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!