The best method for paring down your stuff is the method that works for you.
This concept also holds true for when you pare down kids clothing.
If you want less kid clothing around you have to choose how you’re going to pare it down.
If this is a tough issue for you get creative.
Have a bet with a friend for who can donate the most kid clothing.
Take that second dresser out of your kid’s room and for yourself (and your kids) to keep a wardrobe that just fits in that dresser.
Find what works for you. If what you choose is not working, find another way.
Paring Down Kid Clothing
Back when my first born was in infant sizes I felt incredibly overwhelmed with his clothing. Paring down kid clothing is tough but baby clothing is worse.
It felt like we had so much baby clothing yet we were constantly running out of the clean stuff. Every few weeks I’d have to sort all of the infant clothing to figure out what still fit.
Some of my stumbling blocks for pared down baby clothing were that I had quite a few ‘outfits.’ You know what I mean: total impractical outfits for a five week old!
I didn’t have enough easy soft pieces of baby clothing for my infant. Putting overalls on a ten week old baby is a lot of work. And then more work when he spits up all over the outfit soon after he’s been dressed. Ugh.
I learned a lot of lessons on what works for me and put them to use with babies number two and three. While I still had to sort through clothes every few weeks we had the right kind of clothing and the right amount.
Baby clothing was easier and so much simpler the second and third time around. *I have lots of strategies around baby and toddler clothing in my book, The Minimalist Mom: How to Simply Parent Your Baby and here on the blog.
Kid’s clothing is easy to pare down.
The good news: I’ve found that kid’s clothing gets easier as your children get older. We find it really easy to pare down our kid’s clothing.
Currently my brood of three – ages 3, 5 and 8 – share a four drawer dresser from IKEA. Each child has one drawer and the top drawers holds socks and some miscellaneous items. We have a few items hung up but the drawers carry the bulk of their clothing. For storage we have two large clear plastic bins that hold out of season/size clothing, gear and shoes.
How much clothing do my kids have?
My oldest that is eight years old and goes to public school now (ie. no uniform). He owns two pairs of jeans, two pairs of sweat pants, three warm tops (sweaters/sweatshirt), up to eight t-shirts.
He could probably get by with even less on the tops department and drop a pair of sweatpants. But we’re not really holding ourselves to some goal line/standard/number but rather what’s easy.
The younger two children (ages 3 and 5) share a lot of clothing. They have six bottoms each, eight to ten t-shirts/long sleeves and three warm tops each. The youngest goes through clothing at a much quicker rate than his older siblings and may need a few outfit changes during the day. He’s also less likely to be able to re-wear an outfit the next day.
Most of the time now my oldest can re-wear clothing two to three times before sending it to the wash.
For shoes they all have snow boots and a pair of running shoes. Outerwear is a heavy winter jacket and snow pants. Our mitten and hat collection has two sets each for kids as we’ve had a few lost then found moments. Ideally we should just have one set each but I will admit the spares have come in handy.
If someone leaves a set of gloves at daycare/preschool/school they can’t play outside over the weekend/that afternoon. We recently moved to a snow belt (and we’re loving it!) but it’s a whole new world of outdoor gear compared to our previous lives as coastal city folk.
Why is it important to keep kid clothing pared down?
Well there’s the environmental cost of buying a lot of it. North Americans are buying, and getting rid of, five times the amount of clothing that they did twenty-five years ago.
For our family the upside to not having large wardrobes for our kids is that it’s a lot easier to keep track of things. We need less storage space and we spend less on their clothing with a pare down wardrobe. And it motivates us to keep on top of the laundry.
My biggest secret to keeping kid’s wardrobes streamlined: we stay out of stores both online and in person.
We only buy clothing a few times a year if needed.
We don’t buy kid’s clothing on a whim.
If family want to buy clothing I encourage it and let them know sizes and what is needed.
Casual and frequent shopping for kid’s clothing leads to stuffed closets. So does accepting and keeping every garbage bag of hand-me-downs that comes your way. Be ruthless! Sort that bag right away and take just what you need now. Do not store for someday!
I’ll invest in more rugged/expensive/well-made clothing for my kids solely with the motivation to not have to buy it again.
I want my kids to not place a lot of importance on brands or fashion.
I try to model that by not being overly concerned with their clothing.
When we talk about clothing and gear with them the conversation is about taking care of what we have so it will last. It’s not about “looking” a certain way or trying to impress someone. Admittedly, neither my husband or I are into fashion: we wear the same few outfits on repeat most of the time.
But what if you love kid’s fashions? I’ve spoken to a number of parents that love children’s clothing and find themselves drowning in it. They just can’t say no to adorable outfits at Target, thrift stores and anything that their mother-in-law brings them.
My advice: give yourself limits and keep just what is worn. Give yourself a set amount of space for clothing and stick to it.
If your kids won’t wear outfits that you love, donate them. If you are going to own it, use it.
After years in storage we’re back to using our wedding china every day. Nice things are meant to be seen, used and enjoyed.
More posts on kid’s clothing:
If you have children, what are your strategies for keeping a simple and pared down wardrobe for them? I’m interested to hear from parents that are clothing focused and follow fashions or anyone that invests a lot of money in their children’s clothing. How do you balance your love of fashion and enjoyment of children’s clothing with a desire for simplicity?
I have to disagree with letting my 9-year-old re-wear outfits for multiple days…I am concerned about the germs brought home on the clothing from school. And your 8-year-old obviously has a better handle on using napkins and tissues to deal with food messes and a runny nose! Mine is better at it then his younger brother but he’s far from perfect. I do have him re-wear pajamas though.
You’ve inspired me to go look through their clothing and weed out what they never wear. We are so fortunate to get a LOT of hand-me-downs…like A LOT, too much…but I also end up feeling obligated to try to use it all.
I really dislike the clothing stores that cater to children, particularly here in Australia Cotton On Kids is essentially sweatshop clothing, so cheap, so dispensible. Many families buy whole new wardrobes yearly from there and a lot of it is fussy and impractical. I buy all of my son’s (nearly 3) clothing from thrift shops, singlets and socks I buy new, shoes new. He has about 10 t-shirts, 8 pairs of bottoms (mostly tracksuits as jeans are not that comfy for a toddler). We also get given a lot and that is difficult as we end up with way too much. I dislike when he’s given a $30 t-shirt because I know he will just wreck it and there is an expectation the gift giver will see him in it, so I end up trying to keep it pristine i.e. he never wears it. I have all of his clothes in some black hanging wardrobe organisers from IKEA, he really doesn’t have a lot. In Australia we are blessed with good weather, so the thing he has the most of is hats as we need to keep one in the car, one in the house, and at least two more floating around! He has a few jumpers, one raincoat. But they only get worn for less than half the year.
I love the cute stuff for my small people but several factors keep us at a minimalish level.
1. School uniform means no excuse for tons of extra stuff.
2. We use a single 4 drawer dresser for both children and have 8-10 hangers and that’s all the storage space I will give to clothes.
3. I try to buy mostly well made items that will last and are ethically manufactured so I can’t afford to buy a lot.
4. We lived overseas until recently and had tiny bedrooms and the expectation of moving overseas that kept us minimalish.
Living overseas was really helpful for not accumulating clothing/stuff. You always have to think, do I want to pay to bring this back?
Also enjoyed school uniforms for the years we had them.
Wow! I feel like my girls have SO MUCH clothes and yet I don’t seem to be the one buying it. Each of my girls has their own dresser plus a closet full of dresses. I have a whole closet that I store the hand-me-downs in. I really need to put some thought into this but I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought kids clothes – except for a dress for O’s birthday because it has dinosaurs on it and it is impossible to find dinosaurs on girl clothes. Even M was commenting on how many pyjamas F has right now – an overwhelming amount and she feels the need to wear a different pair every night. M is more like me – wears the same thing every day. 😉
Our boys each have their own dressers, but we we keep all seasons in them and next size up clothing. I always make sure they each have 5 shorts/pants and about 7 T-shirts/long-sleeve shirts, one heavy coat, one lighter coat/hoodie. Our 9 year old is starting to recognize and care about brands, so he he’s been picking out his clothes at thrift stores to ensure he gets the brands he wants. I tend to care a bit about brands/fashion, but it’s SO much easier for boys as it’s just the style of shorts/pants and graphics/fit of shirts. They each have a pair of school shoes, but I tend to buy more expensive shoes as they tend to last longer and also more on trend. I’ve noticed that haircuts can also go a long way for a boy to look more trendy. The hardest part we’ve had is that our youngest is a budding drag queen, and those outfits are WAY harder to pare down. He has a solid dress collection, a few pairs of shoes, accessories, wigs, etc. that aren’t getting worn every day, but that he truly loves. I’m not really into women’s fashion at all, so this has thrown us for a loop as I don’t know how to accessorize and match more than jeans and a shirt lol!
You’re getting that dress/girl experience with two boys!! 🙂
Thanks for a great post 👋🏼
What is your best advice on what to do with baby / small childrens clothes and toys when we haven’t decided 100% for sure if we want to try to have another child?
We have 2 kids aged 11 and 6. We have kept a lot of clothes and toys in case we decide to try and get a third child.
For sure the sentimental reasons weighs heavily for keeping a lot of the clothes. It feels like I am better holding on to those precious times with small children/babies if I don’t let go of the clothes…😔
Any great advice? Thanks in advance 😊
Keep the very best/most loved and donate or sell the rest. Have you looked through the items recently? We have just over three years between #1 and #2 and I was surprised to find that cloth diaper elastic had expired along with some of our cotton clothing between infants using it. I kept just our favourites between #1 and #2 and we still had plenty with clothing gifts and the odd second hand buy. I also only kept seasonal items that were in really great shape – I found my kids growth patterns were different and I couldn’t have predicted that they would all be winter babies.
The other thought that helped me let go of baby stuff: things are meant to be used. Donating to local organizations that support new mothers feels pretty good. I’d rather have the items used by people that really need them than sit in storage. Good luck.
We have four (9, 7, 5, and 3- girl, boy, boy, girl) and I was happy I only held on to a few things for our youngest. It was really fun to open up the small box of stuff that I had set aside from her older sister. And- thrift shopping for my last baby was really fun. I was surprised at how my taste had changed from baby one to baby four and it was fun to buy accordingly.
So keep what really really delights you and what you’d pick out in a store if you went shopping tomorrow. If something has great memories but you don’t actually like the look of it– it’s probably not something to keep for another baby.
My two cents:)
Thanks for a thoughtful and helpful answer;-)
For us, I try to keep bottoms neutral and then tops can be to their taste. I’m surprised how much our 8-year old daughter already cares about her wardrobe (which of course I attribute to the public school system and my parents letting them watch the Disney channel when they’re over 😉 ). The nice thing, though, is that she is old enough to do her own laundry now, so if she wants to have more clothing than our younger three, she gets to take care of it. If I see anything on the floor in her room or bathroom, it gets taken away…this has worked well so far, we’ll see if it carries through into the teen years!
I’ve had to do this for my daughters (6-4-baby), too. I buy individual pieces on clearance, so I was buying cute patterned bottoms but none of them went with cute patterned tops! About a year ago I made myself stop buying patterned bottoms and my girls’ outfits work much better now.
My six year old can’t quite reach the laundry buttons, but she’s close to being in charge of her own laundry. I don’t want to put a step-stool in the laundry room right now.
We’ve pared down a lot but still need a bit more than you because we don’t use a dryer so clothes can take a few days to dry in the winter. I’ve finally conceded that my daughter does not like skirts and dresses and she will not wear them. So we have one dress with all the accessories for best (when it’s absolutely essential). We also have two piles of tee shirts – one with the school logo on and one pile for outside school. The best thing about fewer clothes is that she has two extra shelves in her closet for ‘things’ which means one less piece of standing furniture in the room. (That turned out to be a long comment when I only meant to say ‘hi’. 🙂 )
For my twin boys age 9 we do a character/pattern short sleeved T-shirt about 5 of them with a plain long sleeve underneath, thus adds a layer in autumn, spring and winter without needing hoodies all the times (hard to line dry with no line/garden) plus I don’t feel bad letting them get slightly more expensive t-shirts knowing they’ll get to wear it all year and patterns hide messy eaters. My daughter,7yrs, has followed their trend enjoying plain long sleeve under her short sleeved T-shirts too. This reduces the amount of cardigans etc girls outfits seem to collect. All kids have no school uniform which is a blessing, so we aim for 2 sweatpants/leggings, 2 jeans/ jeggings (1 slightly nicer pair) and 2 hoodies. The boys also have 2 checked shirts to wear over t-shirts grunge style. My daughter has 1 party style outfit and a Cardigan and skirt combo she likes. If they don’t wear or like something they can leave it on my bed and I’ll pass it on to other kids, no guilt. This has taken time with my daughter but she’s getting better at it. I let them all know I rather anyone wore it after us spending money on it than no one, that has been the gamechanger. They are much better now at saying immediately whether they like it or not, which is huge as we have lots of asperger quirks and sensory issues with clothing textiles, and they know their opinion matters when it comes to the choices in their clothing. No fights then about what to wear just how longer it takes to get dressed.
Plus I buy navy long sleeves a lot for under the boys tops and my daughter loves navy so I can pass them on. The boys also love bright socks, reds/yellows/blues/greens so my daughter will pick the ones she likes from what they’ve outgrown for herself. They’ve big feet so I can share socks with them already too, next year maybe shoes.
I care about fashion a *little* bit (like picking out clothes for my daughter), but she doesn’t own anything impractical (no dresses, tights, accessories, etc.). She’s two and has a dozen or so tops and bottoms, plus a few sweaters and footed sleepers. Most nights I throw what she was wearing that day in the wash, but she doesn’t need an outfit change throughout the day.
I only buy second-hand and look for high quality brands (Tea, Mini Mioche, Oui Me, Petit Bateau are favourites) because I don’t find cheap clothing holds up to second wear (if I buy Joe Fresh second hand it’s usually already falling apart). This allows me to hang onto clothes for baby no. 2 (for a third wear) or resell it myself usually for around what I paid for it since higher quality brands are in demand.
I buy neutral stuff so that all her tops go with all her bottoms and so that they can be used by a baby brother or sister.
That’s all well and good but we receive a lot of clothing gifts that don’t match my clothing philosophy (cheap brands, heavy on graphics), which is where storage and drawers become a problem. I’ll usually put everything in rotation so I can get a photo or two for whomever sent the gift and then I’ll donate the item. Wish I cared a bit less because we could save a bit of money if I just dressed her in whatever the grandparents send, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to put her in the “Daddy’s Princess” shirts. If the grandparents could just learn one high quality grey hoodie is going to get a ton more wear than 10 cheap t-shirts we’d be set!!!
If you figure out how to communicate the less + better quality is way better than MORE to grandparents let us all know! I have made some inroads in other areas of giving by speaking plainly about the short and annoying and wasteful lifecycle of cheap toys. Maybe some light conversations about textile waste and fast fashion could help?
I’m not fashionable but I do care what they are wearing. It’s a lot of jeans, striped t-shirts and neutral sweaters and sweatshirts. T-shirts with not obnoxious graphics or just plain. For the younger years I liked soft and sweet neutrals. Now that they are older, and there’s three of them, I invest more in outerwear for the oldest that will pass down through all of them. I think that has helped the most is just not having too much. Everything really gets worn a lot. And it’s pretty satisfying to see a well loved piece make it five years and through two older brothers to be worn by the youngest 🙂
I love this! My 3 girls share a 5-dresser drawer. My oldest gets 2 drawers (because her clothes are simply bigger and take up more space), each of the two littles get 1 drawer, and the bottom drawer is for socks/undies/swimsuits, etc.
So much easier during cleanup and laundry! Love!
So true: the eight year olds clothing takes up more space than his brothers but he has fewer items. It’s simply bigger in size.
And yes for easy clean up and laundry 🙂
I got a lot of hand me downs for my youngest, first thing I did was to downsize the pile (and it was HUGEEEE) to about half (still I have clothes that will last him until he’s about 5, and he’s 3 now). There’s still a lot, I wish I had so much less but I loved these pieces so I kept them. I try to get him to use everything so I don’t feel guilty that I kept it, but if a couple of months go by and I realise that he hasn’t been wearing something, I just put it out for donation. My oldest, a girl, own less clothes then her brother does because we don’t get that many clothes from her cousin anymore, and I don’t buy many either, it’s easier to manage…
I’ve found that by doing laundry frequently, my three boys need way less clothes–and they end up wearing the same outfits most of the time. They could have WAY less clothing, but we’re not doing too bad–probably 6-8 pants each, and maybe 8 of each “type” of top (long and short sleeves), and a couple hoodies each. Two of our boys share a closet and small dresser (which includes swimwear, diaper, etc); our eldest has a small closet and no dresser.
We live in the prairies, so winter here is brutal and our kids’ outdoor gear reflect that–the younger ones have at least one winter coat and pants, and a one piece suit each, as well as multiple mittens/hats/gloves/etc. I do buy extra dollar store mitts for when the weather is not too cold; then if they get misplaced there are always a few extra pairs. On the whole, I think we’re doing…ok. Not great, but everything has lots of space and we’re not bursting at the seams.
So true about laundry frequency impacting the amount of clothing you need. We’ve always been able to get laundry done during the work week but I know that’s not possible for some families.
The winter gear bit is all new to us. I’ve tried to go with the basics for now but can see that if the kids take up skiing they will need a shorter winter jacket (right now they have parka style jackets).
Extra space and not bursting at the seams is a good goal!!