Decluttering Clothes

[TraceMama]

I'm in the process of de-cluttering clothes bins, closets, drawers, etc. :) And while it's easy for me to say that 5 T-shirts, 5 dress-shirts, 5 pants, etc is enough for dh, I'm having a harder time whittling down the kids' clothes. :/

So, any hard and fast rules out there? My boys have *way* too many clothes --- like 3-4 pairs of jeans, plus 2-3 overalls, plus khakis, plus cords, etc. :shifty And that's just the pants drawer. :bag

Do you limit yourself to 5 pairs of pants for the kids, for instance? Do you just keep what you love? :shrug

Any tips from ruthless declutters (which I am *clearly* not ;) ) would be appreciated! :heart

[mamaKristin]

:popcorn

(from the woman who just bought her older daughter a bunch of new stuff with birthday money....because I wanted her to have more selection that wasn't just pink)

[Charlie U]

I'm going to be doing this today. :)

My first rule is if it doesn't fit anyone, it goes. (Either donated, given to friends with girls that are smaller than mine or tossed if it's not fit to be donated.)

Then I go through what fits to make sure it's still in good shape. (No rips, minimal staining. Anything that's really stained I might keep for playing outside.)

Three sets of jammies per kid. (Neither dd sleeps under the covers, so I really keep the jammies seasonal.) One bathrobe per kid. One pair of slippers per kid.

I'm really freakish about shoes...Each dd has a pair of tennies, a pair of black dress shoes, a pair of brown dress shoes, a pair of sandals, a pair of hiking boots (or rain boots) and a pair of winter boots. (It seems like a lot, but I'm really freakish about shoes. They are heavily rotated. I buy tennies on sale. They wear those the most. I usually pick up the dress shoes at Target or ShopKo.)

8 pairs of socks and 8 underclothes per child. I like having dry socks available in the winter.

Each child has

three pairs of jeans, one "fancy" and two plain
one pair of khaki/black/brown dress pants. (Not one of each. It's any of those colors.)
five short sleeve shirts
five long sleeve shirts
five sweatshirts
two pairs of tights
three dresses - two of them are for church, one is a "fancy" dress for Christmas that I haven't purchased yet
I haven't purchased a sweater for them, yet. I can't decide if I will or not. R, especially, is really warm.
two winter jackets, which seems excessive. This is the first year we've had two and I can't decide if I like that.


I need to go to Target today. I'll pick up some space saver bags, hopefully. Their summer clothes will be packed away in those.

They also have "activity" clothes. Both are in dance, so it's a leotard for r and shorts and a tshirt for R and their dance shoes. They each have a swim suit and towel as they take swimming class year 'round.

I need to let go of my shoe issues as they really do have too many.

[crunchymum]

i need so much help with this! :crazy

[TraceMama]

Bumping for more ideas! :shifty

[MarynMunchkins]

I get rid of anything that doesn't fit or is hard to match. I have fewer issues if I know they can throw anything on and look decent.

Anything easily stained or that *has* to be ironed is next. I don't mind ironing kid's clothes, but I try to stick to wash and wear.

I go with 7 outfits per kid at the beginning of the season, and we're usually up to 12 by the time I find cute things on sale and Grandma shops. ;)

[MamaPepper]

I'm trying to do this too, and I hope you don't mind if I add a question, but part of me feels I need to keep a bunch of the boys clothes because of new baby coming. . . Should I worry about keeping clothes for that purpose, or worry about finding more clothes in a couple years when new baby is ready for them?

[2sunshines]

I definitley keep all the good clothes for the next baby. It saves SO MUCH money. :yes But we have decent storage in the basement so it works for us.

[TraceMama]

I'm planning on keeping clothes for the new baby too. :yes But, I drastically need to reduce the amount that I already have :blush It's out of hand. :yes2 But, that's where I'm struggling to figure out how much is a reasonable amount to keep, kwim? :shrug

[Rea T]

For me, if it wasn't ripped or stained I kept it for the next one. Yes, he's got probably 5 or 6 pairs of jeans right now, but he will wear some of them out before he grows out of them and this keeps me from having to go buy more. By the time he's done we'll be down to about 3. (I also am keeping a pair of decent outgrown ones on hand to use for patching.)

[MarynMunchkins]

I don't keep most clothes. :shrug We don't have the space, and I can usually find someone with hand-me-downs. I do save things between Bug and Tater Tot, because I know I will need them. But I don't have space for 4 yrs. of boy clothes and 6 years of girl clothes. :no It's less aggravating for me to consign old stuff and use that money to buy new things. :)

[TraceMama]

I find that I tend to dress my boys in a few pairs of *my* favorite pants (until they're 3, that is! ;) ) and *my* favorite shirts, sweaters, whatever. Only a few pants were almost worn out by BlueEyes to consider tossing ---- everything else only got worn a handful of times. :/

In Dimples' drawer right now, there are at least 12 pairs of pants, probably more like 15. I just went through the 2T/24month bin and found at least 10 more pairs to bring upstairs and put in his drawers. :jawdrop That's just too many pairs of pants, too much laundry, too many choices, etc. :yes2

I'm trying to come up with some rules like 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of other pants (khaki and navy), 3 pairs of play pants, etc. :shrug

Mary, in your 7 outfits, is that 7 different pairs of pants and 7 different shirts OR is that 7 outfits based on a combination of pants and shirts (less than seven)? :think

[joy]

I have been sorting though clothes today too. I think I have made a rule for us that if the closet or drawers are stuffed to the point of being hard to keep organized, then there are too many clothes. If the clothes are over-stuffed, I will delay putting the clothes away when I do laundry because I feel overwhelmed by the disorder, and then then mess has gone from being just in the closet and drawers, to also being a laundry basket of clean clothes on the floor...... so it is kinda a domino effect for me.

So - it's time to purge when I can't keep them organized. I don't count how much of this or that - I probably only wear the same three outfits all the time anyways. :)

[MarynMunchkins]

7 of each. If I have less, we inevitably run out before I get laundry done. Not so much because I slack on laundry, but because stains and random clothing changes mean we often have more than one outfit a day. :rolleyes2

[TraceMama]

7 of each. If I have less, we inevitably run out before I get laundry done. Not so much because I slack on laundry, but because stains and random clothing changes mean we often have more than one outfit a day. :rolleyes2


Gotcha! We have that too. :shifty Thanks! :heart