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Does anyone have a family closet? I am getting very frustrated with the clothing situation at our house. Earlier this summer we limited Bonus Son to 7 outfits and it has helped immensely but is still not to the point we would like. I am thinking of using plastic totes with lids that will contain the outfit for that day. We have pets so anything open will lead to the clothes looking dirty.

 

Has anyone done this and have any idea what size totes work best? I'm thinking of just taking our clothes with me to the store and testing out totes.

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We don't have closet doors. The doors that were in the house were floor to ceiling bifolds and were sticking. It was a constant battle to get them to open or close even with maintenance and care so we removed them.

 

I want to place 1 complete outfit in each tote, stack them on top of each other in the closet until I can save up to buy wood to build a rack that will hold each tote.

 

Each family member will have 7 totes, each with a pair of shorts, t-shirt, underwear and socks in summer and outfits will be adjusted based on the season. They will "check out" the tote from the family closet.

 

I want to use velcro and labels to attach to the outside with the Day of the week (color coded by child) and special attention for example "Gymnastics" so that bin will contain the activity outfits or "switch" the day that bonus kids switch homes and wear the clothes from their other home. As this is a revolving schedule the switch days change each week.

 

We are going to utilize the closet in our bedroom plus a part of our bedroom for the creation of this idea.

 

I am just not sure what size tote to use there are 3.75 gallon and 5 gallon, the 5 looks too big and bulky for what I envisioning.

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When my three older girls were younger (1,3,5), I used to keep all of our family's clothes in our master closet, which happened to be a walk-in closet. It helped me A LOT to not have to go upstairs each day to figure out what everyone was going to wear, especially when all of us slept together in my room. During those days the foor upstairs was where all the toys were contained. I kept all the clothes on hangers, except for socks, underwear, and pajamas. Those were kept in stacking baskets. I kept out of season clothing in Rubbermaid bins and would switch the clothing in the middle of fall and spring when the weather changed. This system worked for me for a few years until we moved to a new house with one bedroom on the same floor as the master and the others in the basement. By then the girls were 4, 6, and 8. At that point I moved all the kids clothing to the kids' sleeping room. We lived there for a couple of years and then moved to another city. The kids had gotten to where they were responsible enough to handle their own clothing without creating huge messes. I didn't understand your last sentence. What do you mean by taking the totes to the store?

Edited by extendedforecast
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We do a family closet (mostly, hanging/dress clothes in another closet). I like it for laundry simplification. I don't have the tote/animal situation you've got but I think it would be worth trying. Maybe try with just one or two family members to start and see how it works without the full expense? Would the ones on the bottom get used as much? I tend to laundry whenever there is a full load which here is daily so I notice that sometimes the "bottom" shirts or whatever--we have shelves in there--tend to sit while the top ones get washed and reworn over and over. I have to consciously rotate. But you're dealing with the less clothing and more organization so that might not be an issue with your idea.

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Do you have rod space? I used to use a hanging sweater shelf (the kind that is made of fabric with cardboard shelves) for the kids' school clothes for the week. I stocked each set Sunday night. It worked great, and was an easy way to use vertical space, but you need a rod to hang the "sweater" holder(s).

 

Terri

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We have had a family closet for the past 7 years or so. Mine is located in my laundry room so it is very convenient. We have laundry, organizational type things from Walmart or Target. They have a place to hang clothes as well as three cloth bins that I use for underwear, socks, and pjs.

 

It is SO much easier having all of the children's clothes in one location. I am no longer gobsmacked walking into their rooms and seeing clean clothes strewn about on the floor.

 

Hope it works out for you!

 

Elise in NC

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We have an 8 cube Ikea Expedit in our master bedroom that contains clothes for our youngest kids. They each have a bin for regular clothes and another for pajamas/socks/underwear. Then I keep out of season, but still fitting, clothing for both boys crammed in one bin and diapers for new baby in another. We have a tiny room and this takes up no more horizontal space than a dresser but we are able to fit clothes for three children inside (I am including our yet to be born baby). The bins are quite deep but this also limits the amount of "stuff" we have, which I love. My oldest two have their own bedrooms and while I regularly help my 12 year old son pare down and declutter his wardrobe in a streamlining effort, I am more lenient with my oldest. She is almost 16 and buys all of her own clothing, so as long as it fits in her closet she can do what she likes with it and own as much as she wants.

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We have a family closet. We use a large walk-in closet that is next to the laundry room ... we put the kids upright dressers in there and fold them right out of the dryer and put them all away. We only have one hamper now (in the laundry room) and the kids get all their clothes out of the closet to get dressed.

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Do you have rod space? I used to use a hanging sweater shelf (the kind that is made of fabric with cardboard shelves) for the kids' school clothes for the week. I stocked each set Sunday night. It worked great, and was an easy way to use vertical space, but you need a rod to hang the "sweater" holder(s).

 

Terri

 

We used this system for years with our youngest two. Worked really well!!!

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I wish we still had a family closet. The one we had was huge so there were many options for keeping the clothes organized.

 

Clothes come out of dryer and I smooth them out immediately while they are hot. This eliminates the need to iron. Each piece of clothing is layed right on top of the next for this purpose. A while later, when the flattened clothes are cooled, they get hung up. Everything except socks and undies go on coat hangers. Clothes go into the family closet roughly by size and then color so kiddos can easily match.

 

Each family member gets a different brand of socks. Socks are then placed in the chest of drawers, by brand. Pajamas and undies follow the same pattern.

 

We did not need bins since we had large chest of drawers built into the closet.

 

Wow, I really miss those days.

:)

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We have had a family closet for the past 7 years or so. Mine is located in my laundry room so it is very convenient. We have laundry, organizational type things from Walmart or Target. They have a place to hang clothes as well as three cloth bins that I use for underwear, socks, and pjs.

 

It is SO much easier having all of the children's clothes in one location. I am no longer gobsmacked walking into their rooms and seeing clean clothes strewn about on the floor.

 

Hope it works out for you!

We do this too, except now my oldest two girls (14 & 11) insist their clothes have to be in their room but it's much more organized for everyone else.

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