A Few Words on Kids Clothes

Years ago when Lee was about 5, dressing him to go anywhere was a nightmare. Nothing fit right, the waistband was too rough, the tag was biting me, the toe seams in the socks were bulky - you get the picture. Church mornings were awful. His drawers were full of clothes and he had nothing to wear (funny, I think I've said that before). Clothes would get pulled out, tried on and never put away. At the end of the day (or week), dirty clothes were mixed with the clean, never worn clothes and I didn't know what was what, so it all went to the wash, making more work for me. I had two problems: one was lack of comfortable clothes and two was too many clothes making more work for me. I solved the problem by having Lee try on EVERY item in his closet and drawers. If it wasn't comfortable it was given away, even if it was just too cute or in great shape. With that step I eliminated over half of his wardrobe. Now with the leftover comfy clothes we divided them into three piles: play clothes, town clothes and church clothes. Absolutely nothing overlaps. Play clothes are put on every morning and can be worn for trapping, painting, rollerblading, gardening and no matter how stained they get it doesn't matter. Town clothes include the basic decent clothing suitable to wear shopping, to the park, out to eat, anywhere public. Church clothes are dressy clothes allowed for church, weddings, Christmas dinners. Once everything was placed in a pile it was easy to see what type of clothing was needed. Since I do laundry nearly everyday, sorting this way kept the number of items manageable. He only needed one pair of church pants and two shirts. This may sound extreme, but it worked well and has been working perfectly for 3 1/2 years now. When it's time to go to town he puts on town clothes and when we return he puts on his play clothes again. This has lessened the laundry as well because play clothes can be worn at home until they are seriously dirty and often times town clothes can be worn again as well. Church mornings were a breeze because the clothing situation was predictable - same pants as last week (he chose these pants from the store), choice of two shirts.

Why hadn't I thought to use this system with the girls clothes as well? It just hit me two weeks ago that something needed to change. Every time Lou needed clothes to match we were at a loss. The drawers were overfull, but nothing matched and just about everything was stained. She tended to wear her favorites for everyday and they ended up getting paint or stain or fudgesicle drips on them. And I haven't had any luck getting those stains out. So one day while all the kids were watching an afternoon movie, I headed into the girls room with a couple of boxes. I cleared their drawers and taped labels to them: Church, Play, Town. Now we use the same system and it's working like a dream. I've eliminated nearly half of their wardrobe making laundering so much easier on me and putting away so much easier on them. Again it's so easy to see where the need is, I don't come away from The Mom Shop with too many town clothes and not enough church clothes. And one last comment about clothes; I do not separate by season. In the play drawer are all seasons of clothes, something only comes out when they truly outgrow it.

For some this may be extreme. It's hard to let go of a perfectly good pastel pink turtleneck; it might match a jumper someday. But it's harder to control the clothing mess that two girls can make in one day. Few choices make decision making very simple; simplicity, something I'm always searching for.

Play Clothes
2 pants
3 shorts
2 long sleeve shirts
3 t-shirts

Town Clothes
2 pants
3 shorts
2 long sleeve shirts
3 t-shirts

Church Clothes
1 dress pants (2 for boys)
2 long sleeve blouses
2 short sleeve tops
3 winter dresses
3 summer dresses