Managing Your Toddler’s Clothing
This week is all about clothing and wardrobe management. Monday Vicki gave us a tutorial on clothing swaps and yesterday I shared my 25 piece wardrobe. Today: my toddler’s clothing
Funny how things change. When my son was a newborn I wanted all of his best items to be things we bought him. I even got a little peeved when friends and family gave us gifts of clothing. There would be less time for him to wear all the adorable stuff I bought him.
Yes, I was a little worked up about baby clothes.
Now I gladly accept gifts of clothing. Great. Less for me to buy.
We get a lot of Henry’s wardrobe from his grandmothers. They pay far too much in postage to send us t-shirts, jackets and pants for birthdays and Christmas. Most of what they send us is great. If I’m not keen on something we will wear it a few times and if I still don’t like it, I’ll add it to our donation pile. I’ve let go of my gift guilt and try to send things on to people who will use them instead of storing them away.
I’m grateful for these gifts. While I still really enjoy seeing my boy dressed up in a cute outfit, I couldn’t care less if someone else bought it.
A Week’s Worth Of Clothing
My rule of thumb for toddler’s clothing is to have a week’s worth on hand. This would be a week where each day’s outfit became too dirty for another day of use. We have two hooded sweatshirts that usually need a wash once a week and our two outer jackets, rain and jean jackets, can be spot cleaned most of the time.
We’ve recently moved and our new washing machine is far far better than our old washer dryer combo. It’s just a washer but it spins our clothes out so well that even if it’s damp out, they’ll be dry in less than a day.
A few months back, Henry’s wardrobe was on the low side. He was about to move into a bigger size and I didn’t want to buy anything that was only going to get a few months wear. His wardrobe was too small and our laundry situation was too tight (small size washer/dryer plus it took almost two days for things to dry). I was always behind on the laundry and hunting for something clean for him to wear. I’ll admit it: we needed more clothing. Or an electric dryer.
Find The Sweet Spot
More clothes and a better laundry situation has put us in the sweet spot. All of my toddler’s clothing can be washed in two loads and I can fit most of it on one of our indoor drying racks.
Most of his clothing is worn most of the time. Now that it is a little warmer out (but not today!) we don’t wear the hockey jersey as much. The rain jacket is also used less frequently and the jean jacket is usually layered over a hoodie if it’s chilly. Some weeks he wears shorts every day, other weeks it is still jeans or trouser. That’s trousers, not pants, because as the drycleaner pointed out to me the other day, pants means underwear over here.
Like a lot of my trials at living with less, I’m still learning and adjusting as we go along. This is the right amount of clothing for our current laundry situation, the lifestyle (read: mess factor) of my son at this age and our not so warm summers.
You can see a board of his clothing here on Pinterest. PS. I really don’t recommend those Converse sneakers. Adorable but just terrible for small feet and laces are a pain. Henry’s in a growth spurt and should be out of them soon.
Toddler’s Clothing: Spring / Summer
- hoodie
- hoodie
- rain jacket
- jean jacket
- sneakers
- sandals
- jeans
- jeans
- trousers/pants
- shorts
- shorts
- shorts
- t-shirt
- t-shirt
- t-shirt
- t-shirt
- t-shirt
- polo
- polo
- long sleeve t-shirt
- short sleeve button down
- hat
- hat
- hat
- hockey jersey
- long sleeve button down
Extra Items
In addition to this we have five or six pieces of clothing that are a bit too big (most of them were gifts). I keep them in the mix of every day clothing so I don’t forget about them. This isn’t a nuisance because most of Henry’s clothing fits in one drawer and a handful of things, his jackets and shirts, are hung up.
In addition to this we have three sets of pajamas and two swim trunks, a UV protection swim t-shirt and a half dozen socks. Erin wrote about switching to t-shirts and soft pants or sweat pants as pajamas. It creates a versatile wardrobe. I think I’ll be moving to this as soon as we stop getting gifted pajamas. All three sets of pajamas we have were gifts.
How do you decide the right amount of toddler’s clothing? Do you have space limit or a number limit? Or, like me, is it a mix of what you’ve been given plus a few things to fill any gaps.
Would you happen to have a winter version of this list?
Not right now but I’ll work on one this winter for all of my kids. They will need colder weather clothes now that we have moved back to Canada.
My daughter is about to turn 2 and we’ve been doing really well with a limited wardrobe. We have little space for her clothes – one dresser drawer and a small hanging space over her bed. It has been good for keeping things to a minimum. I do practically all of her clothes shopping at consignment stores or sales.
Our biggest challenge is what to do after she outgrows items. I weed out things that we don’t want to keep, but I want to hold onto items if kid #2 (whenever he/she comes) is a girl. Same things with maternity and nursing clothes. Right now my parents (who live 16 hours away!) are graciously storing them for us. What do other people do?
You’ve inspired me to try this with my own clothes – cataloging and keeping track of what’s in my wardrobe to minimize buying things I don’t need.
The other day I made sure everything I own has been washed, then stored away all the items that don’t fit right now. I’m 5 months pregnant, so there will likely be more things going into storage (or to my sister) every time I do laundry. And pretty soon I’ll have very little that I can actually wear, as I tended to wear mostly fitted things pre-pregnancy…
I began my slow journey to minimalism the day I married my husband, about 6 years ago. He already has the “only-enough-clothes-for-one-week” thing down pat. I’m sure his students have noticed that he always has on one of three distinct button-down long-sleeve collared shirts. Unfortunately this clothing collection includes several t-shirts and boxers with giant holes in them (‘for ventilation during the summer?’ I joke) that he refuses to replace until they fall off. His one pair of shorts –which he only wears for sleeping, but does so 365 nights a year– have lost their elastic and they do literally fall off from time to time. It’s hilarious.
Be careful about PJs as PJs are generally fire-resistant whereas normal clothes are not..
When my kids were younger (ages 2-12 or so), they each had only 5 outfits and 2 pairs of shoes (1 everyday and 1church). My husband was in residency. I was a stay at home Mom and we had a tight budget.
So I had an idea one day. I purchased hanging shoe bags. It was a vertical bag that had 7 stacked slots. I purchased mine at target. http://www.target.com/OpenZoomLayer?template=scene7-image&image=Target/11187072_is&swCellSpacing=10,10&swHighlightThickness=1&swBorderThickness=0&itemTitle=Hanging+Shoe+Organizer+Blue
Each outfit had a bottom, top, underwear and socks. All my kids had to do was grab one and get ready for the day. Once that season was over, we would purchase 5 new outfits for school or summer. I never bought any clothing other than august and june. We saved so much money. My kids weren’t stressed with what to wear.
We have never owned dressers in the 18 years we have been married. So this little trick kept their rooms tidy. I did laundry every 3-4 days, so we never ran out. I might add that they each had 2 pairs of seasonal pjs too.
Very timely post. I have been sorting through 6 bags of clothes that we were given from friends. They have varies sizes that both my daughter (3 years) and son (3 months) will be growing into. I want to save just enough that we will use and then pass on the rest. It is really challenging to sort through though. I am making it my goal to have only 42 items per size (7 winter tops, 7 sweater/jackets/coats, 7 summer tops, 7 dresses (for my girl), 7 pants/skirts, 7 shorts/skirts). (My daughter will be in probably one size for most of the year, and my son is growing so fast that it is a little hard for me to predict what season of clothing he will need at what size) This allows us to have only around 25-30 things per season. Once I am done sorting we will have my daughters clothes for the next year and my son’s clothing for the next 2 years. We have space in the basement so I don’t mind keeping what we WILL wear coming up. And if this still ends up being too much then I can pare down again and it should be much easier.
Very timely post – thanks! Found your blog a few weeks ago and have been reading back over your past posts – so much of what you say strikes a chord with me – perhaps because I’ve done a big international move (twice – once from Australia to UK on my own then 13 years later back home to Tasmania with husband and two children in tow!). Also my ancestors are from the Isle of Man and I am bummed that I never got around to visiting there while living in the UK so I love hearing you talk about it!
Anyway, I’m doing Project 333 with my clothes at the moment and loving it so am now looking at doing something similar with my boys (aged 2 and 4). I’ve just swapped their rooms over so am taking the opportunity to sort through their drawers – they have so many t-shirts!! I really like the idea of sleeping in t-shirts and sweatpants – especially as it is getting very cold at night here now.
Cheers!
I need more than a week’s worth of tops for my little guy because he gets wet or filthy or otherwise renders them unwearable at least once a day…except for the weeks when he refuses to wear anything but the one particular t-shirt du jour, no matter how smelly. Sigh. Plus I need to leave a couple of changes at daycare and I flatly refuse to haul it back & forth: the bag gets packed on the weekend and left there all week. Totally with you on pajamas. We have cute ones but he prefers to sleep in tshirts and fleece pants. Next winter he can use his long underwear.
My favorite boys’ clothing tip is to buy everything at one or two stores. It makes it easy to follow the sales, you can predict the fit, and best of all the clothes will have enough of a sameness about them to satisfy the pickiest of preschoolers.
I agree with buying everything from one or two stores for both girls or boys. For the exact same reasons and at all ages, even super picky tweens. I also just started using tee and sweatpants for pajamas. The girls thought that all the pajamas were too babish, so I bought a pack of boys white undershirts in a larger size and found sweats and sweat shorts on sale that were cute and I am done all year along.
I just downsized my children’s closets. My motivation is because we just sold our house and will be spending the summer in a a motorhome. Both boys got to pick seven t-shirts, two long sleeved shirts, three pairs of pyjamas, two pairs of pants, and five pairs of shorts. They had no problems choosing what they wanted to keep and the rest of the clothes I sold! Next I have to tackle my closet!
I get a lot of hand-me downs from friends. Now that my son is 7 this means less trousers (even the trousers I buy new for him are worn out before he grows out of them) but plenty of sweaters and t-shirts. Last time I counted he had 30 t-shirts in his drawer (not counting the long-sleeved ones). I gave some away so I think we are down to 20 now… Having enough for one week seems a great rule! I’ll try to work towards that !
what we need is a guide for university students who just accumulate so much stuff
Thanks for the shout out Rachel! Yes, I do believe that cute pj’s are a total racket – I pretty much force my four year old to wear his couple remaining pair of pyjamas (because they are too cute!) but I won’t be buying any more in the future. My seven year old has a couple of pair of fleece lounge pants (which of course get nearly year round wear here in Vancouver!) but other than that he does wear t-shirts and sweatpants/shorts for sleeping in.
My kids still have too much clothing (perhaps it’s because there’s two of them? :0) but I’ve not bought them any clothes this year (other than a couple of emergency purchases at the thrift store while on vacation) and I can see things improving slowly. One week’s worth of clothing is a very respectable target to work toward, I think it’s a good goal. After reading the comments above, I guess I should be grateful my kids are boys and I don’t have a slew of cute party dresses to contend with! 🙂
I have twin girls and I live by the “enough clothes for one week” rule as well. Throw in 2 party dresses each and 3-4 sets of pyjamas and we’re set. I do their laundry once a week and that works for me. I hang all their clothes and have just enough hangers to cover their entire wardrobe. I also get away with not more than 2 pairs of shoes per child though that may change as they grow older.
Ditto on the week’s worth of clothes- I can count all of his clothing on my ten fingers and that is plenty for a 8.5 month baby boy:)
Having 3 daughters, we have lots of clothing. When my youngest was about 2, I swear we had at least 30 dresses, some from the oldest, some from the middle child and some new for her – ALL gifts!! I am happy to report that the gifting significantly decreases as they age – something about buying baby clothing that is just ‘too cute’.
Now a days, my youngest still has a larger wardrobe, but my eldest literally wears the same 2 pairs of shorts all summer, with a small number of T’s.
my boys are 2 and 4; one thing that has helped me keep their wardrobe tame is by setting their closet bar and shelving low so that they can pick out their own clothes and put away their own clean laundry- it’s a great lesson in independence, but toddlers LOVE to pull things out of place, so it forces me to keep only the essential amount of clothing out and available. The few things they need but are not part of everyday wear are hung on the higher rod in the closet.
We try to only get clothes our kids really need. My youngest daughter has inherited clothes from her older sister, which keeps the cost down! They only have one of items such as hats, swimsuits, coats etc. My son has been given lots of nice shirts etc. from friends whose children had outgrown them. We have also got some lovely clothes from freecycle. I find that they tend to wear the same few items most of the time anyway.
My daughter is 6 weeks old and we’ve been so careful about accumulating stuff (loved your ebook!). But wow, people love to give little girl clothes! It is such a blessing, but so overwhelming. I made limits before I had her with 4 small cloth storage bins that sit on the top of her closet shelf. Each one is labeled with size (3-6 months, 6-9, 9-12, and 12-24). The newborn to 3 month stuff is in her dresser. Everything has to fit in a bin or I get rid of stuff. Having a baby is hard enough without being buried in clothes. It has helped me keep only the outfits I really like her in and want to see her wear. It is hard to work through the gift guilt, but worth it. I just put together a bin of clothes to take to a baby shelter as we got a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and family that I can’t return and don’t need. Now, I hope to work on my own closet but am trying to give my body grace to recover before I start tossing things!
Caryn – congratulations on the birth of your daughter! And well done on starting from the beginning with less stuff. It might sound ungrateful but people bringing over lots of gifts and hand-me-downs in the first few weeks was stressful. I could barely find the time to make myself lunch let alone organize all of it. Great that you have put limits up and are marking things for donation as soon as you can.
Enjoy those sweet first months 🙂
I have a terrible time with my 6 year olds wardrobe – he is gifted almost all of his shirts – in fact I can’t remember the last time I bought him a shirt – the problem is that some of them are too big for him – but once he opens it he of course wants to wear the new clothing. This leads to far too many shirts in the shirt drawer! Overflowing – hard to keep tidy – shirt drawer! I have a much better handle on pants since I am the only one that tends to buy those and I let him wear them out before I buy more – he only has one pair of pants with no holes in them at the moment. Little explorers are rough on pants so I patch the knees until they are un-patchable and hope for the best! Right now my son has four pairs of pants and two pairs of sweat pants that he does not like wearing – no pockets – got to have pockets when they get older!
Good to know about pockets.
We get a lot of t-shirts and button downs as gifts too. I guess trousers and jeans are boring?
Wondering of your husband’s list of spring/summer clothes. Men’s wardrobe list is rarely revealed on the Net unless it is ultra minimal consisting of a pair of jeans and a few T-shirts. 🙂
His wardrobe needs some serious work. He has A LOT of clothing. He’s open to reducing what he has, as he only wears about 2/3 of it, but we haven’t gotten around to it. He rarely wears shorts and most of his wardrobe is work wear. He has way too many t-shirts!
My husband gave me the go ahead to sort out his closet. His work clothes (suit & tie) are great, but the non-work clothes would need to be looked at. He has very-very-very old tops, PJs and jumpers that’d need to be replaced….
I like shopping for boys (of all ages). Jeans/Dockers/shorts, tops/polo shirts/rugby shirts/shirts, jumpers/hoodies and they are sorted! 🙂
Hahaha… again… conversation I had with ‘100+ Metal band tees Husband’ this morning… he blankly stared at me when I suggested sorting through his wardrobe… All I said was “Box up what you don’t wear often and see how you go for a couple of months.” It’s certainly a work in progress.
Apple you are so fortunate your Husband said you could do it!!! Must feel great!
Man, I wish my husband was that open…he gets irritated at even the mention of getting rid of his clothing he gets all uppity with me. :/ I’ll get him some how…..some how……
So timely… I was just sorting through my daughter’s wardrobe today pondering many of the things you have. I too decided to move past the gift guilt and only keep the things that I LOVE on her, are useful for her current size and our weather needs. I’ve even gone so far as leaving her in her all in one’s she wears to bed thoughout the day. I do have a couple of extras just in case she has a particularly messy day. Her toys have already been done and I already have a big box of soft toys that one of her granfather’s have given her that I will be regifting… after all how many teddy bear does one 6 month old really need?
We received so many stuffed animals for Henry when he was born. We gave a lot of them away but he’s still not that attached to his little stuffed menagerie. Maybe he’ll be into them when he’s older? For now we have about six stuffed creatures ranging from an Ugly Doll to a soft rabbit.