Top totes have their school clothes. Bottom totes have new clothes.

My kids store their clothes by category. They have totes for their school clothes. They have plastic draws for clothes wore at home. They hand their churches dresses and jackets in their closet.

All these three areas were full until few months ago. When I washed their clothes and asked them to put them away, it was always a struggle. I came to realize that they didn’t like to put their clothes away because it was hard for them to fit the clothes in their totes and closets.

Right before winter, I decided to go through their clothes. They have clothes they outgrew still in the closets and totes. I blamed them for not be organized with their stuffs in the past. But the real problem was me.

I went drastic at sorting their clothes. Many bags went to the thrift store. Few clothes were put aside to turn into rags.

Each of my girls has a totes for her school clothes.

In each tote, I only included five tops, 3 pants, five undies, and five socks for school.

They also have one plastic draw each for home clothes.

Drawers for their home clothes

I included 5 outfits for homes per kid.

In the closet, they each have 1 jacket for church, 1 jacket for school, and a snow pant. I sorted through their clothes and only hung in the closet three dresses for each one of them.

Church clothes

All the remaining clothes, I got a tote for each one of the girl and stored clothes they could wear the following school year, to school, church and at home. I put these totes under their school clothes’ totes. They are not allowed to take anything from the bottom totes unless a pant is torn, I would get rid of it or transfer to home draw and take a new pant from next year supply to their school tote.

Now after laundry, it is so easy for them to put their clothes away. I wash their clothes every other day and hang their in their room to dry during winter or outside when the weather is good.

Winter is just over. I washed their school jackets, snow pants, and dried their church jackets and stored them in the basement in the tote for winter. This freed space in their closets. As I stored them I know what would be handed down and what won’t. The one that are not going to be handed down are going in the trash or thrift store based on the quality. In the meantime I wrote down on the G drive who needs what for next winter.

I would be going through their clothes again after school is over and empty the school tote and pass some clothes down to home draw and send some home clothes to thrift store.

By being more involved with their clothing, I know what they need and what I should buy. I also realized that by doing small load laundry, it helps to buy clothes that can be washed together without color bleeding out and buy colors that don’t show stain much. I more selective of clothes to keep for them and clothes to buy. I have being teaching them to wash their clothes also. It makes it easy for them not to have to sort color. I just tell them to set the washing machine on small or medium, cold, and regular, add the soap and the clothes. After we did it together many times, they are eager to do it themselves. I just go and checked on them later. My two daughters are five and seven years old this year when they started to do laundry. I have been teaching them  to wash their underwear by hands in the bathroom during their shower. They are getting good at it. Not just my kids’ clothes are downsized. I sorted their toys and stored them in totes in the basement. I did the same to their books.

Blue tote on the left contains puzzles they are playing with at the moment.

One tote of toys is brought to their room for them to play with the contents for few weeks and is put back before another one is brought back. They go in the basement and get two books each to read for a week and return them to get other ones. I freed two shelves in the linen closets when I decluttered there and they stored their books and school papers there. By decluttering my girls’ room, they can easily play in there and have access to their clothes easily. Also in the morning, it is easy for them to get an outfit for school as there is not much to choose from. They didn’t have to take it out the night before.  My daughters’ room is very simple. They chose or their dad helped choose their room color and I painted it. I painted a wall in chalkboard. They like to jump in their beds. I removed the bed frames and put their mattress on the floor. Now it child friendly. And that is it. It is nothing fancy just practical and I loved that way.

I have downsized my toddler’s clothing also. But not as drastic as the girls. I would be sorting it again soon. I sorted infants outfits and kept a tote full of them and sent the rest to thrift store. It was hard to do as many outfits were new or too beautiful to decide which one to keep and which to let go and I downsized them by half.