Clothing, how much for each memeber of family

[blackberry75]

I'm trying to get rid of excess clothing, but I'm not sure how much of each kind (shirts,pants, ect) everyone needs. Is it different by age?
There's myself, the hubs, 4yr old boy and 10m old infant. The stepkids just keep 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, sleepwear, and underwear here; since they only sleep over on weekends. For holiday breaks they pack a little extra but it goes back home w/ them. Is there a detailed list of what each person should have (not including work cloths), 'cause I'm lost?

[NewMommy6111]

I'm trying to figure this out right now. It was easy when I was in HS & college because I only washed my clothes. Now that I have laundry for 3 & big man laundry that takes up more space, I feel like having 10+ outfits is ridiculous bc I never wear them all between washing. Idk. I'm at a loss, but I do frequently look through everyone's wardrobe & purge the things that we don't wear.

ETA: As far as the baby clothes I keep for future children: I only allow myself 5 day time outfits (x2 - for spring/summer and fall/winter) and 5 pairs of PJ's per size. Washing clothes twice a week would make that plenty for an infant I think, but I know that people in my family will buy my future children clothing just because that's my family, though I hope it will taper off as I have more children.

Our ideal wardrobe for DS (19months) would be exclusively wool. So ~6 pockets (nighttime/naps), 18 fitteds, 18PFs, for winter 5-7 pairs of longies, for summer 4 pairs of shorties & 4 soakers, 2-3 shirts that match each wool item, plus a sweater to match each pair of longies, but 1 sweater could match 2 or 3 pairs of longies. We also have 4 pairs of babylegs, which he wear under longies on the extra cold days.

We have 7 pairs of longies, but I can't convince myself to purge my PUL covers or non-wool pants. Oh and I'm really bad about hoarding pajamas. DS has about 20 pairs that fit. He's been wearing size 18 months or a year now & I love little kid pajamas, so they have accumulated.

[Melinda29]

I live in a region with a definite summer, spring, fall, winter. After 18 years of minimalism (since I was 12) and 4 kids, here are my final lists:

http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...9#post14825469


We try to wear things 2-3 times before washing, but with kids that doesn't always work. If they get really dirty playing outside, I try as much as possible to brush or shake the outfit off and put it back on them for the day. If they get wet playing in the snow, I will hang up the outfit to dry in a place that will remind me to have them wear it again tomorrow once it is dry.

This amount of clothes allows us to wash each person's laundry once a week with a little breathing room. It allows adults to go 2 weeks between repeating shirts at work (assuming some repetition on the weekends).

Each child starts with 5 pairs of jeans every fall and they usually wear through a few pairs in the knee by spring. So I cut those off and sew them into shorts or capris for summer.

For adults, this list includes work clothes, SAH clothes, whatever. For example, my hubby works in an office but has casual Fridays. He has 3 pairs dress pants and 2 pair jeans (so still 5 pair pants), and 8 long-sleeved polos and 2 nice sweatshirts (so still 10 longsleeved shirts). He wears each pair of pants 2-3 days in a row before getting a clean pair, and each shirt is worn one time and then returned to the closet. After 2 weeks, he has worn every shirt once at work (and twice on the weekends). About once a month, he washes all his shirts.

ETA: My kids do not have every item in every size. For example, my 3-yr-old has 10 longsleeved shirts and 5 pair jeans in size 3, but she does not have 10 shortsleeved shirts and 5 pair capris in size 3, because it is winter now. Those pieces will be size 4 for summer. I reread my post and realized that sounded pretty excessive

[marliah]

For our boys (who are all older and potty trained, etc) they each have 6 shirts and 4-6 pairs of pants each. Also they each have 4 pairs of pajamas.

For the girls (we only wear dresses) they are both still little and neither is potty trained, I have 12 dresses or jumpers each and about 6-8 shirts for underneath. We also use shirts and longies for sleepwear.

For myself I have 6 dresses and about 8 shirts (need to purge some, probably only need 6, one for each dress) and 4 nightgowns.

Dh is the one with all the clothes, I keep trying to get him to give some away. He has about 12 pairs of pants and probably 30 shirts.


I should also add for the boys, I keep summer things in a bin in the winter then switch them out for summer (I.e. short sleeve shirts for long sleeve ones) the girls and I wear the same things either time of year, we just layer undergarments in winter

And I am in the process of trying to cut back coats, we have WAY too many. Only want to keep 2 per person, but as it is I think we have about 4-5 each.

[thirdtimemomma]

We keep 7 "play" outfits 2 church outfits per kid. And for Dh and I well, I have 4 shirts and 5 jeans and some church outfits.. Dh is a bit mire than that. But he is a pastor and has to change uniforms a lot.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DS Forum

[FernHollow]

Previously we were doing laundry once a week and separating it by person. Each of my older 3 had 10 outfits and 8 pairs of pjs. My younger 2 (18m and 3y) had 12 outfits. It was just too much to get all of it washed/dried/put away every Friday which is also cleaning day for our household. It was do-able but just really exhausting! We had some older things that needed to be retired and instead of replacing them, I decided to downsize everyone's clothing and switch to 2x week laundry on Tues and Fri (3 loads: jeans, tops, pjs/undies/socks).

Each child has:
6 outfits (folded together as an outfit "package": LS tees/pants, socks and undies)
6 sets cotton pjs
lightweight hoodie
heavy winter coat
microfleece hat/mittens set
everyday shoes (we go for nicer looking multipurpose shoes)
farm boots
+ my only dd has one pair of dressy ballet flats in addition to her regular shoes.

I do keep an extra set of "farm clothes" for each of them, in addition to each of their pair of winter wool socks packed away in a tote in my closet. They are not in regular rotation, only for outdoor winter activities on our farm. It is cold and muddy here this time of year and I don't want regular outfits ruined. It works best to keep a separate outfit for each of them for that purpose.

DH does have 6 work outfits (older tees and older jeans) and 6 nicer outfits (newer tees and nice dark jeans, cords, etc.) because he is in construction now but will be leaving that field to go to school this fall. We will likely downsize his wardrobe at that point. He has everyday shoes, dress loafers, farm boots, lightweight hoodie, winter coat, farm coat for chores.

For myself :
6 cotton tank tops
2 dressier ss tees
2 cardigans
4 pairs jeans
1 pair black slacks
4 pairs yoga pants
2 bras/10 undies/6 socks
1 lightweight hoodie
1 winter coat
1 farm coat for chores
everyday shoes (Keen maryjanes -very versatile)
ballet flats
farm boots

So you can see we sort of have a formula for a uniform LOL. For everyday I wear tanks with yoga pants at home, doing chores, for bed...I switch to jeans and add a cardigan if we are going out, which we do most weekday afternoons. I wear slacks, cardigan, ballet flats, add a little different makeup/jewelry for dressing up. Similar for all our wardrobes, everything can dress up or down and mix and match. We go for solid colors only for that very reason. I don't like having to store things that aren't used regularly! In the summer we swap out our jeans/pants for some shorts and short sleeved tees. DD and I each have a skirt each spring/summer to be able to dress up if needed. The farm boots get swapped out for crocs in the summer too.

[harmoni247]

For the boys, I am working on changing it to this (they are at the age wherethey stay one size for a whole year, apart from freaky growth spurts...so we are doing all seasons at one time)...they actually have less than this right now, and we are working to round it off:

3 pants
3 shorts
3 lounge/PJ pants

3 tshirts
3 long sleeve tshirts
3 "other" shirts (button up, tunic, etc)
1 lightweight cardigan
1 heavy button up sweater
1 hoodie

6 underwear
6 cotton socks
6 wool socks
1 wool base layer shirt and pants

1 casual shoes
1 slippers

Extra clothes in the car/spend the night clothes:
One outfit, one footie pajamas, 2 underwear

Outdoor:
1 raincoat
1 wintercoat
1 rainboots
1 winterboots
1 scarf
1 hat
1 cotton gloves
1 waterproof mittens
1 play in the snow for an hour getup (really heavy coat, snowpants, heavy wool boot socks...kept up in
rubbermaid)

For me:
3 bottoms per season (3 jeans, 2 shorts + 1 enwrapture)
1 dress pant
1 dress
1 skirt

3 tank tops
3 tshirts
3 long sleeve tshirts
3 blouses
3 cardigans
(I layer shirts)

2 yoga pants
2 yoga shorts/floods
1 hoodie

Outdoor:
1 fall/spring jacket
1 winter coat
1 hat
3 scarves (my only accesories apart from a belt)
1 knit gloves
1 waterproof snow gloves
1 combo rain and snow boots
1 dress boots

[blackberry75]

Thank you all! This was extremely helpful. I'm taking notes and will start purging this weekend. The only place I've been miminalist w/ clothing is my work stuff: 4 required work scrub tops, 6 scrub pants-at least once a week I need to change them between clients, and 3 jackets/lab coats.

Any hints on how to know what should go, besides stuff that needs retired/thrown out or doesn't fit? ei, how do you let go of stuff you love, even though you know it won't get worn often.

[FernHollow]

Originally Posted by blackberry75 Thank you all! This was extremely helpful. I'm taking notes and will start purging this weekend. The only place I've been miminalist w/ clothing is my work stuff: 4 required work scrub tops, 6 scrub pants-at least once a week I need to change them between clients, and 3 jackets/lab coats. Any hints on how to know what should go, besides stuff that needs retired/thrown out or doesn't fit? ei, how do you let go of stuff you love, even though you know it won't get worn often.

Get a smaller dresser? DH and I share THIS dresser from IKEA. I have one little drawer for undies/socks, one little drawer for tanks/shirts, one big drawer for my pants, and the bottom drawer is now housing our packages of disposables for my 17mo. Honestly it has lots of room in the drawers still. I don't have a closet bar to hang anything on, so that is literally everything except for my jacket, coat and 2 cardigans that get hung up in our mudroom. Our master closet is SO tiny and we use it for storing our small amount of office items (printer, our laptops when not in use, file box), my one and only basket of craft supplies, sewing machine and iron. I just don't have the space anyway to use it for clothes even if I wanted to.

By having a small finite space and picking a designated amount of items before purging, it made it super easy to streamline and get down to a minimalist wardrobe. I thought I'd miss a few pieces I liked but never wore, but seriously I don't at all. It is SO easy to get dressed these days and I never worry about what I'd wear to any occasion.

[Melinda29]

Originally Posted by blackberry75 Thank you all! This was extremely helpful. I'm taking notes and will start purging this weekend. The only place I've been miminalist w/ clothing is my work stuff: 4 required work scrub tops, 6 scrub pants-at least once a week I need to change them between clients, and 3 jackets/lab coats. Any hints on how to know what should go, besides stuff that needs retired/thrown out or doesn't fit? ei, how do you let go of stuff you love, even though you know it won't get worn often.

Hang it up in the closet on hangers turned backwards. If anything gets pulled out and worn, hang it back up turned the right way. After a set time, like 2-4 months, purge anything still hanging backwards.

This works well with kids clothes as well, to figure out how many pieces you need between laundry days, but you can do it in a few weeks for kids.