To keep stained/heavily worn clothes for next child?

I bought most of my firsts clothes second hand, and wear a lot of second hand myself. I saved everything from my first - she’s 3 now and I’ve had to start being more selective about how much I keep to pass down because there is just so much! If you think about how much you have put away now if your eldest is 18 months, that will have basically doubled again at age 3 - they are in one size for longer but I find that means you end up with more, especially when you need lots of spares for nursery/potty training. You also need things for summer then winter etc. We have a lot of storage in our house but the amount of space it takes up is unreal and it’s a nightmare sorting through it all to find the right size.

We may have another baby or two after my second, but I’m being ruthless about what I keep. As I’ve got things out for my second, I’ve been surprised but how battered a lot of it is that I thought was fine when put away. Little holes emerging at the edges of poppers, stains that I hadn’t noticed, colours looking really faded etc. While my eldest wore second hand I only bought things in great condition, and would restore anything that looked tired myself or get rid, so I wouldn’t put baby in stained clothes. I felt really embarrassed at a baby class this week, when there were lots of first babies there dressed immaculately in little outfits. My baby had a little sleepsuit on, because I love them in a sleepsuit when they’re tiny, but I looked down and realised there was a rip by the popper and worried that it just seemed like I didn’t care.

Also I’ve kept so much I really can’t justify buying anything for second baby and love it when I do choose a few bits. I do try and maintain things nicely - I have a debobbler which I use on anything that gets bobbly. I manage to get pretty much any stain out except paint. I wash things on a long 40/60 eco wash, with any stain remover powder, normally the own brand supermarket ones. I use washing powder and make sure I’m using enough - I weighed one full scoop of the scoop I use and realised I’d been using about half of what was recommended on the box. That gets most things out - whenever I use a shorter 1.5 hour cycle I find half the stuff comes out still dirty. I also soak things in napisan (for colours) or Milton (for whites) with water from the kettle in a bucket. That gets out really tough stains even if they’ve been washed and dried a couple of times since. The sun is also brilliant for anything biological - food, poo, dirt etc. it just lifts it straight out.

If I’ve done all that and it’s still stained I donate it to charity in a rag bag. I know what you mean about cost, but you can buy bundles on Vinted or Facebook really cheaply - I’ve had a bin bags worth of clothes from Facebook for £10, and they were all next/jojo etc and in great quality the lady just wanted to be rid of them and not have to list individually. So knowing how cheaply I can pick things up, I don’t send her in stained things. If you’re washing things long and hot enough with enough powder and stain remover you shouldn’t have many stains anyway.

Hanging white clothes in the sun helps get the stains out if they didn’t all come out in the wash.

Well yes, just like clean can mean sat in front of a screen all day. Good thing I didn't say only dirty children ever have fun, or that dirty always means fun.

Paint... needs a cold soak first.
Most things... spray on stain remover that evening, soak until wash goes on, then hang in sunlight to dry, even in a window if its raining.

Its about not letting a stain set.

No I would throw it out.

The only items I could never get stains out of, after nursery or school, were a couple of dresses that had practically been buried in mud, and some black paint on the sleeve of the Beaver uniform jumper ( the second time it was worn... and there it stayed until both children finished Beavers!!)

I had them come home literally covered head to toe in paint after falling in it... but the stains came out.

No, I wouldn’t wear stained clothes so I don’t put them on my children either. Lightly worn clothes for play, sure, but stained ones become rags for cleaning.

I keep everything from ds4. Dd1 has worn all of his old baby clothes and as he grows out of stuff I bag it up. She has just started nursery. Week 1 she wore some of her own clothes which predictably all got ruined. It’s week 2 and she’s in his dinosaur hand me downs and that’s how it’s going to be for the next year or so. It’s really only been the last 6 months or so that the kids in DSs nursery class have worn nicer clothes to nursery and got home with them still being semi presentable.

I didn't mind my kids wearing their own stains but I refuse to put them in someone else's stains.

Agree. My daughter loved nursery, had great fun painting, playing outside, eating all sorts of snacks but normally she came out spotless.

I wouldn’t wear a stained top myself so it’s a no for my kids too. I’d try my hardest to get any stain out (bleach is your friend for anything white) and stitch little holes or tears though if they weren’t very noticeable.

Doesn't strong sunlight get out most stains? I'd throw away milk or poo stains cause they are gross, but keep paint and mud etc

As a CM honestly just send them, your kids will get mucky most days & save any decent stuff for home/granny's etc.

We are talking about reusing stained clothes for nursery here, not for general wear out in cafes or libraries where clothes are much less likely to get stains on.

Clothes are cheap as anything, Vinted eBay, or even supermarket brands.

It depends on what you are using them for, it’s its day to day wear then any clothes that are heavily stained, ill-fitting or damaged may raise safeguarding concerns, a nursery/school might reach out to check if you need any extra support.

If you’ve got items with very light/small stains that aren’t noticeable and no damage etc then that’s not an issue, I have always saved clothes for my children but only items that look clean/in good condition and not heavily worn, the only item of clothing I’ve ever kept that has been heavily stained are the ones they’ve worn at forest school and then I bin them at the end of the school year.

Clothes are not presents for such a young child! More of a necessity

Dirty clothes doesn't automatically mean a child has had a fun day.

Why us there this constant association on here that dirty clothes = fun? A cleanly dressed child could easily have had a lovely day playing with lego, doing stickers, baking with a parent while wearing an apron.
Meanwhile a child in soiled clothes might have spent the day poorly supervised and having fallen in some mud and hurt themselves.
Dirty does not automatically = fun, sometimes it just means they've been let run wild poorly supervised.

Gosh, what an unfriendly tone.
It doesn’t sound like you’re interested in trying it, but in case someone else is: it works great with prints and character t-shirts. Obviously the printed part doesn’t take up the colour so if you choose the colour wisely it makes the print look really vibrant.
Regarding school shirts, the OP was specifically asking about clothes for children who don’t go to school. Anyway, I don’t see a reason to not save the environmental costs of ten to fifteen items of clothing per year just because it doesn’t work for every single item, but perhaps I’m missing something.

I also find that by 3-4 when children are exclusively dressed in stained clothes they don't learn that sense of pride in keeping their clothes clean, because they were never clean to start with. Nobody cares that they drip food down etc, its just another stain to add to many already there.
Whereas when a child does sometimes get a new item its easier to teach them to them keep it nice, pointing out its new and unmarked and 'lets try and keep it that way'.
And no this does not 'restrict their play' 🤔 they just learn to wear a painting apron, eat a bit more tidily, not just smear their hands down their clothes but go and wash them!

DD has a whole drawer of nursery only clothing that is stained. I learnt after the first couple of weeks absolutely not to send her in anything I didn’t mind getting stained. It’s clean, she’s clean, she doesn’t care her jumper has a stain on it and she has some other gorgeous outfits to look ‘pristine’ in outside of nursery! Not to mention…better for my wallet, better for the planet. Things worn out/holes are gone.

*and yes many of these were handed down from older child.