Cutting Down On Kid’s Clothing
Posted on September 9, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Clutter,Organization
Too Much
I swear there is a clothing factory located in my daughter’s room. We start the season out with adequate clothing, and before I know it, the drawers are overflowing. We get hand-me-downs from an older cousin, and the grandmothers also send clothing. Between those sources, and the new outfits we buy my daughter (albeit limited), clothing gets out of hand quickly.
This week I tackled my daughter’s clothing. She will be in her summer clothing for the first month of school, and then transition to winter, so this is an ideal time to get a handle on the problem.
The Limits
My daughter has favorite outfits, and they get worn week in and out. We do laundry weekly, so that would mean she really only needs seven outfits (plus a couple) for regular usage.
My daughter and I talked it over and decided that ten outfits of the current clothing would be adequate, along with a few play clothes that can get messy.
The Purge
The first thing I did was empty the dresser drawers onto the floor. Yes, you read that right. Everything went out, and I wiped out the drawers and replaced them in the dresser. We then sorted through the clothing by type: underwear, socks, nightwear, swimwear, tops and bottoms.
As we sorted, we evaluated all clothing. If something was worn out or stained, it went right into the garbage. If it was in good condition but too small or disliked, it went into a pile to be Freecycled.
Everything but the tops and bottoms were placed back in the dresser, with a note made to replenish the supply of socks and underwear, since she has grown significantly in the past six months.
The Picking
Next, I had my daughter pick out 10 shirts and 10 bottoms. We put these together to make sure that there were outfits that could be made out of these combinations, eliminating the necessity of wearing stripes with dots. These where neatly folded and put into two drawers: tops in one, bottoms in another.
The Leftovers
There were quite a few leftover clothes at this point. I let her pick out three outfits for “play”, and the rest we went through. If she chose to keep it, it was put into a pile to be put away in the guest room, where her out-of-season and spare clothes live. Otherwise it went into the Freecycle pile.
This process will be repeated in a few weeks as we make the switch to warmer clothes. By having a smaller amount of clothes in the drawers, she can keep them neater, and find the ones she wants quickly.
Photo by *clairity*
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