How do you store your kids' clothes

[orangedrizzle]

Boring thread alert!

I am moving house soon and need some help thinking about storing clothes. We have 3 DC aged 6,3 and 1. We have used a chest of drawers but they're crap quality and bow easily.

Wardrobe or chest of drawers? Which is best long term. Not opposed to spending some cash to get the right thing but can't work out what's going to work long term. There's not a huge amount of space in each bedroom.

DCs have always had the Stuva/Trofast (now called Smastad) system from Ikea. As smaller children, they had a 3 drawer unit and a smallish wardrobe with wire drawers in the bottom. Like this one: SMÅSTAD / PLATSA storage combination, white/with frame, 120x42x123 cm - IKEA

It was useful because it meant that they could start getting out their own clothes as they got bigger. They're also really sturdy - my kids still play hide and seek in them and none of the shelves have ever bowed/sagged/broken.

My kids are now 8, 11 and 14, so for the older two we've moved onto a system where they have a wardrobe with a couple of high shelves, a hanging rail, and 3 drawers below. Like this (but without the wire basket in the wardrobe): SMÅSTAD / PLATSA wardrobe, white white/with 3 drawers, 60x57x181 cm - IKEA

I sold the old unit, because they hold their value really well, but the advantage of the Ikea stuff is that you can just rearrange the internal space as they get older. They've been making these units for years, so they won't change them.... My youngest is just getting to the point of needing to change the wardrobe, as her clothes are too long.....

Teen ds has a double bed, with a small pine Argos chest of drawers on each side.

They are 13 years old and haven't bowed/warped yet. I tighten the self-assembly bolts up about once a year, and they are fine.

@amyboo thank you so much. I had been put off by ikea as we've had the hemnes range and lots of other bits from there in the past and I've found the quality to be poor. However I've never had any children's furniture from there.

Both kids have wardrobes, with shelves on one side.
Old house had no shelves, but we had something like these to give some shelves.

We definitely need sone hanging space now the kids are at secondary, and have shirts. Think about what you need long term as well as right now.

Wardrobes for all, dh built them himself so they are completely custom made to fit the size and shape of each room - really important for the 2 bigger kids as we turned the loft into bedrooms for them and there are some weird angles!
Ds is in one of the regular middle floor bedrooms but a wardrobe seems best for longevity, he’s 12 now and most of his clothes are hung up, uniform and then his jeans, T-shirts etc. there are drawers at the bottom for nightwear, underwear and sports kits. We don’t iron anything so hanging was the best choice for not adding to the creasing!

Wardrobe and a chest of drawers. Decent sized wardrobe with shelving no above and below hanging areas so can be used for other things you want out of sight. Got a recent set for my youngest from Dreams. They delivered and assembled and a s a single parent this was important to me. Got their beds from there too - both the ottoman type that lift up for storage, best inventions ever but get side lift rather than end of bed lift (I wish we had). For myself I’ve got a wardrobe from ikea with build in drawers under the hanging areas a corner bit that can have shelves/hanging, and then a smaller end with a smaller hanging area and smaller drawer area.

I got hubby to add open shelves to the bottom of a wardrobe and then had hanging space at the top... worked a treat and kids can see all of their clothes. I have boys so not many of their clothes actually needed hanging up.

DCs both have a wardrobe with a second rail added so that there are two 'levels'. All uniform, shirts, t-shirts etc. are on hangers and fit in there.

They also have an IKEA Kallax unit with separate boxes for pants, socks, PJs, sports kit. Most of that just gets thrown in and every so often I do a clear out but it seems to work.

I like wardrobes with hanging rails. We have never used drawers apart from for underwear/shorts for kids, now teens. I like everything ironed and either DC’s or DH would have ended up turning drawers upside down looking for things.

I have an IKEA pax wardrobe for mine, it has hanging at the top and I got drawers for the bottom, absolutely love it and would do the same in a bigger version for myself I could afford it😂

We have a 2x2 kallax for each child with drawers down one side labelled for (tops, bottoms, PJs & underwear) then didn’t put the horizontal shelf in the other side & added a tension rod for jumpers/shirts/dresses. It’s still working well for our 4yo and we rotate unseasonal stuff in vacuum bags above our wardrobe.

We have pax wardrobes from ikea with drawers in the bottom

Mine are 13 and 9. DC1 started needing a wardrobe from around Year 6. Her clothes got quite big. And with lots of coats and jackets, it's easier to hang them up then putting them into drawers. Previously she only had drawers. Now she has a PAX with a mirrored door. The PAX has a mixture of drawers and hanging space. One of the hanging space is full length for her dresses and jumpsuits. I think long term, you'll need wardrobes, but you can get away with drawers when younger.

And teen clothes take up a lot of space. DC1 aren't into clothes, but she has a one drawer for t-shirts, another for leggings, another for sports gear, then another for just socks and underwear. Hanging rails are just for her coats, jackets and uniform.

Ikea PAX wardrobes. If you can fit in the higher height that's great because then you don't have an annoying gap at the top on the wardrobe. Those tend to get messy!
Also,