How many clothes/underwear/socks...........

**Heather** · 07-01-2003, 01:55 PM

do you have??? CJ's "when is it enough" thread has got me thinking, along with cleaning out our bedrooms of excess clothes. How much do we need? My cousin is so organized and for her 3 kids they have 7 outfits (top and bottoms/dresses), 3 play outfits, 10 pair underwear each and 10 pair socks. She also does this with summer outfits and has 5 complete outfits (shorts/t-shirts). Sounds good to me but I don't do this..........have way too much. It makes sense though, you know what outfits you have, laundry would be easy and not hard to keep track of clothes. I find that if laundry isn't done we just grab another outfit and it just piles up!!! I think it would be great to have that system, I am (like with alot of things) afraid to get rid of things in case I might need them!! But I guess if a blouse or T-shirt was needed, the thrift store is not far away!!

What are your thoughts on this........

**mtjsmom** · 07-01-2003, 02:06 PM

oh my gosh that would sooooo not work in my house full of spoiled daughters..i love to buy them really cute clothes too much. My wardrobe may not be the best but my girls look great..

**homesteadmamma** · 07-01-2003, 02:22 PM

I think your cousin has a great system Heather. I mean, how many outfits do we really need. Think about it, we can't wear everything thats in our closets, be it us as adults or the kids.

It also works down to shoes, boots, jackets. My dd had 5 jackets. I didn't purchase them, thank goodness, they were given to me. BUT she can only wear one jacket at a time.

Its interesting, because if you asked your kids to pick out their favorite clothes, I wonder just how much they would pick out. Not everything thats in their dressers or closets, I can guarantee it. You don't even need to ask them, all you need to do is watch them and see what they pick out over and over again.

**mylittle4** · 07-01-2003, 04:01 PM

I have been strying to bring myself to this. I have four children and the laundry gets ridiculious. Homesteadmamma inspired me to simplify our xmas last year and it made it so much better. The saying less is more is very true.

**Heather** · 07-01-2003, 05:34 PM

here is a link on the subject:

http://organizedhome.com/declutter/closet.html

**AmyMCGS** · 07-01-2003, 07:29 PM

I learned when I was in my limited maternity wardrobe that it actually made things easier when I had less clothes. There was less laundry, less clothes to dig through in the closet, and my drawers weren't full. So, I've only gotten back out about 1/3 of my prepregnancy clothes. I'm finding that I don't miss the rest of them all that much.... but, I haven't really gotten rid of them yet.

They're still in rubbermaid storage containers. Getting rid of them is on my big to-do list.

**Heather** · 07-01-2003, 07:37 PM

Great example Amy!

**paelthom** · 07-02-2003, 08:44 AM

Oh let's just not even ask about dd sock and underwear drawer. That mess is going to get cleaned out before school start. I did clean out mine a while back, but I think it could use some more.

pat

**isaacsmommy** · 07-02-2003, 10:33 AM

This would never work in our house. I wash whites once a week, and dh starts getting nervous before then. (He has about 2 doz. pairs of socks, and most of his boxers are colored.) Dss probably only has about 1 doz. pairs of socks... As for clothes, we all have way more than we need, but I agree we could pare back though not to that extreme.

After I had ds, I did something similar to Amy and seriously purged some of my clothes. I now realize I could do way more. I don't do anything with dss's clothes (except to throw out the occasional holey sock) - I guess I feel like since his mom bought all of those clothes, I don't have the right to go through them. Dh has probably close to 50 t-shirts (he wears maybe 12), but I can't seem to get him to part with them (see my thread re: the magazines). Ds doesn't have too many unnecessary clothes.

All in all, this is one area I really need to focus on. I'll be going through our wardrobes in the coming weeks to try to pare down!

**dz_blonde_girl** · 07-02-2003, 10:52 AM

No purging to be done here. We don't even have enough clothes to make it through the week. The only thing in excess is my T-shirts and shorts (free Ts and yard sale shorts that dh and I share) The little ones have several outfits I guess, most of them were gifts.

**Michelle** · 10-20-2003, 02:12 PM

I am seriously thinking of doing what your cousin does, Heather. I will just box up the extra and put it in their closet for when the other stuff wears out.

**Katybird** · 10-20-2003, 03:40 PM

That is something that we need to do here. We have so many more clothes than we need. I just need to get busy and motivated and clear out all of the clothing that has not been worn often.