I Need Your Wonderful Ideas! Switching Clothes Out for Fall/winter

What do you mean by switch them out? Will they wear them again? Why put things away? If you think they may use it again when weather changes, leave it out. My childrens closets have all summer and all winter clothes in it at all times, separated on each side. When a new season approaches, I only have to move a few hanging clothes around. Its a 5 minute job. Then in April, I will have another 5 minute job by going through the things that may be too small.

I only have one daughter and when it's time to switch for the season I pull all her clothing out and dump it on the floor of my room. Every last stitch. Then we have a "fashion show" so it gets her involved and helping. She loves dressing up. I have my camera at the ready and take pictures of her in anything that still fits and we're keeping. The stuff that is too small we put into a large plastic bag slated for the buy-trade-and sell consignment store. They take our old stuff and give us store credit to get new stuff later.

It helps me to sort if I have enough bags/containers for each outcome - throw away, give away, hand-me-down, keep - for example. You would need a "put back in drawer" container for each of your three. Grocery bags work fine for the sorting, something more durable for the items to store.

Then put on some music you like and do it all at once! Don't deliberate over each decision, just do it.

I have it easy, with one, because I don't usually have much to keep year to year, she outgrows everything!

Buy multiple colors/patterns of the same item (tops,pants,dresses etc) or at least same brand same size as the base of the wardrobe. That way next year the girls only have to try on one of each item to see what still fits. You can dress up with fun sweaters, shoes and accessories.

we have standard size closets & have never had to store away for each season....we simply rotate from the middle to the far ends. The dresser drawers rotate with the top shelf in the closet.

Never been an issue for our family. A quick seasonal "fashion show" to determine what fits & what doesn't....which always ends in a stack to pass on to friends/family/charity.....& we're done! :)

Do it once... take out all the clothes you have in your closet and sort them.

Get those space bags that uses vacuum power to compress, label them - Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter Sort your clothes in each bag - what you wear the most. Throw out stuff you have not worn in 6 months or more

When the next season begins, you can swop bags, and keep storing your new and most worn clothes in these bags, saves you space and time later.

As for the kids, well they grow so fast there is no point in keeping clothes unless you know it will fit them next year..

As you do the laundry, I guess you can fold and sort at the same time. Keep a box for each child or go by age. You could use space bags to store it.

Not sure exactly what you mean, my guy is 2.5 and would outgrow things if i packed them away for months. I store his fall/winter clothing in the bottom drawers of his dresser during the spring and summer months, and reverse them now. That way i have access to shorts and short-sleeved shirts, and long-sleeved shirts and long pants anytime of the year, necessary especially now here in SoCal with the warm days and cooler nights. Even with my daughter I would keep access to everything as she would sometimes layer her clothing, shorts or leggings under dresses, and long-sleeved tops over short-sleeved ones, etc.

Go through their drawers and get rid of what they've outgrown or worn out, then take everything packed away out at once for all the kids, go through and see what fits and you'll use, and donate any extras to eliminate some hassle.

I got a bunch of PAPER Target bags (they are the best with "rope" handles).

I mark every bag such as 2T Winter; 2T Summer

We have two girls, so I keep all the clothes the oldest outgrows. When baby is done with them, they go back in the bag they originally were in. Then they are easy to find, store, and later sell.

The bags fold up when not in use and if you are done with a size, turn the bag around and mark the other side.

This has been so helpful for me. The bags line up neatly on the shelf in the closets. It made it easy when I packed away summer stuff and put fall stuff in, but then needed summer stuff again. EASY!

I also keep bags for the sizes coming up. That way when I buy off season or find somethting that I love and it is too big, I have a place to store it and not forget about it.

I guess I don't understand the question. My kids aren't old enough to maintain a permanent seasonal wardrobe. They outgrow everything before that season comes around again.
To get the kids ready for fall I am picking up a few long sleeve shirts, sweaters and a jacket to supplement what they already have. Heavy leggings so my girl can still wear her dresses. I'm just adding to, not swapping out, so I guess I'm no help.

I have a similar job at hand only it's not seasonal it's all 3 kids are outgrowing everything at the same time. What I do it stretch it out over a week or so. Today I will pack up all the pajamas that are too small and put in the new ones for all 3. Tomorrow I'll do the pants for everyone. Next day I'll do sweaters, sweatshirts and sweats. Another I'll do jackets. Some things take a couple days if I also have other things to take care of besides changing out clothes. I always try to make sure everything is washed and mended before packing it away since it's all getting passed from child to child still. I also try to wash everything as I get it out of storage for the next since it's been sitting there for a few years and I always wash brand new clothes before wearing them. We don't have seasons per say in Southern California so we have everything in the closet at the same time. In one week we can go from shorts and tank tops to sweater and jeans. I don't bother taking anything out until they outgrow it. But it's the same process. Just break it up into smaller chunks and spread it out over a few days to a week. It's the only way I can get it done and not totally neglect the other things that need doing in the house.

Maybe you are in the situation I am in. We have three girls. So everything gets saved and everything gets passed down Where it gets tricky is that we (a) have and acquire a lot of clothes from others, off-season sales, b-day/Christmas gifts, etc. (b) we also loan clothes to several nieces when we are not using them and vice-versa, (c) my girls are staying in clothes more than one year, esp. due to clothes being marked size 5/6 or 7/8, and that their growth is slowing, and (d) we're not sure that we are done having children! So if we do ever have a 4th girl I'd love to have the clothes at my finger tips and not incur a future expense by getting rid of them and then re-buying.

So keeping up with the seasonal transition is one of my least favorite things! Esp. b/c 2 of my girls share a room and thus a closet. It proves difficult when we have several cold days and then it turns warm again for awhile! So we have A LOT of clothes out right now.

What I have done is put clothes into labeled, large rubbermaid tubs, and they stack 3 or 4 high in a corner of our bsmt. All the bins are the same size and color, so they stack nicely and look organized. It has worked so far although I would like to hear any new and great ideas! We are living out of drawers and tubs right now! But the tubs stay in the bsmt. in the middle of the laundry room until we successfully transition all the summer clothes into the bins and the winter clothes into our drawers!

I don't know if that helps! Looking forward to hearing others' suggestions!
Blessings!

well usually my kids outgrow everything for next year. like when i was putting stuff away to bring out the summer stuff, i used those vacuum sealers for coats. mittens/gloves and hats. everything else got donated. coats usually are ok for 2 years. in september i made the switch around, and i donated almost everything. so for me it's a piece of cake :)

I was fortunate... I had 3 girls in 4 years, so I was easily able to hand down clothes from one child to another.

One thing I did was store the clothes (when they were small and still in diapers) in the appropriate age/weight range of diaper box... for example, the 12 month clothes went in the approximate weight range diaper box. That way, I could easily tell what size the items were. This also made it easy to either give away or pass along clothes to someone else.

As the seasons changed, as I washed the clothes, I put them in the boxes for storage. It helped that we lived where there were definite seasons, not like Texas!