Kids Clothes- Managed -Back To School

This is such a struggle for me. Every year it gets a little easier as the kids get pickier and have specific things they want.  The clothes! So much clothes! 

I grew up getting pretty much a whole wardrobe before school started and we kind of continued that.  As the kids have gotten older and I have become a fan of minimalism, that’s faded.  Don’t get me wrong, they still get a few things because it’s fun and there is usually some need between growth and damage.  

Before I even consider looking for clothes, I try and go through everything they have. Stuff they don’t love and I don’t love, goes. Stained, ripped or too small? It allll goes!  I don’t want to keep stuff in their drawers they are just going to skip over every day. 

Then I grab the bin of hand me downs/sale finds for the next size, whatever size they are growing into. Grab things from it that are weather appropriate and put things back in their drawers. 

We keep stuff that is more than 1 year out in the Laundry Room, and stuff likely to be needed soon is in the closet top shelf. I need to label these someway that isn't permanent. I'll add that to my Fall Deep Cleaning/Organizing. 

I like making a note of things they need, socks and underwear are almost always a guarantee, in my checklist app. I also add sizes for tops and bottoms because it can be easy to mix up with 4. It’s broken down by kiddo. I do this because sometimes I’ll find an unexpected deal while I am out and don’t want to grab the wrong size or socks for the wrong kid. 

And because our younger 2 are especially rough on clothes, I keep the new stuff in their backpack put up until the day before school. 

I don’t try to manage the teens clothes anymore, outside of making sure they aren’t keeping things they won’t be able to wear in public 🤪

For the younger 2, I have a rough list of what I like to keep for them. It looks about like this

7 underwear

7 socks 

3 pair jeans 

3 pair of other pants (joggers etc) 

7 T shirts

3-5 hoodies

3-6 pair of athletic shorts (older one needs a pair everyday for sports) 

1-2 pair casual shorts 

Church clothes 

3 pair pajamas 

1 jacket

1 heavier coat 

*May contain affiliated links* I participate in Amazon Associates Program occasionally. I won't recommend a product I wasn't myself interested in trying or have tried. I may receive monetary compensation for participating. This does not change the price for you.

Continue Reading ...

Back to School Prep {Laundry}

When I asked on Instagram “What makes you stress about Back To School time?

The top answers were 

Laundry/Kids Clothes 

Dinner

Housekeeping 

Logistics 

Breakfast 

Lunch Prep

Getting Out The Door 

I’ve pretty much shared all I can right now on kids clothes, but I wanted to share how we do laundry when we are on the right track. 

I do 1-2 loads a day Monday-Thursday and sometimes a special load, or couch covers on Friday and NONE on the weekend. No one wants to put laundry away Sunday night! 

Obviously there is the occasional mishap when a uniform gets missed in the last dark load on Thursday and is needed on Monday, or someone is losing their mind over certain jeans. But typically our family of 6, with pretty small wardrobes ( I think anyway) can make this work and I feel less resentful about laundry if it’s not an issue on the weekend. 

I’m always down for hearing about new methods! Send em my way! 

Continue Reading ...

Weekly Outfits for Kids

Now that I have all their stuff organized, gonna straight ruin that and make a week + worth of outfits.

Last year I was too tired to care much about what they wore, wasn't worth the battles. 

This year I have had a bit more sleep. I don't want it to be a battle, but I'd also like some more of her clothes to see sunlight.

These fancy schmancy dollar tree hangers are perfect! 5 slots to hang outfits. I am planning on doing 2 weeks at a time and adding this task to my Sunday night routine until I either burn out or feel like she can do a little better job not wearing her 4 favorites. I haven't found the hangers lately, but amazon has some HERE

I also just clipped the matching hair bow or headband right onto the shirt or hanger! 

This will probably save me a few minutes each morning. Once the weather is more varied I might have a little bit of hard time getting her to choose the weather appropriate one.


*May contain affiliated links* I participate in Amazon Associates Program occasionally. I won't recommend a product I wasn't myself interested in trying or have tried. I may receive monetary compensation for participating. This does not change the price for you.

Continue Reading ...

Real Life For 6~ Kids Clothes Part 1

 It's about that time when we are bombarded with ads telling us we need to buy our kids NEW clothes. I don't know about you, but our kids still have a ton of clothes from last year that aren't worn out and some even still fit.  As part of our effort to have a fresh perspective on everything, giving kids clothes a new look and doing some reducing, absolutely not buying as much as last year which was already a huge reduction from years past. We obviously didn't need that many if there are 5-6 shirts that were only worn 1 or 2 times. Part of this is due to the struggle with our tween. He is very picky with his clothes all of a sudden, too bad for me because I was still in the habit of buying ahead. T Shirts just won't cut it anymore, he really only likes the athletic style shirts, as much as I don't like them :) choosing my battles on that one.

I am sure there are a few things our kids do actually need for the next school year, socks come to mind, but I can't tell you what that is, or watch for deals on it, if I haven't done a good job of knowing what we have vs. what we NEED (that need vs. want thing is still a work in progress here).

Sooo, first thing first, what do they actually NEED for the next 6 months. This is going to be different for everyone, depending on uniforms, what shoes are or aren't allowed at school, activities, etc.  Make your lists for your family. I am trying to be as harsh as possible and keep things limited.

Here is our list 

Shoes: Athletic, Casual, Rain boots, Dressy for the girly too.

Socks and Underwear: 7 days worth

Pants: 4 Pair of Jeans (our everyday staple) 1 alternate pair, 1 Dress Pants

Shirts:  T-Shirts 7 (long and short sleeve), 2 Dress Shirts

Sweater/Sweatshirts: 3 and at least 1 with a hood

Jacket/Coat: 1 of each, with a hood

Dresses: 3 Casual/1 Dressy

Gym/Sports stuff: 2 full outfits

Now this hasn't changed much since I talked about this 2 years ago here! I haven't really bought a whole lot of anything in the last 2 years, well not for the big kids anyway. I HAVE  done a much better job of sticking to necessities. We still have TOO MUCH. 

Part 2 coming up. How we keep it all organized and easy to access. 

*May contain affiliated links* I participate in Amazon Associates Program occasionally. I won't recommend a product I wasn't myself interested in trying or have tried. I may receive monetary compensation for participating. This does not change the price for you.

Continue Reading ...

Simplifying~Kids Clothes Part II

I am feeling pretty good about the stuff that is leaving, making more room for life
and less chances to frustrate the kids with over-full drawers,
frustrate me when they don't put stuff away well, and no more wrinkles!!
I started with just 1 little drawer....

Yup, just 1 drawer and I had 2 piles of too small, ripped or stained!

That really motivated me to do the rest and I have all that above AND

 2 more BIG PILES!!

And one more big white bin I already took to the garage!
I don't know HOW I managed to collect so many pairs of pajamas for these kids who sleep in undies most nights but it was obviously too many!

I couldn't believe how much was too small, these kids have all grown at least a half inch since school got out in June!!

Hoping to participate in our local kids consignment sale in a few weeks and get this stuff outta here and make a little bit to help fund the next round.

I couldn't get rid of everything that was too big or just out of season, they each have a little bit of next season/too big stuff. I am keeping most of it in the closet that no one is using up above, out of the way but still accessible since we will need it faster than I want to think about.

Yes, these drawers look MUCH better!

And I REALLLLLY limited the girls clothes in her drawers, she wants to wear a dress everyday anyway!

I really think they all have what they will NEED, and that is really what I am going for.

Continue Reading ...

Simplifying~Closet Organization

I said I was going to simplify some things around here, some of them will be more drastic than others, and I am sure our "drastic" is probably nothing compared to others but for us there are some big changes.

Our closet is THE worst, I am a sucker for a cute top, and for a deal. This leads to lots of excess. I'm working on getting better, cause I realize a "deal" on something I don't need is NOT a deal. Hoping to get a little back at the consignment store. I've got a bag with about 20 things in it ready to go to the consignment shop. It's not as much as I was hoping for but it makes a dent.

In going through my clothes I realized I was keeping stuff that was too big, that is cute but I haven't worn in ages, or at all.  I got hubby to try and help me, hoping he would be a voice of reason.. he wasn't... soo I am using the backwards hanger method for everything that is left. Once I wear something I will hang it back up the wrong way. Any tank top that wasn't worn all summer has got to go!

I better start wearing some tank tops!!

I think dresses will be my issue, and things have changed, I work out of the house now, and tank top style dresses just aren't gonna work in the summer like they would if I was home.
So I know some of those will not get worn this summer and I will have a hard time parting with them! Unless I wear them every weekend when I am not at work.

Next up is the kids stuff! Already working on a more realistic list of what they need for clothes and hoping I can stick to it!  Why is it so hard?! Girl stuff is especially hard for me.

Do you have a go to list of what you keep on hand for your littles?

Continue Reading ...

Hair, makeup and clothes

Since one of my goals is to put myself together more often I have to find a way to do it faster than I do now! I do my hair maybe every other day now and I do my makeup every few days. I have about 20 minutes to do it ALL in the morning, hair, makeup and get dressed!

Hair feels like the thing that takes the most time so the first thing I did to help with the time was cut my hair SHORT (for me anyway) I cut about 14" off and that alone has made it SO much faster to do my hair, no more blow drying for an hour and no more ponytail everyday! Pinterest (of course right?) has a ton of cute ways to do shorter hair that don't take a lot of time. 

This site is my favorite! She has lots of cute ideas that aren't overly perfect. I don't have time for perfect in the morning. I also spent a little time on Youtube, I don't use it often but I can see I could replace my Pinterest time with YouTube easily. I liked all of THESE too!

I have been setting out the hair stuff I will need the night before so I am not as tempted to just do a ponytail. Planning ahead is going to be the only way I can get hair and makeup done in 20 minutes! I also have been planning on setting out my clothes for the next day as part of my bedtime routine. I need a full length mirror, the 20 trips to the kids bathroom to use the mirror takes a lot of time!

Makeup is one of my weaknesses!  I just really like it. I have a few different brands/styles of the same color of eyeshadow. WHY?! No idea, sometimes I just can't help it! So I decided to go through and limit my choices to the few colors I am likely to use everyday anyway and get the clutter out of my
 "everyday" pile of makeup! I figure that will make it easier if I don't have too many
choices and can keep the others out of the way!

This is my eyeshadow stash, AFTER I went through it all and got rid of about half. This is still too many choices for everyday. So I kept out just the few I feel like I use the most down to this

I use everything in this drawer pretty much everyday. I had SO much other stuff in there taking up room and making it cluttered and hard to get to the stuff I actually use!

I also saw on Youtube there were a TON of "5 minute makeup". I seriously need to practice! It's crazy what some of them can do in 5 minutes! What I decided to do is use multitasking and basic stuff, tinted chapstick, tinted moisturizer or BB cream.. whatever it's called.
And basic eye makeup, no liquid eyeliner or anything time consuming! Pretty sure it will take more than 5 minutes still but less than it was!

I will have another post soon, on 2nd day hair, speedy makeup (I hope!) and my favorite outfit blogs!

And another on better skin and better hair! Less expensive for both and all natural! Y'all might think I am a nutter after reading that one though :)

Continue Reading ...

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!

Continue Reading ...

Back to School Boy Stuff

Does anyone else think boys are harder to shop for? It seems like it's all the same, skulls, sports or vehicles. I am not really a fan of that, and it makes it so hard to find different stuff!

Etsy is a good place to find different stuff!

I love the simple silhouettes!

And since our little guy is a Harry Potter fan I love this one

I like the "little man" look too

For those little boys (and girls) starting K..

I have a hard time finding a plain enough backpack that will last, I don't know how he does it but he can wear a backpack out in 6 months! I like these from PBKids

Love this shirt.. probably more for the little ones but it is just so funny!

 

And I really like bow ties!

 

or neck ties, these are from Lil Hiccups Boutique on Facebook!

Boys are much harder for me to shop for! It seems like everything has an animal or skull on it, and we aren't really into either!  Once we get done with school stuff shopping I'll share any good finds!

And I should have all the Back to School stuff out soon! Guessing Monday!

Continue Reading ...

Back To School For The Girls!

We have 2 muffins going to school in Sept. A 1st grader and a Preschooler. They are both SO excited. I am excited about school fluff. I have always loved school supplies! And now I love school clothes and school supplies.  I have come across too much though. I don't want to go overboard (anymore than I already have lol) and I haven't decided what to get yet. Had to share though, because I am sure I am not the only mama who loves school supplies and BTS fluff!

Outfits. WHY do they make them so darn cute?! Don't they know how hard it will be to decide? I need 4 or 5 first day outfit changes!

I haven't decided yet, because we don't know how cold it will be. But it's usually nice enough for short sleeves! I have a huge favorite list on etsy.com full of stuff like this:



But some other stores always have cute fall lines I love too. My favorite is a Baby Gap line from 2006 I think. I love it so much I bought it in a few sizes.

And it has matching knee socks!

And Gymboree has sweater vests all the time too. This one is my favorite for fall!

I just really really like knee socks and sweater vests I think!

Clothes are the hardest for me to not go overboard on.. the next thing I usually buy too many of is backpacks!

Between the cute monogrammed/embroidered ones and

others that just have a cute design it's hard to stick with just 1!

This is so embarrassing, but our 4 year old who hasn't gone to school yet, already has 6 backpacks, maybe 7, I haven't counted in a while.  I have been better though. I didn't buy any last year! I probably won't buy any for a long time either! These are some that I would pick up if we didn't have too many as it is!

This owl one by Skip Hop is soo cute!

Out of the 6 or 7 we have, at least 3 are cupcake ones, hope she likes cupcakes for a long time!

Hair accessories! So cute and addicting!

I could post a ton that I love from etsy. I'll try and keep it to my 3 favorites!

Random other fluff I love..

Love the fabric, and it's a reusable sandwich bag!

Cutest little snack bags!!

And THESE are soo cute!

Ok, I have to stop looking at all this cute girl stuff! Hoping I can find some equally cute boy stuff!

Continue Reading ...

TV Stand Makeover

We got this cute TV stand from a friend, and as soon as I saw it I knew I could use it to manage the dress up stuff all over the floor!

They gave it to us for free and we spent about $1 on PVC and less than $2 on the closet bracket things.. so for $3 and a few new chips in the stairway paint we turned it into this:

I still have a little work to do, some L brackets to keep the bottom piece on and I think some vinyl or something to make it a little more girly! And I need to attach it to the wall (just to be safe)!

She is already LOVING it, and can't wait for her little besty to come play! And big brother loves to organize, he helped her hang all her stuff up! We moved the play kitchen to little brothers room (he plays with it more than the other 2)

I am sure it will get a few more changes as we get used to it. I hope to be posting more as things HOPEFULLY slow down just a little!

Continue Reading ...