To keep stained/heavily worn clothes for next child?

[Bbqnights]

Did you keep everything, or just things in decent condition? I'm thinking it makes no sense to buy new clothes for nursery when they're just going to get destroyed again.

There were things I put away with my first child that I was horrified by when I took them out the loft for my second. I think you might get used to a current child wearing something but then have a very different view a few years later. The odd marker pen stain didn’t bother me but I found that no.2 had so many hand me downs i definitely didn’t want her in the skuzzy stuff and if anything i bought new bits so she wasn’t always in her siblings older stuff. Some things lasted beautifully but we also found a lot of clothes with elastic degraded which was annoying.

I’ve also found the older my eldest has got, the less there is to hand down as she wears a lot of things to destruction.

Heavily stained no. Holes no. I have 4 kids so it's expensive but I buy lots second hand. So many other standards I let slip but not the kids in ripped stained clothes

No. Definitely not. Have no problem with hand me downs. Heavily work or stained things always got thrown out. I would not wear stained clothes. Not even to bed and would not want my children to (unless money was so tight there was no choice).

Absolutely not. I buy new for both kids, keep anything that still looks well but I would never, ever send them to nursery or school in stained or heavily worn clothing.

It's important to me that they feel they look well and that I've spent time and care putting their clothes together. Consistent handmedowns when parents can afford to buy new and do buy new for themselves is just being tightfisted and mean. Especially second hand shoes.

Once or twice a year I throw all the stained things in the washing machine with a strong coloured dye (usually navy or red). It seems wasteful otherwise when there’s nothing wrong with them.

But do 2 year olds even notice/care? I'm not talking about teenagers here.

I buy my daughter's main shoes new from Clarks, but she has second hand wellies, sandals etc. I don't see the problem?

Considering how mucky two year olds get. I don't see why not?

Sorry "Clean tramps" then

Second hand shoes no but everything else I don't see the issue. Currently keeping all polo school shirts for my second when he starts school. Also have second hand trousers etc. Good for the environment. Plus I don't have money for everything new.

Definitely not. I’ve got 4 and I’d never hand anything down that wasn’t pretty much pristine. I’m terrible for stains though, if they stain something and I can’t get it out it goes in the bin. I just can’t stand them in stained stuff it makes me feel like they look scruffy and I find the stains too noticeable even if they’re tiny and it drives me crazy 😂 for nursery I’ve always just dressed mine in black or dark clothes and the clothes never seem to get ruined.

Meh. I don't see a problem with some marks on the clothes etc. They are kids. They should be dirty!

My boy wore his sisters pink baby grows. He quite suited them actually!

I get all my clothes from the baby bank, so they are all second hand and well worn. I don't care what baby looks like on a day to day basis, so long as they are washed and clean. IMO stains are no different to dye once they are set in. Obviously in a not-purposeful way, but principally the same.
I have bought odd outfits for a couple of special occasions but that's all.
He also wears incredibly girly clothes to sleep as I got loads of hand me downs from a friend who had a girl.

Yes - my DD and DS point out paint/food stains on clothes if they're still visible after a wash and call them dirty. So they do notice.

And teachers also notice the kids who turn up in dirty worn clothes while their parents are pristine.

And shoes matter because their feet are still growing and they need shoes for the own needs. Not their feet to be molded to suit shoes worn by someone else.

Yes, I keep everything. Even stuff with holes in. It's so wasteful to replace functional clothes. Treat/sun the stains, whites get bleached, debobble the bobbles, learn to sew. They get new shoes, hand me downs as spares. We have 3 boys, and most things have survived to be passed on further as we look after them.
I wear almost exclusively second hand myself. My oldest (who incidentally has the most new clothes of all of us) understands well why we pass things down, buy used and repair our things.

No, as a child who was fourth down in the family and hated being shabbily dressed, i didnt keep heavily stained/worn/faded clothing. An odd light mark no problem but not very noticeably stained things.

I'm pretty good at getting stains out though.

Yes, I keep everything. Even stuff with holes in. It's so wasteful to replace functional clothes. Treat/sun the stains

If the stains can be got out with treatment/sun, the item isn't stained any more is it

I don't waste things. I'll sew a small hole etc if it can be done so it doesn't show. But i feel sorry for kids in heavily patched, stained, threadbare clothing.

Ah, well, if it's got fruit on it too, then of course it screams girl 😅

When they're older, I suppose there's the potential social consequences to consider — and I suppose maybe the practical issue of giving someone who's only just learning to get dressed an item of clothing that does up the opposite way to normal — but I agree it makes no sense to ditch a perfectly good baby coat because society and/marketers have apparently now decided that every possible colour and motif must have a specific gender allocation 🙄

True, but I find lots of people don't know how to, or don't even try and deal with stains. I also wouldn't throw clothing out because of a stain - it is still functional.

I buy my daughter's main shoes new from Clarks, but she has second hand wellies, sandals etc.

If its got a sole, it will have moulded to the previous owners foot. There's something really horrible feeling about putting your feet into a shoe moulded to someone else's foot, it feels so weird. I'd only ever put a child in a second hand shoe if it was something like a party shoe only once or twice.

Once or twice a year I throw all the stained things in the washing machine with a strong coloured dye (usually navy or red).

Let me know how that works out with a white school shirt.

But honestly - unless all you ever buy are very plain basics, how does this even work? Any prints or pictures on the clothing will look crap if you do this.

My children must have gone to a very bad nursery because they never came home with the amount of destroyed clothes other mumsnetters have. They wore bibs/painting aprons and puddle suits. Yes the clothes would have been thrown in the wash but in 11 years cumulatively I can't think of any clothes that were destroyed.

And no I would never keep stained or damaged clothes. And never second hand shoes.

Remember - you know stains are washed in & the item is "clean".

The person across from you in the cafe or library doesn't. They just see an apparently scruffy child in rather dirty clothes.

Not the impression I want anyone to have of my child.

If I saw a toddler with dirty clothes, I'd think they were a toddler 🤷‍♀️. For all I know they could be brand new stains from lunch that day or a play in the park. I certainly wouldn't judge someone's parenting.

Absolutely not, recycle anything stained and only keep the good condition clothes (no stains!). Start as you mean to go on, will you carry this on in to the school years??