• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

michelejo.com

seeking minimalism

  • home
  • about me
  • Recipes
  • Frugal Living
  • Homeschooling
  • Adventures
  • Celebrations
  • In the Garden
  • Tending Hearth
You are here: Home / Archives for kids

kids

How I reduced my kids’ wardrobes AND my stress…

February 7, 2014 by michelejo Leave a Comment

My kids have too many clothes.  Waaaaaay too many.  Especially my nine year old daughter.  When my older kids (now 15 and 18) were younger, we were pretty broke and I couldn’t buy a lot of nice clothes for them.  My mom loved to buy them clothes and that was nice, but it was never what I liked or would have chosen.  So with my younger two kiddos, I enjoyed that we were much better off and that I was able to buy them clothes and shoes without a lot of concern about budgets or limits.

With our recent income drop (35% less) I’ve been more aware of our newly rekindled committment to be frugal in all areas of our spending.  I realized that my biggest spending issue with the kids’ clothing was the quantity, not the quality.  This thought (the thought that they have way too much) actually came to me not when I was concerned about money but when I was sitting in my room literally surrounded by clean clothes up to my shoulders.  I have been dreading organizing and putting away the kids’ clean clothes since there are about six baskets’ full and really, nowhere to put it all.  I decided that I would go through all their clothes and pare it all down to a pre-determined, manageable amount.  I also realized that it’s easier to think I need to buy them more clothing when what they have is a disorganized mess and not properly put away (aka, living in laundry baskets all over my room).

How many clothes do young kids really need?  Another interesting question, as I realized my kids really only regularly use about 25% of their clothes.  They seem to re-wear the same items over and over and most of it just sits unless they run out of that favorite 25%.  My daughter dances and she has way more dance outfits than she could ever wear.  She is at the studio twice a week for two hours each time and on one of those days, she has to wear a black leo with black dance shorts…so all those adorable dance outfits I’ve bought since she got serious about dance can only be worn in a rotatation, once a week.  She probably doesn’t need more than 2-3 of them.  I won’t admit how many she has.

I’m a numbers person, so I wanted to create guidelines based on numbers.  I knew it’d be easier to stick with getting rid of all the excess if I had firm guidelines that were logical to me.  So I set it up like this:

three dressy outfits (appropriate for choir rehearsals or going out to dinner)

three lounge outfits (the things they like to lounge around or sleep in)

for the boy, four jeans and four denim shorts

for the girl, four skorts and four leggings

for each about 10 t-shirts/tops (these get changed more often)

two bathing suits each (when they have one, it gets worn out and faded too early in summer)

two sweatshirts each

one jacket

The actual numbers will vary from family to family, based on individual needs but my overall goal was to reduce quantity to an amount that easily fits in the space we have and also can be washed and put away in a couple loads.

Mission accomplished.

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Tending Hearth, Uncategorized Tagged With: budget, clothing, finances, Frugality & DIY, kids

Primary Sidebar

h e l l o . . . . . . . .

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Search…

summerland.az

The stuff of nightmares but less scary alone than The stuff of nightmares but less scary alone than going in the elevator with Tom and our stuff 🤣😳
New brands of treats!? New brands of treats!?
Chicken and biscuit place, in an old Wendy’s… Chicken and biscuit place, in an old Wendy’s…
Enjoying trying new things. Enjoying trying new things.
Instagram post 17913759302460332 Instagram post 17913759302460332
Next to last one this trip!! Next to last one this trip!!
I had to order Mississippi and Alabama on Ebay. 🤣 I have picked up New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and now...Florida! 💜
She was mad I moved the blanket 🤣 She was mad I moved the blanket 🤣
The crew 🤣 The crew 🤣
In my car with Katie next to Tom in his car, tryin In my car with Katie next to Tom in his car, trying to wait out the second big Florida storm of the day. And oh, we’re in Florida today. 🤣 They have great rest stops!
Dinner date. Waffle House was EMPTY so we ate INSI Dinner date. Waffle House was EMPTY so we ate INSIDE!! 🤣🤣🤣
Instagram post 17985629758517420 Instagram post 17985629758517420
Instagram post 17924056823388516 Instagram post 17924056823388516
Instagram post 17876329877701619 Instagram post 17876329877701619
Bucket list item—check! Bucket list item—check!
Instagram post 17923170332510901 Instagram post 17923170332510901
Finally on Bourbon St! Finally on Bourbon St!
Lily and Luna require a certain standard of hotel Lily and Luna require a certain standard of hotel quality. 🤣
Silly Lu! Silly Lu!
The one photo I took in San Antonio before we felt The one photo I took in San Antonio before we felt like we were about to get mugged. 🤣
Load More... Follow on Instagram
July 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Nov    

Copyright © 2022 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in