Minimal Wardrobe - Children's Edition

For the past six years (the entire amount of time I've been a mother), I have shopped end-of-season clearance sales, buying clothes for my girls for next year. Although I find some great deals, I often end up with random, mis-matched items of clothes. Then I go shopping to find things to match these random, mis-matched items and end up with more clothes than any child needs.

Not this year. I'm not buying any more clothes for my kids. I want to see how little we can get by on - especially this spring and summer. This won't be a problem at all for my youngest - she has plenty of hand-me-downs from her big sis. Too many, in fact.

But my oldest daughter....she really doesn't care what she wears, so I think we'll be able to keep it minimal and use a lot of her clothes from last year. Plus, we get clothing gifts from grandparents a couple times a year so that will help. I might end up having to buy a couple things, but I'm going to try not to.

With this in mind, I decided to minimize their wardrobe this morning. Because I love seeing photos showing decluttering success, I decided to take before and after pictures of my girls clothes. We have a family closet so their space is limited to begin with, but I went through and pulled out everything they do not regularly wear. What you are seeing is the wardrobe of two girls - ages 4 and 6.

BEFORE

top shelf: pajamas and t-shirts

middle shelf: pants and underwear (in baskets)

bottom baskets: socks and swimsuits

AFTER

There are a few items missing in the after picture - items that are in the dirty laundry.

I counted up what I pulled - 14 pairs of pants, 14 shirts and dresses and 14 pairs of socks! I wasn't aiming for a certain number, but laughed when I kept coming up with 14. I won't automatically get rid of all this. With a season change on the horizon, I will put away the fleece pants and pull out some of these.