I could cry because this is so helpful! I can’t even begin to tell you how UP TO MY NOSE in clothes I am right now because of my kids! Thank you thank you!!
I’m curious to know how you’ve got on with this? and do you still follow Dawn? I’ve only discovered her this Autumn but love everything she does... literally changed my home life and way of thinking overnight 😊
@@wildminders2233 I have just discovered her this week and after trying for about ten years to simplify our house, I feel like I really can do it this time. My car is FULL of bags of stuff I am getting rid of already and it feels great! With four kids and a MOUNTAIN OF CLOTHES and toys, I cannot wait to get to this. Next stop, kids clothes!! Good luck, S Richards!!
I love this! But I do want to caution: We ALL had the stomach flu one year - used up lots of sheets, crib sheets, towels (catching vomit while holding a baby or small child), and clothes. We have 2 towels/wash cloths, fitted sheets/sheets, blankets, per person. I keep extra kitchen towels since those are smaller for an emergency. And we have the dog's towels in case we all get the flu again. I'm sharing this just to remind anyone who is gung-ho about minimizing, to remember that you might not be up to doing a load a day every once in awhile. I really love your idea, Dawn, of keeping the extras in a bin for awhile. I think I will do this with extra outfits, kitchen towels and crib sheets for an emergency instead of in closets. I also keep a change of clothes in the car for my kids. Sometimes they have become a bit small, but with kids who get car sick, I am so glad I have an extra outfit!
Yes! I have a bunch of extra towels because you never know when someone will be sick (family or the dog) or you might have a water leak or you may need to put a towel down to keep from scuffing your floor, etc. Towels are the one thing I have an abundance of and don't feel bad about.
I like 8, as the number of items. Especially for travelling. If you're away for more than a week, clothes for 8 days will give you 7 days of clothes, and something to wear on day 8 while you're washing them all! As each of mine have their own dresser, I'm going to let the drawer size dictate how much of each type they can keep
@@ml6807 I like that idea. Our kids are grown with children of their own. I’ve been watching Dawn this summer. I’ve been volunteering in elementary school since 2011. I have 5 pairs of jeans, all the same color. I have 2 for school & 3 for home. I’ve literally written inside the jeans. To help hubby out, who has had to take over laundry & bringing up the steps, I have written the word home in three pairs of jeans. I could have just put a BIG X in the jeans. I tell hubby to go to basement & bring up a pair of jeans that has writing or no writing. This doesn’t happen to often only on mornings when laundry was just finished the day before & it hasn’t gotten into my closet. A tip for me. Even though all jeans are same size. Every so often there is a pair that is a bit to small, so I have written tight. 😊 Probably should get rid of, but in a pinch, they work.
Dawn, thank you! I just stopped the video at 5:39 and cried!!! We have five children and people have been so generous to us and our children that we could clothe a small country. I have been overwhelmed with children's clothes since 2011, I and my kids don't know what to do. I will start to find their five favorites and box up EVERYTHING else. Thanks so very much!
For those, like me, who do well with steps written down: Step 1- wash all the kids' clothes so you have ~99% of their clothes on hand Step 2- Pick 5 tops and 5 bottoms to keep Step 3- Put the rest of the clothes away in a bin or similar so you can see how the kids do with the limited wardrobe Step 4- try it out for a week and adjust as needed. Step 5- Donate, gift, or let go of what they don't use/notice are gone. Allow for personal tastes and weather.
I do similar. I have 6 sets of nice clothes and 4 sets of play clothes. My oldest is very rough on his clothes and so I don’t like him to wear his school clothes on the weekends.
These steps are great - but the donate part is the tough one... especially when you need to think ahead to weather and predict their sizes! We definitely need more than 2 sweaters in Canadian winters!
@@andreaperch5872don't envy you there. I live in Las Vegas so I basically have our son in shorts and t-shirts for roughly 9 months out of the year. Only frustrating thing is trying to avoid buying too many winter clothes but not having to do laundry every 2 days because I have so little on hand... since it won't fit him the following year. 😂
This was soooo helpful!! We have a hurricane passing right now (literally) so my wife and I decided to tackle all of our family’s clothes. We’re a family of 6 and while we do still have some clothes to be washed and sorted we managed to gather everything available and fill 3 bags for giveaway, throw out one bag full, and “hold” one basket for all of us. Most likely they’ll be given away in a month or so. The craziest thing is the time it took. We’ve been dreading going through the clothes for years! Once we got everyone’s clothes into a pile for each person, it only took 90 minutes to go through them all. 20 minutes to get everything put away afterwards. Under 2 hours for something we have put off for so long! Thank you for this video!
Just found your channel today and I'm loving it. I recently started to go through my kids clothes. What I ended up doing is going to their closet on laundry day since I know that all their favorites are currently in the laundry basket. Then I take several items that I haven't seen them wear. This will be something that I will continue to do at least every month going forward.
Hi! Minnesota mama here too! The ideas in this video are fantastic! With 6 kids, the amount of clothes and laundry is so overwhelming. I'd never thought to minimize their clothing this way, and there's something comforting about knowing there's a bin in the closet with extras just in case. Your videos are the most practical and helpful of any I've watched regarding minimalism for families. Thanks so much for sharing your great ideas! I'd love to see how you handle household paperwork.
Awesome, I love meeting other MN moms! Until recently, I felt like the only minimalist in MN ;) And YES, paper clutter coming up in the near future!!!!
I almost never comment on youtube, but I have to say I love the realistic, simple, and - can I say NORMAL? - approach you have to simplifying your life. I am also somebody who is not naturally neat and organized, and I can relate to the idea of simplifying in order to have less to tidy and clean! I have read a bit of other minimalist lifestyle gurus, but have always felt intimidated, or just out of their league somehow. We also have 4 kids, aged 8-16, but we live in a small house in an urban center, so it feels crazy and stressful, and I nearly cried when you pointed out that we find ourselves snapping at everybody because of all of the stuff everywhere: that is where I have been, and regretted it, so many times. Thanks, your videos have helped me feel like I can do this, and that I am doing it for peace and love.
Great tips! I feel this completely applies to our lives, that feeling that we might need the clothes and have to repurchase them. This is super inspiring!
What about seasonal gear? Rain coats etc. I just got our daughter a capsule wardrobe where almost everything is interchangeable. And it's so fun picking out her clothes! And now I don't need to worry about my husband choosing her outfits ;)
Thank you so much for talking at a reasonable pace and with clarity and confidence. Normally I'm very annoyed by the poor communication in UA-cam videos and can't finish them but yours was excellent, both the content and the delivery. 👍
Just set up a Simplified bin system for my son. After picking the favorites, it was so easy and stress free to throw the rest in a bin. Taking away the mental hassle of if I should keep this or not was life changing! Thank you for sharing!!
I used to get lot of "like new" clothing at thrift shops and yard sales for .50 cents. Between stuff that fit from the previous year, hand me downs and yard sales we had 45 summer shirts for my 5 year old one summer😳 although that is not the case now, still way too many clothes at our house. I love your method of picking out your favs instead of going through each piece deciding how much it is liked. LOVE YOU and your tips. It is doable for someone who hates all aspects of housework.😊
Thank you for this. My mother-in-law buys our kids clothes all the time and it honestly is a burden feeling like a slave to their clothes (and hair bows). I feel like I needed permission to do this and I just had twins a month ago. On Christmas she gave my husband and my 4 kids all huge boxes of clothes and accessories. In a way I wanted to cry. I'm purging and I'm going to gently ask her to limit her purchases or check with us if we have room for anything else before purchasing. My daughters have 2 winter coats with fur and we live in South Florida! Smh. It's a little funny but it seriously has to stop. The girls' have one 4 drawer dresser and we have 7 baskets full of clothes that can't be properly stored. The clothes have literally been in baskets for a couple years and it's out of guilt. 😞 No more. Thanks for the encouragement I needed! Taking my home back little by little. Minimalism is my goal! 😊💗
I am pregnant and have been avoiding dealing with my wardrobe this has definitely given me direction on how to do it, in the least stressful way possible. Thank you.
This strategy works for me because I stress over needing something in the future. So I pick a number that seems like it would work (like 5 pants) and put the rest in a box. And over time if I go looking for particular items, or if i need a few more, it's ok, I can just grab more, and I find out what that happy number is that I need and can manage. After a while you get used to having whatever your happy number is and you can feel less anxious about donating that box you haven't touched.
I did this exact method when my kids were younger. They grew up with an independent spirit and great fashion sense. My youngest had a maximalist friend who rarely wore an item twice that commented on her repeats, but otherwise it was fine. The kids are now 27, 25 and 21 and are terrific adults. I’m so glad I raised them this way. No one heard of minimalism back then. I was just being frugal 😂
Just watched this video again, as I stare at the 7 loads of unfolded, ignored laundry... We are getting ready to move and I really don’t want to take everything with us. This is the approach I plan to take with everything we own... I’m gonna pick the bare necessities and see how we manage. I’ve tried it before in small ways, like with certain utensils, but it doesn’t work unless you go all of the way because those utensils get buried under all the other dishes...so I’m gonna try it with clothes today! Thanks for your great tips!
I'm just seeing this after finding your laundry video. No kids, but this is genius to use for myself. I'm one who has far too many "everyday" clothes for around the house - especially tees.
I was thinking the similar way so thanks for letting me know im not alone I thought of only Summer shirts but good idea for the sweaters and long sleeves. My plan was to have two pairs of pants and five shirts for one week and repeat for a second week and those would be the school clothes takes the guesswork out of what they're going to wear for Monday through Friday. Then when they get home have one pair of everyday pants maybe two in case they get dirty and a couple of shirts that they can change into after school for outdoor play or messy art. At least two outfits for church. I like your idea because it incorporates layering as the weather gets colder so they could repeat one week instead of two. The plan was also if the school shirts were getting to small or worn out like to put it in the everyday after school clothes and weekend clothing and replace the old with the new and then of course toss one of the play shirts I babysat for a child whose wardrobe was rampacked in a small closet and she was always wearing the same kind of pants because they were comfortable and the same kind of shirts but her mom kept buying she outgrew many of them which still had price tags on them and I thought wow what a waste of money and time to wash as well as time to argue with the child of what they're going to wear
Just found your channel. You have great content. Exactly what my family needs right now. My oldest is almost 8 and youngest is almost 3. I am part-time self employed. My husband and I are gearing towards minimalist lifestyle. YOUR CHANNEL WAS DESIGNED FOR ME !!!Did my Angel come in your dream to do this? Stay blessed.
Ahh, I love this!!! Quite possibly your Angel did!!! :) I'll look forward to keeping in touch and hearing about your process, fun that our kids are the same age range!!
I came straight over from the video of addressing the no nice comments and you brought up your 1st video about kids clothes. I actually just texted u about that on your laundry tricks
I was already pretty minimal with my child’s clothes but this inspired me to pare down even more and I love it. On any given day 90% of his clothes are clean so why do we need so many? We don’t! Thanks :)
Love this! I have followed your past system on storing clothes for future sizes..clothes have started piling up! Cleaning out today! It's always nice getting helpful hints and a boost to get it down!! My hope is to get back to our minimal-ish house before baby number 4!
Isn't it just incredible how they accumulate! And we have such good intentions, not wanting to be wasteful or hasty with the things we have, but MAN it ends up being alot sometimes! Congratulations on baby four and best wishes re-simplifying! :)
So smart! I was just trying to cut back on clothes, but worry about the "what ifs". I have an entire trash bag of 9-12mth clothes. It's overwhelming, but couldn't decide how to simplify. Thank you 😊
Wow your before pile of clothes is far far less than what my little boy has! Time to go back through my sons wardrobe this is really inspiring and makes perfect sense x thank you x
Haha, love this! Over time, I've transitioned all of our kids' bottoms to solid colors so that they go with every top so we have alot of jeans, dark colored sweats and black leggings for the girls, they don't care as long as they can pick out the tops that they like :) But again, I only half care how fashionable they look, so this works for us :)
It took baby number 4 for me to fully give in to minimalism.😂. Thanks for the help. I wish I could share a pic of the clothes I finished sorting while listening to your video. It really doesn’t take more than 10 min!
Thank you so much great tips. I have a nice capsule warderobe for myself take me years to achieve! Lol. But for my kids i am struggling espacially for my girl i receive sooo much (mostly seconde hand) i already give back half of it but she has soooo much stuff
Love your videos! Ok so 5 top and 5 bottoms is easy with my boy. What I’m having difficulty is with my girls. Not so simple. Do you just group all the skirts and pants all in one group? What about dresses? Leggings? Also finding a simple pair of dress shoes that match everything is almost impossible these days. I could cry when it comes time to get new shoes. 🤦♀️ I don’t really have storage space for seasonal options or extras. Storage is a problem here. All we have is a small storage closet under the stairs where we keep all the home maintenance and emergency items. Probably will have to get rid of the Christmas tree and go natural because it takes up too much space.
Just pulled two giant plastic totes marked "12 month clothes" out of storage and decided to rewatch this video to get me through the ordeal of my baby moving up a size. Best idea I had all day. ;)
New to your channel, but loving all of your videos! Mom of 4 here too, so I am all ears to your suggestions and tips. Planning on streaming your videos while I declutter to help keep me motivated, as it does seem overwhelming. Many thanks for the great content and suggestions!! :)
I may try this, but I would do 5 t-shirts, 5 long sleeve, 5 shorts, 5 long pants. main thing I have to work on is the baby clothes! man do they pile up! I just put away the 0-3 and 3-6 but I have a big tote just a bit smaller like in this video for each size.... mind you there's a few blankets and coats too but still.... so hard to thin it out!
My kid probably has 30 of every article of clothing. 30 shorts 30 shirts 30 sweatshirts 30 sweat pants 30 leggings 30 undies 30 jammies. I am so overwhelmed
Do kids at school make fun of them? I’m honestly asking because I have a sixth grader and I just don’t want to cause him problems at school. Five shirts is probably too little for us but I definitely want to minimalize as much as possible! :)
I love this idea! I did this with my 5 & 3 year old recently to prepare for a season of tiny living, but I still feel like their clothes take up so much space. How is this system going for you, now that your kiddos are a little older?
I feel SO inspired by your videos! They are addictive and super helpful! I also have 2 girls and 2 boys, currently aged 11 mo. to 8 years. Question for you (forgive me if you've answered this; I'm not going to take the time to read through 325 comments to see if you have): 5 tops and 5 bottoms for boys sounds very reasonable. What about girls? It's winter now, so my girls are wearing anything from dresses, skirts, tights, leggings, pants, tops, cardigans, sweatshirts, undershirts, etc. They are fancy and love to dress up, all the time, so if I pared them down to 5 tops and 5 pants, there would be tremendous heartache. (We also go to church every Sunday, where my girls bust out their SUPER fancy dresses. I think they really believe they are princesses.) Also, how many pjs do you keep for your kids, and how often do you make them change them? My kids wear clean pjs every night, but I change mine about once every 3 nights.
So. . I had an idea like this a couple of years ago. There are 5 of us and I said everyone gets 14 of everything. And that's it. I mentioned it to my mom and she thought I was ridiculous but she still saw the mountain of laundry I was battling. .
I have cut my clothes down and the result is MORE laundry because I had to do it more frequently. I was changing my clothes twice a day (Texas heat) and I would never have any clean clothes to wear. So I was having to do laundry every single day and that was a giant pain. Then my clothes wore out faster because I was washing them so much and wearing only a couple of things all the time. I agree with less stuff YES, especially clothes, but have not been able to find a happy middle ground. My kids are older and wear school uniforms and then if I only have a couple I have to do laundry every single day. I just feel it's more work. And what about other clothes for kids like underwear, undershirts, PJs, swim gear, snowsuits, socks, etc? How many of those?
Erin Thorpe I have this issue with the heat as well. I found it sort of icky to change when I was all sweaty already, I just handle the heat and when it was night out “fresher” then I would shower and change. If you change often, then you’ll wash often; clothing wears out faster. Try to take the heat and never waver til nightfall and enjoy a fresh shower and a fresh outfit.
Ohhhh, these are good questions! We don't have the heat issue in MN (at least not very often-- my husband will often change during the day if he's been working outside, but not enough times throughout the year to really matter). As far as keeping clothes nicer that are washed often, I have read that everything can be washed on the delicate cycle if it doesn't have stains and you're just refreshing it. Our washer is old and for some reason with this cycle the the water isn't ever drained out of the clothes enough so I have to run the spin cycle again so I haven't been able to try that, but it is one idea and also using less detergent. And for me, probably because our kids are still younger and don't have busy schedules yet AND I work from home, I like having to do laundry everyday so it doesn't pile up. BUT, if your schedule isn't conducive with that and that causes MORE stress, then that definitely isn't a good idea! The goal is to reduce stress, not add to it! :) As far as the other clothing items, each child has 5-7 pairs of underwear and probably about the same number of pairs of socks. They each have two swim suits/trunks because they seem to live in them in the summer. For pajamas, 1 or 2 sets each, we don't wear them most nights, often they just put on clothes for the next day. But again, our kids are still fairly young, so most of their clothes are knit and comfortable to sleep in, so I'm not sure how it will change as they get older. I'm sorry, I wish I were more helpful!!!
I stopped obsessing over how many clothes my kids have. There is no perfect number. And I'm in Texas too, Houston to be exact, and it's hot. I really think we need a lot more summer stuff. We only have two swimsuits each, it's enough. Also, if your kids are young and in daycare they need more clothes because they require at least two back-ups at school. I've minimized the entire house, but gave up on the clothes. We have a lot, but having less means washing all the time. No thanks.
Erin Thorpe I LIKE having only a small number of clothes that I wash and wear frequently. Then, when I throw them out, they are actually worn out. I used to have so many clothes and they hung in the closet for so long, I was sick of seeing them, but couldn’t bring myself to throw them out because they were too good. Now, when the season changes, I have fewer clothes to store, I can throw out worn out clothing guilt-free and shop for new clothing pieces guilt-free because I actually NEED them.
Yay!! It's encouraging to hear success stories!!! My 8-yr old says that I wear the same shirt everyday and I keep telling her "you are the ONLY one who notices!!" ;)
The Minimal Mom I actually have doubles of some items (2 gray tees, 2 black tees) because I like them so much and my husband likes them, too! As long as I have my hair and makeup done, I feel put together even in my plain tees and jeans.
Just recently found your channel and I'm loving it. I'm SO tired of doing laundry 🙄 I am going to try this for my kids clothes!! I'm pretty sure my son literally owns 45 shirts.. he's not even 2 yet. Time to purge!
I would love to do this but we do laurndry once a month. Sheets and towels we do weekly at our on site laurndry. Other then that we can only go to the laurndrymat once a month. It's cheaper this way for now. I will do this when we have our own place.
@@lora-leahandersen440 Unforuntly where we are at we can't hang anything outside. They don't want you hanging stuff inside to be truthful. It would cost us more in the long run. I definitely CAN'T wait to have own our own place WITH a Washer & Dryer. Ive been going to the laurndrymat for the past 22 years
I’m rewatching some of your videos 😊 how would you apply this to multiple kids (hand me downs) I’d like to get rid of a bulk, but some of my kids are harder on clothes than others.
Having a hard time as I have a 4yo, 2yo and 8 week old. How in the world do I plan around how many clothes they need? Is it the same concept? I have multiple huge totes full of clothes that they wore and am having the hardest time going through them. 🙃
My question: Will this method still work if my children wear uniforms for school? Our children go to a charter school, so they wear uniforms 5 days a week. They only wear their casual clothes sometimes after school, as well as the weekends.
I would say, use your best judgement with these...our kids probably have 5-10 pairs of underwear and socks each, each child has one or two sets of PJ's (most often they sleep in their clothes)...in the past we probably had 20 of each, so it has been nice to have fewer! :)
Hi Dawn, I wanted to thank you for this! I have 2 kids and I was swimming in so many clothes that it was so overwhelming. I applied this with their clothes and mine and it has been such a great practice! I am going to be doing the toys and books next! Then hopefully end up doing my whole house!
I just found your channel and have binge watched a ton! I have 4 kids about exactly the same ages as yours, but 2 especially “wear” out their clothing super quickly. How would you ensure that you aren’t having to go out and purchase new clothes all the time. We get lots of hand me downs and only purchase clothing necessary to supplement what we already have, but I tend to keep too much as “back up”. But at times, we run out and have to go shopping.
Do you hold onto clothing to pass down to a sibling?We have three girls but they are all three years apart so we have so much in storage! It takes a lot of space. Plus we live in Michigan so we have summer and winter clothing.(plus jackets, shoes in several sizes, mittens, hats, snow pants, etc!)
I used to when I wasn't sure if we were done, now we have it super easy because our oldest two are girls and our younger two are boys, so I don't have to keep things very long. But I do accept hand me downs from my cousin and they are usually 2-3 sizes too big so I have to store them. So each child has a bin of "next" clothes and basically I limit anything I keep to fitting into these bins. This causes me only to keep good quality items, especially pants, out layers, or dress clothes. For us, kids' tops seem to be a dime a dozen at garage sales and second hand stores or on clearance at other stores, so they are easy to grab if we need them...but we seldom do!
It's so true that our kids have FAR too many clothes. I am shocked when I see youtube videos of mums cleaning their kids' rooms and they show the VAST amount of clothing they own, which cannot possibly all be worn (same with the toy-gluttony too). I've been pretty good with my kids, but I am off now to see if I can tighten up my 11-year old son's clothing!
I love this, I'm happy I found your channel before even having kids. Do you have any tips for how to handle baby clothes, toys, baby shower gifts, etc? I know you're past that point right now but I would love your thoughts!
GOOD questions! My sister just had a baby so we're planning on doing a series on this after the new year, but my best tips are: You need about 1/5 of the clothing you think, especially 6 months and smaller. Borrow as much from friends as possible to see if your baby likes it (bouncy seats, swing, bumbo, rocking thing--I forget what its called), borrow carriers if possible, so you can test them out, everyone likes something different...more to come!
I'd like to see the video of your daughter decluttering in her "ruthless" way. You know the one who doesn't mind getting rid of stuff? I feel like the lightbulb came on, and that this method could be applied to any room in the house. I'm going to try putting everything I actually need and use in a pile, everything else in bins to ship out of the house after a month, or in garbage bags. Some things I'm not even going to wait a month to get out of the house. I just got rid of my college books I paid hundreds of dollars for. I graduated 11 years ago. I never refer back to them, and probably never would've if I held onto them. When I was 24 I only owned what could fit inside my Buick. That was it. Stuff is stuff. It comes and goes, but in 16 years I've accumulated too much stuff. I didn't realize how good I had it when I was single, and I didn't have so much, or when I was a new mom and my son only had measuring cups and boxes to play with. When we had more time to go on runs and to the park, because I had less junk to maintain. Clutter, even when out of sight messes with me a little. I know it's there. It's something left undone. It's a project that needs to be tackled, but that is overwhelming. Little spaces, or one category everyday, and I'll get free. These videos are helping me to let go of stuff!! Thank you!!
I have had someone say that my daughter wore a lot of the same clothes. I told her she doesn't need a lot of clothes. Even when she had a lot of clothes I always dressed her in my favorites when she was a baby. I don't see why it matters if she has 6 outfits or 25. Besides the higher the outfit number makes me cringe over wasted money.
Tips for doing this system for toddler and newborn? I’ve got two girls- my toddler is super picky about her clothes, throws tantrums for items of clothing she must wear and will only wear one thing over and over again. I’ve tried getting rid of out of season items and still she will scream for them. Is this normal behavior or do I have a fashionista on my hands? She brought a wardrobe change to the park before. And she’s obsessed with wearing her baby clothes (yes, baby clothes) that are in her baby sisters dresser (they share a room) Thanks for any suggestions. 😅
Laundry is all over my house constantly and she changes clothes 5-15 times a day. No joke. Her wardrobe isn’t excessive- about 10 bottoms and 10 tops. several princess dressers.
I have started to down size my wardrobe but I am finding it hard to give my kids baby clothes in case I need it. Same goes with baby toys and jumping chairs. My kids are 2.5 yrs and 11 months. Any suggestions? Right now we have limited space for storage but the clutter is making us go crazy. Help us please !?!
Yes, when we were simplifying I knew our baby at the time was our last but my sister asked me to keep stuff for her. I decided not to keep anything that could be inexpensively replaced and had to really drill down on what we actually used and really only keep the essentials. That was a bouncy seat, moby wrap, swing and oh my goodness, what are those things called that they sit in the middle of and can stand and play with toys around them, big, but a life saver. The rest went! And after our third, who was supposed to be a girl, and we had two girls at the time, arrived as a boy and I had NO boy clothes, I realized HOW LITTLE babies actually need for clothing, some onesies, a few sleepers and a nice outfit or two and we were set! So that made it easier to get rid of clothes. I do have baby boxes for each of the kids that I kept a few favorite outfits in, though.
Dawn...why am I ridiculously attached to SO MANY of my kids clothes?!?! Ball uniforms with their names on them. Shirts that were their favorites. Shirts that were MY favorites. Just so much. How do I just get rid of them? Help!
I could cry because this is so helpful! I can’t even begin to tell you how UP TO MY NOSE in clothes I am right now because of my kids! Thank you thank you!!
Alicia same her
I’m curious to know how you’ve got on with this? and do you still follow Dawn? I’ve only discovered her this Autumn but love everything she does... literally changed my home life and way of thinking overnight 😊
@@wildminders2233 I have just discovered her this week and after trying for about ten years to simplify our house, I feel like I really can do it this time. My car is FULL of bags of stuff I am getting rid of already and it feels great! With four kids and a MOUNTAIN OF CLOTHES and toys, I cannot wait to get to this. Next stop, kids clothes!! Good luck, S Richards!!
@@denisea3465 Wow, that’s amazing 👍🏼😀 and your situation sounds very like mine 🤗
You won't believe how it changes and improves life for everyone in your house. Life changing.
I love this! But I do want to caution: We ALL had the stomach flu one year - used up lots of sheets, crib sheets, towels (catching vomit while holding a baby or small child), and clothes. We have 2 towels/wash cloths, fitted sheets/sheets, blankets, per person. I keep extra kitchen towels since those are smaller for an emergency. And we have the dog's towels in case we all get the flu again. I'm sharing this just to remind anyone who is gung-ho about minimizing, to remember that you might not be up to doing a load a day every once in awhile. I really love your idea, Dawn, of keeping the extras in a bin for awhile. I think I will do this with extra outfits, kitchen towels and crib sheets for an emergency instead of in closets.
I also keep a change of clothes in the car for my kids. Sometimes they have become a bit small, but with kids who get car sick, I am so glad I have an extra outfit!
Yes, having extras for emergencies is a good idea. Trick is keeping them out of your daily space.
Yes! I have a bunch of extra towels because you never know when someone will be sick (family or the dog) or you might have a water leak or you may need to put a towel down to keep from scuffing your floor, etc. Towels are the one thing I have an abundance of and don't feel bad about.
I like 8, as the number of items. Especially for travelling. If you're away for more than a week, clothes for 8 days will give you 7 days of clothes, and something to wear on day 8 while you're washing them all! As each of mine have their own dresser, I'm going to let the drawer size dictate how much of each type they can keep
@@ml6807 I like that idea. Our kids are grown with children of their own. I’ve been watching Dawn this summer. I’ve been volunteering in elementary school since 2011. I have 5 pairs of jeans, all the same color. I have 2 for school & 3 for home. I’ve literally written inside the jeans. To help hubby out, who has had to take over laundry & bringing up the steps, I have written the word home in three pairs of jeans. I could have just put a BIG X in the jeans. I tell hubby to go to basement & bring up a pair of jeans that has writing or no writing. This doesn’t happen to often only on mornings when laundry was just finished the day before & it hasn’t gotten into my closet. A tip for me. Even though all jeans are same size. Every so often there is a pair that is a bit to small, so I have written tight. 😊 Probably should get rid of, but in a pinch, they work.
Dawn, thank you! I just stopped the video at 5:39 and cried!!! We have five children and people have been so generous to us and our children that we could clothe a small country. I have been overwhelmed with children's clothes since 2011, I and my kids don't know what to do. I will start to find their five favorites and box up EVERYTHING else. Thanks so very much!
For those, like me, who do well with steps written down:
Step 1- wash all the kids' clothes so you have ~99% of their clothes on hand
Step 2- Pick 5 tops and 5 bottoms to keep
Step 3- Put the rest of the clothes away in a bin or similar so you can see how the kids do with the limited wardrobe
Step 4- try it out for a week and adjust as needed.
Step 5- Donate, gift, or let go of what they don't use/notice are gone. Allow for personal tastes and weather.
Thanks for this. I screenshotted it for when I go through my kids' clothes.
Thanks!
I do similar. I have 6 sets of nice clothes and 4 sets of play clothes. My oldest is very rough on his clothes and so I don’t like him to wear his school clothes on the weekends.
These steps are great - but the donate part is the tough one... especially when you need to think ahead to weather and predict their sizes! We definitely need more than 2 sweaters in Canadian winters!
@@andreaperch5872don't envy you there. I live in Las Vegas so I basically have our son in shorts and t-shirts for roughly 9 months out of the year. Only frustrating thing is trying to avoid buying too many winter clothes but not having to do laundry every 2 days because I have so little on hand... since it won't fit him the following year. 😂
This was soooo helpful!! We have a hurricane passing right now (literally) so my wife and I decided to tackle all of our family’s clothes. We’re a family of 6 and while we do still have some clothes to be washed and sorted we managed to gather everything available and fill 3 bags for giveaway, throw out one bag full, and “hold” one basket for all of us. Most likely they’ll be given away in a month or so. The craziest thing is the time it took. We’ve been dreading going through the clothes for years! Once we got everyone’s clothes into a pile for each person, it only took 90 minutes to go through them all. 20 minutes to get everything put away afterwards. Under 2 hours for something we have put off for so long! Thank you for this video!
Just found your channel today and I'm loving it. I recently started to go through my kids clothes. What I ended up doing is going to their closet on laundry day since I know that all their favorites are currently in the laundry basket. Then I take several items that I haven't seen them wear. This will be something that I will continue to do at least every month going forward.
Hi! Minnesota mama here too! The ideas in this video are fantastic! With 6 kids, the amount of clothes and laundry is so overwhelming. I'd never thought to minimize their clothing this way, and there's something comforting about knowing there's a bin in the closet with extras just in case. Your videos are the most practical and helpful of any I've watched regarding minimalism for families. Thanks so much for sharing your great ideas! I'd love to see how you handle household paperwork.
Awesome, I love meeting other MN moms! Until recently, I felt like the only minimalist in MN ;) And YES, paper clutter coming up in the near future!!!!
I almost never comment on youtube, but I have to say I love the realistic, simple, and - can I say NORMAL? - approach you have to simplifying your life. I am also somebody who is not naturally neat and organized, and I can relate to the idea of simplifying in order to have less to tidy and clean! I have read a bit of other minimalist lifestyle gurus, but have always felt intimidated, or just out of their league somehow. We also have 4 kids, aged 8-16, but we live in a small house in an urban center, so it feels crazy and stressful, and I nearly cried when you pointed out that we find ourselves snapping at everybody because of all of the stuff everywhere: that is where I have been, and regretted it, so many times. Thanks, your videos have helped me feel like I can do this, and that I am doing it for peace and love.
Great tips! I feel this completely applies to our lives, that feeling that we might need the clothes and have to repurchase them. This is super inspiring!
Thank you Shannon, I appreciate that!!! :)
What about seasonal gear? Rain coats etc. I just got our daughter a capsule wardrobe where almost everything is interchangeable. And it's so fun picking out her clothes! And now I don't need to worry about my husband choosing her outfits ;)
LOVE this tip! Thank you so much for sharing! We have 4 children and this is our biggest struggle with attempting to minimize stuff.
Thank you so much for talking at a reasonable pace and with clarity and confidence. Normally I'm very annoyed by the poor communication in UA-cam videos and can't finish them but yours was excellent, both the content and the delivery. 👍
Wow, thank you, that means a ton!!! :)
Just set up a Simplified bin system for my son. After picking the favorites, it was so easy and stress free to throw the rest in a bin. Taking away the mental hassle of if I should keep this or not was life changing! Thank you for sharing!!
YAY! SO glad to hear this!!!
Thank you! I receive so many bags of clothes from relatives it is overwhelming.
I used to get lot of "like new" clothing at thrift shops and yard sales for .50 cents. Between stuff that fit from the previous year, hand me downs and yard sales we had 45 summer shirts for my 5 year old one summer😳 although that is not the case now, still way too many clothes at our house. I love your method of picking out your favs instead of going through each piece deciding how much it is liked. LOVE YOU and your tips. It is doable for someone who hates all aspects of housework.😊
Thank you for this. My mother-in-law buys our kids clothes all the time and it honestly is a burden feeling like a slave to their clothes (and hair bows). I feel like I needed permission to do this and I just had twins a month ago. On Christmas she gave my husband and my 4 kids all huge boxes of clothes and accessories. In a way I wanted to cry. I'm purging and I'm going to gently ask her to limit her purchases or check with us if we have room for anything else before purchasing. My daughters have 2 winter coats with fur and we live in South Florida! Smh. It's a little funny but it seriously has to stop. The girls' have one 4 drawer dresser and we have 7 baskets full of clothes that can't be properly stored. The clothes have literally been in baskets for a couple years and it's out of guilt. 😞
No more. Thanks for the encouragement I needed! Taking my home back little by little. Minimalism is my goal! 😊💗
Loved your method! I've been struggling with paring down my toddler's wardrobe, and now I feel like I can definitely do it! Thanks for sharing!
I am pregnant and have been avoiding dealing with my wardrobe this has definitely given me direction on how to do it, in the least stressful way possible. Thank you.
This video changed my life (and my family's)!!! And now I am making my own UA-cam channel thanks to you and Mrs. Midwest!!
This strategy works for me because I stress over needing something in the future. So I pick a number that seems like it would work (like 5 pants) and put the rest in a box. And over time if I go looking for particular items, or if i need a few more, it's ok, I can just grab more, and I find out what that happy number is that I need and can manage. After a while you get used to having whatever your happy number is and you can feel less anxious about donating that box you haven't touched.
I did this exact method when my kids were younger. They grew up with an independent spirit and great fashion sense. My youngest had a maximalist friend who rarely wore an item twice that commented on her repeats, but otherwise it was fine. The kids are now 27, 25 and 21 and are terrific adults. I’m so glad I raised them this way. No one heard of minimalism back then. I was just being frugal 😂
I cut my wardrobe down quite a while ago, but doing the kids always seemed like a daunting task. I think I will give this way a try!
Good luck! Its nice knowing that the clothing isn't going too far so you can experiment, I hope it works well for you!!! :)
Just watched this video again, as I stare at the 7 loads of unfolded, ignored laundry... We are getting ready to move and I really don’t want to take everything with us. This is the approach I plan to take with everything we own... I’m gonna pick the bare necessities and see how we manage. I’ve tried it before in small ways, like with certain utensils, but it doesn’t work unless you go all of the way because those utensils get buried under all the other dishes...so I’m gonna try it with clothes today! Thanks for your great tips!
I'm just seeing this after finding your laundry video. No kids, but this is genius to use for myself. I'm one who has far too many "everyday" clothes for around the house - especially tees.
I was thinking the similar way so thanks for letting me know im not alone
I thought of only Summer shirts but good idea for the sweaters and long sleeves. My plan was to have two pairs of pants and five shirts for one week and repeat for a second week and those would be the school clothes takes the guesswork out of what they're going to wear for Monday through Friday. Then when they get home have one pair of everyday pants maybe two in case they get dirty and a couple of shirts that they can change into after school for outdoor play or messy art. At least two outfits for church. I like your idea because it incorporates layering as the weather gets colder so they could repeat one week instead of two. The plan was also if the school shirts were getting to small or worn out like to put it in the everyday after school clothes and weekend clothing and replace the old with the new and then of course toss one of the play shirts
I babysat for a child whose wardrobe was rampacked in a small closet and she was always wearing the same kind of pants because they were comfortable and the same kind of shirts but her mom kept buying she outgrew many of them which still had price tags on them and I thought wow what a waste of money and time to wash as well as time to argue with the child of what they're going to wear
Just found your channel. You have great content. Exactly what my family needs right now. My oldest is almost 8 and youngest is almost 3. I am part-time self employed. My husband and I are gearing towards minimalist lifestyle. YOUR CHANNEL WAS DESIGNED FOR ME !!!Did my Angel come in your dream to do this? Stay blessed.
Ahh, I love this!!! Quite possibly your Angel did!!! :) I'll look forward to keeping in touch and hearing about your process, fun that our kids are the same age range!!
Ha!! I felt relief just watching this video. Been putting off going through my kids clothes... I'm going to try this stat!
Oh good, I'm glad to hear that!!! :)
I came straight over from the video of addressing the no nice comments and you brought up your 1st video about kids clothes. I actually just texted u about that on your laundry tricks
I was already pretty minimal with my child’s clothes but this inspired me to pare down even more and I love it. On any given day 90% of his clothes are clean so why do we need so many? We don’t! Thanks :)
Love this! I have followed your past system on storing clothes for future sizes..clothes have started piling up! Cleaning out today! It's always nice getting helpful hints and a boost to get it down!! My hope is to get back to our minimal-ish house before baby number 4!
Isn't it just incredible how they accumulate! And we have such good intentions, not wanting to be wasteful or hasty with the things we have, but MAN it ends up being alot sometimes! Congratulations on baby four and best wishes re-simplifying! :)
Love the idea of 5 tops and 5 bottoms!
Thank you for this! I'm always glad I watched your content.
I have 4 boys - 8 - 17 and I am sooo doing this!!! Thank you!!!
So smart! I was just trying to cut back on clothes, but worry about the "what ifs". I have an entire trash bag of 9-12mth clothes. It's overwhelming, but couldn't decide how to simplify. Thank you 😊
😲 I have to do this like now!!
I finally found the answer to my problem!!! This makes total sense. Thank you so much for sharing!!! This is awesome!!!
Wish I could do a double thumbs up!! We had tons and tons of CLOTHES. Now our kids are 24 & 20... wish I had known this when they were little!
Thank you!!
My kids really do just wear their favorites over and over!!
Wow your before pile of clothes is far far less than what my little boy has!
Time to go back through my sons wardrobe this is really inspiring and makes perfect sense x thank you x
I just found you a few weeks ago--this video is saving my life! Thank you!!
Boom! Mind blown! I’ve reduced the number of clothes, but I need more of the criteria you mentioned (like making outfits).
Haha, love this! Over time, I've transitioned all of our kids' bottoms to solid colors so that they go with every top so we have alot of jeans, dark colored sweats and black leggings for the girls, they don't care as long as they can pick out the tops that they like :) But again, I only half care how fashionable they look, so this works for us :)
It took baby number 4 for me to fully give in to minimalism.😂. Thanks for the help. I wish I could share a pic of the clothes I finished sorting while listening to your video. It really doesn’t take more than 10 min!
Thank u so much for taking your time to help ppl like me I’ve been binge watching your videos it has helped me so much just thank u
Thank you so much great tips. I have a nice capsule warderobe for myself take me years to achieve! Lol. But for my kids i am struggling espacially for my girl i receive sooo much (mostly seconde hand) i already give back half of it but she has soooo much stuff
How am I just finding your channel now! I feel like you’re about to make my life so much easier 😂
Love this! Thanks for sharing! Def going to implement this!
Love your videos! Ok so 5 top and 5 bottoms is easy with my boy. What I’m having difficulty is with my girls. Not so simple. Do you just group all the skirts and pants all in one group? What about dresses? Leggings? Also finding a simple pair of dress shoes that match everything is almost impossible these days. I could cry when it comes time to get new shoes. 🤦♀️ I don’t really have storage space for seasonal options or extras. Storage is a problem here. All we have is a small storage closet under the stairs where we keep all the home maintenance and emergency items. Probably will have to get rid of the Christmas tree and go natural because it takes up too much space.
I absolutly love this idea!
THANK YOU! I hope it helps! :)
Just pulled two giant plastic totes marked "12 month clothes" out of storage and decided to rewatch this video to get me through the ordeal of my baby moving up a size. Best idea I had all day. ;)
I’m totally doing this!
Your tips are much needed here!
New to your channel, but loving all of your videos! Mom of 4 here too, so I am all ears to your suggestions and tips. Planning on streaming your videos while I declutter to help keep me motivated, as it does seem overwhelming. Many thanks for the great content and suggestions!! :)
I may try this, but I would do 5 t-shirts, 5 long sleeve, 5 shorts, 5 long pants. main thing I have to work on is the baby clothes! man do they pile up! I just put away the 0-3 and 3-6 but I have a big tote just a bit smaller like in this video for each size.... mind you there's a few blankets and coats too but still.... so hard to thin it out!
My kid probably has 30 of every article of clothing. 30 shorts 30 shirts 30 sweatshirts 30 sweat pants 30 leggings 30 undies 30 jammies. I am so overwhelmed
Wow!! That is AWESOME!!! BEST TIP EVER! WAY better than Marie Kondo's method! Whoohoo! Thank you!!!
Do kids at school make fun of them? I’m honestly asking because I have a sixth grader and I just don’t want to cause him problems at school.
Five shirts is probably too little for us but I definitely want to minimalize as much as possible! :)
I love this idea! I did this with my 5 & 3 year old recently to prepare for a season of tiny living, but I still feel like their clothes take up so much space. How is this system going for you, now that your kiddos are a little older?
I feel SO inspired by your videos! They are addictive and super helpful! I also have 2 girls and 2 boys, currently aged 11 mo. to 8 years. Question for you (forgive me if you've answered this; I'm not going to take the time to read through 325 comments to see if you have): 5 tops and 5 bottoms for boys sounds very reasonable. What about girls? It's winter now, so my girls are wearing anything from dresses, skirts, tights, leggings, pants, tops, cardigans, sweatshirts, undershirts, etc. They are fancy and love to dress up, all the time, so if I pared them down to 5 tops and 5 pants, there would be tremendous heartache. (We also go to church every Sunday, where my girls bust out their SUPER fancy dresses. I think they really believe they are princesses.) Also, how many pjs do you keep for your kids, and how often do you make them change them? My kids wear clean pjs every night, but I change mine about once every 3 nights.
Lots of great questions - no answers?
So. . I had an idea like this a couple of years ago. There are 5 of us and I said everyone gets 14 of everything. And that's it. I mentioned it to my mom and she thought I was ridiculous but she still saw the mountain of laundry I was battling. .
Great ideas as always. I. Love. You. You save me SO MUCH sanity. Things I never would have thought of myself in ALL categories. THANK YOU!
I have cut my clothes down and the result is MORE laundry because I had to do it more frequently. I was changing my clothes twice a day (Texas heat) and I would never have any clean clothes to wear. So I was having to do laundry every single day and that was a giant pain. Then my clothes wore out faster because I was washing them so much and wearing only a couple of things all the time. I agree with less stuff YES, especially clothes, but have not been able to find a happy middle ground. My kids are older and wear school uniforms and then if I only have a couple I have to do laundry every single day. I just feel it's more work. And what about other clothes for kids like underwear, undershirts, PJs, swim gear, snowsuits, socks, etc? How many of those?
Erin Thorpe I have this issue with the heat as well. I found it sort of icky to change when I was all sweaty already, I just handle the heat and when it was night out “fresher” then I would shower and change. If you change often, then you’ll wash often; clothing wears out faster. Try to take the heat and never waver til nightfall and enjoy a fresh shower and a fresh outfit.
Ohhhh, these are good questions! We don't have the heat issue in MN (at least not very often-- my husband will often change during the day if he's been working outside, but not enough times throughout the year to really matter). As far as keeping clothes nicer that are washed often, I have read that everything can be washed on the delicate cycle if it doesn't have stains and you're just refreshing it. Our washer is old and for some reason with this cycle the the water isn't ever drained out of the clothes enough so I have to run the spin cycle again so I haven't been able to try that, but it is one idea and also using less detergent. And for me, probably because our kids are still younger and don't have busy schedules yet AND I work from home, I like having to do laundry everyday so it doesn't pile up. BUT, if your schedule isn't conducive with that and that causes MORE stress, then that definitely isn't a good idea! The goal is to reduce stress, not add to it! :)
As far as the other clothing items, each child has 5-7 pairs of underwear and probably about the same number of pairs of socks. They each have two swim suits/trunks because they seem to live in them in the summer. For pajamas, 1 or 2 sets each, we don't wear them most nights, often they just put on clothes for the next day. But again, our kids are still fairly young, so most of their clothes are knit and comfortable to sleep in, so I'm not sure how it will change as they get older.
I'm sorry, I wish I were more helpful!!!
THANK YOU for your reply, it's nice to have help from another hot-weather dweller since it is foreign to us!! Thanks for your great advice!! :)
I stopped obsessing over how many clothes my kids have. There is no perfect number. And I'm in Texas too, Houston to be exact, and it's hot. I really think we need a lot more summer stuff. We only have two swimsuits each, it's enough. Also, if your kids are young and in daycare they need more clothes because they require at least two back-ups at school. I've minimized the entire house, but gave up on the clothes. We have a lot, but having less means washing all the time. No thanks.
Erin Thorpe I LIKE having only a small number of clothes that I wash and wear frequently. Then, when I throw them out, they are actually worn out. I used to have so many clothes and they hung in the closet for so long, I was sick of seeing them, but couldn’t bring myself to throw them out because they were too good.
Now, when the season changes, I have fewer clothes to store, I can throw out worn out clothing guilt-free and shop for new clothing pieces guilt-free because I actually NEED them.
I did this with my summer wardrobe and it's saved me so much time and worry over what to wear n
Yay!! It's encouraging to hear success stories!!! My 8-yr old says that I wear the same shirt everyday and I keep telling her "you are the ONLY one who notices!!" ;)
The Minimal Mom I actually have doubles of some items (2 gray tees, 2 black tees) because I like them so much and my husband likes them, too! As long as I have my hair and makeup done, I feel put together even in my plain tees and jeans.
Such great advice! I am now so excited to try it, thank you!
I do keep the older boys clothes in a bin in the garage; that's where I go shopping for the younger one :)
I just came across your channel and I think your tips and ideas are awesome👏👏👏
Just recently found your channel and I'm loving it. I'm SO tired of doing laundry 🙄 I am going to try this for my kids clothes!! I'm pretty sure my son literally owns 45 shirts.. he's not even 2 yet. Time to purge!
I would love to do this but we do laurndry once a month. Sheets and towels we do weekly at our on site laurndry. Other then that we can only go to the laurndrymat once a month. It's cheaper this way for now. I will do this when we have our own place.
Oh yes, that would definitely make things difficult!!
@@lora-leahandersen440 Unforuntly where we are at we can't hang anything outside. They don't want you hanging stuff inside to be truthful. It would cost us more in the long run. I definitely CAN'T wait to have own our own place WITH a Washer & Dryer. Ive been going to the laurndrymat for the past 22 years
I’m rewatching some of your videos 😊 how would you apply this to multiple kids (hand me downs) I’d like to get rid of a bulk, but some of my kids are harder on clothes than others.
Wow just came across your channel. Thank you so much for sharing
Having a hard time as I have a 4yo, 2yo and 8 week old. How in the world do I plan around how many clothes they need? Is it the same concept? I have multiple huge totes full of clothes that they wore and am having the hardest time going through them. 🙃
My question: Will this method still work if my children wear uniforms for school?
Our children go to a charter school, so they wear uniforms 5 days a week. They only wear their casual clothes sometimes after school, as well as the weekends.
What about pajamas? Undershirts? Underwear? Socks? Do you just keep 5 sets of those too? And backup clothes? For accidents etc.
I would say, use your best judgement with these...our kids probably have 5-10 pairs of underwear and socks each, each child has one or two sets of PJ's (most often they sleep in their clothes)...in the past we probably had 20 of each, so it has been nice to have fewer! :)
Oh my gosh, I'm in Minnesota too!!!
Hi Dawn, I wanted to thank you for this! I have 2 kids and I was swimming in so many clothes that it was so overwhelming. I applied this with their clothes and mine and it has been such a great practice! I am going to be doing the toys and books next! Then hopefully end up doing my whole house!
Can you do a video on infant or under 2 clothing(when theres alot of changes) or what do u recommend?
Great video as always. I love your channel.
Thank you!!! :)
I just found your channel and have binge watched a ton! I have 4 kids about exactly the same ages as yours, but 2 especially “wear” out their clothing super quickly. How would you ensure that you aren’t having to go out and purchase new clothes all the time. We get lots of hand me downs and only purchase clothing necessary to supplement what we already have, but I tend to keep too much as “back up”. But at times, we run out and have to go shopping.
I need this laundry is a huge source of clutter for us
Do you hold onto clothing to pass down to a sibling?We have three girls but they are all three years apart so we have so much in storage! It takes a lot of space. Plus we live in Michigan so we have summer and winter clothing.(plus jackets, shoes in several sizes, mittens, hats, snow pants, etc!)
I used to when I wasn't sure if we were done, now we have it super easy because our oldest two are girls and our younger two are boys, so I don't have to keep things very long. But I do accept hand me downs from my cousin and they are usually 2-3 sizes too big so I have to store them. So each child has a bin of "next" clothes and basically I limit anything I keep to fitting into these bins. This causes me only to keep good quality items, especially pants, out layers, or dress clothes. For us, kids' tops seem to be a dime a dozen at garage sales and second hand stores or on clearance at other stores, so they are easy to grab if we need them...but we seldom do!
Totally going to try this for my 7 yr old! How many outfits would you recommend for babies?
Do you have a video about storing clothes that are too big, seasonal and occasional?
How would you do it for girls? Like skirts and dresses and such? Would you consider the skirts and dresses part of the 5?
Thanks so much dawn!! Question: do you keep extra clothes stored away for different seasons? Just pulling out the 5,5 for use depending on the season?
Also, with girls… would you eliminate one pair of pants/shirt to sub for a dress?
It's so true that our kids have FAR too many clothes. I am shocked when I see youtube videos of mums cleaning their kids' rooms and they show the VAST amount of clothing they own, which cannot possibly all be worn (same with the toy-gluttony too). I've been pretty good with my kids, but I am off now to see if I can tighten up my 11-year old son's clothing!
What about long vs short sleeve and shorts vs pants? Bipolar weather in south Texas in the winter 😂 5 of all of them?
I love this, I'm happy I found your channel before even having kids. Do you have any tips for how to handle baby clothes, toys, baby shower gifts, etc? I know you're past that point right now but I would love your thoughts!
GOOD questions! My sister just had a baby so we're planning on doing a series on this after the new year, but my best tips are: You need about 1/5 of the clothing you think, especially 6 months and smaller. Borrow as much from friends as possible to see if your baby likes it (bouncy seats, swing, bumbo, rocking thing--I forget what its called), borrow carriers if possible, so you can test them out, everyone likes something different...more to come!
Thank you
I'd like to see the video of your daughter decluttering in her "ruthless" way. You know the one who doesn't mind getting rid of stuff?
I feel like the lightbulb came on, and that this method could be applied to any room in the house. I'm going to try putting everything I actually need and use in a pile, everything else in bins to ship out of the house after a month, or in garbage bags. Some things I'm not even going to wait a month to get out of the house. I just got rid of my college books I paid hundreds of dollars for. I graduated 11 years ago. I never refer back to them, and probably never would've if I held onto them. When I was 24 I only owned what could fit inside my Buick. That was it. Stuff is stuff. It comes and goes, but in 16 years I've accumulated too much stuff. I didn't realize how good I had it when I was single, and I didn't have so much, or when I was a new mom and my son only had measuring cups and boxes to play with. When we had more time to go on runs and to the park, because I had less junk to maintain. Clutter, even when out of sight messes with me a little. I know it's there. It's something left undone. It's a project that needs to be tackled, but that is overwhelming. Little spaces, or one category everyday, and I'll get free. These videos are helping me to let go of stuff!! Thank you!!
I have had someone say that my daughter wore a lot of the same clothes. I told her she doesn't need a lot of clothes.
Even when she had a lot of clothes I always dressed her in my favorites when she was a baby. I don't see why it matters if she has 6 outfits or 25. Besides the higher the outfit number makes me cringe over wasted money.
Amen!
Tips for doing this system for toddler and newborn? I’ve got two girls- my toddler is super picky about her clothes, throws tantrums for items of clothing she must wear and will only wear one thing over and over again. I’ve tried getting rid of out of season items and still she will scream for them. Is this normal behavior or do I have a fashionista on my hands? She brought a wardrobe change to the park before. And she’s obsessed with wearing her baby clothes (yes, baby clothes) that are in her baby sisters dresser (they share a room)
Thanks for any suggestions. 😅
Laundry is all over my house constantly and she changes clothes 5-15 times a day. No joke. Her wardrobe isn’t excessive- about 10 bottoms and 10 tops. several princess dressers.
Please tell me the brand of your couch and where you got it. I'm looking for something just like yours.
I'm not sure the brand but it is from an Ashley Furniture store two years ago...it was inexpensive, I think around $450 :)
Omg I needed this girl!
How many pairs of pjs do you keep for your toddlers?
for your own clothes do you also have a set number of bottoms and tops that you kept or is your own wardrobe organized with another system?
OMG! It's simple and genius, thx
I have started to down size my wardrobe but I am finding it hard to give my kids baby clothes in case I need it. Same goes with baby toys and jumping chairs. My kids are 2.5 yrs and 11 months. Any suggestions? Right now we have limited space for storage but the clutter is making us go crazy. Help us please !?!
Yes, when we were simplifying I knew our baby at the time was our last but my sister asked me to keep stuff for her. I decided not to keep anything that could be inexpensively replaced and had to really drill down on what we actually used and really only keep the essentials. That was a bouncy seat, moby wrap, swing and oh my goodness, what are those things called that they sit in the middle of and can stand and play with toys around them, big, but a life saver. The rest went! And after our third, who was supposed to be a girl, and we had two girls at the time, arrived as a boy and I had NO boy clothes, I realized HOW LITTLE babies actually need for clothing, some onesies, a few sleepers and a nice outfit or two and we were set! So that made it easier to get rid of clothes. I do have baby boxes for each of the kids that I kept a few favorite outfits in, though.
Dawn...why am I ridiculously attached to SO MANY of my kids clothes?!?! Ball uniforms with their names on them. Shirts that were their favorites. Shirts that were MY favorites. Just so much. How do I just get rid of them? Help!
Great video....and I love your earrings!
What do you do with pjs? Do they stay in the bin as well? How many do you have?
Yep! In the bins, too. Honestly, each child maybe has one or two sets of PJ's, mostly they just wear clothes to bed and it doesn't bother them at all!
Mind blown!!