If you’re anything like our family, your mornings are busy! Especially once school starts. Trying to get up, get myself ready for the day, pack lunches, wake up two kids, feed them breakfast, get them dressed, groomed, and out the door by 7:45am seems like it should be an Olympic event sometimes! But this year I’ve implemented a system to organize kid’s clothes for easier mornings.
I have two children. They are two and six. My two year old obviously still needs help ready and dressed. However, my six year old can completely get himself ready. But last school year it was always a challenge and frustration for me.
As I was trying to juggle all of the things I needed to do each morning, my six year old would come to me each day and ask me what he needed to wear to school. I constantly had to stop what I was doing and help him pick out clothes and get them down from his closet. His rod is up high so he can’t reach it.
One day I hope to lower his rod so that he can reach his own clothes. However, I needed a solution for the time being. So this is what I came up with.
I’ve organized his closet to create easy outfits. His short sleeve shirts come first, then his nice shorts. These are followed by his long sleeve shirts and jeans. Finally I have his long sleeve dress shirts and sweaters. Everything in the closet is school appropriate.
For the time being, we have both seasons in his closet since we are going into fall. We experience all four seasons where we live and during the fall we can go from very hot to very cold quickly.
I’ve organized his drawers using the Konmari filing method. His athletic shorts and pants are in the top drawer. These are what he normally wears when we stay home or he is just playing around the house. To keep them separate, I’ve placed a Dollar Tree bin between them that holds all of his baseball clothing items.
The second drawer holds pajamas, socks, and underwear. I’ve folded his pajamas using the filing method. His white t-shirts are stacked. He mostly sleeps in these during the warmer months. His socks are all corralled in another Dollar Tree bin. His underwear is just stacked at the end.
While I could probably make his drawers look nicer, this is a system that my 6 year old can maintain himself so it’s what we are going with for now. Organization is always more about function than appearance in our household!
The system that is going to save us so much time in the morning is our tag system. I’ve printed out tags for Monday-Friday, laminated them, and added some twine to them. On Sunday evenings, we layout 1 weeks worth of clothes including a shirt and a pair of bottoms. I add a tag to each outfit and put them in order in his closet. Each night I pull down the next days clothes and hang it on the front of my son’s closet door during our bedtime routine. This allows my son to get dressed 100% on his own each morning.
By doing this, I’ve simplified mornings in our home by taking the guess work out of getting dressed.
Tips to Organize Kid’s Clothes
1. Don’t keep more than you need.
Since we live in a location where we experience all four seasons, my son has a lot of clothes. However, make sure to limit it. If you have more than you need, it might be time to purge. I loosely use the limits of 1 weeks worth of bottoms and 2 weeks worth of tops in both summer and winter clothes.
2. If you never reach for it, get rid of it.
I’m sure there are items in your kid’s closet that either you don’t like them wearing or they don’t ever want to wear. Don’t keep those items. Get rid of them and free up the space so you can get to the things that you do love!
3. Keep it simple.
When you organize kid’s clothes, it’s so important to keep it simple. Kid’s are not going to maintain a complicated system. So why make them try? Find ways to organize your kid’s clothes so that they can help you keep it that way.
4. Divide drawers for easy maintenance.
Use baskets or bins to divide your child’s drawers so that they can maintain it. While I’m sure there are much prettier ways to organize things, make sure to remember that you have a child who is going to be getting into this space daily. It needs to be easy for them to keep up with. If you use bins where they can just toss things into, then they will be more likely to maintain the organization.
5. Teach your children how to fold.
This is something I’ve been working on teaching my six year old this summer. While he has been able to fold small things like towels and washcloths for years, I’ve been working on teaching him how to fold things in the filing system method. It’s really amazing how much our kid’s can learn if we just take the time to sit down and teach them.
6. Keep things at your child’s reach.
If you have the ability to lower the rod in their closet, do it. Keep their clothes in drawers closer to the ground. If they can get to their things, then they can get themselves ready without any help!
7. Use the same hangers.
Using the same hangers unifies the space and makes it look tidier.
8. Keep a purge bin in the closet.
A purge bin is a must in all kid’s rooms. They grow so quickly and a purge bin allows you to toss things that they’ve outgrown into it. When the bin is full, you can then deal with it and either sell, donate, or store it away for a younger sibling. But keeping clothing that they’ve outgrown in their drawers or closet will just make the getting ready process each morning that much longer.
I hope you’ve found this system helpful. If you would like to download a set of the daily tags, just click here to download the PDF version!
What system do you use to organize your kid’s clothes?