A few weeks back I was staring at a mountain of laundry that seemed to accumulate in mere hours. (It didn’t just seem to, it did.) Right then and there I decided I needed less clothing in my life. Specifically, less clothing for my kids. There are four of them now living under the same roof. I wash, dry, and fold every shirt, pair of pants, and sock that ends up in the laundry basket. My two older babes (ages 6 and 4) put away their laundry. I know someday they will be able to do more, but for now it’s just me washing and drying.
Laundry
This might seem backwards, but for me less clothing equals less laundry. Spoiler: This might not work for every mom. Because I stay home, I have more opportunities for laundry. As you can imagine, this is both good and bad. To not get buried in dirty socks, I do at least one load of laundry everyday.
My current routine is I will put in at least one load of laundry in the morning and dry and fold it sometime throughout the day. Many times I will throw in another load after the kids take a bath in the evening and put it in the dryer before I go to bed. One or two loads of laundry a day may seem like a lot, but this way I don’t have a baskets full at the end of the week. Like I said, this probably won’t work for every mom, but it works for me in this current season.
Fall Wardrobes
For fall I drastically cut back their wardrobes because, like I said, I need less clothing in my life.
Less clothing specifically helps with my daughter Lily. After staring at that mountain of laundry, I declared every child gets one outfit a day, unless there is soccer or church. One afternoon Lily begged and pleaded to change her clothes and I told her she would have to pay me a dollar to do it. A minute later, she came walking into the living room, dollar in hand. Clothes obviously matter to her, but there are some that sit idle in her closet. I whittled her wardrobe down to her very favorites. I placed the rest in a bin in her closet which holds all her next size up clothes or out of season clothes that still fit. If we get desperate, we can just open the bin.
Lily
Because Lily enjoys clothes and loves to put together an outfit, she has the biggest quantity of clothes in her closet and dresser. Most of the time she is wearing leggings and sometimes skirts. She also has a few dresses for church. Here is Lily’s capsule wardrobe:
The boys
Luke (6) and Jude (2) are different. They honestly don’t have much of an opinion when it comes to what goes on their bodies. They will get a bit excited about a dinosaur or tractor shirt, but that’s about it. Here are their capsule wardrobes:
The baby
I recently removed all the newborn clothes from Jack’s drawers and cried replaced them with 0-3 month items. It was a sad day, but I was excited about all the fun pieces awaiting him. Here is the baby’s wardrobe:
Intentionality when it comes to clothes for my kids has helped me control the amount of time I spend washing, drying, and sorting laundry. Less clothes is one thing saving my sanity in this season.
Tell me, how do keep laundry from taking over your life? Do you implement capsule wardrobes for your kids?