Kids Closets

Kids Closets: Changing of the Seasons

Does walking in your kid’s room to put their clothes away give you an anxiety attack?  The drawers won’t close, the closet is a boobie trap, and every shelf is just waiting to collapse.  The top of my kids’ closets used to be a place where we stored random things we had no clue what to do with.  We had arms of an antique chair, pillows, suitcases, maternity clothes, Christmas gifts…you get the idea.  I had lots of guilt about storing my extra crap in my kid’s rooms.  I felt like that was their space, yet I was dumping my extra stuff into it.  They were little and didn’t know any different, but it still bothered me.  

Making their rooms THEIR space made me feel so much better.  Going through all of that junk made me appreciate this lifestyle so much more.  There is something so refreshing about letting go of the stuff.  Whether you realize it or not, your extra stuff is holding you down!

One place that minimalism is different for me is my kids’ clothes.  My daughter wears uniforms so that requires an entirely different wardrobe.  We are also so fortunate to receive lots of hand-me-downs that are so cute.  My very best tip for handling hand-me-downs is this: go through them as soon as you get them.  Go ahead and purge any that you do not like or your kids will never wear.  My little fashionista is growing into her own style so she helps.  Why hang on to them if you know they will never be worn by your kids?

My son ruins his clothes so quickly.  He doesn’t mean to, he is just so full of life and into e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! I would not change his curious personality, but the holes and stains all over his brand new shirt, maybe.  I tend to keep more clothes for him because I feel like he needs them.  Normally, by the end of the season, I will end up having to purchase a few items he has worn through.  I am going to take you with me through the “changing of the seasons” that happens in my kids’ closets.

I tried to find a true “before” picture when I started trying to practice minimalism.  There aren’t any photos of the actual closet, but I did find a few purging sessions from both closets.  These are donation piles.  Just for fun…

We will start in my daughter’s room.  She is responsible for putting away her own clothes and keeping things where she can find them.  It isn’t as tidy as I prefer, but I do not put her clothes away so she keeps it like this.  

Except for that bag on the floor, that is her hand-me-down bag.  We went digging for some long sleeve shirts.  In the midst of the closet clean-out, she got different furniture in her room.  One of the best tricks I have picked up for getting kids to put away their own laundry is to utilize a dresser.  Hang as little as you possibly can.  If all they have to do is stick the clothes in a drawer, they are much more successful at putting away their own clothes.  Here is the after:

This is what her drawers look like:

I wasn’t able to get a before picture of my son’s closet.  It seems that it is more fun to play (extremely quietly) all night instead of sleeping.  I had to get creative very quickly in the middle of the night (*ahem* taking everything out of his closet and put it in the hall) until I could come up with a solution.

Here is his closet:

His dresser has several drawers.  This is what he has:

He has a thing for PJ’s and gets upset when we donate them.  I pick a different battle.  He likes PJ’s.  So what?

We keep lots of pants and shorts.  I will end up needing to buy a few more pairs of pants before winter is over.  He is so rough on his clothes (as you can see by the stains on the jeans).  That is the cool thing about minimalism.  Make it work for you.  Your minimal and mine will not look the same.  We have different kids and lives, and that is okay! It should work for you to make your life easier, not make it harder trying to achieve an ideal that belongs to someone else.

How many clothes do your babies have? Do you need them all? Take a look in their closet and see if there are some that you could donate.  You could take them to a church, or women’s shelter, or even schools.  They are always needing clothes for less fortunate kids and your donation could make a huge difference in a child’s life.

I was so bad about hanging on to clothes because of the “what if I have another baby” mentality.  I kept everything, even the stained, gross clothes.  In hindsight, I only made it harder for myself.  If I would have gone through as I was storing the clothes and really thought about if each item was something that I would LOVE to see my next baby in or not.  My big preggo self would have been so much better off than going through boxes of damaged/junk clothes.

Kids clothes are a constant project. They grow and change so quickly that sometimes it is hard to keep up. I have found that with fewer choices, getting dressed in the morning goes much faster and with fewer meltdowns. What mom doesn’t want that?

It has also given them the independence to pick their own clothes and the responsibility of putting them away. Both my eight-year-old and my three-year-old can put most of their own clothes away. It is one less chore for a busy mom to do and helps foster the environment that we all help in the house.

What clothes war are you fighting? Leave it in the comments below or come on over to the Facebook group. If you know a mom who would benefit from this, please share, post, or pin!