we live in an old house built in the 20′s. it is about 2000 square feet with 3 legal bedrooms (4 really but one doesn’t have a closet so it doesn’t count) and has a total of 4 tiny closets for the entire house. the basement is damp and anything stored down there molds w/in 6 months tops. so, what is a mother of 6 to do about storing all those clothes for all those kids for all those seasons???
last year, i started purging. the amount of clothes in my kids’ drawers is ridiculous. what’s that rule? we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time i think. and that’s so true. but, getting them to part with the less than desirable is sometimes hard. also, we live in a world of affluence and the mindset that we must have 20 articles of each clothing item. we are all sucked into the madness.
to remedy this, besides the 1 in 1 out rule, i’ve enforced a rule limiting the amount of clothing they may have. besides storing the clothes they wear in season, they also have to store any out of season clothes and future year clothes in their tiny closet and/or drawers. i feel a bit harsh doing this but it works and they seem ok once the purge is done. my older 2 children go to school (my 2 step kids are in a private school and wear uniforms so this isn’t an issue so much, not to mention they don’t have many clothes here anyway) and also have a stash of clothes at their dad’s so they really have twice the amount of clothes (at least) and don’t have to worry about being ridiculed for wearing the same clothes over and over. my younger kids are home schooled and all my friends are poor like we are so we are used to seeing the same clothes over and over again. 
for a master clothing list, this is what i’ve come up with:
for the boys:
5 everyday pants
3 play pants
5 everyday long sleeve shirts
2 play shirts
4 everyday shorts
3 play shorts
5 everyday t-shirts
2 play t-shirts
7 pairs socks
7 pairs boxers
1 pair flannel jammies (younger one has more)
2 sweatshirts
2 sweaters
1 pair swim shorts
1 pair boots
1 pair play shoes
1 pair snow boots
and for the girls:
5 everyday skirts/dresses (or pants depending on their preference)
3 play skirts/dresses (or pants depending on their preference)
3pairs pants (or skirts/dresses if above is swapped)
5 everyday long sleeve shirts
2 play shirts
4 everyday shorts
3 play shorts
5 everyday t-shirts
2 play t-shirts
7 pairs socks
7 pairs undies
1 pair flannel jammies (younger one has more)
2 sweaters/sweatshirts
2 sweaters
1 swim suit
1 pair boots
1 pair play shoes
1 pair tennis shoes
this easier said than done…my mom doesn’t help with her excessive garage sale purchases but she is getting better. plus, girls are more into their clothes than the boys. and, all the coaxing in the world doesn’t convince my partner to get rid of his t-shirts or old clothes that are too small (“i’m going to lose the weight, i swear”). i think he has about 48 t-shirts alone…and, i’m guilty too….i see so many ‘great’ deals at the thrift shop that i now have another overabundance of clothing. but, as the kids constantly stretch out my tops reaching down while nursing, i’m holding on to all the extras until those days are over. other than that, i need to go in and be ruthless and start purging again. i have recently gone through my clothes from my business days. i don’t need those suits anymore so i’ll save 1 or 2 for just in case and call it wonderful.
if i would just stop perusing the women’s aisles when i shopped at the thrift shop, my dilemma of purging would be a lot easier. but, being able to fit all my clothes, winter & summer in a 1′ x 6′ area is quite satisfying. i’m not there yet but i’m working on it!
my dream master clothing list is this:
10 everyday skirts/dresses (5 for summer-shorter, 5 for winter-longer)*
6 work skirts (3 for summer-shorter, 3 for winter-longer)
2 dressy skirts/dresses & all the trimmings (greg has fancy business functions that we attend 1-2 times per year)*
3pairs pants (jeans and other)*
5 everyday long sleeve shirts
2 work shirts
3 everyday underskirts for winter
3 pairs long underwear type pants
5 everyday short sleeved shirts 2 work short sleeved shirts
4 tank tops
7 pairs socks*
7 pairs undies (mostly for moon cycle time 
)*
2 pair flannel jammie bottoms*
2 sweaters
3-4 head kerchiefs*
4 aprons (2 short for summer, 2 long for winter)*
1 swim suit*
1 pair boots*
1 pair sandals
1 pair mules*
i have achieved this in several categories (*) but i’m weak in the shirt and skirt category. i rationalize it by saying i won’t grow out of them as the kids will and mine wear out so i need more stored away. plus, the survivalist in me insists on having a stash for when tshtf and stores don’t exist anymore.
the key for having less is to choose more quality. i make it a practice to only buy clothing for myself and my family if it is well made and made out of natural materials: silk, linen, cotton, wool. it is hard to do sometimes but worth it. the clothes usually feel better too. i am working on buying 2 pairs of earth shoes by kalso…a pair of mules (my current ones are ripping on the sides and won’t be repairable much longer. i spent $4 on them at the thrift shop 3 years ago and they are leather, very nice brand) and a pair of winter boots. i just can’t justify the cost even though the ergonomics of them would suit my feet so much more better (i can’t wear heels or my feet cramp all night long very badly). i keep watching for them on ebay…someday i’ll snag them! i expect that they’ll last me for many years to come when i finally do.
has anyone else worked on cutting back on their clothes consumption? what areas do you struggle with maintaining a sane amount? do you feel a sense of relief by owning less (i know i do when i’m there)? what do you do to prepare for hard times in the (no so distant??) future?
I haven’t bought clothes for myself in years. My husband hasn’t thrown out any clothes in years. And people like to give us clothes. I will buy the boys a new School outfit at Christmas time, and socks through-out the year. Still, they have more clothes than they need. We do a lot of hand-me-downs, and purge the youngest ones out-grown clothes. But really no other purging. I have thought about it, since they seem to wear the same clothes over and over any way.
Last year I purged my dresser/closet and it was a really freeing experience. One of my girls needed my big dresser and I had one of those closet organizer things already in place. I hadn’t realized how much stuff I was holding onto for emotional reasons or yeah one of these days this will fit me again! I took many gargage bags of stuff to the thrift store. Everything fits into my half of the closet! I had also told myself that if I bought something new, something old would have to go…that really didn’t work out, so I need to purge again.
Kris
As far as preparing for wtshtf, I’m not there yet –check in with me in a year-hope we have that long
My wife is the youngest of seven, all of whom live relatively close and have kids just older than our two. We get gifted all the out grown clothes, many of which have never been worn, some with the tags still on them (ridiculous!) We have the same problem with clothing filling every nook and cranny in our 120 year old, closetless farmhouse. Our son (age 8) got so tired of putting things away that he just piled them in the corner and covered them with a blanket. He thought I wouldn’t notice. I scooped the pile into a 50 gal. trash bag and moved them to our bedroom. He didn’t miss any of them. He has asked for socks and underwear a few times, and I have pulled out a few for him. C and I will probably sort through the bag soon, just to make sure there is nothing really important in there and then drop the whole thing off at Goodwill or some such place. I think you are right about the 20%. That seems to be about where we are with our son. The rest of us will be purging too, in a less random way. For storage we use the giant vacume bags. I was pretty skeptical, but they really work and reduce the space required by off season things. They also seem to do a pretty good job protecting things from the damp. Being home schooled farm kids helps a lot too. No pressure to dress up or be fashionable, except when we go into town. That is always a challenge, convincing the kids that they need to wear cloths with out manure on them, or holes in inappropriate places, and that certain things just don’t go together. Teaching fashion sense with out creating fashionistas is a challenge.
It’s a struggle, we have no closets either. We each have one armoire, and a dresser. A friend of ours finds us lots of clothes at the Goodwill as-is, but sometimes it is too much. I have paper boxes (recycled from when I worked) full of extra sweatshirts and linens. They are practically new, I couldn’t bear to pass them on yet.
As for new, I buy work jeans, shoes, and down vests. Hubby’s work clothes are provided by his work. I don’t feel comfortable in a dress. Maybe because we had to wear dresses to grade school. Wearing jeans in high school was empowering. So for me clothes are an issue, I have just traded styles. My daughter could care less about clothes, she wears things until they are rags. She has finally learned to keep one good (clean) set of clothes that she only wears to town, or when we have to dress up. Having no closets helps us keep our influx whittled down.
I love that one tag on this post, LOL! trying so hard to say no!
I have to do the same and I also have a tendency to hold on to stuff “I will fit again”. I am never going to fit it again. Generally, I do hold on to shrunken wool sweaters and worn-out/small cotton clothes in one giant rubbermaid tub. I plan to use them for quilts sometime. Hopefully. Otherwise, your list sounds reasonable. I really wear the same things over and over too and Goodwill/thrift is such a great resource for when things wear out.
great post!
emphelan – getting rid of clothes that are too small for the smallest is always easy, isn’t it?!
kris – holding onto clothes for emotional reasons is a big hangup of mine. even though i know i’ll most likely never wear them again, it’s hard to cut them loose.
preparing is such a long hard road. baby steps! you’ll be further along than you realize before you know it.
alan – i get gifted clothes from a friend who used to nanny and has friends who still nannies…she sends tons of girl clothes over that have never been worn. it’s sickening to imagine how many clothes those kids must have.
i do similar tactics with my kids to get rid of clothes and toys! if they aren’t missed after 6 months, they are gone. i should probably send them out sooner but i don’t want to be a total grim reaper.
i never thought about using the vacuum bags. i’ll have to try those. where did you get yours?
you should have seen my kids today when i went grocery shopping. they looked like orphans…i’m really bad about remembering to even wipe the mud off their faces before we leave the house let alone change their clothes.
my little girl is such a fashionista, it’s sad. i couldn’t imagine what she’d be like if she did go to school!
moh – i live in skirts. i think the others in the master naturalist class that i’m taking right now think i’m insane…i’ve gone to every class in a skirt, even when hiking through swamps and cliffs and woods. and sandals.
i wear pants underneath to keep warm but i truly prefer skirts. it hasn’t hindered me…i’m usually at the head of the line in the hikes. ha
gina – i’m not sure that tag was quite what i was going for but my brains wasn’t functioning 100% when i wrote the post and that was all that could come to mind. it will be interesting to see who else uses the tag and what reason!
i tend to hold onto fabrics that will make awesome quilts/patchwork clothes/whatever someday. sigh.
We got out vacuum bags at Bed Bath and Beyond a year and a half ago. They have gone through several seasonal changes, switching out sweaters and quilts for summer things and then back again. They seem to hold up quite well and are worth the cost when space is tight. I’m sure you can find them other places now.
I usually manage to get the kids cleaned and brushed before we go out, but often forget my self. Being a stay at home dad with home school kids and a broken down little farm we are trying to rebuild gets me enough funny looks that I really don’t notice the fashion critics.
Aaahhhh purging, dear to my heart lately. For me it’s an easy thing to do. I can’t stand clutter or things all cramped up. I’m simple though, I like jeans and t-shirts or sweatshirts. Nothing fancy needed. My shoes are a pair of sneakers, riding boots, and work boots, 2 pair sandals for summer.
My husband is a different story, he won’t get rid of anything! He has a suite we must save. We bought it for him back in the 80’s when a men’s store went out of business. I keep moving the darned thing around and reminding myself of the great price (The tags are still on it) and how much he really wanted it for his Mason’s meetings! He has NEVER worn it and I doubt it even would fit him today.
In season clothing must fit inside everyone’s dresser or hang in their closet and I don’t much care what’s in there, it up to whom ever owns it to care for it. A little guidance and teaching when they were younger taught them how to do it. Apart from my 2 year old granddaughter everyone is pretty good at telling me what needs replacing.
Our off season clothing goes into boxes cut down to fit under everyone’s bed. The clothing must fit in those boxes or a choice must be made as to what needs to go. End of discussion, by the next season they are needed there will be more given to us guaranteed.
I also do the dirty job of getting rid of the ripped or badly worn clothes while doing the laundry. “I don’t know… maybe it got lost in the laundry?” When I say this everyone knows what I mean and to stop looking for it, it’s gone. Mom made an executive decision for them.
I also think about what if there is a time when you can’t get clothing for one reason or another. I figure around here there are enough “stashes/barterers” it won’t be much of a problem with in our group. I’m not alone in the planning ahead thinking, I have several friends, and we discuss this often. My strength is storing food, herbs and medical supplies and another’s is storing things like clothing and blankets, another stores seeds and primitive type equipment (non electric). Between us all I think together our families will be just fine. I would like to add I DO TRUST this group to live up to the plans and promises made, they too will be dependant of the rest of the group. We are not obsessed about it, but when I see lamp oil on clearance I remember to pick up an extra or two in case one of these people will ever need it. And it is fuel and would be worth a great deal…(Walgreens just recently had their small propane cylinders for the portable grills on clearance, bought everyone they had for .50 each…now I have them stored high and dry)
Seems like you have a great start on this and have planned it out well. I might try “living out of the laundry basket” for a month at the end of each season to see what really never got worn. What ever is left in the dresser is the stuff to get rid of, the stuff in the basket and current load of laundry is what to keep.
Great post as usual, got to thinking about my own clothing again. One other thought, jackets, hats, mittens, and scarves I never get rid of unless they are no good. These are always handy, someone always shows up and forgot theirs….
I went mad this past Spring when I washed, folded and put away clothes in my 4-year olds drawers only to find all the clothes that were in there all on the floor. I asked why she did that and she said she didn’t like any of them. I sat down with her and we went through the entire dresser (3 large drawers) and found that all the stuff I thought was cute, she hated. hmph! So we whittled to what she liked and her drawers have been neat ever since. I repeated the same with my 6 year old and it was the same thing– she didn’t like what I thought she did.
My 2 year old wanted everything her sisters didn’t want!! But I had to draw the line at putting them all in her drawers.
I think at the moment, all the girls each have (approx.) 5 pjs, 15 tops, 15 bottoms (mostly skirts) and 15 dresses.
The baby (my first boy) has too many baby clothes, and I only rotate between 10 (of my) favorite outfits. Getting colder here now, so I’ll be adding in the fleece outfits soon.
[...] This post on Women Not Dabbling in Normal caught my attention. And I followed this Wardrobe Therapy project last spring but didn’t get up the gumption to join. But, this time, I think I’m in. I really need focus when I get involved in a large project like this–otherwise I do a bang up job with the sweaters and skirts and then abandon the whole thing. Last night I started by making a list of “Just the Basics.” I’d love to someday live a life that allows me to own only enough clothes for a week or two! Right now, however, I have a need for three different wardrobes: Work/Professional, Work & Free-Time/Polished Casual, and Exercise & Chores/Task Specific. Plus a few dressy items for special date nights and atypical functions. I started a list yesterday and I can already tell that it is a) too big and b) going to make me choose between items I both like and find functional. Well, nobody said it would be easy, I suppose! Check in later this weekend for the Wardrobe Therapy interview. [...]
We were able to reduce our amount of clothes when we quit our jobs and started working from home. Now we’re holding on to things so that we have them when our current wearings wear out. I’m sure we still have too much. But I’m conent to wear jeans & a t-shirt to work every day. Hopefully someday we’ll be able to end up with just 5-10 changes of clothes each.
I too am feeling overwhelmed by the contents of my two daughter’s closets. My littlest one just turned one and already her closet is full. How is that possible? There are all the hand-me-downs and gifts and bargains . . . I too need to purge but will have to psyche myself up to do it!