How to Organize Outgrown Children's Clothing

Hand-me-downs are an important part of raising children of various ages. However, the amount of clothing can be overwhelming, and it's often difficult to find sizes and proper seasons of clothing when you need them. Successful organization of outgrown children's clothing can help you create order out of the chaos, save time and money, and keep everyone clothed!

Things You'll Need

• Clear plastic storage bins with lids
• Pen
• Paper
• Tape
• Label maker (optional)

Instructions

1. Sort and fold the clothing you wish to store into piles according to size. Baby sizes are 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 9-12 months, 12-18 months and 18-24 months. Children's sizes go from 2T, 3T, 4T, 5, 6, 7 and up.

2. Put clothes into clear plastic storage bins. Clear bins allow you to see the contents. This saves time when you're trying to find a particular item or season of clothing.

3. Label the bins according to size and season. If you fill up several bins with one size, sort them by season and mark them accordingly (for example: "2T Summer Clothes").

4. Use paper and pen to write labels. Stick or tape the paper inside the bin with the writing facing outward. The down side of this system is that if the paper gets squished when you're rifling through the contents for something, you can't tell later what size the bin holds. You can also use a label-maker to make a tag for the outside, which is easy to read and rarely falls off.

5. Stack the bins according to size with the labels facing outward. Start from the smallest size and go to the largest. The only exception is if you have several children in different sizes simultaneously. In this case, stack their size bins on top for ease of access.

6. Organize a shoe bin for special-occasion shoes that aren't worn out and can be reused.

Tips & Warnings

• Every child grows differently, so stay true to the size labeled in the clothing. Don't be tempted to put a larger size in with a smaller size just because it fit one child that way. Chances are, your next child will have a different build and might miss wearing some clothing because it is "misfiled."

• When you pull out a new size bin of hand-me-downs, be enthusiastic about all of the "new" clothes that the younger sibling gets to wear.

• As children get older, less gets handed down due to hard wear. Around age 10, children start caring about their looks and won't like hand-me-downs, so take advantage of this system while you can!

• Don't pass down underwear unless it's brand new and never worn. Trust me, there are therapy issues there, so let each child have at least something that is all his "own."