Storing Outgrown Baby Clothes

Last night I got around to sorting through all the baby clothes to find a good, permanent storage solution that will work for the long haul. One of the things that I love to do is to organize! And doing this project was no different. I know, I'm ~~one of a kind~~ strange. Since having kids, I've organized so many different children things all around my house. From organizing craft supplies to finding effective ways of corralling all the many toys. Today I am going to share my method of how I organize children's clothing and shoes. It is a tried and true way of keeping all the outgrown clothes in storage until I need them again.

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Before I dig in to exactly how I keep clothes and shoes organized year-round, I want to encourage you to gather a few supplies before starting. You will need some large storage containers (1 for each size) for the clothes, shallow boxes for shoes, a label maker, and these printable labels that I've created just for you. Ok, and set and ready to go? Great! Let's dive right on in to organizing kids clothes!

**Download the Printable Children's Clothing Labels**

This is what I started with a few days ago. Yikes! Not a pretty sight nor is it very effective. I mean, who knows what is in the trash bag?!

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I am ashamed to even admit that that was how bad things had become. It looks like I'd just gave up and started putting clothes any which way (which is just about what had happened). What I needed was a simple but effective way to keep the clothes under control. So finally after a couple of hours, I'm pleased to say that it doesn't look like that anymore! Hallelujah!!! Here is what my final product turned out to be -

Much better, don't you think? Here's how things happened. First, I laid out all the clothes sorting them into piles according to size so that I could see exactly what quantities I had of each size.

I categorized them like so -

Newborn, blankets, and swaddles
0-3 Months
3-6 Months
6-9 Months (still in these, not pictured)
9-12 Months (still in these, not pictured)
18 Months
24 Months and 2T
3T
4T
Shoes in sizes 4 - 8

Then I went through and took out things that I didn't like, had stains, or I didn't want my baby (or any future babies) to wear. I wanted to keep most of the clothes so there were only a few things in the giveaway pile. I always, always recommend tossing out the unwanted and/or stained clothing before you store them for another child! You also only want to store freshly washed clothes.

Next, I started putting them into boxes to be stored. First I put the newborn stack in a box and put a piece of paper with the description on it to act as a divider. (I wanted something that wasn't going to get lost in all the clothes once I started pulling things out, so making these signs in Word using word art worked for me.) Then I continued to fill the boxes with clothes using my method until everything was put away.

Oh, and here's a little tip - if you have things like blankets or such to store, try rolling them so they don't take up quite as much space.

In the end, I was left with 4 boxes to store -

Newborn, blankets, swaddles, and 0-3 month clothes
3-6 month and 6-12 month clothes (She's in 6-12 month right now, so this box was mostly empty. Saving room for when she outgrows things!)
18 months and shoes in sizes 4 - 5
24 months/2T - 4T (only have a few in these sizes so it works for now) and shoes in sizes 6 - 8

Lastly, I made some labels for the front of each box detailing what the contents were thus making them ready to be stored away until needed. As for current clothes, I plan on keeping a bag in her closet that I can toss clothes into once she's outgrown them. When the bag gets full, or when she's outgrown the size, I can just put them into the correct box (I left the 3-6/6-12 month box mostly empty for this exact purpose). When it comes time to get out the 18 month clothes than all I have to do is to pull out one box with everything in it.

This clothing system has worked very well for many years. I have expanded my clothes storing box system as I've had multiple children. Here is what I currently have; 1 large, clear box for each size with a printed label to say the size that is in each box. I also have three shallow boxes that aren't quite so deep to store shoes in. Here is what is in each box; sizes 1-7, 8-11, and 12 and up. With the smaller sizes I can store several sized shoes together but as bigger shoes take up more room, less sizes can be put in the same box together.

Here again is the completed storage solution -

All in all, it was a pretty easy project but one I'm glad to finally mark off my list!

/ / See More Organizing Projects / /

**Download the Printable Children's Clothing Labels **

I have also linked several of the storage materials that I use in storing outgrown clothes and shoes. You can see more of my favorite organizing products here.

I also have several more organizing posts dealing specifically with children and their many things that I hope you will check out if you need some additional ideas.

I hope this post has helped you in your quest to tame the mountains of clothes that tend to come with having kids. I always feel much better when I know that I have a tried and true way of organizing something important. It helps me stay on top of my mom-game and I don't feel quite so overwhelmed as I did before.

What ways have you found to be helpful in organizing your kids clothes and shoes? If you found this post to be helpful to you, would you drop a comment below? And don't forget to print off the pretty labels I made for you! Happy organizing friends!