I have two daughters ages 7 and 8. My oldest daughter is very much a minimalist when it comes to clothing. She will wear the same four outfits over and over and over - until we are sick of them! Last year I realized I need to buy her less obnoxious clothing if she's going to wear it so often because it starts to drive me crazy (lime green fleece pants and a rainbow striped shirt get old after 6 months of constant wear).
My younger daughter loves to wear dresses and likes to have many options. She wears them all, too. Each of them have different needs and styles and I try to respect that.
When my girls started choosing their daily outfits and dressing themselves, I starting taking note of what was getting worn. After a few weeks, I would lay all their clothes out and ask them if there was anything they didn't need anymore. I let them choose what would stay and what would go.
Now, it's not uncommon for one of them to say to me, "I'm done with this dress. Can we give it to someone else?"
Creating a child's wardrobe is something we do over and over, year after year because they are constantly growing. When it comes to creating a child's wardrobe, know your child's needs. I have one daughter who will wear a dress every day and another who rarely wears dresses.
Every tip I gave you for paring down your own wardrobe can be applied to your kids. Choose base colors and choose clothes that can mix and match.
Here's what works for us...(it's still more than we need, but with what I buy and what we get from others, we often end up with a bit more than we need).
Daughter #1: (fall/winter/spring)
- 1 pair jeans
- 2 pair fleece pants
- 1 pair zip off pants (these are great because they work in every season! - think transitional)
- 2 pair casual pants
- 5 long sleeved shirts
- 3 fleece sweatshirts
- 2 hooded sweatshirts
- various t-shirts
- 2 dresses with leggings (for church and violin performances)
Daughter #2: (fall/winter/spring)
- 1 pair jeans
- 2 pair casual pants
- 1 pair zip off pants (these are great because they work in every season! - think transitional)
- 5 long sleeved shirts
- 2 fleece sweatshirts
- 3 t-shirts
- 5 dresses
Each girl has 3 pair of shoes - sneakers, nice shoes and hiking boots.
The girls have very limited space for their clothes. They share a room and a closet and the majority of the closet is used for other things. Here's a peek at how much space they use. Each girl has a hanging shelf (I cut them to fit this part of the closet), 2 baskets (1 for socks and 1 for underwear) and then their hanging clothes.
To see all the posts in this series, search by the label less is more or click on THIS PAGE.
To see all the posts in this series, search by the label less is more or click on THIS PAGE.
This is really encouraging. The boys have only this year begun to express some preference when it comes to clothes which I know is a blessing! One lesson I've learned that I need to implement more is that if I don't really like it in the store, I won't dress the baby or kids in it. I've bought shirts thinking that they "needed" that type of shirt so even though I didn't really like the pattern or colors all that much, if the options were limited I would get it only to find that it sits in the drawer and I or they pull out the favorites. I need to only buy clothes that I really like when I'm at the store rather than clothes I think they *should* have. And since we do a load of laundry pretty much every day, there is no need for the amount of clothes they have. I need to get to sorting through them and just donating all the things that we really don't wear or need.
ReplyDeleteI used to fall into the "should" trap quite a bit. I still sometimes do when it comes to S. I think she "should" have several dresses for each season because she's a girl and we go to church every week and we regularly play violin concerts. But then when they sit in the closet not being worn, I realize that it's just not her. Sometimes she'll reach for a dress, but it's always the same dress - over and over.
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