Back before I was pregnant with Nora, I would frequently organize for families with young children — and often times, a huge source of clutter for these families was the lack of storage for all their out-grown baby/kids clothing (or in my opinion, the fact that they wanted to keep way too much stuff.)
Sometimes, they did have other children to eventually pass the clothes down to, but MOST of the time, they were just hanging on to boxes and boxes and boxes of baby clothes “just in case” — using up valuable storage space in their own closets, in their kid’s closets, or in the basement to do so.
I remember one family in particular. They were in the process of moving across the country, and despite the fact that her children were 7 and older, they were moving into a smaller home, and they had very limited storage space in their moving truck, the mom still refused to get rid of any baby clothes.
It was obvious that she was emotionally attached to the sentiments behind the baby clothing so I didn’t push too hard, but I did decide that whenever I had kids, I would purge the majority of my out-grown baby clothing unless I had another baby who could wear it immediately after.
That might sound overly harsh, but I’ve pretty much stuck to that decision… and here’s why:
1. I might never use the clothing again.
Yes, Dave and I would like to have more children eventually, but there’s a chance we might never have another girl. And even if we do have another girl, if she’s not born in the Fall like Nora was, much of the clothing wouldn’t work anyway.
Or, what if we have a couple boys and then another girl 8 years from now. I can almost guarantee I’ll want to get new items at that point.
I know SO many people who hang onto clothing, take up storage space in their home, move boxes to new homes, etc. and then never end up using the clothing. Then, by the time they finally decide to part with it, it’s too out-dated to sell so they end up giving it all away.
Think how much time and space could be saved by simply getting rid of it right away — not to mention the money that could be made by selling the clothing when it’s still in style.
2. I’ll have several months to prepare for the next child.
Even if we have another child soon, I’ll have several months to prepare for the birth — so it’s not like I’ll be caught off guard with no clothes for my newborn baby.
I’ll have plenty of time to shop garage sales, borrow from friends, or find rock-bottom clearance deals at the store. Meanwhile, Nora’s outgrown clothing has been used for over a year by other friends, family, and neighbors who we’ve either lent it out or given it too — and I’ve enjoyed the extra storage space in our house!
3. Babies don’t need that much stuff.
Babies don’t really “NEED” much clothing — especially in the beginning. Yes, it’s fun to dress them up all cute, but as long as you have a handful of white onesies, socks, and sleepers (all of which I did save), you’re good to go for at least the first 2 months.
After that, I can most likely find everything I needed via garage sales (for about $0.50 an item) or by borrowing from friend (see below).
4. I can borrow most of what I do ‘need’.
I was fortunate to be able to borrow a whole bunch of clothes for Nora from Dave’s cousin who has 2 girls a little older than Nora. And now that Nora is grown out of her clothing, we’ve passed most of it along to others as well. Sometimes they give it back (and then I loan it out again or donate it) or sometimes they just pass it along to someone else they know who’s having a baby girl.
However, even if Dave’s cousin didn’t have something I needed (like a snow suit and boots) I just asked around to friends on Facebook and within a week I had 2 different snow suits for free. One snow suit went back to the original owner and I passed the other one on to a neighbor who has a girl 1 year younger than Nora.
Not only did I save a bunch of money by borrowing, I’m also saving other friends lots of money by sharing our clothing — and we’re all saving tons of storage space in our homes (and keeping extra clothing out of landfills).
I realize many of you might think I’m totally crazy, but for me, it all comes back to #1 above. I simply can’t justify storing something that I might never need ever again (even if I have plenty of space.)
Who knows if we’ll ever have another girl.
If I knew I was pregnant with another baby girl right now, I would most likely start saving a few more of Nora’s 12-18 months clothes (the stuff she’s growing out of right now), but since that’s not the case, I’m going to keep donating, selling, and lending her clothes out to anyone who can make use out of them.
If the time comes that I need more baby girl clothes, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble restocking our nursery closet for free or at rock bottom prices!
Oh, and if you’re wondering how I store and organize the small amount of baby clothing I do save (like white onesies, sleep-sacks, pj’s, socks, bibs, etc. read this post.
Jennifer says
I’ve been keeping just my favorites. Good point about the births being in the same season. My first was born in Nov. I guess if #2 will come along in the spring/summer those thick, long newborn things won’t be any good! Hadn’t thought about that. Thanks!
I love a nearby resale shop, Once Upon a Child. They buy and sell clothes and other baby items. I keep my favorites, pass down some other really cute stuff to the little cousin, and sell anything to the resale shop that is left and not stained.
I make stained shirts into little rags for little meal messes.
Kristen says
We just had our first baby, a boy about a year and a half ago and my Mother in law saved a few special items of my husbands and passed them along to the baby. It was so neat to see him in clothes that his daddy wore 31 years ago and they were so on trend because they are very retro at this point :o) People loved it when I would tell them he was in his Dad’s shirt and couldn’t believe what good condition they were in. I saved those so that hopefully my son’s son could some day where his grandpa’s clothes too. and I’ll save some of each babie’s clothes for their babies. But not everything.
Andrea says
cute! I have a couple dresses that my mom saved for my daughters (Nora already wore them) and Dave has a couple shirts/outfits that his mom saved for him. If we ever have a boy, we’ll get those outfits from his mom 🙂
Liz says
Great points, however I think I am on the other side of the spectrum than you with this one. I’ve had 3 children in 3 1/2 years and hope for one more, Lord permitting. Girl, boy, girl…and even though the girls were born in opposite seasons, one in January and the other in June, I am thankful I saved each and every one of my first daughters clothing items. It saved me so much time and money, NOT to have to go out and buy clothes all over again…I too shop at garage sales and second hand, so most of their clothes are not “in style” anyway, so therefore, I will not look to re-sell a lot of their clothes. I will look to donate or give away…sometimes it’s not about making money in the end.
With that said, I have started to buy “newer” clothes from stores that I know will keep their color and shape, since I have 2 girls now because I know they will be used over and over again, with hopes of consigning them once my husband and I are done having children.
Also, we have a fairly large storage area in our basement that we use to store the clothes. We store them in plastic bins according to size so it’s not super overwhelming.
Thanks for sharing!
Mrs. A says
Where do you sell your clothes?? I’d love to sell my daughters.
Carrie says
I hope you mean sell “my daughters’ clothes. : )
Jennifer says
Chek your town, or a nearby one, for a children’s clothing resale shop. We have Once Upon A Child. You can sell your clothes, strollers, and other baby items for cash or 5% extra for store credit; you can also buy things really cheap. They have strict policies, so things are in good condition.
Mrs. A says
I have boxes of clothing
Verity says
Your two points at the beginning were really funny!
I agree with you. I think you make some great points.
We have kids fast – I’m 5 months pregnant with #4 and our 5th anniversary is next month so keeping clothes is a little more practical for us. (We also don’t plan on stopping soon. Yup. We like kids.)
However, I keep the clothes to a minimum by:
1. Not buying the normal kid outfits. Each of my kids have 5 – 8 mix & match play outfits and some dressy clothes. That’s it.
2. Only keeping the play outfits that survive them in perfect condition. NOTHING stained. This means I usually keep 3 – 5 play outfits and half the dressy clothes.
This means I only have 4 boxes of outgrown clothes I’m storing. And since we don’t find out the gender each baby, I’m ready for whatever baby I have in November. 🙂
Great post and great points.
Living So Abundantly says
I normally am on the same wave length but not with this post. 😉 I am pregnant with my second, and they will be 14 months apart(same season). I’m sooooo thankful I did save his clothing for our next baby(many clothes are neutral). Not only have I been crazy busy with my current baby, but I’ve been exhausted from nursing and being pregnant(yes, you can get pregnant while exclusively breastfeeding–but we are very excited!). To have to deal with finding a bunch of clothes would have been insane. I LOVED your list of things to buy for a baby, but I definitely needed way more clothes than you had listed. That’s with me doing a load of laundry a day, too. My baby spit up a lot at first, so I was elbow deep in All Free and Clear and dirty clothes(saves so much money than buying Dreft or a special baby detergent). I think if your children are spaced a good distance apart that makes more sense to get rid of more clothes, but when they are close like ours it is more sensible to save the clothes. Because of your site, I did start using ThredUP and love it. =) Okay, that’s my two cents, even though it’s a penny for my thoughts. 😉
Andrea says
congrats on baby #2! You’re situation is definitely unique, and as I mentioned in the post, I WOULD save baby clothing if I had another child coming along immediately after. I didn’t really start purging any of Nora’s clothing until she was 4-5 months old and totally out of her 0-3 months clothes — and by that time, you would have been pregnant already so you would have known to hold onto your stuff.
Obviously, the things I do won’t work for everyone… the main point I want to make is that if you’re not using something, it’s probably a good idea to purge. In your case, you are using your things so it’s totally cool to hang onto your stuff.
Oh, and yay for using ThredUp!
Living So Abundantly says
Thanks! I love your blog and have gotten so many great ideas from it. Thankfully my hubby and I are both purgers. =) We both have a parent who has so much stuff, and it’s overwhelming to them and us. Wishing you a great break this month! 🙂
Tammy @ SkipperClan says
I did the same thing! I even see military families doing this and there are weight limits with those moves. It’s helped me to see other things like that as well: better to have it in use with someone, somewhere and trust that God will provide a giving person when we have need again!
Rebecca Goldie says
Ahhhh…. if I had purged, I would be broke and going crazy right now trying to re-purchase everything we need. My daughter is 4 years old and she is now having a baby sister coming in the same season (very much planned to save $$$) – we have saved many hundreds of dollars on clothes and other baby things just by keeping a few totes in the attic where we never have to look at it (for the most part). I’ll only save clothes up to a certain age – and anything stained gets tossed, anything borrowed gets returned. As the new baby grows out of it, we’re going to purge. But we just couldn’t afford to buy it all again – even at garage sale prices – especially when so much of it was barely used. But I admire your effort!
Aa. says
I think that the idea Andrea underlined was that it depends on a multitude of facts and circumstances, and she really showed that for her, in the context of relatives borrowed clothes & co, purging is not wasting money at all.
Andrea says
yup… exactly! Thanks for pointing this out again 🙂
Beth says
Personally, I had 2 daughters 3 years apart. After the 2nd I gave away everything as she outgrew the clothing or baby gear. Then we had a “blessing” daughter 8 years later. We got by on hand-me-downs and as little baby gear as possible. That little blessings is leaving the nest for good in 3 weeks,…non the worse for wear! I saved very few memory items as I too do not like to save and store all the clothing.
However, have a little story to share. I quilt memory quilts and t-shirt quilts for people and a year ago I had a mom bring 3 very large tubs of baby and childhood clothing for me to make a quilt for her daughter who was now graduating high school. She saved EVERYTHING! The most amazing part for me was that she knew the history behind each garment. I had bibs, panties, hats, socks, dresses, shirts, shorts, pants, pj’s…you name it. The quilt was queen size when finished, with lots of scraps for the trash bin.
My poor daughters will not have memory quilts like that…..
Andrea says
those quits are cool, but I think your daughters will be just fine without them 🙂 maybe you could do a t-shirt quilt for them instead (with all t-shirts from high school and college)
Angie says
I had four boys in 7 years, so I kept everything, and I was amazed that we could use almost everything, even though they were all born in different seasons and have different body types. So I am very glad I kept everything, but as soon as the last one was born, I started getting rid of everything.
Meghan says
I had 3 girls in 3.5 years as well and I stored my favorites of our baby clothes until I knew we were done. I have my absolute favorites in a box and my MIL is going to make me a blanket with those.
I did just help a friend that has 2 boys, one 8 and one almost 11, purge her boys clothes. She had NEVER gotten rid of any of their clothes! Crazy, huh?? I came out with 4 huge black garbage bags full of clothes for my yard sale 🙂 But she wouldn’t let me touch the baby clothes under 18 months. I’m proud of her for getting rid of as much as she did though!!
Andrea says
Wow Meghan — you get “friend of the year” award! And honestly, I see situations like your friend’s all the time. It’s crazy how attached people are to baby clothes, but you’re right… at least she let you purge some stuff already!
Tonya says
I feel the same way! My daughter is 2 1/2 years old. I save very little of her outgrown stuff. Lack of storage and not having much money to buy next season’s stuff is why I consign almost everything she grows out of. I love not having to budget for her clothes & shoes. I just collect the money from the consignment store when I’m ready to shop.
Carly says
I had 3 girls in 3.5 years and I’m SO thankful I stored all our baby clothes! I know I am definitely the exception though! We live in a tiny (900 square feet) condo and I had to store some of it at my MILs house, but it was worth the cost savings I think. Now that our family is most likely complete, I’m really looking forward to getting rid of stuff as my baby outgrows it!
Meg says
I only saved a few pieces of baby clothes from each of my kids. We have one “memory” box of things I cannot bare to part with. And then I took other clothes from each child and made a baby-clothes quilt! It was heart-wrenching to cut up the clothes but the end result is one of our most cherished possessions! And in the end, my kids still had so much to give away or donate!
Andrea says
I love the quilt idea — it’s actually what I suggest to many mommas who are having a hard time purging those sentimental baby clothes!
Bianca says
Would it hurt to just leave them in storage? Shouldn’t be no more than 1 bin. I know how much you talk about loving to save money by buying used so this would save money. I have bins and they are all marked and neatly stacked. After each child I gave away the clothes because I didn’t want anymore and then had to buy all over again. After my 3rd child was born and a boy (other 2 was girls) I waited a year to get rid of clothes.
I have 2 girls and when my oldest outgrows anything I keep it for my youngest girl and it has been great. I hardly ever have to buy her clothes. When I take my other 2 shopping for clothes in the stores, I go shopping for clothes for my daughter in the basement and always end up with a full closet of clothes and shoes but I buy her 2-3 things so she doesn’t feel like everybody else gets new clothes and she doesn’t.
The clothes that my son outgrown I sell on ebay and I always make enough to buy clothes for him for the new season.
The only clothes I do keep is their “welcome home” outfit and their baptism/first communion dresses/suits. I keep these along with other things that I plan to give to them on their 18th birthday. My mom did for me and it was great sitting there going through all this stuff she kept.
Kristia says
I kept everything and we ended up having a second daughter (they’re 2.5 years apart), so I’m glad that I stored it all away. I kept everything in tubs in the attic and when our second daughter outgrew things, I got rid of it. I didn’t find storing stuff to be a bother and it saved me a lot of time and money having it on hand.
Shelly says
I also have a question about baby gear, like strollers, cribs, bathtubs, carseats, and the like. They take up sooo much space but they are more expensive and able to be reused in most cases. What is your advice for this?
Andrea says
We actually borrowed most of our “baby gear”, so I simply returned it after we were finished using it. We did save our crib, but that’s because it’s the exact type of crib I wanted AND we found a fabulous deal on Craigslist. Also, here’s a post I did about our strollers.
Hope this helps!
Siobhan says
This topic is how I came across your blog in the first place! We just moved back to our home this spring after it was destroyed by the hurricane and I made a promise to myself to not clog up the very little storage space I have with all of my girls baby stuff, especially their bags and bags of baby clothes. I’ve since donated several bags and sold some to a second hand store a few weeks ago…and I made $40 🙂
I’ve since found out I’m pregnant but its totally okay if I have to buy a few items. Like you, I also saved the onesies and sleepers.
Thanks for the organizing help! Your advice just clicked with me and gave me the push I needed to clear out the baby clothes clutter in my house and I’ve been reading your posts everyday since 🙂
Andrea says
Wow, thanks Soibhan! Sorry to hear about your home, but so glad you’re all moved in again (and with another baby on the way!)
Victoria @ Creative Home Keeper says
One thing that I do when sizing my kid’s clothes is make two piles, a pile to potentially give away because I have no emotional attachment to, and a keep pile of those special outfits that I do want to hang on to for purely sentimental reasons. I usually only keep pieces that mean something like their coming home outfit or their dedication dress. That way I have a (very) small stash of baby clothes that I can keep in their keepsakes box, but the remainder (the bulk) of their baby clothes I sell or donate.
Andrea says
I love your method Victoria. I’m not an overly sentimental person, but I know that baby clothes are very sentimental for so many people. I think it’s great that you’re purging everything that doesn’t have sentimental value — you’ll get rid of the bulk that way!
Sue says
This hits so close to home right now- I JUST put a huge mountain of outgrown/unneeded clothing out on the curb for a charity pickup this morning! Now granted about half of that came from hand-me-downs we’ve been given over the last 6 months or so, which I finally got ruthless about going through and only keeping what we will truly use. But, I am one who is guilty of saving for “just in case”- both maternity and baby clothing. Some of it has come in very handy, some is just cluttering up my house- and now that we are a few weeks away from baby #6, I have been given 3 huge garbage bags of baby girl hand-me-downs, plus the 2-3 bins I have in my bigger girls’ closet, plus someone just dropped off a big hamper of NEW baby girl stuff last night. This baby won’t possibly be able to wear all that I now have for her! My takeaway: it is perfectly ok to just save a few favorite pieces to pass along! Seems like those needs are usually met when I run into them, either by well-timed hand me downs or clearance/thrift finds.
Andrea says
purging is purging Sue — even if it is hand-me-downs. It’s out of your house and that’s what is important!
Congrats on the major purge, the new baby, and realizing that it’s OK to get rid of things you don’t love, need, use, or want!
Faith @ Artistic31Mama says
I don’t think you’re crazy but I do the opposite. With four kids 2-7years old (three boys 1 girl) I have held onto everything and it’s been wonderful. I have everything organized in bins in our attic by season and size. It’s easy to change out clothing once someone outgrows a size and go “shopping” in the attic when we need another size. I’ve been given a lot of hand me down clothes from older cousins and have them stored for my children as well. I’m not sure if we’re having more children at this point or not. Maybe down the road. But I think now I might start clearing out some clothes just because I don’t want the baby clothes in storage for years and years and never being used. It does take up a lot of space but has also saved us a lot of money. 🙂 While the kids are growing I shop clearance racks and thrift stores so I don’t have to worry too much about clothes being stained or having to throw something away if it gets ruined. I can let my kids play and be kids without worrying about keeping their clothes perfect. 🙂 Eventually I will clear out the clothes…eventually lol
Jen says
I wholeheartedly agree! That being said, I had four kids in seven years and I did save all our things and thankfully, “my” plan worked! HAHA By that I mean that each of our four children was completely and totally planned. I was fortunate to get pregnant right when I wanted to each time and have two children in July, one in August, and one in September. When our first daughter came in July, I decided that to be practical and prudent with baby and maternity clothes, we might as well try to have all summer babies and that’s exactly what we did! 🙂 I know for most people that’s not practical or even possible but it worked for us. So…..saving my things was a good move. Can you say “Type AAA” personality?? 🙂
That being said, my sister had one daughter and then saved ALL of her clothing for my niece who is TEN years younger. Sadly, by the time most of it reached my younger niece it was dry rotted and gross, not to mention WAAYYYY out of style!
Fun post! Thanks for sharing!
Andrea says
from my experience, your sister’s situation is much more “normal” than your situation. It’s cool how everything worked out so well for you — but it’s also kind of sad that all your sister’s baby clothes were wasted by sitting in storage for 10 years.
Tragic Sandwich says
We’re doing the same thing–we just need to actually get the clothes to our friends with a little girl! We’re keeping a few things that have particular sentimental value, like the outfit Baguette wore home from the hospital, but for the most part we don’t want to keep things she’s outgrown when some other child could be getting more wear out of them.
Kimberley says
This post has really made me think about all the stuff that I have kept…I really need to sell most of it and just be done with it!
I do have a question about the bigger ticketed items though…such as a crib, swing, stroller, etc. We didn’t keep our stroller (our son never really used it anyway) and we had borrowed the swing from a family member and when we gave it back, they lent it to someone else (I think this is a great system). But we still have our crib. I am very tempted to sell/donate this as well but my husband thinks that we should keep it. We have room to store it in the basement of the house we are renting but we have no idea when we will be getting pregnant again (although we hope it’s within the next 2 years). So, would you keep the crib?
Andrea says
Kimberly, we also borrowed most of our “baby gear”, so I simply returned it after we were finished using it. And we also saved our crib, but that’s because it’s the exact crib I wanted AND we found a fabulous deal on Craigslist. If your crib was pretty inexpensive and you don’t have a specific crib you want, I think it would be fine to sell it (if you can get your hubby on board). However, if it folds down nicely for storage, I don’t think it’s a huge deal if you keep it.
Hope this helps!
Chalyse Meiklejohn says
I totally get where you’re coming from but we have bins of baby clothes downstairs that my now 7 month old son has outgrown that we’re saving. We plan on having all our kids close together and would like another boy next. 😉 We also have tubs of clothes we got at rummage sales that he doesn’t fit in yet. Thankfully we have a very large basement to store this all in!
Holly says
Thank you for this post!! I’m expecting baby #1 in September, and because we’re not finding out the gender, I have some of each gender’s clothing right now. A friend of mine consigns all of her baby stuff after each child and makes extra money that way. Shopping at yard sales and thrift shops for baby clothes help her to come out even and not have to worry about storing in the meantime. I love your reasons for purging!
Andrea says
yay — congrats on the new baby! just remember that babies really don’t need that much — and you’ll probably get lots of cute clothes as gifts once your baby is born (so you most likely won’t need to spend much of your own money!)
dorothy says
I’ll also be a dissenter here. I kept all the clothes from each of my 3 boys. I still keep their (salvageable) clothes now. There is nothing like realizing a kid has outgrown a size and just going to my attic and “shopping” for the bin of the next size clothing. Now that my boys are 15, 10, and 5, a lot of the clothing just doesn’t survive. But church clothes and church shoes get saved, bathing suits and rash guards get saved and soccer cleats & shin guards & soccer clothes get saved. Because honestly, my kids grow so much that they get a new pair of cleats each season and they still have tons of life left in them. Winter gear gets saved-snow pants and mittens and hats and parkas and boots?! no way do my kids destroy them in 1 season. Every Fall, I drag down the bins of winter gear and we try things on and I make a list of what we still need so we’re prepared by October =)
Pamela says
I have two girls, ages 2 and 4. We are hoping to have more children so we do save SOME of their clothes. I limit it to one large Rubbermaid container per year. So NB to 12 months is in one bin, 12-18 months to 24 months is in another bin, etc…. Right now we are at 4 bins, and these all stack nicely on each other in their closet. I don’t particularly enjoy garage sailing or Craigslist hunting (or clothes shopping of any kind really!) so I would rather store a few bins now than have to shop later on. But your idea sounds great for those who don’t mind a little shopping!
Love your blog, Andrea!
Andrea says
Thanks Pamela — I actually don’t enjoy shopping either, but I have really good resources for borrowing 🙂
I borrowed many of Nora’s clothing, let friends borrow it after us, and I’m certain I’ll be able to easily borrow most of what we need if/when future children come along.
Paige says
We preety much sold all of my daughter’s clothes and toys as she outgrew them. We didn’t think we wanted anymore kids. Then 7 years later we decided we did, but thistime it was a boy! 🙂 Some family thought we were crazy for selling everything like we did. It is so easy to find secondhand baby stuff and it’s usually very inexpensive, so I have had no regrets. We have moved several times since my daughter was born and I am thankful we didn’t need to upgrade our Uhaul because of baby stuff!
Andrea says
Exactly! think of all the space (and energy) you saved by not storing, organizing, and moving ALL those cloths for 7 years!
Stephanie says
I hear you. I had two boys 14 months apart and just purged their clothes after baby girl was born. My oldest is 4 and baby is 8 months.
I went from 6 totes, including two totes of borrowed clothing, to 3 totes for all my boy and girl clothes.
I kept my favorites of the baby clothes and purged the rest. As my second outgrows things we will 90% of those and when baby girl is done the same thing will happen with hers. What I save gets passed around to my nieces and nephews or other friends.
I do keep things like coats and Sunday attire, but otherwise most goes.
Laura says
I saved everything from my first baby! Yes, our garage was cluttered with bins of clothes and baby equipment. But I guess we lucked out when we had another boy in the same season, so we were able to reuse everything. I haven’t had to buy many clothes/shoes/toys at all for the younger one. I love going “shopping” in the garage 🙂
I also LOVE selling/donating everything when he is finished with it, since we are stopping at two. We can actually park in the garage again 😀
Jamie says
We saved my first child’s clothing because I knew I wanted another one. After having my 2nd boy we thought we were done and gave ALL of their clothes to a friend that was having a boy. A few months after that we found out we were pregnant (surprise) and it turned out to be another boy. We had to repurchase EVERYTHING we needed because I had given literally everything away. So now we have saved everything because we would like to have another one in a year or so and don’t want to purchase items for a 3rd time.
Andrea says
Couldn’t you have just borrowed items from the friends you donated your stuff to? I gave so much stuff to friends and family and all of them have mentioned that if we ever need anything again, to contact them and they’ll lend stuff back to us if they have it.
Jamie says
Unfortunately, the family moved from FL to WV. I didn’t have any friends with baby boys….all little girls.
Andrea says
ah… bummer! Well at least you were able to bless that family with a whole bunch of fabulous hand-me-downs 🙂
Jennifer says
I saved all my son’s (who is almost 7) clothes b/c I knew I wanted another. Well, baby girl is 16 months now and I still have my son’s clothing and hers on top of that. Also, we live in an old house from when they didn’t believe in closets! 🙂 We have a small bedroom that we all share as a closet so yea these things have taken up too much space for too long! This past Spring I did my first mom and me consignment sale and was pleasantly surprised at how much I made. I did only keep my son’s name brand or way super cute stuff so thankfully it wasn’t too out of date style wise. I plan to sale his Winter stuff in this years Fall/Winter sale. I do have a hard time getting rid of it though b/c I am sentimental.
Kate says
I didn’t purge most of our baby clothes but am now…I have three girls the oldest is six, the youngest will be three on Sunday. If my girls weren’t that close together I would have purged more but I am glad that I kept it (my oldest can still wear some of the small sizes as capris instead of full length leggings and they fit her waist better than buying size 5 capris for her so in a way I was glad I still had some of the toddler clothes). My sister and I went through all the really small clothes and kept what she wanted for her baby that will be born in a couple of weeks and I made myself get rid of everything else…now to purge toys…too much clutter is driving us crazy, so once it is gone it will stay gone 🙂
Carrie says
I guess I would be the exception to the rule in your plans. I had 5 boys in 11 years. I saved pretty much everything in labeled plastic totes. Believe it or not, but I wore some clothes on everyone of the boys, including a snowsuit. It saved me a ton of money.
I rarely got hand-me-downs for my kids, and nobody every loaned me clothes. Garage sales in Pennsylvania are limited to only the warmer months so that wasn’t much of an option. Now that my boys are older, finding nice quality clothing at garage sales is very hit and miss.
However, now that I am done having kids, I love giving away all the youngest son’s clothing!
Leanne says
I have 3 boys and they are all 20 months apart… with the exception of a few “special outfits”, I have purged all their clothes, religiously, and rarely have passed anything down. Why? First of all, little boys are HARD on their clothes and shoes, so there is never much to pass down. Second, the “good stuff”, is often bought by mom from great children’s stores like Gymboree and Crazy 8. At least once a season, I pack up the “gently used”, “still in decent shape” pieces and take it to our local Once Upon a Child. Whatever money I make, just goes towards the purchase of other pieces of clothing.
I also take the opportunity to evaluate my closet and drop it off, at the very conveniently located, ladies second hand shop right next store!
I love, and obviously, follow your philosophy!
oh— and both of my older children are adopted— I had no time to do much hunting at all! in fact, with my first, WE DIDN’T EVEN OPEN ANYTHING, until he was at home… so, it can be done, even if you have NO TIME to prepare! 🙂
Catie says
I think this is so smart. I completely agree with you. I’m preg with Baby #3 and we found out it’s a boy, so I’ve been getting rid of all of our 2 girls clothing.
*IF* we have another baby, it’ll probably be another 3 years and I do NOT want to deal with all that clutter for that long. It’s SO EASY to come by used baby clothing that it’s just not worth the space it takes up. 🙂 Great post!
Carrie says
Funny story, but when I was pregnant with #4, I already had 3 boys. I was told I was having a girl. This was going to be my last child. I didn’t have time to go through old totes before the baby came. Well surprise my little girl actually was a little boy. I was so glad I saved my things. It would have been a huge expense to get all new clothes. And 3 years later, I had another boy. So I really got my money’s worth.
Andrea says
Wow — that’s crazy! I was so worried Nora would be a boy and that I would only have girl things for her 🙂 Glad everything worked out so well for you!
Andrea says
Thanks Catie — and congrats on the baby-to-be! I’m sure you’ll love the extra space in your home after you purge your girl clothing.
Vivian says
I had so much gifted or handed down to me I bought very little and then that was from second hand stores like our hospital auxiliary and Value Village. I think you are totally prudent doing so. Space in your home and the mental clarity of not having extra is so much more worth it.
Becky says
Our son is 10 months old, and I have been saving all of his clothes so far. We are planning on having another child within the next couple of years, and I would like to have another summer baby which means the new baby would be born in the same season that our son was so all of the clothes would work. I have an older brother, and my mom frequently dressed me in his hand me downs, so I have no problem dressing a little girl in some clothes with blue in them. We don’t plan on having more than two children, so after baby #2, I will start selling off all of the baby clothes as they are outgrown.
Our nephew, who is now almost 4, was born around the same time of year as our son, so we were able to borrow a lot of his clothes. I barely had to buy any 3-6 month clothes for our son, and I love that once we are done with them, we can just give them back instead of having to store them.