Kids wardrobe - Out of control. Before and After.
This post feels like an over-share, but here we go! The boys' wardrobe was a little out of control and today I decided it was time to tidy it up!
While it is easy for the children to access and put their clothes away, there is no order here. Usually I am happy if the children put their clothing in the baskets but at the moment they have too much clothing out. They have clothing which is worn out, too small or that they just don't wear and it's well past the point of needing to be sorted.
All of the boys' tops, t-shirts are hanging, we use this wardrobe extender so both boys can reach their clothes, Caspar (8yrs) has the top rail and Otis (5yrs) has the lower rail. It works really well for us and the hanging area stays really tidy and organised (you can see my post about a minimalist wardrobe here).
All of the boys' folded clothes are in baskets, Caspar has the top shelf and Otis has the lower shelf. All of their shoes (other than the shoes they are wearing) are stored in the basket at the bottom. To get started I put the baskets on the floor and sorted the clothing (and shoes) into piles. I wiped the shelving clean and took the baskets outside to brush them down. The piles looked a little like this:
WASH - I don't know why but some clothing especially some of the mismatched socks look like they needed a wash, some were just really crinkled and washing looked like the best option.
DONATE - Any clothes the kids don't like or are not wearing.
PACK AWAY - We pack clothes that we want to keep but don't fit or are out of season. I put the clothes in medium sized plastic tubs and labelled them by size.
THROW AWAY - Strenched, old, worn beyond repair clothes.
KEEP - These were folded and put back into the baskets.
The plastic tubs are for storage and the plastic bags are for disposal.
Shoes after. I wiped down and packed away the soccer boots and a pair of Caspar's old shoes that might fit Otis next year.
The clothes for packing away are in the plastic tubs which are stored in a hallway cupboard. They are really convenient to access. Which is important so that I remember to get out the clothes when they will fit the next child.
This is a perfect time to do a stock take and make sure the kids have enough clothing. The tidy up felt so good. Before both boys had clothes in their basket which didn't belong to them. They usually put away and often fold their own clothes so it's obvious some of their clothes got mixed up. Both had tops that needed hanging up and old soccer uniforms that could be packed away. Otis had a few toys (and a pair of binoculars) buried on the bottom of his basket. It also feels really good to remove worn and unused clothes. The space now has order and feels so much more respectful to our belongings but also to the boys, who can now see and find all of the clothes they are looking for. It will make getting dressed much quicker and easier (especially to find clean, matching socks!).