Should I save my hand me downs for 5 years

[NicolaDunsire]

My sister has had a baby, my DD is 5 years older. She’s asked me to save all their clothes to pass on to her baby. I was taken aback because saving clothes for 5 years just seems daft, I would rather pass them on to my neighbour’s child who is a year younger. My DD just has ordinary supermarket clothes, things from charity shops, clothes that have been handed down to her... I thought I could save anything particularly nice for my sister, but still pass on the bog standard stuff. I do have space to save bags of clothes I guess but I would rather have it out of my house when I’m done with it... am I being mean?

I passed most things onto my sister, but I gave them to her when we finished with them, not when her DC were ready for them.

It's daft to store for that long. I've been given stuff for ds 7 which would fit a teenager. Most of it I have passed on as I have nowhere to store... also no idea whether it will fit /suit ds by that point.

My nieces are 3 yrs apart with my daughter between. My daughter passes clothes to eldest niece - 2yrs older than her! My younger niece gets new as neither her sibling nor her cousins clothes work either in terms of shape or style/interests. They are all within 2-3 sizes according to the labels!! Even school uniform is difficult (they are now at 3 different coloured uniform schools too!)

Oh and I certainly wouldn't store it for her - she probably won't want it by the time it would fit. The you'll have the problem of getting rid without the circle of friends of the right ages!

I wouldn’t be happy with keeping the outgrown clothes for up to a year before they were collected.
We’re a bit short on storage space and I wouldn’t want it taken up like that.

Yes by all means if she wants them, but she has to store them all!!

Pass them to her to keep; if I was her i wouldn’t ask as I think styles will have changed but if she does want them then she can have the faff of keeping them

I wouldn't be storing stuff if she wants them let her store them , I pass stuff into a friend whose child is younger only slightly so as soon as my child's out grown things they are gone

Age five stuff will mostly be a bit trashed, so you won’t be keeping everything? Not like baby stuff they’re only in for five minutes.

Can’t you manage to keep a box at a time and give it to her once a year? Just that year’s stuff?

I would be pragmatic. Say you will keep party outfits/dresses (if you have them). I would hand everything else to your neighbour and tell sister they weren't worth keeping, you know what supermarket stuff is like etc etc.
What she doesn't know cant hurt her.
The few bits you keep you can post cheap as chips as she stops wearing them.
I always passed clothes on to whoever had a baby/child the most likely to like and use them ( eg winter born in my case, a year younger).

And as my youngest got older, I literally only passed on the expensive winter coats I bought each year or so from John Lewis to my lovely colleague. They always looked brand new despite being worn every day. Everything else went to the Sally Army, who pass clothes out at their mum and toddlers groups directly to families in need rather than selling them (or did in our locality)