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in Blog on June 5, 2018 by Meagan Francis

Organizing Kids’ Clothes: Seasonal and Hand-Me-Down Storage Made Simple

I wrote this post back in 2014 about the storage and swap-out of seasonal clothes and handmedowns that I used for my four (!!) boys for a decade. Enjoy! –Meagan

My seasonal transition and hand-me-down system used to be impossibly complicated. Going by popular advice, I’d keep separate bins for each clothing size, each season. It sounded good at the time: in theory, that would mean that every season, I’d only have to pull out that season and that size’s bin…right?

But in practice there were a few things wrong with this system:

  • We rarely have enough kids’ clothes in a single size to fill an entire bin, and especially not if we separate them out by season. So a bin for each size, each season, cost too much and took up a lot of space.
  • Too many bins meant too many opportunities for bins to get buried or shoved too far back in the closet or basement storage area. Every year I would lose track of at least one bin, then go buy a bunch of new clothes and later uncover the bin and realize I’d spent a lot of money I didn’t need to.
  • All size 6’s are not alike. Sometimes clothes in a certain size – especially when we’re talking about baggy t-shirts and adjustable waist pants – fit a variety of kids. There is way too much variety in fit and sizing practices to predict which child will wear which sizes, in which brands and types of clothing, at which age.
  • All seasons are not alike. A kid who is an athlete or doesn’t like wearing warm pajamas may need shorts and t-shirts in rotation throughout the year. And t-shirts are winter wear for kids who like to layer.

I also attempted to keep a detailed written inventory of all clothing items we own, but somewhere along the line my head started to spin around and I abandoned that idea quickly enough!

So what I finally settled on is a simple, streamlined system for organizing hand-me-downs and off-season clothes that allows me to factor in my actual kids and their actual clothing needs, right now. By keeping everything together in one place, there’s less risk of a size going missing.

Basically what I do is store everything together – all off-season clothes and all in-between sizes – and, twice a year, commit to going through every single item of clothing to make a decision about what to do with it for the upcoming season.

If you live in a climate that has seasons and you have multiple kids who are no longer growing out of sizes every few months, and/or handing down clothing to a younger sibling, this strategy can help you keep the task of organizing all those clothes manageable.

Organizing Kids’ Clothes:
Seasonal and Hand-Me-Down Storage Made Simple

Note: for the sake of this post, “off-season” refers to the clothing I will be putting away for the upcoming season, while “in-season” refers to the clothing I’m working back into our wardrobes for the upcoming season.

Bins, bags, boxes, and baskets (what you’ll need):

  • Enough bins with lids to hold all off-season clothes for the whole family (We usually need one more bin for winter/fall clothes than for summer.)
  • Bags or boxes for donations
  • Every laundry basket in the house

Before you begin (inventory & planning):

1. A few weeks before the weather changes, I start slowly collecting clothes out of the clean laundry that I intend to put away for the season and put them in a basket, which I keep in my room. Anything that the kids will have outgrown in the next six months goes into a donation pile.

At the same time, I go and pluck a few extra items per person out of the off-season bins and wash them so we have a variety of clothes to wear during the transitional months. This just gives me a head-start on the whole process.

2. Once I can tell that the weather is heading quickly in the cooler (or warmer!) direction, I choose a day that I can set aside several hours to work on the project of doing the big transition.

Gather all the clothes in the house (yes, really.)

3. We keep off-season clothes in plastic bins in our basement, which is also where our laundry is. So the first step is to start taking all the clothes out of the bins and washing them. When they’re dry, they go in a laundry basket.

If your clothes went into an airtight bin while clean, they might not need to be laundered, or maybe a spin in the dryer with a dryer sheet would freshen them up. I find that ours get a bit musty being in the basement and with all the dust and mold allergies in our family, washing them is best for us.

Whether or not you choose to re-launder the clothes that have been stored,  you will need to make sure all the clothes in the house are clean for this system to work well. Think of it as incentive to get caught up on the laundry!

4. While the laundry is running I take the basket of clean off-season clothes I’ve been collecting, and start folding and putting them away into one of the bins. I don’t worry about sorting them by family member – everything goes in together, because I always do this job all at once so the sorting happens on the other end. You don’t absolutely have to start collecting clothes ahead of time, but I find that it gives me something to do while I’m waiting for clothes to get clean.

seasonal clothing swap

5. Then I walk around the house and go through every single drawer, plucking out any clothes I want to put away for the season. Those get folded and put into the bins, too – remember, everything just goes together, no need to sort! Note: I always leave a few off-season items in each child’s drawer for layering, or in case we go on a vacation or experience unseasonable weather. 

6. When everything is clean, we bring all the baskets of clothes upstairs, and dump them all in the middle of the living room floor. Yes, everything together! It creates quite an impressive mountain of clothes.

Fold and sort. Fold and sort. Fold and sort. Repeat.

7. Now comes the epic folding and sorting session. I set myself up in front of the TV with a cup of tea and start creating a stack for each family member. As I go, I quickly make executive decisions about each item:

  • Is the item too small for Owen, my youngest son? If so, it goes in the donation pile unless it’s something Clara would wear (t-shirts, pajamas, and hoodies, yes; jeans and pants, generally no.)
  • Note: I sort Clara’s clothes separately because hers are mostly passed down to her from her older cousin Ruby, and when she’s done, we put them in a bin to go to Ruby’s little sister Luna!
  • Is it hopelessly torn or stained? It goes into a separate pile to be turned into rags.
  • Is the item a between size – for example, too small for Isaac, not yet big enough for William? If so, it goes right back in the off-season bin, even if it’s in-season.

This is an important part of my system – I keep off-season and in-between-sized clothes, regardless of whether they’re in season or not, TOGETHER rather than separating them into separate bins. I find that it keeps everything very simple and streamlined, which is what I need! Otherwise I’d constantly be losing track of where everything is.

I do give sizing some leeway here – if something isn’t quite fitting a kid yet but is likely to within the coming season, I go ahead and put it in their drawer.

8. The rest of this process is self-explanatory: just continue to fold, separate into piles, and then give to the kids to put away in their drawers. I usually have the kids take clothes up as soon as the piles start to get precarious, rather than waiting until they’re toppling over. This also helps keep the kids from getting too overwhelmed by the putting-away process.

Put it away, store it away, or give it away

9. Donation bags go out to the car and I ask Jon to take them immediately to the thrift store so I don’t forget!

10. Now I put the lids on the bins, which are already labeled “off-season clothes,” and put them in a designated area of the basement…all except one, which I leave in the living room for now.

Why? No matter how careful I am to find everything I want to put away and get all the clothes clean before we start this process, inevitably a few items I meant to put away will continue to show up in the laundry over the next week or two. So I keep the least-full bin upstairs a while longer until I’m pretty sure the process is done.

Note: If you are incorporating this system for the first time, you’ll need to start your process a little differently than I detailed above…but either way, I recommend starting from scratch, as scary as it might sound: get ALL your clothes in one place and go through them a piece at a time.

Yes, it’s time-consuming, but I promise you will save yourself time and money not having to shop for something that it turns out you already have, or constantly shifting around hand-me-downs that nobody is ever going to wear again.

I’ve been using this strategy for three or four years now with a couple of tweaks along the way, and I have found that making personal contact with every item of clothing in our house greatly simplifies my seasonal clothing transition AND helps me save money on clothes shopping because nothing gets “lost” along the way.

And since I know I’m going to look at every single piece twice a year, there’s no reason to over-complicate the sorting, labeling, or organizing system.

Now that I’ve got this under control? This year, I’m moving on to getting our off-season shoes under control. If anyone has tips for THAT, I’m all ears.

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Comments

  1. Marina Zemina says

    June 9, 2018 at 6:13 am

    Здравствуйте! The first part is Scheduling . I approach this two different ways. Twice yearly, in the spring and the fall, I set aside a few hours to go through the kids closets for a seasonal switch and organization. And I also make ongoing clothing evaluations on a daily basis as we live our lives and do the laundry.

    Reply
  2. Donna Harrison says

    June 18, 2018 at 10:56 pm

    Are you selling any out of season onesies/footie pajamas? I would love to purchase them for my kiddos! Love your blog/podcast.

    -Donna

    Reply

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We're signing off for the long weekend, friends. W We're signing off for the long weekend, friends. We'll be back Tuesday with a new episode, and in the meantime we send you all the good vibes for stress-free celebrations and exactly the type of holiday weekend you have the bandwidth for. Parades optional (IYKYK). Sending love, and we’ll talk to you next week. -M & S
Wise words from @meaganfrancis - written 10+ years Wise words from @meaganfrancis - written 10+ years ago when she had a houseful of little kids and a full-time career. On the podcast this week we talk about making peace with the endlessness that is managing a family home - have you listened? Click this image at the link in our bio to visit the show notes, where you can click play to hear our discussion, as well as find the link to this original blog post. 💛
It’s 5:55 a.m., and my notebook is filled with w It’s 5:55 a.m., and my notebook is filled with words I’ve scratched out since 5:00. I have five minutes until I need to wake the big kids up for school. Taking one last sip of my cold coffee, I stretch my arms above my head, then walk down the hall. The house is still clean, but soon, tiny feet will hit the floor, and the work of parenting and running a household will begin again.

I gently open the kids’ bedroom door and stand on the bottom bunk, reaching my hand into the top bunk to place it on Rhett’s head. His breath is slow and steady; he’s still deep asleep. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, preparing myself for the day ahead. 

Opening my eyes, I tickle his head, “Hey buddy, it’s time to get up,” I whisper. “I’ve got breakfast on the table.”

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New episode! Not feeling like an expert in the ho New episode!

Not feeling like an expert in the housework realm? Turns out, very few of feel like we know what we are doing. Last week Meagan and Sarah talked about WHAT we do to keep our households in a state of "good enough," and this week's Part Two is all about the feelings that came up as we tracked a week of real-life housework. We dive into some of our insecurities as home managers, the difference between housework and mothering, and some of the really sticky aspects of finding your identity as a mom and homemaker in the 21st century. We have LOTs of thoughts - and we hope you'll join us!

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This is me, at the age of 20. In over my head, lea This is me, at the age of 20. In over my head, learning to mother a sweet but mystifying baby boy while most of my friends were in the middle of their junior year of college. I had a stubborn optimistic streak and a supportive family in my corner, but not much else.

When I look at the girl I was then, I'm so glad that optimism won out and that Jacob is here today. Motherhood was a life-altering experience that shaped everything about the person I became.

But when I think about the lack of practical and active societal support that girl and her baby received nearly twenty-five years ago, I'm sad and angry. What (inadequate) assistance was offered came tinged with a sense of failure and shame. And the movement working tirelessly to protect the rights of my unborn baby largely seemed to ignore my personhood except as a means to keep him alive.

Even for the much more privileged, it's a tough time to be a mother. The needs of moms (and by extension, living children) are ignored, and we all pay the price.

At The Mom Hour, we are Pro-Mom. We value our entire community and celebrate that this group represents a diverse set of backgrounds and beliefs. Our goal is to always be part of a dynamic and inclusive conversation, not an echo chamber or soapbox.

We also believe that mothers have immense value in their own right, not merely as a vessel for new life, or the means by which to kept that life fed, warm, clean, disciplined, entertained, and educated for the next 18+ years. Motherhood is not a consequence or a political tool. Mothers should not be the collateral damage of other people's beliefs. We are important, worthy of consideration, and worthy of care.

When I look back at the girl in this picture, I wish I'd known how valuable I was: not just for what I could do for the baby on my hip, but simply because I existed. 

I hope you all know it now, and that it colors not only the way you treat yourself but the way you treat other moms.

Because we all deserve it, and now more than ever, we need each other.-M

p.s.: I wrote about the origins of belief and the benefits of challenging them over at @meaganfrancis today. Would love to hear your thoughts.
New episode! What we remember from childhood help New episode!

What we remember from childhood helps build our narrative of who we were - even if those memories are fuzzy or slightly flawed. Today Meagan and Sarah get in the way-WAY-back machine and reflect on what we were like as kids and teens. As a child, Meagan was dreamy, imaginative, chatty, and obsessed with balloons (!!), while Sarah was studious, quiet-but-sociable, responsible, and circumstantially prone to tears. We touch on how our personalities developed as we grew up, whether we were “popular” or not, and if we felt clueless or confident come high school. Join us for this fun More Than Mom to get a glimpse into our growing up years (at least the way we remember it!).

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The Powers family is road-tripping this weekend, a The Powers family is road-tripping this weekend, and I (Sarah) wanted to share two things:

1️⃣ In Episode 365 we shared listeners’ best family travel tips, and so many moms talked about stocking up on snacks (you can’t have too many, they said!). ONE listener shared that their family does the opposite: bring almost zero snacks so that kids are plenty hungry when it’s time to stop, and so that those gas station purchases seem even more special. We tried the latter today and it worked GREAT for my kids. We had some very uninteresting, nutritious snacks in the car, and then we let them each pick two things from our first convenience store stop. They were THRILLED, and I didn’t overbuy on stuff nobody wanted.

💡 Takeaway: Sometimes the opposite of what everyone else is doing is right for you! 

2️⃣ Meagan and I made a conscious decision last year to move away from recommending Amazon (and profiting from those recommendations) as the solution for *everything*. It’s not a boycott at all - just a gentle redirection  of our influence toward small, local, or even just *different* retailers. In my personal life, I have moved away from Amazon for almost all recurring everyday essentials, and it has felt right for me. HOWEVER: When stocking up for a road trip, bless the everything store and Jeff B take all my money. These seatback caddies with touch screens for iPads are cheap and may not last beyond this trip but they’re working GREAT.

💡 Takeaway: The 80/20 rule is a-OK. If you need permission to break your own rules, consider this it.

Safe travels, friends. ♥️
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67. The answer is 67. Yes, I’ve checked my work! Maybe someone who passed calculus can explain? 🤪 -M

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We're signing off for the long weekend, friends. W We're signing off for the long weekend, friends. We'll be back Tuesday with a new episode, and in the meantime we send you all the good vibes for stress-free celebrations and exactly the type of holiday weekend you have the bandwidth for. Parades optional (IYKYK). Sending love, and we’ll talk to you next week. -M & S
Wise words from @meaganfrancis - written 10+ years Wise words from @meaganfrancis - written 10+ years ago when she had a houseful of little kids and a full-time career. On the podcast this week we talk about making peace with the endlessness that is managing a family home - have you listened? Click this image at the link in our bio to visit the show notes, where you can click play to hear our discussion, as well as find the link to this original blog post. 💛
It’s 5:55 a.m., and my notebook is filled with w It’s 5:55 a.m., and my notebook is filled with words I’ve scratched out since 5:00. I have five minutes until I need to wake the big kids up for school. Taking one last sip of my cold coffee, I stretch my arms above my head, then walk down the hall. The house is still clean, but soon, tiny feet will hit the floor, and the work of parenting and running a household will begin again.

I gently open the kids’ bedroom door and stand on the bottom bunk, reaching my hand into the top bunk to place it on Rhett’s head. His breath is slow and steady; he’s still deep asleep. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, preparing myself for the day ahead. 

Opening my eyes, I tickle his head, “Hey buddy, it’s time to get up,” I whisper. “I’ve got breakfast on the table.”

“It’s so early,” he grumbles, curling into a ball. 

“I know, but it’s time,” I say, anticipating what he will say next.

“Can you carry me?” he asks. 

I start to protest; that he’s too heavy and big enough to do it by himself. But I pause, knowing he’s asking me to step back a bit—that he hasn’t made the jump to a “big kid” just yet. And maybe, while there aren’t three easy steps to parenting, he’s reminding me I can do this—one step at a time.

--

✨ Read @stacybronec's essay by clicking this image at the link in our bio. ✨
New episode! Not feeling like an expert in the ho New episode!

Not feeling like an expert in the housework realm? Turns out, very few of feel like we know what we are doing. Last week Meagan and Sarah talked about WHAT we do to keep our households in a state of "good enough," and this week's Part Two is all about the feelings that came up as we tracked a week of real-life housework. We dive into some of our insecurities as home managers, the difference between housework and mothering, and some of the really sticky aspects of finding your identity as a mom and homemaker in the 21st century. We have LOTs of thoughts - and we hope you'll join us!

Find the episode wherever you get your podcasts, or click this image at the link in our bio!

#themomhour #motherhood #mompodcast #podcastsformoms #parenting #parentingpodcast #podcastlove #trypod #podcastersofinstagram #shepodcasts #housework #reallifehousework #feelings #homemanagerinsecurities #momin21stcentury
This is me, at the age of 20. In over my head, lea This is me, at the age of 20. In over my head, learning to mother a sweet but mystifying baby boy while most of my friends were in the middle of their junior year of college. I had a stubborn optimistic streak and a supportive family in my corner, but not much else.

When I look at the girl I was then, I'm so glad that optimism won out and that Jacob is here today. Motherhood was a life-altering experience that shaped everything about the person I became.

But when I think about the lack of practical and active societal support that girl and her baby received nearly twenty-five years ago, I'm sad and angry. What (inadequate) assistance was offered came tinged with a sense of failure and shame. And the movement working tirelessly to protect the rights of my unborn baby largely seemed to ignore my personhood except as a means to keep him alive.

Even for the much more privileged, it's a tough time to be a mother. The needs of moms (and by extension, living children) are ignored, and we all pay the price.

At The Mom Hour, we are Pro-Mom. We value our entire community and celebrate that this group represents a diverse set of backgrounds and beliefs. Our goal is to always be part of a dynamic and inclusive conversation, not an echo chamber or soapbox.

We also believe that mothers have immense value in their own right, not merely as a vessel for new life, or the means by which to kept that life fed, warm, clean, disciplined, entertained, and educated for the next 18+ years. Motherhood is not a consequence or a political tool. Mothers should not be the collateral damage of other people's beliefs. We are important, worthy of consideration, and worthy of care.

When I look back at the girl in this picture, I wish I'd known how valuable I was: not just for what I could do for the baby on my hip, but simply because I existed. 

I hope you all know it now, and that it colors not only the way you treat yourself but the way you treat other moms.

Because we all deserve it, and now more than ever, we need each other.-M

p.s.: I wrote about the origins of belief and the benefits of challenging them over at @meaganfrancis today. Would love to hear your thoughts.
New episode! What we remember from childhood help New episode!

What we remember from childhood helps build our narrative of who we were - even if those memories are fuzzy or slightly flawed. Today Meagan and Sarah get in the way-WAY-back machine and reflect on what we were like as kids and teens. As a child, Meagan was dreamy, imaginative, chatty, and obsessed with balloons (!!), while Sarah was studious, quiet-but-sociable, responsible, and circumstantially prone to tears. We touch on how our personalities developed as we grew up, whether we were “popular” or not, and if we felt clueless or confident come high school. Join us for this fun More Than Mom to get a glimpse into our growing up years (at least the way we remember it!).

Find the episode wherever you get your podcasts, or click this image at the link in our bio!

#themomhour #motherhood #mompodcast #podcastsformoms #parenting #parentingpodcast #podcastlove #trypod #podcastersofinstagram #shepodcasts #growingup #childhoodmemories #memories
The Powers family is road-tripping this weekend, a The Powers family is road-tripping this weekend, and I (Sarah) wanted to share two things:

1️⃣ In Episode 365 we shared listeners’ best family travel tips, and so many moms talked about stocking up on snacks (you can’t have too many, they said!). ONE listener shared that their family does the opposite: bring almost zero snacks so that kids are plenty hungry when it’s time to stop, and so that those gas station purchases seem even more special. We tried the latter today and it worked GREAT for my kids. We had some very uninteresting, nutritious snacks in the car, and then we let them each pick two things from our first convenience store stop. They were THRILLED, and I didn’t overbuy on stuff nobody wanted.

💡 Takeaway: Sometimes the opposite of what everyone else is doing is right for you! 

2️⃣ Meagan and I made a conscious decision last year to move away from recommending Amazon (and profiting from those recommendations) as the solution for *everything*. It’s not a boycott at all - just a gentle redirection  of our influence toward small, local, or even just *different* retailers. In my personal life, I have moved away from Amazon for almost all recurring everyday essentials, and it has felt right for me. HOWEVER: When stocking up for a road trip, bless the everything store and Jeff B take all my money. These seatback caddies with touch screens for iPads are cheap and may not last beyond this trip but they’re working GREAT.

💡 Takeaway: The 80/20 rule is a-OK. If you need permission to break your own rules, consider this it.

Safe travels, friends. ♥️
One of our most popular blog posts EVER is refresh One of our most popular blog posts EVER is refreshed for 2022! Click this image at the link in our bio to read the just-structured-enough approach Sarah took during those long AZ summers at home when her kids were 6, 4, and 1.5. 😎 

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New episode! Most of us enjoy having a clean and New episode!

Most of us enjoy having a clean and tidy home, but have you ever kept track of how much you do throughout the week to keep it that way? In today’s episode, Meagan and Sarah share what seven days of real-life housework looks like in our homes. We reflect on the tasks we knew went into running a home, and some surprising ones we never thought of as housework before (like picking plums and chasing chickens!). Whether you prioritize deep-cleaning on a regular schedule or tend to tidy as you go and hope for the best, it’s eye-opening and gratifying to acknowledge the work that goes into managing a home full of kids.

Find the episode wherever you get your podcasts, or click this image at the link in our bio!

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Math Quiz: If 3 kids dirty an average of 15 dishes Math Quiz: If 3 kids dirty an average of 15 dishes per day while away at school 7 hours per day, how many additional dishes will they dirty while home all day for summer break?

67. The answer is 67. Yes, I’ve checked my work! Maybe someone who passed calculus can explain? 🤪 -M

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