I love hand-me-downs. I have a few children who have been clothed entirely in hand-me-down cloths their whole life. But, clothes storage takes up space, and not organized properly they become more trouble than they are worth.
It is also discouraging to discover clothes packed away that your kids have now outgrown.
My method for organizing clothes is very simple. I buy large plastic totes. I look for sales and almost always buy ones that are clear. I organize the clothes by size and season. Then I label the box with the season and year I will need the clothes.
My totes are then stored and each season I check to see if we have any clothes in totes before we start shopping.
Packing away our latest batch of hand-me-downs. Should probably fit our 5 year old next year.
Trying on clothes is always great fun for the girls.
I was able to organize a lot of clothes yesterday. We also did a huge pitch in our garage last weekend, but silly me completely spaced on the picture taking part.
If you have been pitching lately, please link up with your Itch to Pitch. If you have any clothes storage posts you can dig them out of your archives and link those up too, just make sure you label the link “pitch” or “clothes storage” and link back to this site so more bloggers can join the fun!
If you don’t have a blog, or don’t want to link up, feel free to leave your clothing storage tips in the comments.
Young Wife says
The girls are so cute! As a child I was always so excited to get a box of hand me downs from a girl a few years older than me that I adored. I still love hand me downs as a grown up.
Veronica @ A Quiet Heart says
I store my daughter’s out-grown clothes the same way!! Even though she is an only child, the majority of her wardrobe is hand-me-downs (from very generous friends). Part of me thinks I should pass them on and let someone else get some use out of them… But, then I still hope for another one (or 5!) someday, and I will kick myself if we have to replace everything!! (We did not pay for one article of clothing until she was almost 3!!)
Tim says
Great post!
Hope your having a good week!
Love and Prayers,
Tim
Upstatemomof3 says
I am still working on a system that is right for us. I think I am going with labeling everything by size. And then as the kids grow into that size I am going through those boxes. But I am not completely positive it will be my final system. I have WAY too many clothes for just three clothes. But it feels waistfull to get rid of any of it – especially since we do not know if Little Sister will be our last.
Brenda says
I always have the Itch to Pitch but my husband doesn’t!!! CONFLICT!!!! Guess who gets to be the submissive wife? 😀
Anne-Marie says
I just sat 3 bags of things out for AMVETS this morning. Even though I haven’t been able to focus on one area each week, as I had wanted, I continue to fill my donation bin.
RE: hand-me-downs – I stored lots of stuff in underbed boxes in order by size.
Karen says
To Veronica:
I, too, kept my son’s clothing as he had so many darling things and I didn’t want to repurchase everything if/when we had another boy. Turns out we had a girl. The next boy was 7 years later and precious little was reused… Styles changed dramatically! Fortunately, we were blessed with more hand-me-downs (in more current fashion). Now, I keep precious little (if it won’t be used in a year or so…)
I have been generous in passing on our new/ used clothing and with the last baby boy have received an abundance in return.
I would encourage you to pass along your daughter’s clothes to a friend in need now, knowing that when those next children come along, the favor will undoubtedly be repaid!
Semi-Organized Mom says
I have done this for years (saved money & headaches) and let me tell you the BEST part of it all is when you realize that you no longer need to store certain sizes anymore. The smallest size we keep is size 10 in boys. Caleb is already an 8. We have purged and purged so many things, I never knew we had this much room! We could even downsize! 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, I adore my children and cherished every babywearing/nursing/toddling moment with each and every one. However, we’re done (we made sure of it) and it’s just a different kind of milestone for us.
Michele says
I’ve always used clear plastic storage bags, but I like your bins better! I need to organize the kids stuff better. Right now it takes way too long to find stuff for the next season.
Where could I find bins like that cheap? They seem pricey even in the cheapest of stores, but I would need several of them being there’s 6 kiddos worth of stuff!
Tabby says
I sort by size and gender, then label my solid-colored totes accordingly. Then when a kid needs to move to the next size, we just pull the appropriately labeled tote and let the kid dig through to find clothes he/she likes and needs for the season. The totes for the sizes currently in use are usually just half full, containing the out of season clothes.
As we receive new clothes from friends (for my oldest daughter and oldest son, mostly), I keep those in the bags/boxes they come in until I’m ready to switch out clothes for a new season. At that time, I sort through the ‘new’ stuff and store the things in the proper places. That’s also when I cull out things that haven’t stored well (i.e. weird dark spots/stains or out of style). I only keep one 18-gal tote per gender per size, containing all clothes of that size, no matter the ‘season’. This is with the exception of bulky coats/jackets, which hang in my large master closet when not needed for everyday use. This system allows me to put a limit on the amount of things I will store, forcing me to get rid of those sentimental-but-grody items in favor of newer, cleaner, more modern fashions.
I will buy a few items on clearance now and again, when I know we have ‘gaps’ in a particular size/season of clothes. Also, my youngest girl just turned 8–she has 4 little brothers. I finally gave up storing her cast-offs. They now go directly to a just-younger little friend who can use them immediately, instead of sitting in storage for who-knows-how-long waiting for another girl. I believe the Lord is happy with us being generous to others and will provide for us if/when we should need girl clothes again. 🙂
Nisse says
We were supposed to move and then it fell through though we had packed the house. My husband was in New Mexico when I had the house moved back in. I purged a lot then. My husband is more of a pack rat than me so I usually wait til he is on a business trip to purge some things. We’ve been really lucky with getting hand me down clothing. Freecycle helped a lot also as does ebay. The only problem I’ve run into with purging is that after 5 years of keeping baby clothes (up to age 2) we purged and then ended up pregnant. 🙂 We have gotten more hand me downs though so it all worked out.
Michele says
Okay, I’ve been inspired. Since I don’t always act on inspiration, but did this time, I had to comment & leave my link to see (LOL):
http://liveandlearnonthespectrum.blogspot.com/2009/09/organizing-clothes.html
Erika Shupe says
Hello! I’m so enjoying your blog (which my husband came across in relation to our own blog) and pointed out to me as something I’d probably enjoy reading! =) Love your clothing organization ideas, and the freedom to de-clutter things you don’t need. Looks like there’s lots for me to read here! Looking forward to it…