When I only had one daughter and one son, I would pack up clothes at the end of each season to pass on to some future baby sibling. The clothes would be stored in large cardboard diaper boxes according to gender, tag size, and appropriate season. For example, a box might be labeled “G 12MO FW,” which would translate to “GIRL, 12 MONTH, FALL/WINTER.”

When I had my second daughter, I quickly realized that my system had some serious flaws. First of all, my children will span several different clothing sizes at any given time. A daughter at age three might have a wardrobe consisting of dresses sized 3, 4 and 5, shirts sized 4 and 5, and pants sized 2, 3 and 4. Therefore, when I packed up clothing at the end of one season, I would have to put the clothing in boxes designated for four different sizes. Secondly, when my second daughter needed those stored clothes, she would span a number of different sizes as well. Therefore, I had to rummage through a number of boxes containing various sized clothing, to determine which things she was able to use. This would need to be done with each change of season, and with each growth spurt.

Another problem was that I was saving everything, regardless of whether I needed it or not. For the first girl and first boy, we began each season with a reasonable amount of clothes, but with birthdays, Christmas gifts, irresistably cute dresses at the consignment store, and thoughtful gifts from doting grandmas, we always ended the season with much more than any child could possibly need. This was a great blessing, but my problem was that I didn’t want to part with any of it!

I stuck with this system through the birth of my fourth child, simply because I couldn’t think of a better way. I hated going through clothes at the change of seasons. The task took several days to more than a week of every spare moment, during which, the bedrooms would be covered with mountains of clothing. I was snappy with the children, and Michael would come home to find me in tears from being overwhelmed.

I asked some ladies at an organizing message board on the internet for some suggestions, and was given some very valuable advice:

  • Stop sorting by size, and start sorting by child.
  • Save only what I would bring into the wardrobe if I was paying for the clothing. Holding onto massive amounts of clothing, just because it is free, can lead to hoarding.
  • For the rest, I can give it away, sell it, or if applicable, give it back to the person who loaned it to me. If I accidentally get rid of too much, wardrobe gaps can usually be filled in very inexpensively at a thrift store, consignment shop or on eBay.

I took a leap and implemented these ideas. I first made a list of just how many articles of each type of clothing my children realistically needed. For example, my girls’ list reads “6 play dresses, 3 dressy dresses, 7 pairs of shorts…” This list is not followed to the tee, but gives me a good general guideline to refer to whenever I’m packing up clothes and taking clothes out of storage. (Note – I don’t have a physical copy of my lists anymore. I’ve gotten pretty good at eyeballing to see if we have too much or not enough)

Next, for storage, I bought a huge plastic bin for each child, plus two additional bins for future possible babies of each gender. I call these bins “Grow Into” boxes. These bins are kept under the children’s beds. If a bin can not hold everything we want to store, that is a signal that we have too much and need to sell or give some things away.

Every Spring and Fall, I do the big clothing switch. I start with my oldest child (Sweet Pea) and sort all of her current clothing into piles:

  1. Clothes she can wear again next year
  2. Clothes to pass along to Bubbles
  3. Clothes to get rid of

Pile 1 goes into Sweet Pea’s “Grow Into” box. Pile 2 goes into her Bubble’s “Grow Into” box. Pile 3 gets put into a big box or bag to be gone through later.

Next, I sort through Sweet Pea’s “Grow Into” box, and pull out all the clothing that I think she can wear. She tries on a few pairs of pants, and holds up a few dresses to check the length. Then her “new” clothing is put into her closet. First child done!

I then go on to her next sister (Bubbles), whose box is already out, and do exactly the same thing. I continue this process through all the girls, then go on to do the same with the boys, until everyone is done. The last time I did a clothing switch, I was able to complete the bulk of the job for all six children in only a few hours.

For younger children, the “Grow Into” boxes take a bit more time to go through, because more clothing has been saved, and the boxes span several sizes. The younger the child, the more difficult it is to do the clothing switch, because they grow so fast and change sizes more frequently. I hope that as my children get older, we’ll eventually be able to simply transfer clothes from one child’s part of the closet to the other’s, and avoid the boxing up process entirely. I’m also looking forward to the day when they can help a bit more! (Note – My older three have become *very* helpful with this, and it’s made the seasonal switch go even more smoothly!)

After seasonal clothes are put away and non-seasonal clothes are packed away, I go through the “Get Rid Of” box or bag. If something has been borrowed, I’ll offer it back to the lender. Otherwise, I’ll throw away clothing that is in bad condition and give some items away. I used to select a few nice pieces to sell on ebay, but no longer have the time to do this.

A few additional notes:

  • Coats are stored differently. Since they are so bulky, I purchased a big round garbage bin which holds an incredible amount of clothing. Everybody’s coats get stored together in that bin until they are needed again.
  • Socks and underwear are thrown away, except for a couple pairs of “potty training” underpants. I think each of the children deserves their own underwear!
  • Shoes are saved only if they are lightly worn and very likely to be used again. All girls’ shoes are stored together in a plastic bin, and all boys’ shoes are stored together in the same way. It’s really not difficult to weed through these shoes to see what size might be of use at any given time.

Want more? Check out Coats, Hats & Mittens or see the list of all my Home Organization Posts.