How many clothes for DD's

[Julia R]

I am coming to the conclusion that DD's have too many clothes. It appears to be impossible for them to keep their room clean. They rummage through their drawers looking for the clothes they want, take them off hangers and leave on the floor, change 4-5 times a day, and leave clean clothes mixed with dirties on the floor. All they have are beds and clothes in their room. So, I'm going to sort through their clothes and am NOT keeping all of them. I keep huge totes in the garage with clothes that don't fit at the time for the next child in line to wear. The problem is that they end up not being found until it's too late. They either don't fit or are out of season. Sometimes the tag size is misleading after shrinking too. So between 3 girls, we have a lot of clothes in the house, on the floor.

How should I go about this reducing job? I'd like to only keep the cutest clothes and ones which I will actually let my girls wear. That might narrow it down enough. Trouble is my mom has bought a good ammount of them (both new and thrift stores) many are hideous and the girls don't wear anyway. She expects to see them on and to have them returned when they are outgrown so she can pass them on to other kids in the family. We've had many discussions about this. I have said that I'd rather she didn't buy anymore because she then assumes that she has bought everything and they come with these strings attached. So she started writing her name in them to clear the confusioin.

What would you do with the clothes you don't want to keep in the closet, and don't want to store for later either?

How might I respectfully handle this situation with my mom?

How should I approach it with the girls?

How many of each type of garment do you think we ought to keep around?

[milkmommy]

Well I have for DD three church or special type dresses and 10 outfits one for each day of the week plus a few back ups for toddler spills leaks. We only keep whats seasonal and what fits whats shes out grown the favorites get put in a storage box the rest go to good will.
Overall I don't like buying second hand unless its in 100% top condition I will shop target walmart or sales I like a bargin but I DON'T like my child looking trashy. My MIL tends to give us TONS of garrage sale thrift shop finds of stuff thats just nasty but she likes because she found it for a nickle or something :rolleyes If its in decent condition I'll pass it onto good will but the rest just gets tossed I'm tired of trying to please her all the time she too thinks we are totally ungreatfull but oh well :shrug So my advice
What would you do with the clothes you don't want to keep in the closet, and don't want to store for later either?

How might I respectfully handle this situation with my mom?
I'd just ask her not to buy clothes for your DC anymore (or limit it to holidays birthdays) try to be nice and consider her feelings but be honest. Maybe she'll get it :shrug

How should I approach it with the girls?
Tell your girls this mess is unacceptable and were going to get organiszed then set a plan and make it happen let them help..

How many of each type of garment do you think we ought to keep around?
:shrug depends how often to you do laundry how bothered are you or your girls with repeated outfits? life style do they need certain types more than others etc..

Deanna

[Julia R]

We've got funny wheather here, so you need warm clothes available all year. Girls love to dress up for church and would like to wear dresses everyday. Sometimes not practical. They could probably do with just a few jeans and t-shirts. We have tons of dresses, some nice, lots aren't. Dresses are more seasonal too. OK, we're making a big goodwill run here. I buy lots of stuff from thriftshops here. In our area thriftstores and resale shops are common and nice things can be found. In other places we've lived, I wouldn't let the kids touch anything in thriftshops while we were headed for the exit quickly. I sew a lot and make clothes for them too. I have a big style difference than my mom does. Lots of what the kids end up with I won't even allow them to wear. Mom bought 7 yo DD off the shoulder shirts last winter. Instead of arguing about it, I'll just get rid of them. I feel bad about mom buying stuff that I get rid of though. Especially since she expects it all back. If I pack it up and send it all back now, I'll have to explain why her clothes aren't good enough for my kids, and if I can get rid of them and buy others, then I must have enough money she can charge us the rent this house is worth. However, eighties pumps with heels breaking off, animal print furry pencil mini skirts, and such are out. She also wanted me to dress my kids in clothes she saved from when I was little, complete with mold and holes.

[BeckaBlue]

my dd's are down to about 10-15 pairs of pants, 7-8 pair of shorts, about 30 shirts, and about 20-30 dresses (10 or so 'fancy' dresses and the rest are plain 'fun' dresses). we had about 2-3X this much before i went through them last month

my girls share most of their clothes since they both fit 5-8s, of course some things they don't fit all of, but one of them does and i like it, and they like, so it stays

to go through what i did i used heir opinions. i explained that we need to get rid of clothes, well sell some and they'd get the money to get something special with, and some we'd give to other girls that need them, and she got to chose which she wanted to give away (which was quite a bit actually) and what she wanted to try to sell

no help w/ family clothes

lots of my girls clothes are second-hand, they're nice though or i wouldnt buy em