How do I cut down kids clothes.

[Wintersun2026]

I'm just woundering. How many clothes do your children have ie 10 /20 tops 6 joggers etc. My children have always had to many clothes. And the washing gets out of hand. So i want to cut down. But I'm not sure what amount is reasonable to have?

I think trying to do the entire week’s laundry on one day won’t feel less overwhelming. Four of us in the house and I do two loads on Thursdays, two loads on Sundays for clothes - extra for sheets and towels. That’s just because I work long days Mondays to Wednesday so don’t have the time those days. But doing 3-4 loads of laundry every Friday sounds a bit overwhelming.

And (barring additional needs) no reason any of your children can’t take on some or more of this task. Will be good for them to have the responsibility and helpful for you.

I agree with PP in that some sort of rota for washing and putting away could work better than waiting to run out of clothes and then managing a big load all in one go.

I am very jealous of those of you who don’t have filthy children who require multiple changes of clothes a day.

School age - I think 2-3 jeans, one jogging bottom, 10 T-shirts and some hoodies for all year round.
Summer stuff was extra, 2-3 shorts, summer dresses/skirts.

DD was in after school care so didn't really change at home but as I worked I mainly did the washing at the weekend so she had to have enough for that and at least one week outside school.
But I expected her to re-wear bottoms and hoodies, only T-shirts and underwear/socks are changed daily.

I'm not doing it in one day. Friday and Saturday clothes washing. Wednesday towels/bedding. That should be workable if i have a better amount bif clothes not to much not to little

If you have a dryer and the clothes can all be dried then yes, suppose that works. I just wouldn’t have space for 4 loads of laundry to be hanging up at once so have to stagger it.

I think educating your kids is necessary too though - if they’re going through multiple sets of clothes every day at their age something isn’t right.

I don't have a dryer but our clothes dry within the day or over night. 6 to 8 hour's if i put them in the airing cupboard

If you are washing clothes every week how on earth are you washing more than 10 tops and 6 pairs of joggers per child per week ?

I do find a load as soon as I have one is better than waiting though

I wash school uniform weekly. The rest is a madness I cant actually answer how I do it or why. I just get myself in a mess.

This is pretty much my system. To make uniform work I wash Fri night and into Saturday for clothes and towels, and do bedding on Mondays.

With the bedding you could just do sheets and pillowcases weekly and duvets fortnightly.

Re volume of clothes, they are at an age where it gets harder. School uniform 6 shirts,(because packs of 2), 2-3jumpers/1 blazer, 3 bottoms, expect to wear 2 jumpers and bottoms per week, new shirt daily.

Home tops about 8 T shirts, 2 smart shirts, a couple of casual shirts or long sleeved T-shirt, about 5 hoodies but these rotate. One will be used for a few days then go in the wash before a clean one is started. 2 pairs of joggers, 2 pairs of jeans, 2-3 shorts. PJs 3-4 for winter, 2-3 for summer, wearing 3 nights each. About 10 boxer and home socks.

My daughter has a bit more leeway because girls' clothes are more complicated. Also my kids do not change into home clothes after school, which I think makes everything easier to manage. If they were getting changed after school I would expect them to wear the same t shirt 2-3 evenings as they're only in it a few hours.

Bedding and towels do not go into the laundry basket, but straight into the machine. I empty the laundry basket (clothes only) every single Monday.

You're absolutely right that the number of items they own matters. It helps a lot too if all their things fit easily into their drawers. If they have 12 hoodies and the drawer doesn't shut, everything is harder to manage. My son is autistic and gets very overwhelmed so all his clothes fit into a 75cm IKEA pax cupboard - about 4 drawers with hanging space over.

Mine had school uniform and outfits for seven days (due to the holidays). Uniform: clean shirt every day, two jumpers/cardigans each week, trousers/pinafores x two of each. A smart outfit each.

Clean socks and pants daily, clean pyjamas every other day.

Plus sports stuff.

Washing: darks, coloured, whites when there is a load. I probably washed daily when they were little. That was for us too.

am: put on a load, hang yesterdays wet washing, fold and/or iron the dry washing feom the day before. Probably about 30 mins a day. As they grew up, this didn't change.

The key is keeping on top of it.

I stocked up every season so on the whole their stuff spanned two sizes. The new stuff a bit big, last season's a perfect fit.

There was always volume but never a big deal.

are they doing laundry? i dont mean doing their own laundry by itself - are they unloading, hanging out, taking it back in and putting it away?

I have ADHD and really struggle with keeping on top of the house.

Things that have helped with washing though...

A tumble dryer!

All dirty clothes go in a washing basket in front of the washing machine. When the basket is full, it gets washed, whether thats once a day, twice a day, twice a week. Our clothes dont really need separating out so it all just goes in together. The only exception is the white wash which I do on a Saturday as its mainly school shirts.

DC go through the most clothes in our house, but they're all tumble dryer friendly so very easy to just chuck them all in if the weather isnt compatible with drying outside.

Once clothes are dried, they get folded into a second basket, the basket goes upstairs and each persons clothes are put in piles and left for them to put away. Empty basket brought back down ready to be refilled with the next clean lot.

That was never my question. 😔 i just asked about what on average people have so I can work out what a reasonable amount is.

ok

I’ve the opposite problem too few clothes for the kids so always washing so I wouldn’t jump to getting rid of

My children have many, many clothes. We get loads of handmedowns, my daughter loves a charity shop rummage and we have way more than we need. I'm pretty much never behind on laundry though because those two things aren't related. So I think that's just why people keep asking other questions - because no matter how many clothes you do or don't have, you won't keep up on it unless you fix the other problems. You need a system, you need the rest of your family to help or own it, and you need to keep up on it. Otherwise even if you throw away 90% of your belongings it will still be overwhelming. But I appreciate you only wanted an answer to your specific question...

My kids have maybe 20 or so pairs of joggers or leggings, another 5-10 of shorts, maybe 30 tops each, 7 sets of PJs and 6 full sets of school uniform (we have relaxed school uniform so it's not expensive so I have a full week just in case I'm sick or something - I get sick a lot). I don't separate anything so do 1-2 loads of laundry whenever the basket is full.

I don't have a dryer. I got rid of ot because of the cost. But I do have a large airing cupboard that's quite warm and dries things in 6-9 hours depending on what it is and how much i put on the airer if i put alot on it will dry within the day. If its not to much then 6-8hrs.

Unless its new I don't sort colours . I just throw it all in. My machine is 10kg si I can fit quite alot.

Do you need to get your head around doing more washes a week. Pre kids for me saving it up and doing it less than once a week was fine. Post kids once a day became normal. Took a while for my brain to adjust, it almost felt indulgent at first.

My dark wash on a Wednesday includes school clothes only because if anything happens at the weekend that means I can’t get their school clothes washed then I know they have 3 days clean school clothes for the following week.

We are only 2 adults and 1 child but we do at least one load a day, before considering towels, bedding and sofa throws etc. Soon adds up once you have a PE kit and some swimming stuff and work uniforms