How Much Is to Much? - Aurora,IL

My boys share one closet and because they are young, their clothes don't take much room but we have a lot. I had my husband install a second clothes rod halfway down the closet. This way I have 2 levels of hanging clothes. My 9 year olds clothes are on the bottom so he can reach them. My 4 year olds clothes are on the top because I don't trust him to pick appropriate clothes (nice clothes to play in the mud vs. play clothes). Because my boys were in my daughters room originally, she also has 2 clothes rods in her closet.

A lot depends on your lifestyle and the climate in which you live. In IL, you'll need to store the winter stuff during the summer months. The large rubbermaid bins work well.

Yes, my kids have too many cloths. I try to sort through it as I do the laundry, if I notice it's gotten a little tight, then after it goes through the laundry it does into the donate bag. I keep a donate bag handy at all times. If it's stained or ripped, it goes in the garbage.

This kind of goes with the question i asked about how much to buy for back to school. i think 10-14 undies is good, I think 7 school outfits, 2 dressy church outfits, 5 casual ok to be in the mud outfits. But the thing is, if they have 10 shirts that the just never wear no matter what, you are only making it all harder on yourself by keeping them, Donate them and make room for waht htey do wear.

Now this summer, I've had a problem with the kids needing 2 outfits per day and that has lead to a lot of laundry, playclothes in the am, then nicer clothes to run errands go to dr apts what ever in the pm. If they can keep the nicer outfits clean, i leave them on top of the dresser and have the kids wear them again the next time we need to run out. not idea but better than washing clothes they were only in for 3 hours while riding in the car.

great question and i hope you get some great advice.

I think the less clothing you have, the less massive and daunting the laundry becomes. We all have WAY too many clothes....my 7 yo son especially. I think he could do (per season) with about 7-10 outfits and his sports team stuff. 7 undies, 7 socks, etc.

I think clothing is definitely O. of those areas that less is more.

Well I feel your pain about clothing 3 kids. my kids are 3, 5, & 6. I have a bin on the floor in everyone's closets & when I decide something has to go I drop it in that bin. I typically do one load of laundry everyday. I got rid of my hampers because it's to easy to let clothes pile up & overflow, so now I use the washer machine as my hamper. So when clothes are dirty they go straight into the washing machine & then at night we give the kids a bath & throw all the dirty laundry in the washer & i turn it on every evening. For winter clothes I hang all their stuff up. I use the dressers for summer clothes (it's not easy hanging up shorts). I think about 7 outfits each & have 2 nice outfits for church or nicer occasions is reasonable.

At the end of a season I will put all the clothing for that season in the bin that is already in their closet. Then when I get a chance I go thru it & make 3 piles, garbage, donate, & keep.

I too have been trying to purge my house, I cannot believe all the stuff I have accumulated. I recently had my sis over & she helped me BIG time purge tons of stuff. I had about 10 bags afterwards, most went to good will & about 3 were garbage. So can you have someone come in & help you? It's funny how we can get attached to something out of style or that we really don't need, so having someone be an enforcer can really help! Hope this helps you.

Hi K.,
I manage laundry by letting the container be the limiter. I buy the largest Sterilite clear plastic box at Target and label it. If I get more stuff, I start to edit the whole thing. My kids stuffed animals fit in 2 smaller baskets. I donate my nicest stuff to friends or family members who might want it and the rest goes to Salvation Army or Vietnam Vets or Good Will. This way I still have lots of choices for my kids that pack the dresser and/or the box with some future size for both children.
I hope this helps.

L. L.

Great idea!! I have found that my kids wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. To figure out what to get rid of, you could keep the clean clothes out of sight, and when your kids complain they have nothing left to wear, you know you can give away whatever is left in their closets. I have also done this to my husband! LOL!

ROFL... I called it the "laundry situation" in my own house for some time.

What I instituted is the following:

Everyone does their own laundry and is responsible for putting it away once dry. Everyone has a basket, and my son and I do our own laundry twice a week on average. So laundry gets started almost every morning, but it's only one load. Mine, kiddo's, sheets & towels (whites), mine, kiddo's, H's. When kiddo's cousins were staying with us we ended up doing about 2 loads a day. YES doing laundry every other or 3rd day means small loads... but for my son (or the kids depending on who's living here) it means that they don't get overwhelmed.

Clothes are only allowed in 3 places. Put away, on your body, or in the hamper.

When my H is in a good mood he likes to do everyone's laundry for them... and we end up with ginourmous piles of clothes all over the place that have to be sorted, found, resorted, rewashed. He means well... but it creates a giant mess.

As far as NUMBERS go... Kiddo (age 8) has 3 pairs of shorts, 2 swim suits, 6 pairs of pants and about 10 shirts (short and long sleeved). Sports clothes are kept in seperate cubbies. Soccer has a cubby with jersey, shorts, shinguards, cleats, socks... gymnastics has a cubby... snowboarding has a cubby... etc. That way, when it's time for an activity it's "grab'n'go".

BEFORE he was potty trained I made sure he had enough clothes for a full outfit change 2-3 times per day.

And just on the "creative" bent... we ditched hangers and dressers in our house several years ago. Instead we use roundy metal hooks screwed into the wall, a hanging sweater cubby thingmy, and a 3 drawer nightstand. First row of hooks is at shoulder height (for shirts), 2nd row of hooks is at waist height (for bottoms), sweater cubby is for activities, nightstand is for socks, underwear, and jammies (no folding needed for any of those!). That way my son could hang up all of his clothes on his own since 2ish. For dresses/drycleaning I installed a "tie" rack off to one side.

I feel your pain. My 9 yr old daughter has too many clothes. She has hand me downs from an older sister, and people tend to buy girls clothes as gifts. So, her clothes weren't all fitting in a dresser and large closet. I noticed, however, that the same 7or 8 items were worn the most frequently. So we purged out all the stuff that didn't fit right, stained or out of style. Then we purged more of all the things she just didn't wear for whatever reason. So she's down to about ten pants and maybe twenty tops with a few special or dress up items. That seems to work well. I can imagine with three it's a reall challenge. But if you do laundry frequently, kids that age don't seem to mind wearing the same favorites over and over. Now my teenager is a completely different story....

I told my kids to pick their favorite 21 short sleeve shirts, and favorite 21 long sleeve shirts. This helped TONS and was more then enough clothes for if we take a long vacation and need 2 wks worth of clothes.

I totally respectfully disagree with the first poster. When my kids don't have enough clothes I'm constantly stressing out about needing to do laundry! I feel like if they don't have at least 15 pairs of underwear I'm going to run out!

So I think it's what you're comfortable with. But do give away the stuff that doesn't fit them anymore, as well as the stuff that they just don't wear. The 4 year old and 7 year old are old enough to have opinions about their clothes. Anything that can get passed directly from the 4 year old to the 2 year old, keep, otherwise, Goodwill it.

I don't hang any of their clothes. Everything's folded. Helps a lot. Good luck.

The plastic bins for seasonal clothes is a great idea from momof2girls. Never thought of that. I have the same problem. I do send tight non fitting clothes to charity. As for laundry, each person in my household has their own basket. When that's full, we wash and wear again for another week instead of picking new ones from the closet. After a while if they don't wear them, it goes to charity.

I place the clean clothes on hangers to the far right of their closet. That way, I know those where the clothes they recently used. If I notice an outfit not being warn, I'll ask my kids if they like it or not (my 3 year old only wants to wear pink or girly girl clothes, but continues to say she likes all the outfits). When she's out and about, I pack it away and she doesn't even notice it gone.

My 5.5 son, he doesn't care what he wears as long as it's clean or has spider man on it.