# The clothing issue, again! I'm drowning!



## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

I'm "drowning" in our 2 little kids clothes right now. Due to our very unpredictable weather, they still are needing cold weather, as well as warm weather clothing, all out at the same time. They take drawers full of clothing and dump it out on the floor, then walk on it. By the time I find it, it's usually in a mess, and I feel like I have to wash it all over again. It's driving me NUTS. I also have 2 teenagers still at home, so keeping up with the laundry is enough of a pain already. I say "at home" ...HA! They are usually keeping me busy running them around to 2 different cities, to go to homeschool co-op events, or CAP activities, or to do something with friends who live there. Ok, end of rant. 
My real question is, how many outfits can 2 young kids (ages 5 & 3) get along with? I have got to sort out this mess, but am feeling overwhelmed with it. I have storage tubs FULL of summer clothing to sort through, most of which was given to us. I have ALL the winter clothes to deal with as well. I give away outgrown clothing almost weekly. I want to eliminate as much clothing as possible and keep only the best, most needed articles of clothing. How many outfits do you think is reasonable to keep? I need numbers here, so I'll have a "goal" to shoot for! I'm asking for how many shirts, pants, shorts, etc. I begin "the deed" tomorrow, while they will both be gone for a few hours. Our weather right now varies from the 40's to the upper 70's. TIA


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Difficult, isn't it? Enough outfits +2 (for accidents) to get from wash to wash, figuring they wear one a day. If you change them more often, then add that into the mix. The 5 yo at least is old enough to pick up his/her clothing, so they shouldn't be on the floor. And why aren't your teenagers doing their own wash? They might not do it to your standards, but will learn.


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## BigM (Mar 22, 2008)

I'm with Belfry. 

10 tops, 8 shorts and 3 pants a piece for your littles, plus a couple of "for special" outfits in case you need to go somewhere "for special".  

I have three teens (one of whom is autistic) who have been doing their laundry since they were to tiny to reach it. They used to lay on top of the dryer to reach into the washer and get the clothes out. There is no good reason why you are doing all the laundry. I found it helpful to assign each of them a day. ie, DD1 washes her clothes, sheets and a load of towels/whites on Monday, DD2 on Wednesday and DS on Friday. It really helps cut down on any backlogs.


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## Marthas_minis (Jan 28, 2014)

We get by with 5 pair of jeans, a couple pair of slacks for dressier occasions and church, DS (he's 10) has a preference for button down shirts w/ undershirt so about 5 of those, and a bunch of t-shirts. 

3 pair of those jeans he wears to school so unless they are simply filthy, they get worn 2-3 times before washing. Same with the button downs. He wears t-shirts under the button downs. So there again, worn a few times before washing. 
So really, the only thing that gets washed after one wear are his 2 pair work/play jeans, t-shirts, socks, & underwear. Usually he & DH do their laundry together so no more than 3 loads max (front load W/D) a week for both. DH more or less has the same dress criteria. 

For all the extra: I have several friends who sell extra clothing on Facebook local garage sale/ resale groups. Seems to work out well for them. 
Play/ work clothes usually are so worn I can't resale but his good quality button downs, school jeans, and church clothes resale really well since gently worn. I find that eBay has the best returns on resale clothing over anything else but does take some time getting used to posting sales.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

The BIG reason the teens don't do their own laundry (they both know how) is because we have a super capacity HE front load washer, and it takes as much water to wash a small load, as it does to wash a very large load. Our washer will wash a King sized comforter, and it KILLS me for the kids to run a load with only 4 pairs of jeans in it. Our utility water is expensive here, and I try to make every load, a FULL load. For example, dd has 3 red shirts and I don't want her to wash just 3 shirts, when I can wash everybody's red clothing together to make a load. My teens do help with folding & putting away, especially ALL of their own clothing. I just need to limit the number of clothes the two littles have. My 5 yr old dd will change clothes 3 times a day if I don't "catch" and stop her. The little guy NEEDS changing usually at least twice. He gets pretty grungy out playing, and manages to smear what ever he eats all over his shirt...AKA napkin! I'm going to shoot for 10 outfits, with 3 being pants, 3 long sleeved shirts, the rest being shorts/T-shirts, along with a couple of "nice" outfits, which I think I'll keep in MY closet, so they can't get to them. Otherwise, little Miss 5 yr old wants to parade around in the house in them "just cause."  
Thanks for the suggestions!


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## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

It sounds like you have a plan already, but I thought I'd share what I do with my 7 yr old. He does not have a dresser/chest of any kind. I found that things got dumped just like you said so everything is in his closet. We got a cheap closet organizer that has a high bar on the left side, storage cubbies in the middle and two bars on the right side. His socks, underwear and shorts go in the cubbies in canvas bins and pants and shirts hang on the lower bar on the right side. I use the higher bars for nicer clothes, coats and off season clothing. It's really helped him keep things off the floor. 

He just started putting the clothes on the hangers himself and that's quite entertaining to watch because he acts like it's the hardest thing ever.  

I bought his summer clothes the other day and I got 4 pairs of shorts and 5 t-shirts that were on clearance sale. He has a few t-shirts that were too big last year so he should be set for summer. This past winter we were only able to find 2 pairs of jeans that fit his skinny butt so I had to make due with those. It actually worked out okay though because we do stay home a lot in the winter. Around the house he wore his sweat pants, I think he had 3 pairs of those. Hope that helps.


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

backwoods said:


> I'm "drowning" in our 2 little kids clothes right now. Due to our very unpredictable weather, they still are needing cold weather, as well as warm weather clothing, all out at the same time. They take drawers full of clothing and dump it out on the floor, then walk on it. By the time I find it, it's usually in a mess, and I feel like I have to wash it all over again. It's driving me NUTS. I also have 2 teenagers still at home, so keeping up with the laundry is enough of a pain already. I say "at home" ...HA! They are usually keeping me busy running them around to 2 different cities, to go to homeschool co-op events, or CAP activities, or to do something with friends who live there. Ok, end of rant.
> My real question is, how many outfits can 2 young kids (ages 5 & 3) get along with? I have got to sort out this mess, but am feeling overwhelmed with it. I have storage tubs FULL of summer clothing to sort through, most of which was given to us. I have ALL the winter clothes to deal with as well. I give away outgrown clothing almost weekly. I want to eliminate as much clothing as possible and keep only the best, most needed articles of clothing. How many outfits do you think is reasonable to keep? I need numbers here, so I'll have a "goal" to shoot for! I'm asking for how many shirts, pants, shorts, etc. I begin "the deed" tomorrow, while they will both be gone for a few hours. Our weather right now varies from the 40's to the upper 70's. TIA


I may be a crabby ol' lady, but my children would have dumped clean clothing on the floor and walked on it ONCE!


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

Ardie/WI said:


> I may be a crabby ol' lady, but my children would have dumped clean clothing on the floor and walked on it ONCE!


Ardie, I hear ya. But our 5 yr old dd is kind of a special case. She was severely abused from birth until 4 months old. She has been diagnosed as having PTSD because of it. She has some pretty unusual behavior for her age, even though it all happened SO long ago. We can't "deal" with her, the way you do with a regular kid's behavior issues. It is maddening at times, believe me! She's super smart in reading and math, far advanced for most other kids her age. She's already reading books, and she hasn't started kindergarten yet. In other ways, she acts like she's still 3. She is making progress, at least. Her little brother who is 3, is NOW the main character dumping the drawers. Luckily, he didn't come along until AFTER she had already been removed from the home, so he didn't suffer any of what she did. We are working on "training" with him


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

backwoods said:


> Ardie, I hear ya. But our 5 yr old dd is kind of a special case. She was severely abused from birth until 4 months old. She has been diagnosed as having PTSD because of it. She has some pretty unusual behavior for her age, even though it all happened SO long ago. We can't "deal" with her, the way you do with a regular kid's behavior issues. It is maddening at times, believe me! She's super smart in reading and math, far advanced for most other kids her age. She's already reading books, and she hasn't started kindergarten yet. In other ways, she acts like she's still 3. She is making progress, at least. Her little brother who is 3, is NOW the main character dumping the drawers. Luckily, he didn't come along until AFTER she had already been removed from the home, so he didn't suffer any of what she did. We are working on "training" with him


It's just a suggestion, but could you make those drawers unaccessible? Locked in some way.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

I made some progress today. After emptying the entire contents of both dressers and the closet, I now have 2 bags of outgrown clothing to donate. I also have some clothes to save for next winter, that will be going to the yard barn in tubs. I STILL have to go through what is out there already, and see what fits, what I can donate, and save what they haven't grown into yet. At least I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After I get everything together that will fit, I'm going to narrow that down to only the nicest stuff, and keep 10 shirts for each kid, along with about 7 pairs of shorts, and 3 pairs of summer weight pants. I'm even going to try to keep things that can mostly be washed with any color, if I can. I hate the BRIGHT pink clothing for little girls, as it takes a "separate load" just to wash that stuff. I'm aiming for light colors that can all be thrown in & washed together. I'm also going to start hanging virtually everything in their closet with the exception of socks, underwear, and pjs. I'm hoping that will help as well. Thanks, KYMama, for that suggestion!
Thanks for all your suggestions!


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

Ardie/WI said:


> It's just a suggestion, but could you make those drawers unaccessible? Locked in some way.


I WISH! I'm going to try hanging almost everything in the closet and see if that works out any better. I wish I had a steel office supply cabinet with locking doors, but alas, I do not.

My dh took the closet doors off their closet awhile back, because she was breaking them. When she gets angry and has what we'd generally call a "hissy fit" she'd kick the doors incredibly hard, and dh was afraid she was going to split the wood doors, and I mean Pine WOOD, not luan.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

Part of the CRAZIES I was suffering from are a result of TN spring weather. Yesterday, high in the low 60's, today it was over 80!


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