What’s the best way to organize kids’ closets? Get ready to find out because I’m sharing my best tips on organizing clothing for kids!
I love me some organization. Everything has a place and it makes it SO much easier to tidy up around the house when everyone knows where everything goes! Kids closet organization can feel a bit overwhelming to tackle but once you take it on you feel like a professional organizer 😉
With back to school around the corner, I thought a post about kids’
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How I Organize My Kids’ Closets and Clothes
I am a quantity over quality person when it comes to clothing.
I shop cheap (as in 80-90% of my kids’ clothes are from consignment sales) but I shop a lot.
Everything my kids own typically costs $10 or less but they have a closet FULL of clothes. I can’t resist a good deal 😉 Having so many clothes can quickly eat up hanging space and cause me to struggle a bit with closet organization.
However, speaking of good deals, I find a lot of my kid’s clothes on Amazon and link to them here!
Here are some of my tips for how to organize kids’ closets and store clothes:
1. Have a Set Day for Doing Laundry
The first step to keeping a kid’s closet organized to have set laundry day! I know a common thing that is said about moms is that we’re always doing laundry.
Not this mama! Mondays are my laundry day.
I do ALL of my laundry that day (I read somewhere that it actually helps with energy costs when you do loads back to back?) The best way to prevent endless laundry is to have a designated day and knock it all out!
As I unload the dryer I organize the clothing but where it goes.
Each of us have a laundry basket that I lay out on the floor in the laundry room and toss the items into the appropriate basket as I unload the dryer.
I go ahead and turn things right side in (my SIL keeps her stuff inside out for some reason? Drives me crazy haha) and lay them in the basket.
Then on Tuesday I take each basket to the room where it belongs.
It takes me just a few minutes to unload the basket and put everything away! Easy!
Each member of our family has their own basket and each member handles putting away their own laundry, at least to some degree.
The older kids will put their hang-up clothes on hangers but aren’t quite tall enough to reach their own closet rods so I hang them.
Younger ones lay their hang-up clothes on a chair in their room and I then hang them and put them away.
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2. To Organize Kids’ Closets, Don’t Hang All The Clothing
I only hang shirts and dresses in my kids’ closets to save on closet space.
Each of my children has a storage shelf with cube-type containers in their closets to save on storage space. They make a great closet organizer, even for a small closet!
These are the perfect size for baby leggings, shorts, bloomers, even shoes. I avoid open shelving as much as I can as a kids closet stays neater when things can be quickly and easily tossed into a bin or drawer.
As they get older I continue to use the bins for play clothes, jeans, etc.
I keep all the bigger kids’ shoes and such in dresser drawers! I’m ALL about some storage!!!
My middle daughter’s bed has ammmmmazing drawers under it that are perfect and so easy to just toss all of her shoes in. No need for a shoe rack here! Keeping shoes in drawers make it easier for the kids to put them away.
My son has bins in his room for shoes and it’s just not as easy as the drawers (nor does it look as neat).
I also don’t fold stuff too much? I just toss underwear in the drawer. Same with PJS and leggings.
I lay skirts and shorts flat but don’t overly stress it.
That’s been my closet system for years and it works great! Kids’ closet organization ideas don’t have to be complicated or costly (I’ve never bought a single thing from the Container Store ha!). You can have a closet system in place in yours and your child’s closet space that you’ll love so much you won’t even mind when the closet door is left open when company comes over!
3. Keep Clothing Tags on Until Wearing
I know people like to wash things before their kids wear them but after baby #1 I quit doing that.
Washing things tends to make it look worn and taking the tags off instantly decreases the resale value of the item.
It ALWAYS happens that a baby or child won’t wear something before they have outgrown it.
You can make a lot more money selling an item new with tags than used without!
And often stores have much longer return policies, so you may even be able to return the unworn items!
4. Save Time by NOT Ironing
I know this isn’t really an organizational tip but I NEVER iron. Like ever.
Downy Wrinkle Release is AMAZING.
Our dryer also has a “rapid refresh” setting so we will spray the wrinkle spray on then toss things in the dryer and majority of the time all the wrinkles are gone 😉
The only real thorn in my side are the collars on my sons shirts. So annoying!
Other than that I avoid buying stuff for my kids that will get very wrinkled (Like ruffles. Who needs ruffles!?) and am able to save a TON of time and energy by not having to iron! Each of my kids closet (and mine too) is filled with non-wrinkling items. When something is pretty wrinkled I will also bust out my handy steamer 😉
5. Wash What Is Worn
I know sometimes kids only wear things for a brief period of time, but it’s WAY easier to just toss anything they wear into the dirty clothes bin.
That way it ensures if they don’t ever wear it again that it’s clean when it’s put in storage.
It also keeps from having piles of random clothes laying around.
At bath time in the evenings we toss the kids’ dirty clothes into the hall way then I simply scoop them all up after I tuck them in for bed and put them in their proper bin in the laundry room (our oldest obviously takes his own clothes to the laundry!).
I’m always mindful to set aside stained items to treat before washing!
6. Shop Ahead for Future Sizes
When there are deals I ALWAYS buy future sizes.
I keep a tub for each child with their next size up items in it.
It’s a huge blessing because when they do move up in size I’m not having to scramble to the store and aren’t stuck paying full price!
If I find a clothing item that I love or that my kids love I will also look for similar items in future sizes and stock up when on sale. I find that if my kids love the clothes that they tend to grab what they love week after week and month after month and wearing what they prefer also helps them to more readily dress themselves which this mama ain’t mad about 😉
7. Organize Kids’ Closets By Using Closet Dividers
For babies I LOVE the size dividers for closets!
I know I tend to buy whatever is on sale, which means often buying sizes my babies can’t wear yet.
It makes it so easy to organize kids’ closets by knowing which size is what (and it helps make sure that things get worn before they are outgrown!)
8. Group Clothes By Clothing Type
I find it easiest to sort my children’s clothes by the type of pieces.
My son has a drawer full of plain shorts, another full of pattern shorts, and a third filled with athletic shorts. In his closet he has a dress shirt section, a golf shirt section, a graphic t-shirt section, an athletic shirt section, and I have it organized with a short sleeves and long sleeves area.
For my girls it’s the same way…tanks, tank dresses, short sleeve shirts, short sleeve dresses, long sleeved shirts, long sleeved dresses. It keeps things running smoother when things are easy to find!
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9. Store off Season Clothing Items
My son’s closet is large enough where I don’t have to store any of his clothes when seasons change but my daughters’s closets are smaller.
I keep a large clear tub in each child’s closet.
I will pack up things that are clearly summery (things with shells on them or surfer designs etc) or clearly winterish (snowflakes, Christmas attire, etc). I will also use the tub to store future sizes.
10. Keep Outgrown Clothing to Pass Down
I know a lot of people sell all their kids clothes as they outgrow them but I’m team #keepitall until you’re done having babies. I save a lot of stuff from my older children to pass down to their younger siblings!
My girls were born in opposite seasons (July and December) but the clothes have still worked out great!
I store all my kids’ clothing in large storage bins in our attic and am careful to organize them by size.
I really like this system as when my younger daughter moves up in size I just get out that tub and am good to go!
11. Pack Up Items As Outgrown
I know people take time and go through ALL of their kids clothes at once to pack it up, and I do have to do that from time to time.
But for the most part I just pack things up as I go. If I notice a shirt looks a little short, I know to go ahead and put it in storage on the next laundry day.
As I look through their closets to pick out their outfits (nope, my kids don’t pick out their own clothes) I will also grab anything that looks too little to pack up!
By always keeping an eye on sizing it makes it easier to keep a well organized closet filled with clothes that actually fit!
14. Sell Clothing Items and Accessories Wisely
Now that we are done having children and adopted a boy as our last child, (learn more about that here!) I’m selling ALL of the girl stuff that my youngest daughter has outgrown.
If you have a local kids sale in your area, then they are a great option for reselling kids clothing!
I plan to also post mine on FB for local friends to come look through before I sell it in the consignment sales.
Washing everything, ironing when needed, and including as many pieces as possible really help to boost the sales of the items you have.
Making outfits with the pieces, including bloomers/bows to girl items, etc.
I try to take VERY good care of my kid’s clothing so I will be able to resell it when they outgrow it (For us, it’s going to be helpful towards our adoption fund!
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15. Be Sure to Keep and Store Special Pieces
My mom did an awesome job at keeping pieces of my clothing from childhood.
I’ve loved doing recreation photos with my girls!
However, she kept too much stuff. I learned from this and am packing up 2-3 pieces from each size that were special or that I have some cute pictures of my girls wearing.
I will do the same for my son once our last son starts growing out of things!
I have a tub for each daughter, as well as one for just general girl items.
Since they did wear many of the same pieces it’ll be nice to have a neutral tub that they can both use when they have children of their own.
I also thought if they don’t have daughters, it would be just as neat for their nieces to wear some to do comparison pics!
What are some of your organization tips?