Clothing mess - how to solve?

December 10, 2008 11:03 AM

Help me organize my 7 year olds clothing!

I am in the process of going through my daughters (7) room and cleaning it. The end goal is to declutter and allow for her to put away her laundry/find clothes easier.

What is the best way to organize? Near as I can figure it out, I've got the clothes in piles, donated of old clothes/small clothes. These are the piles I have:

Socks
Underwear
Undershirts
Short sleeves (summer and warm days)
Long sleeves
Jeans/casual
Dresses
sweaters
thermal undergarments
Ethnic clothing
pants
school uniform pants
school uniform shirts

It's not that she has too many clothes.. it's that there are too many categories! I have a 3 shelf dresser drawer, and a 4 cube dresser from ikea...

Thoughts?

posted by burhan to home & garden (11 comments total)

- School (pants/shirts)
- Under (underwear, socks, thermals)
- tops (short, long, sweaters if they fit)
- bottoms (pants, jeans, shorts, leggings)
- dresses (do you have a small closet?)
- ethnic (what is in this?)
- accessories

Store things out of season: tank tops, summer-weight dresses, shorts, etc., that she isn't using now.

You could also hang some great hooks at her height for things that are used frequently: sweatshirts, hoodies, coats, school uniform?
posted by barnone at 11:15 AM on December 10, 2008

I have a friend with a 10 year old boy - they dump the clean/dry clothes from the dryer onto the floor of his closet (no sorting, no folding, no stacking, no hanging - just a pile of clean clothes on the floor). The boy picks out what he wants to wear from the pile. Some are a little wrinkled, but this random access method seems to work for them (whatever you/me/ they may think about the parenting aspects of this).

(And he piles up the dirty clothes in a corner for 're-processing')
posted by Xhris at 12:08 PM on December 10, 2008

We have it like this:

Summer / Winter (whatever is not in use get stored away)

Then divided up as follows,

- underwear / socks / tights / thermals
- dress-up (party, Christmas)
- school (decent looking, can take some wear and tear)
- play (clothes that can get trashed)
posted by lunaazul at 12:19 PM on December 10, 2008

I think grouping by ultimate destination (school/play/dress up/etc, a la lunaazul) is more useful to a seven year old. They can (usually) be counted on to remember which clothing parts they need, but require more help with selection of those parts.
posted by gnomeloaf at 12:53 PM on December 10, 2008

Does your daughter not have a closet? I'd get some sort of garmet rack for her if she doesn't.

When I was a little girl, I had a drawer for undies and socks, a drawer for winter sweaters and pants, and a drawer for t-shirts and shorts. I shared a small drawer with my sister that was for our hats, mittens and scarves. My dresses, skirts, blouses, coats and jackets were hung up in the closet, with my shoes and boots in orderly lines underneath.
posted by orange swan at 12:54 PM on December 10, 2008

Since you have seven receptacles, why not assign each a day, and then go from there?

Do her laundry once a week (say, Sundays). After it's done, sit down with her and a weekly weather forecast, and figure out what she wants to wear each day. This should be pretty easy given the uniforms and the daily need for things like socks.

Example: For Friday, socks, underwear, thermals because it's winter, school uniform, sweater. Also in the same drawer: a nice outfit for going to Jum'ah if you do, or play clothes for the afternoon / evening. Finally, pajamas or whatever she goes to bed in.

Anything that's out of season or infrequently used- ethnic clothes, etc- should go in storage- boxes like these are great, don't take up much space, and are easily accessible. As the seasons change, go through what's been in storage and see what still fits. Put away the old stuff. Repeat.

It's a little time consuming on laundry day, but it will probably be helpful in the mornings because she will already know exactly what she's going to wear. As she gets older, she can take charge of the process.
posted by charmcityblues at 1:04 PM on December 10, 2008

I think these are kinda cute for organizing socks and underwear, freeing up some drawer space.
posted by kaudio at 1:07 PM on December 10, 2008

This is how I organize my 7 year-old daughter's clothes:

Drawer 1: socks, underwear, tights, thermals
Drawer 2: play shirts
Drawer 3: play pants
Drawer 4: pj's

In the closet on hangers and organized by category (dresses all together, school shirts all together, etc.):

School shirts
Dresses/skirts
Nice sweaters
Jackets/coats

On an easily accessible shelf in her closet (or if you have any drawers left over):

School pants

We only have one small dresser and her closet to work with, so that's how we handle it. On the back of her door we have an over-the-door hook system that we picked up at Bed Bath and Beyond for $5.00 - we hang belts, purses and the occasional jacket on that.

On the floor of her closet we have a box that we toss outgrown unusable clothes in as we come across them. When that box gets full, then we go through it or just take it all to Goodwill.
posted by Sassyfras at 1:29 PM on December 10, 2008

For infrequently used and seasonal clothing, try to find some under bed storage. They are still accessible, but out of the mainstream.
posted by Sassyfras at 1:32 PM on December 10, 2008

Awesome! Thank you guys.. Ethnic is more 'party' dresses - little east indian dresses and things of the such.. Honestly, there's not much for clothes, it's just as a single dad of 3 kids, I need something simple in easy.

The random access method is actually very cool, but not for me (we have 3 cats too.. long story).

No closet for her to access in the room. Just dressers... I can hang stuff in my closet though.

Thanks all!
posted by burhan at 2:49 PM on December 10, 2008

I have three kids in one room - I understand your lack of space! My daughter, 8, does have some closet space, so dresses go in there. Top drawer has underwear, socks, tights and shirts. (1 row of long sleeve, one row of short.) Next drawer has pants/shorts in season, skirts and PJs. (Thermals would go with PJs. She doesn't do sweaters. Each kid has about 2.5 drawers worth of space for their stuff.

If your drawers are small, I would get or make boxes to fit the Ikea cube for the socks, tights, underwear and undershirts.

For school, at the beginning of the week I would (for my daughter) hang an outfit for each day on hangers on the end of her bunkbed. She didn't have uniforms, but if she had, I would have put the "after school" clothes on with the morning uniform. If you don't have a spot you can hang the stuff (closet, bunk bed, loft) maybe you can hang a pole from the ceiling in a modified plant hanger sort of way.

I find that my three kids end up with much more clothing than they actually can wear (because other people give us nice clothes.) I have to go through and get rid of stuff that is the right size, but isn't being worn. (Even if I did have space for it - there aren't that many days in the week.) Right now my daughter is into dresses, so she only has two pairs of pants, and she actually hasn't worn them in ages - we keep them in case we go on a hike or someplace with bugs or poison ivy.

The free access on the floor sounds great for my boys - but alas, I also have cats that tend to yack in stuff like that!

wife of 445supermag
posted by 445supermag at 6:33 PM on December 10, 2008