Children's Clothes
Then, the clothes began to multiply, and very quickly I realized that children's clothing is like rabbits: they multiply exponentially.
Even in a 1700 sq. ft house, I stopped saving clothes that were more than 1 size above what the kids were currently wearing. Now, this doesn't apply to babies; babies change sizes almost faster than they poop so keeping a couple sizes on hand is a good idea! I started limiting the hand-me-down intake when the kids only grew a size a year, about age 2.
In the process of going tiny, I gave all the size-up-hand-me-down's to a friend. We only have on hand what the kid's can actually wear. When they need something I go to the second-hand store first and usually some good deal is still there. Please, don't get me wrong, hand-me-downs have and will saved A LOT of money, but tiny house living is kind of different... ;).
Now, for my children's clothing Declutter Tip (and this applies only to kids out of diapers!):
- Keep only one weeks worth of clothing in your children's room.
- Keep clothes that easily match so you don't have to worry about the match of something being dirty.
- Keep only clothes the kids love to wear: just because it's cute and stylin' doesn't mean they like it - it takes up space, let it go.
- Do the laundry once or twice a week. Your kids will always have clean clothes and you won't have to fold as much laundry!! Score!!
This is an area where I am struggling to take the plunge. We have viciously slashed the grown-ups' wardrobes to about ten days of clothing. We've even reduced the pajama population, since normally we just wear our t-shirts, to just a couple modest things for when we're traveling or have company.
ReplyDeleteBut the little one... I make stuff, her grandmother makes stuff... I don't always remember to DO the laundry... so cutting her wardrobe has been tough.
Recently, she's been outgrowing all of her pants. She's developed a booty in the last two weeks, meaning that half of her pants that still fit two weeks ago no longer fit. Great for dumping! I'm just hoping no "replacements" find their way in as we weed out the suddenly-too-small. Getting down to a week seems like an ideal, but do the kids tease A at school for her limited wardrobe?
I read somewhere that not people wear a sort of "uniform" anyway. And I once pared my kids clothes down and found out neither of my older kids like wearing jeans and sometimes not even pants! The things you learn! -Becky J
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny the things we learn about our kids! Some of the things I love to wear my kid hate lol I had such a hard time getting rid of kids clothes I like ;)
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