classic, and I think it will store well. I'm having a problem with shoes though. My oldest son grew quickly and has left a lot of barely worn dress shoes and cleats behind, will shoe rot set in if I save these a few years?
Funny enough about the whole gender question. My daughter likes baggier shirts and she and her younger brother now wear the same size, but as he is quickly growing she already pre-claimed some of his clothes for her to take over 🙂
In my childhood, I was handed down a lot of clothes that never fit my style or size (80s pastels and ruffles for a 90s nouveau hippie). As a young preteen and teenager, it took me a long time to figure out my body type, size and style as a consequence. Not to say I didn't like any hand-me-downs, but you should definitely listen to the child's opinion.
"will shoe rot set in if I save these a few years?"
In my experience, no.
I hate clothes shopping and am picky about what shoes I wear, so when I find something I like I buy as many as 6 pair. I also don't get rid of seldom-used shoes such as fancy dress shoes. As a result I routinely store shoes for several years and have a few pair that are over 10 years old.
Never has a pair of shoes rotted out or otherwise turned unwearable. Keep in mind that I keep all my shoes in my clothes closet; shoes might not fare as well in an uninsulated attic. This may be stating the obvious: clean the cleats well and put some sort of moisture-absorbing doodad in the shoes before storing.
Some shoes will rot-- some will not. I've literally had a "blow-out" when a certain brand of shoes hit the decade mark.
I feel strongly about that too. Unless you absolutely CANNOT afford any clothes besides hand-me-downs, then I think it's wise to try your best to give your kids clothes that they are comfortable wearing. I don't want to make my kids wear clothes they hate just because they're free, and thus far, we've never been financially strapped enough to make that necessary.
Not that we clothe them in super expensive stuff, but I don't make them wear clothes from a decade ago. 😉
We have never made the girls wear clothes they hate either but may offer pieces they don't like much. They both had their favorite fleece pants wear out three weeks before spring- I wasn't buying pants that won't fit next fall and offered fleece pants we had just received as hand me downs. The pants fit fine but the colors were not what they wanted. I offered them the pants we had, no fleece pants or a trip to the thrift store with their own money. They both thought about it and took the fleece pants. Both girls wore them at least 7 times in the 13 days before spring came early. If it has been earlier in the season we would have replaced them but they could deal for a few weeks and they have plenty of clothing.
Just went through my kid clothes corner of the basement:
* YES to consistent sized boxes.
* I use a huge label - 5x7 piece of white paper - and a thick black marker and make a consistent looking label for the box fronts.
* Label, label, label! You do not want to have to open and close box after box to find the right one. Example: Size 3 / Boy / Winter
* Stack your boxes with that label facing out, again, why waste energy spinning boxes around to try and figure out what's in them.
* If you do hand me down shoes, boots, socks or other footwear, keep it all in one box regardless of size, especially for babies and toddlers. You do not want to have to fish through an entire box of clothing to find one little pair of baby shoes that you swear you have.
* I thrift shop which means my outfits may be hobbled together....For my baby/toddler ware, I pack up the outfit together by putting the bottoms inside of the top - makes it SO much easier to assess what I may need to buy especially because with babies and potty training toddlers, you need way more clothing on hand.
* If I'm REALLY organized when I pack, I may even leave myself a note inside the box like "had to toss the winter coat, buy a new one" or "all size 2 socks were too worn to save, buy more"
IF YOU BUY AHEAD for the oldest, group those items by type since you have no way of predicting what size your child may grow into. I keep new packs of socks and undies in one box, new shirts in their own box, etc.
I have no input to give on the kid-specific aspect of this question, but since I am dealing with a carpet beetle infestation right now, I've had to store pretty much every fabric item I own that isn't seeing regular (ie daily) use. A few things I've learned:
1) Space Bags can be iffy. I've tried several varieties and had best luck with the Ziploc brand, but they're still not 100% and a few of them have failed.
2) All plastic bins are not created equal. If moisture and/or bugs are a concern, you need the air-tight variety - this means they have a gasket around the lid and generally clip-on handles.
3) Clear plastic is much easier than opaque because you can see what's inside.
4) Air-tight storage requires a desiccant just in case there's any residual moisture hanging out. Fortunately, silica gel kitty litter works great. Just make packs of it out of something breathable like a coffee filter, nylon, or sock.
5) If adults went through their clothes seasonally like parents tend to do for their kids, we'd all have MUCH less clutter to deal with! 🙂 I think I'm gonna make a habit out of it - even after I get the carpet beetles under control!
Oooh carpet beetles. My apartment in Chicago had them. We washed EVERYTHING. Cleaned everything. And found out they were coming from the apartment below us. Whose residents denied EVERYTHING.
So..we moved.
I hope you have better luck than us with those nasty buggers!
I had never even heard of carpet beetles before this all happened, but I'm discovering a surprising number of people dealing with them. I wonder if they are one of those insects that got nearly wiped out in the 20th century due to DDT use but are now making a comeback like bedbugs are.
Anyhow, we have no neighbors to blame the problem on, but I think we got them from a recliner we got at a yard sale. The problem is, that was years ago, so they had time to thoroughly infest. We just never made the connection. I thought the little bugs were coming in from outside and spent several years obsessing about window screens! It wasn't until their numbers got sort of crazy that I finally did some research and then started discovering the larvae. ICK!
Trying to stay positive though... we needed some decluttering and deep cleaning, (and perhaps complete remodeling) anyway... 😉
I've gone back and forth on this one. But main method has been (3 kids: girl 10, girl 8, boy 5) is I have one large bin for each and I keep what fits in there. Every change of season, they go 'shopping' in the box, and we get rid of things from their closets. I keep the things that are more or less the style of the next kid and we do hand down from girls to boy, as we took many hand-me-downs from boys for our girls. So, our girls have worn 'boy' shirts with trucks and such, and the boy has enjoyed some 'girl' shirts with some pink in there. None of them question this, in fact pink is only used sparingly at our house, and they just wear what they like. If I have space, I keep the things that I like and are in good shape even if they said they don't like them because when they fit, they often change their minds.
Well, I guess I'm guilty of hoarding when it comes to clothes. We have a large unfinished basement, and almost the entire north wall of it is stacked up with totes of every size for boys and girls. We are now on baby number 7, and I have benefitted so much from being able to "shop" in our basement. We have several families who hand down to us, so I keep a lot. I am now finding that things are starting to wear out, so I'm glad that I have back-ups.
We do still have to shop for individual items, and now that my oldest is 12, I find I have to do that more often because we just don't get those sized handed down.
Now. I have also learned that I keep too much. I feel guilty for throwing things out sometimes, but I am learning that after 20 years, the elastic just gives out. There are certain items of clothing that, for whatever reason, fit no child. And I've found that certain types of clothes are unnecessary/horrible for certain age groups (overalls for kids who are learning to go potty by themselves and can't get things unfastened quickly enough).
My goal is to pare it down some, purging where needed. I really like the idea of putting the large piece of paper with notes on the totes. That would help me a lot.
I think that if you have the space, and your system is working, then you shouldn't feel bad! The reader who wrote in was just struggling because she has limited storage space, and I've always had that problem too.
But those of you who are lucky enough to have oodles of storage space can definitely operate differently.
We may or may not be done having children, but I am so very much looking forward to getting rid of all of those totes! I even fantasize about it! 🙂
It is a WONDERFUL thing to be able to start getting rid of baby/kid stuff. So great.
Luckily my daughter is older than my 2 nieces. As every reasonable mom would do, I send down my daughter's clothes that she outgrew to my sister in law for them to look around and see what is good. I used to live in Dublin where I could buy baby clothes in Penneys (UK's counterpart is Primark) where most of stuff on sale are usually 1Euro so most of her stuff are from there. I'd love to buy from brands that are fair trade but back at that time, that is the only brand that I could usually afford. Kids grow up so quickly. My sister in law is so lucky coz most of the stuff are fairly new as my kid grows so fast.