I am so excited about this project!
One of my LEAST favorite chores is going through my kids clothes. Sorting out what is too small, getting out the next size, storing clothes away, etc. I always say if I was made of money, I would just buy all my kids new clothes as they need them, not store/save any. Then I realize, that even if I was made of money, that would be wasteful, and I still probably wouldn’t do it.
I stored all the clothes in Rubbermaid bins. Worked really well, other than having a bunch of bins and having to go through them.
Since I only have one daughter, she goes through her own clothes when they are too small and starts piles for me to get rid of. Even if we have another girl, there would be a 12-year difference – yeah, I am not storing clothes that long! I can take the tax deduction, invest the money, and in 12 years, have enough for a new wardrobe. So we just donate her stuff.
With 3 boys in a row, we have lots of boys clothes, and they of course, do not go through them on their own. My oldest boy (10) has such messy drawers and his clothes were on the floor most of the time because his drawers were full of clothes that were too small, that I repeatedly told him to sort out (since I don’t always know what fits and what doesn’t in him), and he never would…
With this new arrival coming, we would need a new dresser. Where to put it? I am not a fan of dressers in the first place. We have a baby dresser (it is long and works as a dresser and changing table in one!), so we would need one for the 4th kid, or boy #3, since his clothes were currently in the baby dresser.
I had seen where large families have “family” closets. Seemed like a good idea to me! Then I realized one of my son’s rooms has a HUGE closet, that we don’t use for much. An idea was born!
I measured the closet, and kept coming up with different ideas to accomplish my goal. Now if I weren’t frugal, I would have just bought all new shelves and just started from scratch. It would all have looked uniform and picture perfect (like Pinterest!) However, I wanted to use what we had! Frugal remember? No need to buy new stuff when we can use what we have – Which includes 2 dressers. I thought about different shelving options, and my husband finally suggested building our own shelves, so they could be the exact size and dimensions we wanted. Plus it would be cheap – my favorite price! He suggested we make them like tables, to stack on each other, so we wouldn’t have to attach them to the wall – making huge holes. Plus easier to adjust and move around.
Perfect! I sent him to Home Depot a few days later. He came back with a huge sheet of plywood like stuff, and a bunch of 2×4’s. Total was about $20 (we already had nails, sandpaper, paint, etc. for the rest). I cut the 2×4’s down into legs (4 per shelf) and cut the plywood up into smaller rectangles for the top of the tables/shelves. I then sanded it all (which took forever in my opinion, even with our palm sander!). Once sanded, I attached the legs to the plywood, making the shelves/tables. Then I just used some paint we had around the house, to paint the top of the shelves (where the clothes would sit) to make sure they were smooth, and fine for clothes to rest on. My sons “helped” me paint… They weren’t that careful with the paint, but oh well, they are just going in the closet!
Now we had to clean out the closet. There may not have been much in there, but man, it was a mess! Once we cleared out the mess, we loaded in the shelves and the dressers.
Then came the fun part. I got out my label maker and labeled the shelves and drawers with the sizes on/in that shelf/drawer. We have sizes 2-16 – None of my boys are up to size 16, but I tend to buy ahead (we are only up to size 12)! I decided the shelves would work best for their Jeans/pants. The shelves were deep enough for 2 sizes, so I put their current size and the size they would grow into next, on the same shelf. The other shelves were other sizes, not being used at the moment. I then put their name next to their shelf, that contained their current size. Shorts are on their own shelves too (the shorter side of shelves), but they don’t seem to require as much room, and I was able to get several different sizes on one of those deep shelves!
The drawers have shirts in them – we have TONS of shirts. I thinned them out while I was at it! The wider dresser has Pj’s in it – 2 or more sizes per drawer, because they are soooo wide. I simply cut some cardboard to divide the different sizes. Again, we labeled the drawers with sizes, and put their names next to their current size and drawer. Unfortunately, my label maker ran out of tape (my daughter LOVES to play with it) So we didn’t get them all labeled 😛
Some of the shelves/drawers are currently empty, because I haven’t moved our youngest’s clothes in there yet. I got tired after all that, and since they baby isn’t here for 3.5 months, I have time to get his clothes out of the dresser 🙂
On the bottom, is a shoe box size rubbermaid box (LOVE THEM! Use them for soooo many purposes! and they are cheap!), for them to put their underwear in (my older son uses that small drawer at the top of the wider dresser for his and the youngest’s isn’t in there yet – you can see his empty box on one of the empty shelves) We do NOT keep underwear. That gets tossed when they grow out of it… everyone gets their own underwear (no hand-me-down underwear here! YUCK!)
We also have lots of church clothes. Slacks, Vests, Suits, White shirts, etc. Those are what are hanging up in the closet. The small sizes (size 2, 3, etc) over the dressers, since they are smaller, with the bigger sizes over the shorter stack of shelves. I bought these blank closet rod dividers and put the sizes on them – sizes 2 – 20! Then sorted all the clothes by size, onto hangers. Then simply used the dividers to easily divide all the clothes, making them easy to find on Sunday morning! (I don’t think you can really see the dividers in the picture – it seemed to crop the top off the picture). All of their ties are clipped to a hanger or hanging on it… I haven’t figured out what to do with the belts yet, so they are just sitting on top of the dresser. I’ll get to them eventually 🙂
There is still a large shelf at the top of the closet with not much on it as well! (just a few baby toys up there) So if we ever need more room, we have places to grow into!
Once the last kid is done with a size, simply donate, and then you have shelf space for the next, bigger size!
Now I know what clothes we have, and in what sizes. I have a list in my phone, so when I see a sale or Clearance, I know what sizes we are in need of. Often, I would go to get out the next size, only to realize that we were low in something (like Jeans). For example, when loading in all the clothes, I realized we are low on size 6 jeans, the next size my middle son will be in soon! (apparently, my oldest was hard on Jeans that year!) So now it is on my list to watch for a sale within the next few months. I have a master list in my phone, to keep track of what we will be in need of – because I hate “having” to go buy something, now I can prepare ahead of time when there are good sales 🙂
Now I have lots of rubbermaid totes empty…. I am sure I will think of something to do with them 🙂 (they are sooo useful!). I am so excited about this closet. Now for my boys to keep it clean!
(For those asking about socks, we just have a HUGE bin of socks in my room – since that is where we seem to fold laundry – of all sizes that are paired up. All the kids simply just get their socks from there… I guess that was our first step, years ago, into a “family” closet…)
