Organized Kids Clothes

Let's just say I overbuy kids clothes, we don't need to go into detail about how much over though ha!

Because of that, there has always been an issue in making sure they are all worn and organized. I am on a mission to purge some, and organize the rest! And I have gotten SO much better as the kids have gotten older.

I went through all the clothes the other day, thinking Summer has got to be just about over. I did keep some shorts and a couple of tank tops out, just in case and because I didn't look at the forecast!

Anything stained, or a little on the small side I am not going to try to find a place for, even if it was a favorite, I am sure I will have new favorites!

Our oldest does pretty good at picking out his own clothes usually, but I would rather not have to deal with that in the mornings before school, so we use one of these

and he puts together his outfits ahead of time and just picks one in the morning. Right now he has mostly shorts and tanks or T shirts and 1 or 2 pair of jeans and T shirts in it.

Same thing for our daughter, except I put the outfits together, that girl has some crazy ideas about clothes. Shorts and a long sleeve shirt or sweater in 90 degree weather, with rain boots? I still let her pick out which outfit she wears so we don't have that struggle. She will be going to preschool 3 days a week starting soon, so I will be limiting her to choosing between the bottom 3 for preschool days full of paint and sand and snacks and dirt. Filling just the bottom 3 sections with my less than favorites or favorites in dark colors. And we hang dresses (unless they are a preschool approved outfit)

And we keep her extra shoes and hats underneath in baskets.

If I don't help, both of them would wear the same 5 shirts, because I wash them, they put them away, right on top. So I think I will have to start putting them away, and putting them on the bottom each time, just like I do with towels.

They each have a 3 drawer dresser, but our daughter has a small dresser also, we keep her tights/socks, unders and pajamas in the small one. In her big dresser we keep summer already picked out outfits and short sleeve shirts in the top drawer.

In the middle drawer we keep her sweaters, long sleeve tops and holiday tops (she has a issue with wanting to wear the St. Patricks day shirt every 3 days) and the 2 pair of leggings for under dresses at preschool.

The bottom drawer takes the most work. It is wear I keep together all the outfits that have other matching pieces. I am sure it would take me forever to look for the 1 shirt to with the pants and I just don't have time to look for them all the time, and because we sell the clothes the kids outgrow I want to make sure the pieces are worn the same amount of times so they have matching fade/wash wear. 

And I am proud that most of these are not recent purchases.. most not even in the last year! And the majority is probably from 3 years ago. I have learned my lesson and know that there is rarely a printed/pattern skirt or pants I HAVE to have for her and she doesn't care as long as her shirt matches her purse.. so once she has outgrown my mistakes in buying this won't be an issue!

 For our oldest we put unders and pj's in the top drawer along with belts and socks.

The second drawer has a nice pile of short sleeve shirts right now (his cold weather stuff is all hung up) and a pile of jeans.

We buy plain bottoms for our kids now so finding a matching top isn't hard, everything matches plain jeans.

The third drawer has hats, swim trunks and extra tank tops.. and sports clothing, like baseball pants and sweat pants.

Ok if you made it this far I will be surprised, but Finnleys are just the same as his big brothers, but he fell asleep and I was not about to try and get some pictures and risk him waking up :)

When our kids have clothes that are still too big for them, or in our daughters case will likely fit again next year, we keep them in some under bed storage bins, just arranged by size and out of the way!

So glad to be done with this and I really am already ready for fall and to pack those tank tops and shorts away for a while!