Welcome to Day 3 of the 10 Days to a Tidy House Challenge! A few days ago I shared a crazy idea that I had with you guys: decluttering and tidying up your house in just 10 days. (You can read more in the introduction to the challenge HERE.) It must have struck a chord with several of you, because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response! So, thank you for joining me. I’ll be posting pictures and lists of the items I’ve decluttered on my Facebook page throughout the challenge. You’re welcome to follow me and share your own experience as well!
Day Three: Tidying the Kids’ Clothes
Yesterday we tackled our closets and managed to sort and organize all of our clothes. (By the way, if you are wanting to take this challenge a little slower, that is completely fine! I will post over a 10 day period, but you can take the time that you need based on your schedule.) Today we’re moving on to our children’s clothing.
Today we will do four things:
- Gather ALL of the clothes
- Go through each item individually and keep the ones that are actually being used
- Sort and decide where to put the unused clothing
- Organize all that we will be keeping
By the end of today’s challenge, we should feel a lot happier about the state of our kids’ clothing!
(A little side note about today’s challenge: Some of you may not have children. You have an extra day to relax or decide how you want to organize your own clothes. Score! If you have multiple younger children, today’s task may seem daunting. Remember to take things at your own pace and enlist help as needed. Finally, if you have preteens or teenagers, it is important to remember what we talked about on Day One. At that age you shouldn’t do a major purge for them. Instead, show them what you have done to your own space and hope that it will rub off on them! 🙂 )
1. Take Out ALL of the Clothing
Just as we did yesterday, take out every single item of clothing that your kids have and place them on the bed or floor. I will be tackling this challenge by child. For example, I am planning on doing all of my oldest son’s clothes first, then my daughter’s, etc. You may decide to do yours at once and be done with it. This may be especially helpful if your children are close together in age and can benefit from each other’s hand-me-downs now.
Don’t forget the following items:
- Outerwear (winter coats, jackets, hats, scarves, etc.)
- Shoes
- Out of season clothing (swimsuits, etc.)
- Accessories (hair bows, jewelry, scarves)
Bring them all together in one place where you can see them.
2. Ask Yourself, “Does this get worn?”
Yesterday’s question to ask was, “Does it spark joy?” If you have children who are six or older, you may be able to ask them if an item sparks joy. However, if you have younger children this obviously isn’t practical. Instead ask, “Does it get worn?” There is no use keeping a really cute outfit that your child will never wear.
Here are a few obvious items to get rid of:
- Articles of clothing that no longer fit
- Items with holes in them
- Socks without matches
- Clothes with missing buttons or zippers that no longer work
- Broken jewelry that you are not going to get repaired
Again, it is fine to be sentimental. Your child will never wear their baptismal gown again, but you might decide to keep it. However, be careful about saving too much out of pure sentimentality. There is a reason that you have a lot of clutter that you want to eliminate!
3. Sort and Send
Your sorting system will look vastly different depending on how many children you have or plan to have. Most parents that I know keep quite a few boxes of children’s clothing in the basement or attic ready to hand down to the next child. While these items may not “spark joy” right now, they will definitely be helpful and save you LOTS of money when they are needed again. However, as you are sorting items to save for future children, beware of saving too much. Don’t save junk. Keep the high quality items that you know will last.
I recommend sorting your items into at least three different stacks: keep to use now, store to use later, donate, and trash. You can also add a “sell” pile if you would like–though remember that you should try to sell as quickly as possible to avoid hanging onto this clutter indefinitely.
Your keep pile should include those items that your child is currently wearing that actually get used. The store to use later pile would include quality items that no longer fit but will make excellent hand-me-downs for another child.
If you do not have any more children, I would encourage you to donate the clothes to a family who could use them. We have been the recipients of beautiful generosity from many families in our church. We always welcome the hand-me-downs that they give us! Think about your circle of acquaintances. Do you have a coworker who would welcome baby clothes? Would your sister love to have your daughter’s clothing for her little girl? Be generous!
4. Organize the Clothes
Finally, it’s time to organize the clothing in a way that makes sense for your family. Do you want to install a few hooks so that kids can hang up coats easily? Which clothes do you want hung up? Which do you want in the drawers?
I highly recommend reading this The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up post from Modern Mrs. Darcy. It has some great advice for tidying your house when you have young children.
Today’s Action Items:
To recap, here are today’s action items:
- Gather all of the children’s clothing
- Ask yourself, “Does this get worn?” to help you decide what to keep
- Sort into keep, save, donate, and trash piles
- Organize in a way that makes sense to you
Whew! That was quite a bit! However, I know that having the kids’ clothing tidied up will be worth it. I’ll see you again tomorrow for Day Four’s Challenge: Tidy Up Your Books. I can’t wait!
Other Days of The Challenge:
How do you organize your kids’ clothing?
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Nice blog, I always find it difficult to select kids wear.
Nice post, thanks for sharing with us.