Clothes by type or by occasion for maximum sanity? Ways?

[Gentleness]

I recently reorganised my clothes and had one drawer just for sports, gardening and scruff clothes. It's been so handy.

I'm at my wit's end with my kids clothes. I could spend hours every week teaching them how to fold and how to put things in drawers but it's not going to be easy any time soon. I'm thinking of reorganising for them too, to save my patience and their ears.

Have done anything similar? Is this going to make any difference? Tell me the flaws.

• a drawer they all share for smart clothes (they don't have loads), that I check and help with so that my brain doesn't explode when all the smart stuff needs reironing.
• a drawer for casual, sports, scruff that is up to them
• a drawer that's socks and pants and nicer stuff they like wearing - I'd check it once a week. If they put stuff they like screwed up in the scruff drawer, that's their problem and they replace it with their own money if it gets ruined.

How old are they?
More than one DC sharing a single drawer for different types of clothes sounds like a recipe for disaster!

How old are your children?

How much hanging space is available?

Grr, autocorrect. Meant to be wwyd in the title!

Context: my kids are 10, 8 and 6. The oldest is the worst at putting anything away and at folding and turns everything into a drama which pushes my buttons. We need a more peaceful way.

I separate out school uniform and underwear to save on the rummaging. Do what works for you.

Hanging space is limited to one rail at the moment. We are trying to reduce clothing excess anyway, so this seems fine. They've had no hanging space at all till now.

For the smart clothes drawer, my reasoning is that is rarer use and always for something for the whole family. So less traffic by far.

I think you need to find a way that works for the child. My Dc had their cupboards organised the same way. It kind of worked for my DS (8) but not for DD(6). DD would rummage for whichever top she wanted that day. DS just takes the top one from the pile. I changed DD's shelf for two drawers and folded her tops so she can see each one individually, same for leggings/trousers in the drawer below. She is more careful than DS, so is willing to make the extra effort to put things away neatly. DS will put a pile away more or less in the right place.

Neither of mine fold their clothes really unless they are very very bored!
I also tell them to put it away in stages. Put your pants and socks away (again DS throws his in a drawer together, DD keeps hers separate). Then they come back for t-shirts, then trousers etc.

my dds have under bed storage boxes. 2 each - one for school clothes and one for outside school clothes. they each have a drawer for knickers/tights/vests. then a shared drawers for socks, pyjamas, hats/gloves/swimwear. they also have one rail which has dresses/jumpers/jackets/onesies/dressing up costumes. organised into sections and who it belongs to. (I do want to change the plastic drawers for a 4×1 kallax from Ikea once I've sold a few bits on ebay)

plus one hook each by the front door for their school bag and everyday coat.

Tights alone seem to take up so much space! I find it harder to reduce excess clothes for my daughter than my sons because there just seem to be so many more types of garment.

It seems that I'm not completely off common ground with sorting clothes by purpose anyway which gives me a bit more confidence. It's true that it will depend on the individual more than anything though - I needed that reminder thanks! Which makes me despair about my eldest...

I'm imagining that the sum total of each of OP's ideal children's wardrobe would be 4 outfits each.

Could you just hang everything? It is much easier when you can see it all.

@ragged, I'd love that, but I'm not organised enough with laundry!

There's no space for more hanging. In any case, would you hang t-shirts and leggings or joggers?