Goals: Wardrobe Simplicity

When I had been certain this new baby was going to be a boy (and was completely wrong), I was looking forward to purging lots and lots of girl clothes. I had already sold and given away a number of clothes last summer when we thought we were done having kids... but we still had a lot more. After three girls, we just have collected a lot of clothes over the years. While we are so thankful for every article of clothing given to us, I was to the point where I was overwhelmed. Our girls all share one bedroom, which means they share one closet and one dresser. I wanted everything to fit in their closet and dresser, including the new baby's clothing, without stuffing things.

Here are the dresser and closet I'm talking about (the bottom drawer is for dress up clothes... and the awesome carpet is brought to you from the early 90s):

This is their current state, full of both summer and winter clothes. Honestly, I look at that closet and still feel like it's pretty full, but I am fitting four girls' clothes for four seasons in there, so I'm happy with where it is at for now (those shoes on the top are still driving me crazy, though... I think they still need a purge).

So basically, I just did a huge purge. I went through the girls' clothing a couple of months ago and weeded out anything they didn't wear or anything I didn't love, similar to what I did with their toys. It was a process, but I do find joy in simplifying. I filled boxes and bags full of clothing. I donated some and saved some to sell at the Kids Market we have in our area. I spent hours working on getting stains out of clothing. One of the things I had read from a mom who simplified her kids' clothing is that she realized she took better care of them. I couldn't believe how many of the girls' clothes had stains on them. I just was too overwhelmed by the amount of clothes they had to even care. Now that we have lessened the amount of clothes they have significantly, I immediately put stain remover on their clothes at night if they get stains. I take better care of the clothes they do have.

I want to be more thoughtful about the clothes I do buy. I have thought about what clothing brands have lasted us longer and seem to be made of better quality (Old Navy is my current favorite). I think about colors. The girls love to play outside, which means they get dirty easy. But I (and they) also love dresses... so I try to find dresses that are darker colors or patterns. For the summer, I bought a pair of white and black flip flops for the girls that go with pretty much all of their outfits. Sophie is at the age now where she has become picky about what she wears. She has about four favorite outfits that she would seriously wear every day (sometimes it makes me wonder why I haven't simplified to just four outfits :p), so I take her taste into consideration too. I've bought sweaters for the girls so that they can wear many of the outfits they wear in the summer in the winter as well, but just with a sweater.

Growing up American, I've always been blessed with stuff. It's a process to learn to live with less and be content with less. But simplifying is good not just to allow me feel less overwhelmed but also to help me realize that it's not necessary to have so much. I'm still learning and growing in this area. Many people live much more simply than I do, even here in America. But I'm on the journey.