Changing Seasons and Sizes with Your Child’s Minimalistic Wardrobe

 

We’ve used this child’s minimalistic wardrobe method for the past few years at our house, and it is still working great. Somehow through Christmas and birthdays we usually end up with a few more items than what we start the year with, but I usually only go through things and eliminate extras when we change seasons or sizes.

 

Why did I decided to implement a minimalistic wardrobe for our littles?

Honestly, I was tired of all the clean laundry being tossed everywhere, and a messy bedroom. When I would ask the boys to go get dressed, they would rip out all of their clothes to find their very favorites. As a momma, I’m sure that you know the littles get attached to certain articles of clothing and then forsake ALL others to show their love of those shirts/jeans/socks, etc. After going in their room and finding clothes all over the place for the 500^th time, I had had enough. I was done with this. And this is when I made the decision to reduce the amount of clothing that my boys have.

While creating a minimalistic wardrobe for your children won’t reduce the amount of laundry that you do, it will probably reduce the clean clothes that you are rewashing, and it may reduce the clutter on the bedroom floor when you go to tuck them in a night. But I’m not making any promises on either of those accounts. 😊

 

If you didn’t check out the link to the method that we use, you can click here to pin it to read later.

 

Navigating season changes with a minimalistic wardrobe.

 

First, I have to tell you that we get lots of hand me downs from family and friends. As soon as we get them in our house, I go through them, the things I decide to keep are then put into a tote to be stored in our basement. I try to keep one small tote for each size, though I do have some larger totes with a few different sizes, mostly for the small baby sizes.

How do I decide what to keep? The clothing items that I keep must meet at least two of these criteria:

• It is something that my boys would love- like those shirts with superheroes, or colors that they love.
• It is something that I like- for church and nice occasions.
• It is mostly stain free- although I don’t rule stained items out if it could be a good play shirt.
• It is hole free and needs no repairs

When we change seasons, we pull out the tote of the correct size and then go through the clothing items with each child. If there are items that would put them over their clothing limit then I put them back into the tote, or we take them to a local consignment shop so we can resell them.

 

Changing sizes- this seems to happen frequently….why do children grow so fast? 😊

 

When we need to change sizes, we empty out the drawer {as of right now, the boys only need one drawer for their clothes. I’m sure as they grow and the clothes get bigger this will change. 😉} on the floor and start sorting.

We get rid of:

• Anything super stained
• Anything that isn’t mendable
• Anything that will be really outdated by the time the next boy gets to that size

Some of the things that will be outdated we send to Goodwill, the consignment shop, or we pass on to other friends who have a child moving into that size. If there are things that need to be mended, and are in good condition otherwise, I attempt to fix.

The clothes we decide to keep for that size get put into a pile, and the others get put into piles depending on where they will be going. Then we dump out the next size. As we sort that new size, I make a list of things that are needed, and we get rid of some that the specific child doesn’t like or wouldn’t wear. The list gets carried in my purse, or I transfer it to my phone, and then I can grab things on sale as I see them.

 

What about shoes and coats?

 

Generally, if the coats and shoes are in good condition I keep them for the next child, unless, like mentioned above, it will be a long time before the next child gets to that size. Then we pass them on, donate, or resell.

 

How have minimalistic wardrobes changed how I view clothing?

 

The biggest changes that have come about after changing to a minimalistic wardrobe, for both the boys and myself, is how I view clothing. Before I buy clothing now I ask myself these questions:

• How long will this material last?
• Is this style a timeless and classic style?
• Is this something that I will wear often?
• Could I do without this item?
• Is this color one that looks good on me?
• Does this bring me joy while I wear it?

Answering these questions has made buying clothing so much easier! Now instead of feeling pressured to buy something because it in style and someone has told me how cute/fashionable I look in it, I rather think about if I like it; will I feel joyful while wearing it, or will I be anxious about how others view me in it? I don’t buy it if I don’t like it. And I search out materials and brands that will last longer than five washes before becoming covered with pills.

 

How has a minimalistic wardrobe changed how much money we spend on children’s clothing?

 

Honestly, it really hasn’t changed how much we spend on clothing for our littles, because we never spent a lot on clothing in the first place. We have lots of cousins and friends our boys’ age and we pass around clothing all the time. We also get clothing for birthday and Christmas presents. Between those things we never needed to buy a lot, and when we did we used consignment shops or resale shop. But, were we a typical American family who buys clothing at the beginning of each school year as well as throughout the year, I can see that it would save us an incredible amount of money.

 

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