How many clothes do children actually NEED?

[arabella2]

I ask because we have 3 children who are 2, 4 and 6 years old and we are drowning in piles of clothes everywhere. Partly because we get lots of hand me downs from cousins for the 2 younger dds. Ds does not get as many hand me downs if any so his situation is a lot more under control. So I was thinking I should really make an effort and go through their wardrobes weeding out the unnecessary to give away (I always find this hard as am quite sentimental). Which brings me to my question.... how many clothes do you think are enough? I was thinking along the lines of days of the week - so 7 t-shirts, 7 tops, 7 pairs of trousers etc... What do you think - too much, too little. How many clothes does everybody else have I wonder...
with many thanks for any answers.

My general rule is that if they haven't worn it within the last month it's not really necessary (except for special items like dress clothes or different seasonal wear). Otherwise I hang onto to much stuff purely because people have given it to us... but if I don't like it enough to dress ds in it regularly - why keep the clutter?

I was thinking the same thing arrabella2, I've got a LO on the way, he isn't even born yet and already he has more clothes than me and my DP put together X 100.

They are mostly all hand-me-downs too but this child will have something to wear for every day of his life until he reaches the age of 1yr!

I've had to put a couple of bin bags out for the charity shop because we just don't have the space for them all! I mean, how many clothes does a little baby need?!

As riven said, probably the most sensible thing is to have 3 of everything.

So you bin all winter clothes each summer, and all summer clothes each winter, takingitasitcomes? Or do your children outgrow things fast (mine wear the same clothes for years, I'm not kidding, they're such runts).

For children over 3 yo, I find I need 3 each of jumpers/shoes/skirts/dresses/coats/gloves/PJs, but 6 each of trousers/pairs socks/t-shirts/pants/shorts (basically, the most worn and most quickly worn out items). DS2 only wears shorts March-Novembr, so we could use 6 prs shorts and just 3 prs trousers for him.

Need about 50% more shirts/trousers for under3s (messy eaters, soiled or sick more often, etc.).

I am trying to apply the "three" rule to my own wardrobe , I have lots of under-worn stuff in there.

No Alardi, read again - I did make an exception for seasonal wear! My lo is still growing fast,so we do get through clothes quickly. They find new homes as hand-me-downs pretty easily.

my lot have far too many clothes to but lately I have been trying to sort out their wardrobes with little success!! Just trying to decide what to buy in next size up

This is my prototype model for kids with no school uniform:

PJs - 2 or 3 sets
Pants - 7 to 10 pairs
Outfits for special occaisions - 1 or 2
Coats - 1 + matching hat + 3 pairs gloves (these will get lost mysteriously)
2 dresses with matching tights
2 skirt outfits with matching tights & also matching knee socks for variety
4 trouser outfits
2 cardigans

If you have too much stuff then make outfits from it and pick your faves or let the dds pick faves...but not individual items, they need to be outfits! All outfits also need to go with the shoes/boots you have.

Obviously if you can never get your dd into skirts/dresses you can just change the mix and maybe throw in dungarees/shorts & tights combos.

I have four children. They each have a chest of drawers with four drawers - top one for underwear, second one for tops, third one for trousers and skirts, bottom one for sweaters. We have two wardrobes between the six of us for anything that needs hanging. Every so often if the drawers get too full we have a "cull" and get rid of anything that doesn't fit or they don't like. Any time they get new* clothes we have a "one in, one out" policy!

*by new I mean new to them - all our stuff is hand-me-downs or from charity shops - that way we end up with far better quality clothes than we can actually afford to buy new