For this task in the #RealOrganized series, you are going to take a little bit of time to think about shopping for your kid’s clothes. I am willing to bet that a lot of you have never thought of being organized while taking care of the kids clothes shopping. I also know that if you take some time to get yourself organized it will pay off in saving you time and money. I love saving both of those things. How about you?
This is a fairly easy thing to get organized and as I said, it will save you both time and money. The other bonus is that if you don’t like to shop, like me, getting this organized will shorten the time you are actually shopping which is always a plus!
This post is part of my #RealOrganized series. If you want the whole series, just click the graphic above or you can click here to sign up to have each week of this series and all the freebies directly emailed to you. The goal of this series is for you to be able to organize some of the things that as moms, we have to deal with on a yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily basis. By getting these things organized we can free up time in our week as well as space in our homes and minds. The main goal is to feel more organized and less clouded as moms so we can find time and space to spend with our family as well as do things we love and find fulfilling.
For most of you, who have more than one child of the same gender, you are going to want to start getting organized with kids clothes shopping by having a way to organize the clothes that one child has outgrown while they are waiting for the next child to wear them.
This can also be used for those of you who like to shop the end of season sales and stock up on clothes for the following year. If you are going to shop ahead to save money, you need a way to store what you have purchased and to know what you have and what you still need.
The storage organization system that I have in my shop is a great way to not only track specifically what you have but also where you have it stored. It makes it so simple to keep track of what clothes and shoes you have in what sizes and to know which box you need to pull out next for your child. I used it for years and it worked so well! (Now my kids are so close is size that clothes just go directly from one closet to the other.)Knowing what you have and where it is will save you time, money and sanity.
For this, you will want to start at the end of a season. Pull everything from your oldest child’s closet that no longer fits. Get yourself a plastic tote/box to put all of the clothes and shoes in the box that could be worn again. These bins (affiliate link) work great and can be bought at Target or another store locally.
As you do this make sure you weed out any clothes that you know won’t be used again. Those that have rips, tears, or stains should be tossed.
Once you have figured out what you are keeping, label the box and fill in the editable sheet for what you just put in that box as well as where you are storing the box. It is best to be specific (i.e., size 12 – 4 pair jeans; size 10 – 6 winter PJ’s, size 5 winter boots, etc.) It makes it easy to know what is in the box before you pull it out.
Put those sheets in your family binder. If you have more than two children, keep going on down the line saving clothes in this fashion.
Once you have been doing this for a year and you have clothes in the correct size for the correct season, you will start by pulling out these sheets to see what you already have for your child and figure out what you need. I’m going to talk about that in more detail below.
If you have been saving clothes, start this season’s shopping by pulling out those sheets you filled out that show what clothes you have in what boxes.
Now you need to figure out what you have and what you need for each child. I’m not going to lie, my kids are not big fans of this process because I make them try things on and show me, so I can determine if things are getting too small or still fit.
I usually break that up and have them try on a couple of things each night before bed for a week. By the end of the week, we are done and I know what they have that still works and what doesn’t.
As you are looking through their current closets to figure out what still works, use this printable. Expect that it will take you about 30 minutes to 1 hour, which I know is a time investment, but when you get to the shopping that 30-60 minutes will really pay off. It will help you stick to your budget and as with all of our projects, it will help you feel more clear about what you need and what you don’t. That clear head when shopping will help you stay a bit more focused and get what you need and say no to the things you don’t. Being focused will help you save time as well.
Here is what one of my sheets looks like for my girls. This was for summer clothes. I was able to see what we had and determine what we needed. There are spaces for notes so you can remember any specific things that come up.
Do one of these sheets for each of your kids factoring in what you have in stored clothes and what is in their closet that will still work. I would recommend that you fill it out in pencil so you can make changes easily as needed.
Once you have the printable filled out, you can then take it with you to the store.
Personally, I prefer to then add this to an app because then I always have the list with me and I’m never left wondering what was on the list because the list is at home or in a different purse. I use either Out of Milk(Android and iOS) or ToDoist because both of those work well for me.
The beauty of doing kid’s clothes shopping this way is that you will have the list and you can watch for sales as they come into your inbox. If you see a great sale coming up at a store you know your kids like, you can take advantage of that sale and be purposeful with what you purchase. You will have the list, so it will take away most of the impulse buying and you will end up with what you need instead of a bunch of mish mash or too many shoes and no PJ’s. 🙂 Yay! A little piece of Mommy sanity restored. 🙂
Just sign in below to get your Kid’s Clothes Shopping printable and don’t forget to snag your Storage Organization System to help organize all the clothes waiting to be used by younger siblings or those you pick up at end of year sales.
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