Decluttering clothes for children

minimoneysaver

Mother Noah, thank god i'm not the only one. I was reading this and thinking that I can't be the only mother who loves buying clothes for my little girl. We are at overflow at the moment.... I promise to sort it out!

loocyloo

mother_noah wrote: »

My son aged 6 has enough to clothe a small african nation !!!! When I last had a clear out of his sock drawer I counted 127 pairs ! Keep telling myself he does not need anything and still end up buying more.Not good for money saving.

i think my DS socks multiply when i'm not looking!

he has short and long socks for school, and then trainer socks etc for the weekend/home ...

and as for my DD ... not old enough for school socks ... but she has long and short socks, and then there is the tights collection :eek:

xxx

HopeElizzy

My dd and ds both have enough school clothes to last a week - they change every day and keep the school stuff on when they get home unless we're going out.
So, I reach the school holidays and realise how little dd has that fits her. Ds is ok as I have 3 different people handing down boys clothing and his wardrobe is creaking under the amount stuffed into it! Poor little dd usually puts some trousers on for the first day of the holidays and I think Oh no, we better go shopping!
I know both of my little ones own 14 pairs of pants as we had enough for our holiday so I didn't have to wash while we were away! hurrah!

Aril

Not masses but enough to change completely every 2 day. He has 2 pr school trousers, 3 sweatshirts and 6 white shirts for school. He has masses of socks and pants and about 4 pairs of pjs. He changes those 2-3 times per week. He has a pair of elderly trainers for kicking around in, smarter pair for going out, school shoes and a pair of decent walking boots that my parents bought him. Most of his stuff comes via his cousin [we've received another bag full today] and he's picked out the bits he will wear. I buy him track bottoms mainly as he is very slim and jeans are too difficult to take in at the waist [I have done so with other types]. He refuses point blank to wear shorts although I have "persuaded" him to move from long sleeved t shirts into short sleeved ones in the warmer weather. I tackle this with care as he has Aspergers and need to have time to get used to the change. He is the same with new clothes and it takes a little time to introduce them. Fortunately, he's a lot easier in this respect now he's older!
Aril

loobylou2

My 3 have far too many clothes. In fact I've just sorted 3 bin liners full of their things out to go to the charity shop earlier this afternoon and thats not counting the stuff I took round to my neighbours house to see if it would fit her daughter as she's the same age as mine only smaller!!!! Have put the old and outgrown school uniform stuff into a pile to take into school when term starts again because I seem to think that there have been times when my kids have come home in different clothes they went to school in and I'm sure that they won't be the only ones this happens to.

mother_noah

loocyloo .I know where you are coming from socks just have to match his outfit so he has every type and colour possible.Little one has special needs and I have vivid memorys of seeing other children who had special needs out with parents or carers and dressed the same as them or in shapeless ill fitting clothes .I just cant do that to him so take extra care dressing him nicely.I must add that I do not buy designer stuff unless it is in a charity shop.

Spendless

skylight wrote: »

I don't count clothes but it has to fit into the small space available.
The eldest has her own wardrobe with drawers at the bottom. If it doesn't fit in the wardrobe its slung out. The middle two each have a small underwear drawer, small PJ drawer, a tops drawer and a bottoms (mixed with dresses) draw, plus they share a jumper drawer. The baby has a few small drawers in my wardrobe - but with another on the way it will be all change - I will have to clear out one of my drawers under the bed for baby to use! The only exception is school uniform that for littlies is kept in my room.

We also have a like for like rule - one new in, so one old out. Sounds really harsh, but 2 adults, 4 kids and baby on way in a 2-bed house means you learn to be lean! They have enough, are smart and get what ever they need (not want) - it works for us.

And to add in a PS - I don't buy stuff that will need ironing......

and here I am trying to come up with as many space saving solutions for 2 adults/2 kids in 3 bed house.:o Your drawers sound nice and deep. Can I ask where you got them from?

As a tip for anyone reading looking to reduce space. Something I do is fold the pyjma top into a leg of the bottoms. It then folds into a neat 'parcel' that doesn't take up as much drawer room, and it keeps matching sets together.

chatterboxbodil

Spendless wrote: »

and here I am trying to come up with as many space saving solutions for 2 adults/2 kids in 3 bed house.:o Your drawers sound nice and deep. Can I ask where you got them from?

As a tip for anyone reading looking to reduce space. Something I do is fold the pyjma top into a leg of the bottoms. It then folds into a neat 'parcel' that doesn't take up as much drawer room, and it keeps matching sets together.

Sorry to crash this thread, I was lurking on MSE and found it by happy accident. It made me laugh because i have spent half of today clearing out the mass of clothing my kids have. Most of it has been given to us - active recycling! But what really made me laugh was that I am trying to fit the clothing of 2 adults and 3 children into a tiny 3 bed house, I thought it was just me being a hoarder that was causing the problem, so I'm glad to know I'm not alone!

skylight

LOL! They are only Argos drawers, but being small kids (4 and 6) the clothes are small anyway

We also do Ikea a lot. I know they are not to everyones tastes, but their storage solutions are great - the amount of books/DVDs/CDs etc we can fit into the front room is amazing! We will be changing our wardrobes after baby arrives as well to Ikea as I can customise them to how I want them to fit - and the choice of internal fittings is great.

tigerfeet2006

Skylight we have the Ikea Pax wardrobes and they are fantastic. I have managed to fit so much into mine and they fit from floor to ceiling.so no dust trap on the top of the wardrobes

I don't know how many pairs of what we have for the boys. When my eldest was born he was given tons of clothes as presents also my SIL gave us all her son's clothes. When her second was born I sent all the clothes I had back. Then she passed thm on to a friend, who gave them back with additions and subtractions. Then when my next boy was born we had them back and added and subtracted some. Then my 3rd was born and I've bought them out of the loft again. My SIL has just had a baby so I passed them on to her and we will get them back as he grows out of them and I will give her the next lot. In my loft I have a stack of those vacuum bags labelled newborn, 0-3, 3-6 etc. all the way up to six