Monday, August 4, 2014

Management and Storage of Children's Clothing

How much clothing should we store?

In what way do we organize it?

I am a saver, not a purger, by nature, so I was likely on the road to extreme overabundance, like one mother who had 350 gallon-sized bins of clothing stored in her attic before learning to pare down. With two boys and two girls, it seems wise and prudent to save some clothing so I don't have to buy it all over again. But with more hand-me-downs coming, I found myself with nine large plastic bins of girl's clothing and thirteen of boy's clothing, a total which did not include bins containing specialty items like shoes, snow gear, winter coats, and bathing suits. This was fast becoming overwhelming and felt distressing.

I remember one friend with five children telling me how freeing it was to purge almost all their stored clothing. She reassured herself over and over that God would provide such that she'd be able to clothe her growing family each season. And He has.

I began to look into the matter: there are many wonderful websites and blog posts about organization of clothing and laundry management, which are interrelated subjects. Often a mother is inundated with a mountain of laundry because the children own far too many clothes. When one reads articles on this subject, the common rule is to pick a number of outfits children may own, pare down to that, and do not allow any more clothing into the closet unless clothing is purged (see here, here, and here). We're talking about limiting each child to a few outfits per season: such as five play outfits, two visiting outfits, and two church outfits. (And I know some children get into the habit of changing outfits for fun several times per day: that contributes to laundry havoc, which falls to mom, not to the child, so I know I don't allow that in our home.)

As long as perhaps six months ago, I began retrieving our bursting bins from the attic and paring down. This project has taken a long time because I have so few free hours to take on this kind of organizational project.

Eleven sizes' and all seasons worth of clothing for boys and girls

I dedicated an entire one of two closets in the guest room to be my Children's Storage Closet. I began with girl's clothing and, frankly, kept most of the dresses. Chris and I have particular modesty preferences and guidelines, making it a real labor of love to seek out or sew such dresses. I devote significant time to that effort, so I kept most of the dresses for future use, if God sends us any more girls. Taking guidance from another friend who maintains such a closet, I hung the dresses according to length, not according to size.


The remaining girl's clothing is stored in bankers' boxes on the upper shelf. Because most girl's clothing is hanging, only a few shirts, leggings, and such were saved in boxes, which meant I could save two or three size ranges per box.


All the boy's clothing is stored in bankers' boxes (except for Mass suits), so I was able to fit only one size per box. This still represents a big reduction, as a bankers' box is about one-third the size of the plastic bins I was previously using to store one size.

I found this project required a lot of spiritual work, with plenty more 'heart work' to be done. I found myself clinging to clothing with stains or tears for fear that Armageddon would hit or economic collapse would devastate our country and having ratty clothing was better than none. I found myself wanting to hold on to any nice clothing rather than give it away for purely selfish reasons ("but I like it!"). It was truly quite difficult to pare down our stored clothing by at least half and donate it away. The process revealed my own avaricious nature and attachment to worldly objects instead of heaven as my object.

Going forward, the idea of the Children's Storage Closet is that we will 'shop' there at season changes. First, I will go through each child's closet and remove what is out of size or season. Then each child can rifle through the Storage Closet with me and find clothing in the right size and season. Then I will (as I've done for some years now) make an exact list of what that child has (e.g., 3 white blouses, 4 skirts) so I know what we need before we go shopping ('he needs 1 pair khaki pants, 1 pair black, 2 polos'). I have a friend who clothes twice as many children as ours, and she makes a practice--twice per year at the season change--of taking all the girls shopping in one day: visiting all the local consignment and thrift stores, finishing the fun day with a meal at a restaurant. Then the next day, she takes all the boys for the same. What fun!

Any ideas my readers have for detaching spiritually from the worldly goods that are our clothing, yet organizing this necessary area of our home, and being thrifty all the while: please do share!

3 comments:

  1. The closet looks great ! I am sure it represents an awful lot of work both physical and emotional. I know I struggle to 'purge' because I worry , 'what if' . Interestingly, my kids don't really suffer from attachments, once instructed they should bag up what doesn't fit they generally do without protest. I am very blessed in my children's school uniforms. The school maintains several closets and anyone who has uniforms that are outgrown can add them. if you need the next size, you just help yourself. For myself I really try to stick to the one in , one out. Thanks again for sharing

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  2. Great job! This is my favorite topic, and my favorite hobby, so I'll have to write more later! I love, love, love sorting through and organizing my children's clothes!!!! Isn't it strange how it stirs up such feelings of worldly attachments for us women so much more than other things??? I experience the same exact feelings as you do, and I have a hard time letting go of kids' clothes, though I have put such a system in place now that I don't even think about it - I just do it...(my system is that I donate anything that a child has outgrown UNLESS there is a smaller child of the same gender in the house or unless I'm pregnant)...so that means that right now I'm getting rid of baby boy clothes and baby girl clothes....I have a "home birth bin" with 10 girl newborn onesies and 10 newborn boy onesies - but all the 3-6, 6-12 were donated. I think it's hard for us ladies to part with baby clothes because we realize truly how QUICKLY our little ones grow up, and how we will not be having babies forever...I too experience the "what if a tornado wipes out my house and we lose all our baby clothes?" fears...and it's so crazy, because if that happened, the baby clothes in bins *which I'm NOT using* SHOULD be the LAST thing on my mind! So it obviously goes deep! So...my system is that I donate all of my baby clothes to moms in need, and anything someone outgrows unless there is a child of smaller size and of the same gender currently living in the house. And I photograph my favorite girl clothes to preserve memories. Also, have you heard about ThredUp? I sent a bag in and got over $100 placed in my paypal account. I've only done that once, as I feel more called to give the clothes we're not using to the poor.

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  3. I'll have to look into bankers boxes. They looks so tidy. Very nice!

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