How I Create Minimal Wardrobes For My Kids

The past few months have been a whirlwind. James was working out of town 5-6 days a week for most of the winter which made the whole season somehow fly by and slow way down simultaneously. His return to a normal schedule coincided with the official beginning of spring, so we were looking forward to mid-March even more than usual!

As per usual, spring is making a slower start than I would like, but while we've been waiting for the weather to heat up and for some color to return to the world, I've been working on putting together the kids' summer wardrobes. This didn't used to be such a chore for me. I'd go to a consignment sale or two, hit up a good Carter's sale, and call it a day. What did used to be an overwhelming chore for me was laundry. Laundry and somehow keeping everybody's clothes contained in their designated dressers and closets. I constantly felt like I was absolutely drowning in kids clothes, yet putting together outfits for them was still a headache because they'd have this one pair of shorts that only matched with one or two shirts and maybe one of those shirts were dirty (or somewhere at the bottom of Mount Laundry). A couple years ago, fed up with shoving clothes into drawers and stacking yet another bin stuffed full of off season clothes in just one size and gender in the basement, I decided to drastically minimize the kids clothes.

And then my life changed. I am not even kidding.

I realized if I concentrated on buying neutral bottoms and mostly basic tops in solids or stripes, I could get away with a lot less clothing for all of them. When I switched to one load of laundry every day, having less clothes got even easier (and Mount Laundry was conquered once and for all, never to make an appearance again) This meant shopping for new clothes was a lot more difficult that filling up a huge bag at the consignment sale, but it was well worth the challenge.

When I first started, I wasn't super intentional. No specific lists or numbers, I just focused on neutrals and solids and not overbuying. It worked for the most part, but I still ended up with some holes that needed filling here and there. Now I go into each season with a list. Before making my list, I pull out bins (all drastically purged so that each now fit several sizes in both genders for one season) from last year to find what might still fits. Once I know what can be worn again for a second year, and what size each kid will be moving into, I can make my lists. Then, lists always close by, I go to one consignment sale and then fill in with end of winter and early spring sales. I shop more at Old Navy than Carters these days since I feel like their clothes tend to mix and match a little better. I also discovered Primary, a super cool company who makes basic kids clothing in a wide range of solid colors and some stripes. They tend to run a little pricier than my frugal self likes, but they run sales all. the. time.

Sticking to my list, I slowly piece everything together and keep it all in one small bin in the basement. Once it seems everything on my list has been taken care of, I lay it all out to make sure I'm not missing anything important. If we're all good, I wash everything and we're good to go! Laundry is easier, managing where everything is put away is easier (I can easily fit Sam and Kate's non-hanging clothes in one of those plastic 3 drawer bins, Henry and Anna share a 3 drawer dresser with tons of extra space), and dressing them is easier. I try and include a few matching or coordinating pieces for special occasions or for when we go to amusement parks or museums (because it's just easier to keep track of everybody when they're wearing one main color). I also try to make the girls' holiday dresses (for Christmas and Easter) be dressy enough to be special, but neutral enough that they can wear them again several times throughout the season.

These are everybody's summer clothes for this year.

This is the list I worked from for this summer. My winter list was similar, only with a few more tops and bottoms for layering purposes.

Boys-

3-4 pairs casual shorts (including 1 pair khaki shorts)

3-4 pairs athletic shorts

7-10 tshirts (2-3 graphic ts, the rest solids or stripes)

3-4 collared shirts (including something suitable for Easter)

2-3 pairs pjs with shorts

1-2 pairs pjs with pants

1 bathing suit

1 pair sandals (sturdy enough for hiking, decent looking enough for church)

1 pair flip flops

Girls-

2-3 pairs shorts

1 pair white undershorts to wear w/ dresses

5-7 tshirts

7-8 dresses (including something suitable for Easter)

2-3 pairs pjs with shorts AND/OR nightgowns

1-2 pairs pjs with pants

1 bathing suit

1 pair sandals

1 pair flip flops

1 pair white, dressier sandals

To some people's standards, this isn't at all minimal. I could easily pare this down even more, especially since I do laundry every single day. This is what works best for us right now though. The boys are semi-interested in their clothing choices and Kate is very interested in her clothing choices. Anna doesn't care yet. These numbers have struck the right balance between keeping things manageable and giving everybody choices! This also accounts for those crazy days were people are just spilling drinks and rolling in dirt and peeing all over themselves left and right, requiring multiple wardrobe changes before dinner.

Right now everybody is old enough to mostly stay in one size for a whole season. My kids usually move up a size in the spring, so I don't buy multiple sizes for the summer unless a growth spurt sneaks up on us. Sometimes towards the end of winter I need replace some of their pants and long sleeve shirts with the next size up that I then roll into their winter wardrobe for the next year. When I have had a baby who was probably going to change sizes mid-season, I'd just do maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of this list for each size.

I keep underwear, socks, and outerwear to a minimum as well. That all looks something like this for the spring/summer:

Undies- 7 pairs

Socks- 5-7 pairs

Zip-up hoodie- 1

Sweater/cardigan- 1

Sun hat/baseball cap- 1

Sunglasses- 1

Here's everybody's summer wardrobes laid out for those of you who need a visual.

Sam's

Kate's

Henry's

Anna's (Anna ended up with more tshirts than I originally planned because she still sometimes requires a shirt change after lunch)

So does this take planning and work? Yup. Was it easier to just buy a bunch of stuff and wing it. Yup. Is it worth all of the planning and work? YUP x1000000. I've even rolled this over into my own wardrobe, purging a lot of unnecessary items and only keeping neutrals and solids that can mix and match. 

I can say with 100% honesty that drastically minimizing my kids' clothing has made a huge, positive impact on my sanity and on our home life. I know it's not for everybody. For some this is still too much clothing, and for others it's far too little. But this is the balance that I've found works best for us and makes our life run as smoothly as possible ❤

A Want/Need/Wear/Read Christmas

I love Christmas. All of it. I love cheesy Christmas movies and I love nativity scenes. I love cookies and I love Advent wreaths. I love that God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and O Holy Night can coexist with All I Want For Christmas Is You and the Chipmunk’s Christmas Don’t Be Late. I’ve been unapologetically listening to Christmas music here and there for a couple weeks now, though we won’t decorate until after Thanksgiving. I have loved the whole Christmas season my whole life, and once I had kids my love for Christmas just exploded and I swear it grows a little more every year. The excitement and anticipation of Christmas through the eyes of kids is nothing short of magical.

Something else I love about Christmas is the gifts. Giving them and receiving them. I know that’s not really the right thing to say, but hear me out! I love thinking about things to give people. I love watching them open a gift (or just imagining them opening a card we sent!) and seeing joy on their face. I love receiving gifts. When I say I love receiving gifts, don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean that love being given big, expensive things. Or piles of stuff. I love the gift of being seen. I love knowing our name is on somebody’s Christmas card list. I love opening a gift one of my kids’ made for me (“I used pink paper to make that necklace because I know that’s one of your favorite colors!”) Heck, I love being tagged in a meme on Facebook because it reminded somebody of me. I think being seen is a gift that most people would love to receive. “I picked this out for you because I know you’ll love it.”, “I got this for you because I know you need it for work/your new hobby”, “I made these cookies for my family this week and remembered they’re your favorite so I brought you some!”, “Just wanted to say hi and I think you’re a great mom.”, “Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family!” Gifts. Amazing gifts.

We want our kids to have this same view of gifts. We want them to know that the gifts of time or a kind word are just as (more even) important as the gift of a new toy. We also want them to play and explore and grow and learn and have toys that they love without feeling like we are drowning in a sea of toys. This can be such a hard balance to strike at any point in time, but especially at Christmas.

A few years ago, when Sam was 3 and Kate was 1, and we were talking about feeling ready to add a 3rd little one to our family soon, I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed by toys and Christmas was fast approaching. Browsing Pinterest one day, I stumbled across this Christmas list template for 4 gifts. 1 thing I want, 1 thing I need, 1 thing to wear, 1 thing to read. To me this was brilliant. Not only would it help us avoid the present overwhelm on Christmas morning, but I could see how it would greatly simplify Christmas shopping for me, having clear cut categories like this. So we tried it out, and haven’t looked back ever since. It seems to have gained some popularity in the past couple years and I am hearing about more and more families doing it. James and I even do it for our own gift exchanging now. I’ve seen some other incarnations of the template I found that include things like “1 thing to do share”, or “1 place to go.” I love those! We haven’t added those because I usually use some grandparent Christmas money for joint and/or experience gifts.

Since our first year of want/need/wear/read, our Christmas gift plan has changed a little bit, but the past 2 years have been the same and I think we’ve found our “sweet spot”. The want/need/wear/gifts come from us and the kids write to Santa asking for one special toy. Santa will also bring a new game or puzzle and something handmade, either by us or by somebody on Etsy. This works so well for us. Christmas morning is peaceful and fun, and clean up later in the day is very quick and easy. 

Gifts quickly and easily corralled post present opening.

The “want” and “read” gifts always seem to be the easiest for me and for others that I know who use these same categories. Kids are usually pretty open about things that they want and books (for me anyway!) are always so easy and fun to pick out for anybody! Sometimes “need” and “wear” can be a little trickier.

Oftentimes nobody really needs new clothes. Sometimes get them something really special (like a tutu dress for Kate or graphic t-shirts for the boys with trains or construction vehicles on them). Or we’ll go with new shoes, sunglasses, a jacket, or even something for dress up play.

In the past I’ve come up with “need” gifts that were the same for everybody across the board. Water bottles one year, umbrellas another, rain boots still another. This year is the first year that I’ve had different “need” ideas for everybody. But some “need” ideas I always have on my radar, besides those I just shared: something for a sport or activity they’re involved in (a ballet bag, a soccer ball, a piano songbook), a jewelry box, a bank or a wallet, a backpack, lunch box, crayons, a drawing pad, slippers, a blanket or quilt for their bed, hiking boots, a sleeping bag, binoculars, a compass, bike helmet. Sometimes I’m afraid the “need” gift will come across as boring, but so far it hasn’t! I think it’s important (and hard) to remember that kids are usually actually pretty easy to please. It’s easy to get the thought into our minds that they need something flashy and fancy to hold their attention, but let me tell you about the squeals of excitement we heard last year when everybody got a new pair of slippers! Slippers that they still get excited about to this day! So, if you want to try this, embrace the simple “need” gifts. Most likely they’ll be incredibly well received!

Like I said earlier, James and I do want/need/wear/read gifts for each other as well (Santa fills our stockings, but doesn’t leave gifts for us under the tree). Same as with the kids, the categories make planning and shopping so much easier, but even more than the kids, there’s something so special about both giving and receiving a “need” gift. Because with adults who are capable of meeting their own needs, you have to think “outside the box” a little bit and get them something they might not know they need. Last year James got me the gift of time to myself for my “need” gift. Bath products and coupons for things like trips out of the house by myself (to run errands or to just grab a cup of coffee). Things that yes I do need, but things that I’m not good at just doing for myself or asking for. My “need” gift from James always makes me feel so seen and so cared for.

I know that Christmas can be so overwhelming for a lot of different reasons, but a gift giving template like this one can do a lot towards simplifying not only Christmas morning, but also the aftermath! I am so thankful that I found this idea several years ago. And I am so excited that Christmas time has rolled around again! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play a Pentatonix Christmas album. Again.