This one is for all the mamas out there! Children’s clothes… Besides toys (find tips for tackling toys here) one of the biggest struggles every mom deals with is storing children’s clothing your kid has outgrown or is waiting to grow into. Here are 4 tips from a professional organizer to store your children’s clothes!

Your kid has one wardrobe, but actually you may 10 differents wardrobes for your kid because all the clothes that don’t fit anymore may be useful one day for the next kid… so you’ve put them in a plastic bag in the attic or somewhere in the back of a closet. And then there are the clothes that don’t fit yet that you got from friends or family, of you already bought yourself because they were so cute.

Isn’t it so easy to just put a couple of clothes in a plastic bag and stuff it in a closet? You know it’s not ideal but al least it’s out of the way and you can’t again grab that shirt that doesn’t fit anymore. Sometimes I stuck a little not to the bag indicating the size, sometimes I just put the note on top of the bag and folded it closed. As you may guess, the bag that was supposed to be there temporarily ended up still being there after two months. Plus that one bag of clothes I got from a friend for next year. Plus… WHOOPS!

High time to tidy the children’s clothes! I mean, just keeping everything you already had and anything people give you may seem useful, but before you know you have so many children’s clothes you can almost open a store.

I quickly noticed that plastic bag were storage-drama. Because it’s so easy to stuff something extra in there, you end up with multiple sizes in one bag. Of course the note indicating the size always disappears somehow?! And don’t get me started on all the wrinkles when you take the clothes out of the bag. I despise ironing so I quickly concluded that storing kid’s clothes this way was definitely not for me.

Therefore I turned to the trusty tidying rules I always use:

1. Only keep what Sparks Joy®

2. Store like with like

   And super important for kid’s clothes:

3. Store so you can easily see what’s what in one view

Uuuh yeah, Kimke. Keep only what Sparks Joy®, kids just need clothes, right? Not super practical to only have 1 t-shirt that’s super cute. Of course! But that one shirt that’s stained, or those worn out shoes, will you really want to use them for your next kid? Plus, that hand-me-down sweater from a friend that is really just not your taste, will you like dressing your next kid in it? There are plenty of mamas who shop their childrens’ clothes second hand who may love that sweater.

Storing like with like in this case means storing ALL children’s clothing that’s currently not in use in one spot. That way it’s so much easier to know where to find something when you need it and to keep track of just how much you actually have.

And another thing about storing children’s clothing: store different sizes separate from each other! Believe me, you don’t want to be looking for clothes one size up and end up grabbing a bag that seems to hold every possible size (been there, done that, never again!)

I don’t really believe in buying smart storage containers for every possible thing you own, often you already have things you can use in your home. But in this case I made an exception for myself and bought some sturdy, see through bins. One bin per size, nice and clear. All clothes are folded neatly (secret tip no. 4) so they’ll be wrinkle free when I take them out - did I already say I despise ironing? On the inside of each bin, facing out I put te little notes with the sizes. Super clear how much there is and I will never again have to spend time looking for children’s clothes again. Now that Sparks Joy® to me!