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Putting Away 2T, Getting Out 3T and 4T



Yesterday’s task: Putting away 2T clothes, and getting out 3T and 4T clothes. This project took our entire morning. I hate doing the clothing switches from one size to the next! First of all, every brand is different, so I try to keep like fits in the same rotation, instead of just basing it on size…and that makes things so frustrating to move around. I also just don’t deal with the clothes until I have to, so there’s that, too! haha 

While dealing with the clothes is a pain, we’ve found ways to make it less of a pain:


1. We have a “doesn’t fit catch all bin”. If I put something on Caroline and it is too tight, I take it off and chuck it into this bin that I keep in her closet. It’s open and ready for clothes all the time. I don’t bother sorting by size or permanently storing at this stage…this is just the get it out of our way and I’ll put it away later bin, and it works super well!

Printable Clothing Bin Labels

2. We label and label and label. I have bins under Caroline’s bed full of baby clothes, and I have bins stacked in her closet, and down in the basement full of toddler clothes. Everything is sorted by size and fit (so a 2T that fits like 18 months is stored with 18 months). We label the bins for easy access. Her shoes have a bin and the shoes are sorted largest at the bottom, to smallest on top so we can easily grab the next size. Her diapers have a bin, her sleepers have a bin, etc. You get the idea. When baby #2 comes around one day, I don’t want to struggle finding things, and when we go to pass these on to the next family, it will all be ready to go. This also makes it easy to grab the next largest size.

3. When clothes start to get tight or too short, we put the ENTIRE rotation of clothes away. I am not about to put 3/4 of the 2T clothes away, while keeping out a few favorites that still fit. Nope! It all goes in the bin for permanent storage and we get out the next sized bin. I’d rather have a rotation of clothes in which some fit perfectly, and some are a bit large, than one with a few that fit perfectly and many fitting too tightly. And I don’t want to deal with clothing storage more than once, so I don’t want half of one bin out and half of another. If I have the 2T bin out, everything is going in it for storage!

We have a wonderful friend that has given us loads of clothes, and when we buy clothes we try to buy used and in bulk (the I’ll take the whole lot for $30 deal). I then go through the clothes, pass on what we aren’t going to use and purchase any clothing gaps that we might have for our specific needs. Today, after having gone through the 3T bin, I realized we were great on tank tops and some summer dresses, but we didn’t have any t-shirts, or many leggings. Her shorts were also about to be too small, and we didn’t have any of those either. So, on my Target run today we stocked up with four t-shirts, three pairs of shorts and two pairs of leggings. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was a decent amount of money, so we make it work! 

We also had a plethora of jeans (real jeans not jeggings)…and they are simply uncomfortable and too stiff at this age. So, after trying them on and deciding they weren’t going to work, we gave the jeans away, and gave the excess dresses away as well. We like to dress practically and in a way that makes sense. With our daughter really enjoying outside play, that just doesn’t involve a lot of dresses for the most part. 

So, after this morning, all of the 2T size and fit are packed away, and we now have the 3T/4T clothing out. I moved bins around and got everything situated for our next move, but the next move wont have to happen until winter, when we get out some of the warmer 3T/4T clothes. I’ll also keep my eyes peeled for some good deals on bulk used clothing in the next sizes, because we are to the point that we don’t have much in the way of larger fits. The good thing is that toddlers slow their growth down a lot compared to the baby stage, so we are doing the clothing rotation switches less and less often. I’d love to know your tips and tricks in the comments!

Other Posts of Interest:

7 Tips For Organizing A Small Space

How I Keep Baby Clothes Organized

Organizing a Small Entryway

Clothing and Toy Bin Printable Labels

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