How long did you reuse older child's clothes for younger child?

[NordicNobody]

Our DD is due in October and we're hoping to get as much secondary wear out of DS old clothes as possible. They aren't especially "boyish", quite neutral/ unisex. But at what age would you stop feeling ok using hand-me-downs and want your younger child to have they're own clothes? Not that she'll never have anything new to begin with, I'm sure we'll be drowning in cutesy pink newborn baby clothes from family and friends, but I don't want to buy a whole new wardrobe when all DS old stuff is perfectly fine and she'll grow out of it in 2 seconds anyway!

[Seeline]

I couldn't use much to start with as one was new in the winter and the other in the summer, so not appropriate. DD had a lot of DSs toddler clothes though - great in the garden and for playing as 'boys' clothes are so much more practical for that sort of thing. She had her own new things as well though. She still uses some of his old stuff now at 13 - old trackie trousers and hoodies are great for guide camp - it really doesn't matter hat happens to them.

[Steeley113]

I buy a lot of 2nd hand for my newborn DD plus what she gets New as presents/if I spot something cute. My DS2 has a lot of my DS1 clothes, plus a couple of new bits on top. I imagine this will stop when they get older as despite a 3 year age gap, there’s not much difference in size. My eldest is quite slight and my DS2 is a bit bigger built. I imagine they’ll have their own style once they hit 10/11/teen years or become the same size eventually.

[Caterina99]

DS is nearly 3 and DD is 7 months. The seasons don’t quite match up, but I’ve been reusing what baby clothes I can. We had quite a lot of neutral stuff anyway, and also got a lot of pink stuff as gifts. I don’t mind DD wearing boys stuff, but I usually try to pair an obvious “boy” item with a “girl” item, so a pink vest and then boy trousers for example. You know what I mean!

Things that she wears at home or as layers I just use DS old ones as no one is going to see them anyway.

Bigger items like winter coats, boots, hats, wellies etc I have tried to buy neutral, but I have no issues with putting her in a navy coat when the time comes. My mum will probably disagree and buy a pink glittery one though.

DS is now at the age where he’s pretty hard on his clothes and also they are definitely more gendered, so his hand me downs will probably be more for spare clothes for her, except for a few pieces. Still saves me having to buy so many as I had nothing for my DS so had to buy him clothes even for his spare sets for nursery which he barely wore. I guess then we’ll have to see when DD has her own opinions!

[Dairymilkmuncher]

I don't think there is an age limit on this till the smallest says that they don't want to wear it anymore, if they do.

I've got three boys and the second two were both surprises so I'm only just getting the hang of packing away clothes to keep for the next ones but that's not all they have to wear they still get presents and random bits and pieces that I pick up.

I do think that being able to go out and play rough in the mud in old clothes and not bother whether it gets stained doing messy play etc is worth a lot more to the little ones than brand new clothes

[ThursdayLastWeek]

I have found that the pile of leftovers get smaller as you go up the age brackets - DS1 started leaving clothes too trashed to be re-used!

I’m lucky that DS2 is tiny compared to DS1, clothes are lasting a lot longer!

[isthistoonosy]

Hand me downs are coming to an end now that DS is 4.5 and DD 3.5, but we have instead moved to a one pile of clothes for both of them system. They don't tend to argue about clothes that much thankfully, and both mix and match 'boys' and 'girls' clothes.

[SoyDora]

I have 2 DD’s, but for the first 2 years the seasons were all wrong (although managed to reuse basics) and now they’re 4 and nearly 3 they’re both exactly the same size so can’t hand anything down!

[niknac1]

I started to buy my younger child a new dress etc for a special occasion when I bought my oldest child something at about 5 to 6 so they wouldn’t have to wear hand me down clothes all the time. To be honest most of the younger child’s clothes have been handed down but I do buy new sometimes.

[abitoflight]

4 years between mine. Both born in same month so that helped.
Only the messy food stage with stains that didn't reuse really
They have carried on re using clothes throughout tbh - DD2 now uses teenager clothes that DD1 considers herself too mature for
I don't get rid of any clothes from them unless unwearable as they may come in useful or I hate them
Have great stash of camping stuff from way back that's used repeatedly

[FinallyGotAnIPhone]

My five year old wears my eight year old hand me downs. I wasn’t planning on stopping??

[TheFlannelsAreBreeding]

I have a 9yo and a 6yo and the 6yo gets new pants, socks and swimming costumes (because they shrink / get manky / go see-through) and sometimes leggings (as those often go at the knees before she gets them) plus the odd item of her choice bought new. The rest (school uniform, most clothes) are handmedowns.

So she ends up more more clothes than dd1, but mostly not of her own choice.

[PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks]

I didn't, because I had boy, girl, 16 year age gap, girl, boy. Maybe some babygrows and baby vests.

[IWantMyHatBack]

For as long as I can. It's lovely seeing the old favourite clothes on my youngest as well. I get lots of other hand-me-downs from friends too because my youngest seems to be the last baby among family and friends, so he's getting everybody's old things. I rarely have to buy clothes for him, it's great.

Definitely buy unisex for coats, waterproofs, etc for as long as you can.

[onemouseplace]

My children are DD, DS, DD and I found I could hand down more than I thought - I was fairly careful to buy more neutral colours and shapes and found that a striped long sleeve t-shirt/ navy jumper for instance looked great with a skirt or pinafore dress on DD, and equally good on DS with jeans/ shorts. I did tend to but more from the boys' ranges purely because the shapes were more neutral - I remember getting out what I remembered as a plain striped top on DD for DS, and discovering it actually had slightly puffy sleeves, which looked all wrong on him.

It was only about age 7-8 that my oldest DD started being much fussier about what she wore, and I suspect that I'm going to be able to hand less down the older they get, purely because the younger one may have completely different taste to the older one!

[BackforGood]

My 16 yr old dd still routes through her 21yr old brother's hand me downs, or clothes he puts out or ones he hasn't put out but that is another story.

We've always passed down clothes that still have lif in them. With most things it is a mixture of things that have been passed down and then news odds and ends added in.
Not exclusive to younger siblings though, we had lots of used clothes (and toys and 'stuff') gifted us for dc1.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

My Ds has always worn his brother’s hand me downs. He’s now 2.5 and has had virtually nothing bought nee except shoes, I do find though that after being worn by two kids, the clothes aren’t looking their best and this age group (2-3) will not last until he’s outgrown them because they’ve worn through or are too bobbly.

[123bananas]

Dd2 is still in dd1s stuff aged 6.

Ds wears the girls white polo shirts to school aged 4. Doesnt matter if the collar is frilly.

[M5tothesouthwest]

DC are 6 and 8 (different sex). They still have hand me downs and actually are the same size now so can share too which is great.

[museumum]

By age 3 ds was going through the knees of all his trousers before outgrowing them. And most tops were looking tatty too.
So somewhere around age 2.5 I think.

[museumum]

Although winter coats and snow trousers still hand down ok at age 5.

[NordicNobody]

Ah great, thanks all! They'll both be born in the same month so unless there's a massive size difference the seasons should match up for a while. I've been deliberately buying fairly neutral stuff in the hope I could reuse it. Will just follow the little ones lead then and stick her in DS clothes until she seems bothered about it. As you all point out, "boys" clothes are often more practical and hard wearing for playing in anyway.

[SadieHH]

My dds were born in the same week 4 years apart and now at 6 and 10 I'm still using dd1's clothes (which quite often were her cousins'). I only reuse things in good condition and now that dd1 is older and her style more defined, some things she was given aren't to her taste and so skipped her and went straight to dd2. I wasn't planning on stopping...

[Mousefunky]

My DD’s share clothes. They are 5 and 6 and pretty much the same size across the board so all of their clothes are in the same wardrobe and they just pick whatever. Sometimes I will keep some of DS (8) more ‘gender neutral’ clothes for them as well.

I’m currently pregnant and planning on using some of their baby clothes for this baby. Some of them aren’t gender neutral at all but I really wouldn’t hesitate to put them on a boy.

[Mousefunky]

Oh and all of my DC’s trainers and boots are passed down along the line so my youngest is wearing vans trainers my DS was wearing this time last year. As long as they’re in good condition, I don’t hesitate as shoes are expensive!

[lljkk]

I buy almost all my clothes in charity shops & teen DD likes to nick my stuff. So you know I'll say "never" too old.