how many clothes do dc need?

[Windsorian]

I am trying to get my mind round to how many clothes children need. I always try to buy my dc clothes in the sale for the following year, dd is 5 and ds is 7 however i always end up with far too many clothes than needed.

i am trying to reign in and budget but am clueless. any tips or idea how much you spend per child?

DS2 (8) has loads , he's still not outgrown liking character clothing so I'm forever buying him new bits when he goes through new phases

DS1 (13) doesn't have nearly as much but his clothes are expensive. He's into men's sizes and likes particular expensive sports labels which means he only has a few bits and he rotates them. He owns 3 pairs of jeans, 2 hoodies and 5 decent tshirts. He does have other bits in his wardrobe but only wears the 5 tshirts!

Thank you pishedoff and yes it happens to me too, that children get obsessed with a fav outfit and wear it non stop which means that they're always in the same 3 -4 outfits and the others are left in the wardrobe brand new.

I find that mine always have too much, mainly because they are in school uniform most of the time. I am going to try to pare it down since they grow so quickly that a lot of the stuff is barely worn by the time it's too small.

I bought when they needed it. Worked on the basis of two nice outfits (M&S, Boden, John Lewis), 3-4 from various separates, usually M&S level and general tat from supermarkets/given by friends. I do remember a summer when Asda did a simple but pretty cotton jersey dress when DD was about 3/4 and she lived and died so to speak in four of them all summer: Yellow, green, blue and pink. They were £4 and fab! :). She's 18 now and remembers her rainbow dresses.

Much less than you think!

I have three year old twin boys. They have one chest of drawers for all their clothes. One small drawer for underwear, one for uniform they were three mornings, one big drawer for clothes and one for out of season / grow into. So maybe 4 each of tshirts, long sleeve, trousers and 3 jumpers each. I would rather have few better quality (joules, boden, frugi) and wash and wear them a lot. Helps keep things under control and packing to go away is easy.

Why not keep a list on your phone of what you pick up in sales and sizes so you can consider whether something is needed regardless of the price.

I've been thinking about this myself today. The older they are the less they need as they stick to the same few outfits even if they have loads to choose from.

Mine are 7&8 and they probably rotate the same 3 bottoms, 4 tshirts and 3 jumpers. They have a few more... but don't wear them.

Mine had v few
...
DS2 15 has 2 pairs of jeans/ 2 track suit trousers , 2 old tracksuit of DS1 ( v well worn) a shirt 5 t shirts( 2 hand me downs) a pair of shorts a home pair of trainers and school stuff.
He has a jumper and 2 hoodies that fit , pyjamas, sports stuff ( mainly passed on) and a coat.
The I always banked on hand me downs where poss but DD and DS1 are close in age so that wasn't always poss
I would have thought something like an outfit for good and 2 or maybe 3 other bottoms and a few t shirts and a jumper/ cardigan and a couple of hoodies
They had wellies and sandles but brought trainers home from school and school shoes.
Wet weather garments also needed,sports clubs sometimes require uniform likewise brownies and cubs but loads of that can be second hand.

DS is 10. He has one pair of nice skinny jeans for best, one pair of good quality double layer trousers for outdoorsy stuff and two pairs of joggers that he hangs out in. He has about four, fairly plain, long sleeve tops and half a dozen trendy T shirts and a few plain ones. He layers up according to the season. He has two hoodies, two hooded jumpers, a smart jumper and a smart shirt. I normally get him about four pairs of shorts for the summer.

I find kids need more summer clothes because of the holidays and playing out after school.

I'm lucky in that mine are still small enough to go for clothes bundles from eBay. Works out at about £1 per item including postage. I'm prepared to have stuff that just goes straight to charity shop though.

DS is ten and I realise that this ship will soon have sailed.

A lot less than you think. I have two DSs aged 9 and 6. Whenever we have a clothes clear out I work to a list if them keeping:

10 pants
10 socks
5 vests
7 t shirts
5 long sleeve t shirts
3 hoodies / sweatshirts
2 fleeces / jumpers
5 trousers
5 shorts

Plus jackets - one warm ski jacket and one light waterproof each. We are in France where there is no school uniform - they'd have even less otherwise. We also go camping, so it's handy to have enough clothes sets to last a week without washing. Their clothes take up 1.5 drawer each plus a little hanging space thanks to Kondo's folding method. I am ruthless - any excess beyond the above gets given away / binned. Neither particularly care about clothes as long as they are comfy, long may that last!

My friend who has a girl struggles with limiting clothes as her dd likes all the 'pretty' things - I get away with being purely practical! So maybe it's more difficult with girls.