The following is the tip sheet from a program hosted by Cecile Pryor with her special guest Jennifer Milner.
If you have children, you know that organizing your children’s clothing can be somewhat of a daunting task! Here are some great tips provided by Jennifer Miler owner of 1mother2another.com for organizing children’s clothing.
Tips:
1. Keep a couple of plastic tubs at the changing table or in a child’s room. One is the too big tub and one is the too small tub. Each time you change your child, if the clothes no longer fit, throw them in the too small tub. If the clothes are large, throw them in the too large tub. When the tubs are full, donate or pack up the too small clothes and put the too big clothes back in the drawer or closet. This prevents continuous washing of clothes that are not dirty!
For older children, keep a box or bucket in their closet for them to put too small clothing in. Empty periodically by either donating the items or boxing them up to hand down to younger siblings, friends or relatives.
2. Small clothing such as socks, hair ribbons and bows, hats, mittens and underwear can be placed in a hanging accessory or hosiery bag instead of in drawers. Older children can use a hanging shoe organizer for socks, underwear, hats and mittens as well. These items are now easily accessible!
3. Use the space under the crib for storage. Plastic storage bins can hold bulky coats or snowsuits, items that are only worn occasionally. Take the lid and put it under the storage bin. This enables the bin to slide easily out from under the crib.
4. Roll clothing. Roll shirts, and PJs and even shorts and pants and put them in the drawer. This lets you see all the items instead of just those items on the top of the pile.
5. Amount of clothing. Set a limit of how many shirts, pants, shorts, etc. that each child should have. With older children, make sure they are part of the decision process. When the child wants to buy a new item of clothing, make sure that they understand that the same amount of clothing must be taken from their drawers and donated or stored (for younger siblings). This ensures that your child does not have too many pieces of clothing that never get worn and keeps your closets and drawers under control.
6. Before school starts, inventory your child’s clothing. Get rid of clothes that are too small or that the child will not wear. Let the child help decide what clothing they would like to get for the school year that will ??? the existing clothing.
7. Hang a stacking clothes organizer or shoe bag in the closet and use it to store the clothes for the next week for school. You can also store permission slips and other items that need to be returned to school on a particular day in the slots.
8. Use lingerie bags attached to hampers for children to place underwear and socks. Attach the bags to the hamper with large diaper pins with a different color for each child. The lingerie bags go directly in the hamper. This will make sorting socks and underwear easier.
9. For babies, keep the laundry basket right next to the changing table. When changing baby the dirty clothes are easy to toss right in the hamper.
10. Keep a multiple compartment laundry system in the laundry room. For older children, ask that they bring their clothes to the laundry room and sort them once or twice a week. Label the compartments white, darks, etc. to make things easier.
The most important thing is to have a system that works for you! If it is too hard to maintain you are not going to use it. Check out http://www.containerstore.com for great ideas!