Today, I have the express pleasure of introducing you to Lauren from Mama’s Laundry Talk. I met Lauren at the Savvy Blogging Summit this summer and was immediately drawn to her sweet spirit and her heart for the Lord. Lauren runs an amazing site that deals entirely with laundry! Everything from folding how-to’s to stain removal can be found on her blog. Truly an awesome resource for moms! Today, Lauren shares great ways to store clothes when you are lacking space. As a mommy of *almost* 4 children, you’ll find her solutions creative and easy to implement.
There are many reasons you might have to get creative when it comes to storing folded clothes: not enough dressers, not enough floor space for dressers, small closets, a smaller house and a growing family to name a few.
So what do you do if you don’t have a designated dresser for each person in your family? Here are a few suggestions to get your creative juices flowing:
- Have your children share a dresser.When my 2 oldest children started to share a room, it seemed only logical that they also share a dresser. Thankfully, their clothes are still small enough at 3 and 5 years old that they easily fit in the drawers. Everything fits fairly well except socks. To counteract that battle, I purchased one cheap plastic bin for each child where they store their socks. The bins fit easily on the closet shelf.
- If you have ample closet space, hang most of their clothes. If you are blessed with tons of hanging room, then by all means skip the folding and go straight to hanging! If you are able to implement this method, you can easily group clothes together – special outfits or matching sets. This way children know exactly what shirt goes with which pair of pants or skirt. And the hanging method greatly reduces wrinkles and messy drawers. All mamas love that, right?
- Utilize unconventional spaces and think outside the box. Maybe there are a few nightstand drawers that could be emptied and used for clothing storage. Under-the-bed storage boxes might be acceptable for older children capable of rolling the box in and out. Do you have an enormous linen closet or laundry room? Maybe you could assign each child a shelf as their own to store and manage their clothes. If you feel stuck without storage options, look around your house with a fresh eye. Look specifically for those spots where clothing storage might be an option. It’s often helpful to refine our focus to see storage places miraculously appear.
- Invest in portable storage. Sterilite has a huge selection of portable dressers on wheels. Also, browse around online at places like The Container Store or Ikea for ideas on portable dressers and storage. This might be a great solution, especially if the storage is needed for smaller clothes. Obviously this is not a great idea for a 12 year old boy, as his jeans would never fit into one of those (although his socks and underwear would). But it can certainly be helpful for the 5 and under crowd.
- Purge as many clothes as you can.If your children have a lot of clothes to start with, it can make your storage space seem even smaller. Seriously consider how many outfits each child really needs. If you have tons of extra, find a family who loves hand-me-downs or give them to Goodwill. It is freeing to pare down clothes to only what is needed and you won’t believe how big your closet seems after you’re finished!
I utilize several of these solutions in my current laundry routine. Until I am able to implement my biggest laundry dream of creating a family closet, these storage solutions will have to suffice!
What kind of creative storage solutions do you have for children’s clothes? Share your ideas in the comments!
Lauren Hill is the “Mama” behind Mama’s Laundry Talk. She is blessed with a fantastic husband and three little people with a new one due in November. Lauren blogs about all things laundry, including finding a laundry routine, weekly detergent deals and how to make your laundry life easier!
Deedee says
Thanks for this post – it was great! I also love your blog Lauren. I’m added it to my Google Reader so I can keep up with all the fab tips! Everything is on a ‘small scale’ in England. They don’t even build cupboards into most houses!!!
We are blessed with Cupboards that have been added into a few rooms and much more space than we had in our last house – but I still need to get creative with storage. Especially as my two boys have gotten bigger and their clothes don’t seem to fit in the same space anymore!!!
MamaLaundry says
Deedee – That is so interesting about cupboards! I’m sure I would drastically cut down on clutter if I had nowhere to put it! 😉
Thanks for your kind words about my blog and adding me to your reader!
-Lauren
Debra Worth says
I have a few creative ones. My son’s nice shirts are hung. I wanted to hang them, but since I didn’t have any closet space in his room a hung a rope, letting it sag in the middle to look better, tied knots every few inches. I have two ropes hung, and actually like the look of it.
His diapers are just in a hamper, unfolded. His clothes are in plastic storage. His dirty clothes go into a basket that also hangs on the wall. This wouldn’t work with bigger clothes, but it works fine with his.
MamaLaundry says
Debra, great ideas! I especially like the idea of the rope. You can make that look really decorative and it still be inexpensive.
Thanks!
-Lauren
Laura (kidsmomofmany) says
I hang everything except undies, socks and the boys short/sweatpants.
Each child has a color of hanger for shirts and another for pj’s. I have a hang bar in my laundry closet and ideally hang right out of the dryer. Then I hand the hangers to the kids and they put them in the closet.
I use the closetmaid system so we have four wire baskets in the closet too: Talis pants, Nils pants, boys undies and girl undies.
Since I gave each child their own color of hanger the kids can get their own clothing and even daddy can figure out whom wears what. He used to dress the kids in too small sizes because he had no clue who wore what.
MamaLaundry says
Different colored hangers. Brilliant….
I would not have thought of that! Thanks for sharing your tip –
-Lauren
Nony the Slob says
I totally agree about hanging as much as possible. Anything that keeps me from having to iron!
Stephanie Arnold says
I just have to thank you for the encouragement. I am so encouraged to hear other mothers creatively finding strategies and ideas to be the best mothers they can with what God has given them. I mentioned this a week or two ago here, but my husband and I have been blessed with 6 children and we live in a 3 bedroom duplex. We do have some nice extras, like a large family room in the basement and the potential to finish off another bedroom & bathroom (all in God’s timing). That said, we have 4 boys in one room. While they do have a walk-in, it is on the smallish side and let me tell you, it is packed top to bottom! I have learned to be creative and find solutions outside of the box regarding not only our laundry/clothes but in many areas. I am happy to do it because God has blessed me with a family : ) I find it refreshing to talk to and/or read about others in similar situations b/c it seems I am surrounded by many on such a different path than myself – Choosing smaller families, larger homes and missing out on other blessings 🙂 While I in no way want to be THE judge of what size families others may choose, I am thankful to know there ARE others like me, as I said, making the best of what God has given to raise the beautiful family He has also given : ) Thanks, again!
MamaLaundry says
Stephanie, I agree 100% – I, too am happy to think outside of the box since I am so blessed to have these little ones!
Your comment was an encouragement to ME! Thank you!
-Lauren
Suanna says
We are still in smaller sizes for our girls, 5T, 3T, and baby sizes. They each have 1 drawer in a dresser for the current seasons clothes. I put the other season’s clothes in a drawer in another room, to pull out when they will need them. I use an old plastic wipes box with the lid removed for them to keep their socks in, in their drawer. We hang dresses and anything “fancy”. Then I use bank boxes with different sizes written on them to store the clothes in a closet. This helps me find them quickly and if it doesn’t fit in the box, I know that I need to weed out some items and bless someone else with them. I also keep a basket on the top shelf in the closet that I put clothes in if they decide they do not like and won’t wear it or have out grown, which I sort into the bank boxes a couple times a year. I would love to have a family closet, but right now I don’t even have room in my laundry room for a laundry basket.
Bredgette says
So I found the perfect solution at Home Depot, and did some math and … I have this post that explains how to make them different sizes and if … Labels: creative guest, playrooms, toys-organize … I love these, they would also be great in a nursery with baby stuff like diapers and wipes, so fun! …
I have looked at a few articles and it appears to be at this site..
http://children-solutions.com/cool-free-stuff
Ruth says
I agree about that Thanks for this post it was great! I also love your blog.
Anna says
To add more space to my children’s bedroom I bought really cute lockers that they can use to hang the things they use on a daily basis in and get to quickly, like bookbags and sports equipment. They look amazing and are so functional!
Julie says
Hi Anna, where did you get the lockers? Thanks for the tip. Julie
Caterina Ray says
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