Do you have a "family closet" (especially with kids close in size)?

[Colleen in SEVA]

I have 5 boys, conveniently spaced apart such that clothing has always moved from one dresser down to the next (except socks and underwear, for which each boy gets his own brand new, different brand to make sorting easier). EXCEPT now I have some boys wearing the same size shirts.

 

I have a great system for after laundry is dry -- I have a shelving unit next to the dryer. When the load is finished, I fold each item and place it onto that boy's shelf, then at a later time that boy carries his stack and neatly places it into the proper drawer. EXCEPT most of the time we just leave them on the shelf, and the shelf overflows onto the floor, creating a big mess of randomness that makes me grumpy.

 

Currently, each of my boys has his own dresser with all of his clothes folded in it (I do not buy clothing for them that has to be hung up, ironed, or dry cleaned). EXCEPT my boys usually wear whatever is on top, even if it is lined pants and a sweatshirt in July (not joking - this happened today as we were leaving for swim lessons).

 

I'm thinking a good solution to this problem is to just have a family closet (like the Duggars, or the Shupes at http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com) for the kids' clothes (DH and I have a walk in closet that is larger than the laundry room, so our clothes would still go up there).

 

So, if you have a family closet, how exactly does it work? I assume you still have some sort of drawer system for undies/socks, but do you have shelves or hangers for the rest? Does each kid just *know* how to find his size clothing? Do you rotate for the seasons? Do your kids still have dressers that they use for other purposes?

 

And a related question... how many of each type of clothing do you recommend? Obviously it depends on how often laundry is done, I realize.

 

Thanks in advance for any info and/or pictures you are willing to share! :) :)

[MariannNOVA]

We no longer have a family closet, but when we did, I had color coded hangers for each child:

pink, green, blue.

 

bought the hangars at walmart.

used that system for years and i loved it.

 

i think that someone who was my hair colorist at the time suggested it.

[mommaduck]

Yes, we used to. We no longer live someplace with the room. We have semi-family closets. We have small closets, so they are used for storage, not clothes. We got rid of dressers. We use stacking baskets. The two oldest boys have their baskets in their room. Adult clothes are together (and usually in a basket). The girls and littles have their clothes in a common room where the stacking baskets take up one wall. Each child has five baskets (white/pj's, play, good, Sunday, misc.). There is also a common sock basket, a headcovering basket (I'm the main person using this, but the girls use it also, especially if they need a pashmina for their dresses), and a basket for cold weather items (gloves, scarves, hats).

[Firestar Academy]

google family closet. I got tons of posts with photos.

 

robin

[Chaos Coordinator]

we have one but its not very efficient