Contemplating... your thoughts?

[cherylchoo]

I'll tell you something else that has made it easier to streamline the kids' wardrobe. Center it around their favorite color. My oldest has mostly pink stuff, all shades, and neutrals. My middle girl has half a wardrobe of hue purple, with some turquoise and a shade of green that goes with purple, and neutrals. My youngest is a boy and has the most variety (since most boy clothes are the same colors) but all his pants are neutral.

As for training the grandparents, I did it the same way I did with toys. Once one item in the set was stained/ripped/lost/outgrown, I purged the whole set. Then when they asked where it went, I told them why - I don't have anything else to go with what's left. Then laud the praises of the Garanimals-type concept clothing (that brand just came out when I was little, so they identify with that). My kids are extremely rough on clothing, and the volume from GPs is such that I don't need to repair them to maintain the number of clothes they need. So as the GPs saw the rotation go that quickly, they started buying fewer, better-quality coordinates for the most part. It took a few years to get there though.

[MamaJules]

How many outfits do you have? Can you keep a few and sell off the rest? If the grandmas see the kiddos wearing "their" outfit once in a while, maybe they won't notice that not all of the clothes they bought are still around.

[meeshkasheeba]

This is my weak point for sure. I love matchy things and I just put them together in outfits so you just reach in a grab something. For me that is simplicity although it is not as minimal as it could be. But this way I know I have 4 nice outfits and 7 play/school outfits per kid and don't have to hunt to find the jeans we wore two days ago with X so I can also have them wear it with Y.

If you think it will simplify things, I say go for it. Don't worry about the grandmas, they can always find something to get upset about no matter what you do so take care of yourself first, them say sorry if need be.

[I_am_Blessed]

This summer, for DS2, I only have one line of mix and match clothing. I think it's 12-14 tops and 5-7 shorts. All the tops can be paired with any of the shorts, and I am excited about it. I had DS1 the same set up, and then someone gave me 5 boxes of clothing for him, so I am still weeding out outfits for him. I plan on keeping out 12-14 outfits, then keeping a few extras in the event of ruined clothes.

[badmisterkitty]

I actually planned this kind of simplicity all along for my oldest dd. Jeans and t-shirts. Except she wouldn't wear jeans. Or t-shirts. She wanted dresses. She had, like, 2 dresses and would get so upset when they weren't clean. I caved and pulled the jeans out and took her to OUAC to pick out a few things for herself. Her current wardrobe isn't overly large, but it's lots of bright colors that don't exactly go together, but she can pull off the mismatche dlook alright. lol Most of it is from Carters, Circo and the Kohl's house brand.

[happyhats]

I already creat3 outfits for my children when we put up our seasonal wardrobes, just makes it easier for me to reach in and grab clothes for the day, or let dd do it for herself. So far me, I would keep the outfits, all of them. That way when a part of the outfit, top or bottom, was destroyed, I could set aside the remainder. If you resell people still buy brand name clothing for their dc even if its not a complete outfit, or you could donate them. Put the other outfits in the closet. If too many outfits get stained then buy solid pieces to match what you already had sitting aside. Not minimalist but this would be the easiest way for me to deal with clothes and be simple for me.

[~Laura~]

I've always gotten tons of hand-me-downs for DD and I just sort through and only keep the things I would have purchased myself. If you really want to keep people happy, keep one 'matchy' outfit per gifter.
When my DD was younger, all she wore was dresses. She had a dozen dresses and a bunch of plain leggings and bike shorts, then cardigans for colder weather. No worry about church/play because it all worked. Her clothes were from Gap, Carters and Target.
Now that DD is getting older, she wants more variety. She has skorts and dresses with bike shorts for warmer weather. For colder weather, she wears tunics/dresses/shirts with leggings and/or skirts. Most of her clothes are from Hanna Andersson, they basically match each other.

[pgkcb13]

Originally Posted by ~Laura~ I've always gotten tons of hand-me-downs for DD and I just sort through and only keep the things I would have purchased myself. If you really want to keep people happy, keep one 'matchy' outfit per gifter. When my DD was younger, all she wore was dresses. She had a dozen dresses and a bunch of plain leggings and bike shorts, then cardigans for colder weather. No worry about church/play because it all worked. Her clothes were from Gap, Carters and Target. Now that DD is getting older, she wants more variety. She has skorts and dresses with bike shorts for warmer weather. For colder weather, she wears tunics/dresses/shirts with leggings and/or skirts. Most of her clothes are from Hanna Andersson, they basically match each other.

I think this type of wardrobe would work really well for ODD. YDD doesn't like dresses (lol) so hers would be more leggings and t-shirts, but that's still easy. I'm thinking I may try to go through the girls spring/summer stiff tomorrow so I can stop by the consignment shop monday...

Oh, and because I think it's funny... I told DH what I was thinking of and he was like 'I thought that was the plan all along'. LOL

[NewMommy6111]

I would keep your favorite 2 matchy outfits (one from each grandma & be sure the child wears that outfit around the grandma). Keep all the pieces together & then do like 5 (or however many you want) mix & match.

[Melinda29]

We have 5 pairs of plain jeans (or jeanshorts, jean skirts, or denim capris in summer) for each child. Then 10 shirts in any color, style, whatever (shortsleeved in summer, longsleeved in winter). Even my 2-yr-old can dress herself and always look good . There is nothing else to wear in the house (except church-only outfits), so they have to wear what they have or go naked. And they have to do their chores--which includes getting dressed--every morning before they can get out books or toys.

We get nice plain jeans, jeanshorts, denim capris, and jeanskirts from oldnavy.com.

As far as the matchy Gymbo outfits, we keep the shirt and hairbows and donate the rest. I am too busy to fool around with matching up outfits or fighting kids to put outfits together right. Gymbo shirts look adorable with plain jeans, especially if you have a coordinating hairbow . That's the majority of what we have.