Name: ICHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-07T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Bourbonnais, IL

This topic has 8 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 1 month ago by Karen.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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March 26, 2015 at 9:39 am
Karen
Participant
The thread on chores for older kids and talking about laundry has me wondering:
Do you limit the number of outfits or pj’s your kids have? How do you do it? How many outfits and pj’s do your kids have?
Here’s my situation:
We have four daughters and our clothing situation is out of hand! We have too many!
We live on a farm, and the girls actually do a fair amount of “Barn Work”. (Not truly barn work – they aren’t quite tall enough to help milk the cows. But one daughter does drive the skidloader to help out and they all help move cows when it’s necessary and they all help feed calves occasionally.) So, they NEED barn clothes. They need several sets – cows are not known for caring about the clothing of their humans. *L*
They need casual/going-away clothes. I’d say these are clothes that are appropriate for running errands, going to Bible Study/Clubs, and to field trips and homeschool group meetings.
They need Sunday clothes.
Now. How many? And how do I say “no” to gifted clothes? And what about keeping clothes for the younger girls? I guess I’m afraid that if I pass articles of clothing on to others, a girl will ruin an outfit and then we’ll need one…..
I need help thinking this through! *L* I’m so tired of untidy drawers and of girls not having any socks to wear and of girls not being able to find outfits to wear to go away . But our current system is NOT working!
March 26, 2015 at 9:47 am
Kayla
Participant
My daughter wears dresses and leggings. Once a pair of leggings has holes I the knees they become play/outside/pj pants. I usually start the fall with 8 pair of leggings and 8 or so dresses. I usually make her dresses. She also has pants and shorts and stuff but really just prefers a dress.
I buy drastically reduced in price. Leggings at target are usually 6$ a pair. I just bought 9 pie for $22 in the next size up. I don’t plan on any of these being passed down because she is really hard on them. She likes to be outside climbing trees and digging in the dirt.
Look up capsule wardrobes on Pinterest I’m sure you could apply that idea to kids clothes
March 26, 2015 at 10:13 am
HollyS
Participant
I store quite a few clothes in our basement. Out of season, sizes that don’t fit, ones they don’t care for the style of, etc. They are in large Rubbermaid totes labeled by size. I’m finding by the time our clothes make it to the 3rd girl, most are too worn out to save! I do get rid of clothes that are too short, too tight, or have tv characters we don’t care for on them…most of these come from hand-me-downs. I also get rid of clothes when we have a ridiculous amount of the same item, for example 3 winter coats in the same size. I usually just donate these to a local thrift store.

March 26, 2015 at 10:37 am
Shannon
Participant
I’m working on my sons’ clothes right now! We don’t have the need for separate kinds of clothes like you do but I’ll share what we do.
I don’t like taking up space with clothes. I have hardly any. Most of the time I have two pairs of pants and that’s all I wear. I think 3 or 4 would be better but I shop rarely so this is what I’ve had the past couple of year. I say this to recognize upfront I’m a pretty strong minimalist!
My 9yo son has a small drawer for socks/undies/swimsuit/pjs (one set) and a larger drawer for everything else. (His drawers are actually in my dresser.) It was impossibly full so I went through it. Somehow he had 20 t-shirts in there!!
My other 9yo son has a small chest of drawers in his room with three drawers. My two older children are in high school and maintain their own clothes in total (financially, washing, organizing, etc).
My plan: 7 shirts (including at least one nice one), 4 bottoms AT MOST. My other son doesn’t have 7 shirts but he has enough (really, 4 or 5 would be enough for us bc I wash clothes often); but what this means is if he finds one sometime I’m open to getting it for him whereas my other son has more than enough so he doesn’t get anything more at this point.
I have one bin in my closet for my two younger sons’ clothes that are off-season or to grow into. That’s all the space I have for that kind of storage so I make sure what I put in there is highly likely to actually be used again. I give away everything else and feel peace that when we need more clothes again I will be able to find them inexpensively.
I hope that helps! Good luck!
March 26, 2015 at 10:55 am
Michelle Brumgard
Participant
I am in the same situation as far as barn clothes (dairy farm part is even the same), everyday good clothese and then church clothes. The church we attend allows us to have more just everyday good clothes and not worry about church clothes as much anyhow. I have an 8 year old daughter and an almost 4 year old son. They each have a drawer for socks and underwear. Part of the decision making is how often you do laundry too. We aim for 5-7 pairs of underwear, 5-7 pairs everyday socks and 2-3 good. Aseveryday clothes get worn … They become barn clothes. Ni used to have my daughter have five good pairs of jeans and 7-10 good tops. We get a lot of hand me downs. Now that we homeschool, our good clothes requirement is going to be brought down. 2-4 pairs of good jeans, 5-10 good tops still since we are not buying and my daughter likes variety. Then, 5 pairs of barn pants and tops. 2 barn sweatshirts, 1 pair of bogs and one pair of old sneakers. For good shoes…one church, one sneaker, and sandal or boots. Does this make sense? As I get hand me downs, I immediately pass on any I find inappropriate. Others are tried on. If they are too big, they go in a labeled tote in the attic.
March 26, 2015 at 3:42 pm
Raines
Participant
I don’t say no to gifted clothes, but I don’t keep everything either. I bring them home and then we decide. If we don’t need something, then we give it away to someone who will use it. I’m afraid to say no, because we “survive” on gifted clothes. I buy some shoes and all new underwear, but everything else is usually handed down.
We don’t live on a farm, but out here in the country my 4 children go through the clothes…someone is always “falling” in the creek, so we have to have extras. Although my ds3 thinks minimal (or no) clothes is the way to go!
We are getting ready to put away the winter clothes and pull out the summer clothes so here is my basic plan per child:
2 pajamas
5 everyday outfits/play clothes
3 going to town outfits
3 church outfits (1 special occasion nice enough to be worn to wedding, banquet, or funeral)
1 swim suit
10 underwear
4 pairs white socks (we do 10 pair in the winter)
3 pair dress socks for boys (tan, blue, and grey or black)
1 hooded sweatshirt or light jacket
Shoes:
1 pair for church (2 for the girls)
1 sneaker
1 pair rubber boots (for gardening and playing in the creek)
1 pair flip flops or water shoes (for the beach or pool)
I plan to store extra play clothes and socks in a tote in the top of their closets or the attic…so if someone tears a hole in their shirt or socks, we get rid of it and replace it with a “new” item out of the tote. The hardest part is sticking with the limits and making sure the kids do not get extras out unless absolutely necessary. Less clothes to deal with makes it easier to keep rooms/closets clean.
Oh, it is also a good idea to keep a set of clothes in the family vehicle for each child who tends to have accidents.
Hopefully, this will get us through the season.
As for the barn clothes, maybe just keep 2-3 outfits per child and wash them promptly. I have found that if I keep the clothes washed, we really don’t need as much as I thought we did. It also cuts down on the ominous piles of laundry in the laundry room. Also, I don’t wash things that don’t truly need it. I can usually wear my jeans 2 days in a row and my husband can usually wear his dress pants 2 times before they need washing. On the other hand, the kids clothes almost always need to be washed after 1 wearing!
I am by no means a minimalist, but clothing gets out of hand in a hurry when you have children and I am learning that there is value (in terms of peace, contentment, and order) in keeping the clothes under control.
HTH

March 26, 2015 at 4:07 pm
Karen
Participant
Thank you all for your replies!
I think I’ll make myself a list of the number of outfits we’ll keep in the dressers for each category…….And then pull that number of outfits out when we switch to spring/summer clothes.
And then the extra clothing, I hope to make myself go through and weed ruthlessly!!! It is a good idea to keep extras in each category for when outfits get destroyed or worn out, so maybe two extra for each category?
And the rest will be given away!
In my own closet, when I get something new (from a thrift store, of course!), I get rid of one (or more) similar items — I guess I should do that for the girls’ closets/dressers, too.
March 26, 2015 at 4:39 pm
Kristen
Participant
I didn’t read everyone’s posts but my children work together doing their laundry. They have Monday -Thursday to get it done and I do mine and DH and linens etc on Fri and the weekend. They never get their clothes all washed. This week was very frustrating for me for a bunch of reasons but after seeing their rooms today I have decided that I need to get rid of some clothes. They wear the same things over an over anyway and never seem to get all of it washed. There was still a whole hamper of laundry left to do this afternoon. So I will be letting them have 2 pair of pj’s, 3 or 4 pants, 5 to 7 shirts and 2 sweatshirts or sweaters each. That’s it. Saturday cannot come soon enough!
March 27, 2015 at 7:05 am
Karen
Participant
🙂 Kristen, I’m waiting for tomorrow to attack our laundry problem, too!
My girls are going fishing with their Aunt and Uncle — perfect opportunity! My girls are very sentimental – and can’t get rid of things.