Clothing

[Dorsetmama]

I had this idea to help me drastically with laundry folding and sorting. I thought if I colour coded the kids things, as I have all boys, it would cut down my laundry time drastically, by making everything easily identifiable.
But it's proving very tricky to find REASONABLY priced plain coloured clothing/accessory items etc out there!
The colours they chose were red, blue, green, purple. They have backpacks and water bottles for school in these colours. I have found fruit of the loom t shirts too. Trousers aren't such an issue, as they all like specific styles different from each other so it's easy!! Toothbrushes were simple too. Flannels I can't find. Towels have been embroidered. Pants and socks are the hardest! No packs are without a mix of colours or patterns unless black or white or grey. I can't even split the packs up because their sizings are so different.

Anyone got any tips? How do you make your laundry organised?

I haven't got round to it yet, but I'm planning over the holidays to sort out all the clothes so that they have x4 of everything and no more (apart form socks and pants)...it's something that was mentioned on a thread on here recently.

The problem for colour coding clothes for me would be the fact that you then can't pass things down to the younger ones, sometimes items have only been worn once or twice by the time they have reached the youngest in our house.

I colour code other stuff though, towels/toothbrushes stc. On days out I also put them in all in the same colour so they are easy to spot in a crowd!

School shirts get a stitch of sewing thread in the collar to identify them. Boxers and pants are currently identifiable by character, DS1-Star Wars, DS2-Batman/Avengers and DS3 Fireman sam...not sure how long I will get away with that though.

I definitely agree that for clothes it isn't worth it because they cannot be handed down.

I have 4dds and hand down most things (5 years apart so we have a shared wardrobe as all sizes between say 3-8 are used- 2 dcs the same size!). The shared wardrobe is probably what does it for us. We have one wardrobe, one set of drawers (socks all together - prob 2 diff sizes only). I keep school uniform in a separate wardrobe - so 5 days a week I get 3 outfits from it (young do in nursery). So I guess in stead of 4wardrobes/drawers, I have two wardrobes and one set of drawers. All house the same item for all 4 DVDs, if that makes sense. I think this is a 'thing' called a family wardrobe and I've seen it herder before, but for me it happened organically.

Wrt accessories etc, the dds know what is theirs. Lots are usually gifts. I guess generally I try to keep all things together (eg all shoes are together in shoe cupboard downstairs, not in four different wardrobes).

I hope that makes sense!

Oh, I have 4 cath kidston towels in different patterns for each dc and I'm not fussy with face clothes.

i use the 'label dot' method: DC1's clothes get one sharpie pen dot on the label. DC2 gets 2 dots, DC3 gets 3 dots. This means when its time to hand something down you add a dot so it becomes the next DC's item.

They do have colour preferences so I stick to those when I am buying new for them. the DC are also very good at knowing what stuff is theirs and will tell me (loudly!) if I've put something in the wrong pile/given them the wrong coat etc.

I have a cardboard divider hanging between each DC's section of the wardrobe for uniform/hanging clothes so its easy to grab from the right section. Eldest on the left through to youngest on the right - same for pegs for coats/box for shoes etc - eldest on the far left through to youngest on the right.

I have a 4 way laundry sorter bin on the landing - darks, brights, lights and whites. (was expensive and shipped from the states but I wouldn't be without it!) My DC are under 6 yo so I have a picture stuck on each one to show them which is for which colour and they can then put their own dirty laundry away.

they do have colour specific towels and flannels - BHS was good for this.

Pants I'd buy white and then use Dylon washing machine dye on it. I'm only on ds2 but I'm hoping for more and this or the dots will be my method!

We pile clean dry washing on the table and they sort it and fold it now they are old enough. We have sizes 14,12 & 10 girls for 11,10, 10 yo DDs So lots of wear and no need to store.
7Yo DS.

Wow so much help!! Thanks so much ladies

Thanks for all the links, and i really didnt consider non plain but patterned in the right colour, silly me!

I like the idea of dyeing the pants.
I get it about handing down, so i also like the dot labelling.
Divider in the wardrobe is a great idea.
Laundry sorter would be good for the dirty stuff... Although i dont wash much separate apart from whites!!

The best answer is a maid service

We go for different brands of undies (just have to remember who has what).

Trickiest for me is tights!

Nowhere to label them, no branding, all the same colour.....at least the DDs can now share a size, but they continually get mixed up with mine (and I really don't look good in a 12yo's scabby school tights). Would love a suggestion on how to differentiate!

My mum used to sew a thick piece of thread on the inside waistband of our tights when we were kids, 2 different colours for mine and my sisters.

I have pretty low standards... All our tights (grey school) are in the same draw. I just go by the size.

Knickers, no shame here, we hand them down. Can usually tell by size.

Ditto socks, sa,e draw, can tell by size. I have one dd with ASD and she's in the middle. Due to sensitivity, she won't wear a lot of socks, tights etc, so I guess that's a help really!

My eldest is like that with socks he has ASD

She's 7 dorsetmama but she still likes wearing her size 5 clothes , but I'm keen to keep her anxiety low and recently brought more uniform in size 5 .

For reference, dd1 is 19 months older than her but the same size, so dd should be in at least size 6. Puts my wardrobe problems in perspective, I guess .

Haha

My ASD kid still wears pants too small because he likes the tightness and can't abide looseness. He would rather wear y fronts than trunks but thinks it's uncool.

I've had to force it though, lately he keeps getting thrush because of the tightness! No air space

Colour code by clothes size not kid.

So age 3-4 orange
age 4-5 green
age 5-6 blue ... (or whatever scheme).

shiny oh hahaha

yeoldetrout that's not a bad idea!