How do you store children's hand-me-downs?

[TheHouseofMirth]

Ours are in total chaos and when I need to bring out the next batch of DS1's clothes for DS2 I can't find anything.

How do you store yours? And do those vacuum bags actually work? I bought some from Lakeland years ago but they were useless.

Watching with interest. Somewhere in this house are multiple pairs of aged 10 black school trousers - and I'm buggered if I know where.

We have them stored in wheely cases in the shed. When I mean shed it's like a smaller garage attached to the double garage.
When we lived in the UK they lived in the loft inside the cases.

I get vacuum bags and do it by 'age'. I keep a big carrier bag in the wardrobe I put it in until we have fully retired all the (for example) 4-5 stuff, then when I have it all I put it in a BIG vac bag in the loft. I buy the JML ones. The cheaper ones are shite. Buy JML when they are on offer, they are expensive, but quite often cheaper in Wilkinsons.

Ours are in Ikea duvet bags in our attic with ages written on the tags. Which makes me sound quite organised, except that the bags are completely inaccessible due to the piles of other crap sat in front of them (outgrown books and toys the kids refuse to get rid of, prams and highchairs and other baby stuff I haven't got round to selling, and two old tellies). Still, the idea I think is sound even if the implementation could be improved!

I have some wicker hamper baskets. They live onto of my wardrobe and I write a note on the top layer of clothing says what ages are in that hamper.

Store them in plastic crates by age. Be ruthless though - I don't keep stuff that is looking really tired, or won't fit if they are very different shapes.

I keep the age they about to grow into in a box under their beds.

I have 4 dds, I've had practice!

I also store by seasons

So 4-5 summer, 5-6 winter, 5-6 spring/summer, 6-7 autumn/winter

I have DD's stuff in the attic, in plastic bags by age.

DC2 is a DS though, and we're done now, so once I find takers for DD's stuff it's going, and as DS grows out of things, they go out the front door rather than up the stairs to the attic!

I find it a bit of a pain, actually, that I can't recycle much of anything except jammies, vests and tights (and not tights when DS gets a bit older!).

SomeOne see if you can find someone to swap with who had a ds and now a dd!

The problem I'm having with this is that she doesn't grow out of everything at one time. I'm up to 6 months now but it is not as simple as 0-3,3-6 as she is still in some 0-3 and also in some 9-12. Sigh

I have an old set of drawers in the garage and pop the clothes in carrier bags inside the drawers. On the front of the drawers I write age 6, age 7, etc.

Random, my friend has a DS and is pregnant now, so my fingers are crossed!

I agree with PooCatcher, we straddle age groups too. But I generally box them up by age range in plastic ikea tubs.

But then there are the items that are just ridiculously sized....my DD who is 2.11 discovered an old pair of knee length shorts I bought for her from Boots Mini Modelast year. And when I bought them last summer, I ended up buying a smaller size as her size at the time looked enormous. So yesterday, off she went to nursery in a pair of 9-12 mth old sized shorts!! Bonkers! although convinced they must have been mislabelled, surely!

Currently on the disused top bunk in a large clump, I have been asking myself this question too. As for those shorts SleepyFergus, I'm pretty sure I have the boys version. DS1 fit into them aged 4 and they were 9-12 months they're huge!
I might have to give those vacumn bags a go. I have loads of space in the loft but I always hate putting stuff up there just to get cobwebby or snuck into by some creepy crawly horror if they're just in bin bags or something

In an old wardrobe with the rail taken down. Currently in plastic crates by age but always looking for a 'better' way to organise them. I keep the younger (grown out of) ages towards the bottom and the older (yet to grow into) stuff near the top. Despite my organisation I still had to wash all the baby stuff in anticipation of DC2 as it had got quite creased (plus we used the launderette to clean it all last time and their machines clearly weren't as good as the washing machine we have now or maybe I'm just nesty) - my mum works in a charity shop and says all the stuff they've stored in those vacuum bags comes out so creased it can't even be ironed but I suppose it might be different with the more expensive ones

NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown, wouldn't washing the clothes would remove the creases? (though I do appeciate volunteers in charity shops have better things to do)

Think I'm going to try some of these and then pack them into plastic storage crates with clip on lids. Presumably, if I fill the crate and the bags fail then they can't expand too much?