The Lazy Genius Podcast - #116 - How to Lazy Genius Kids’ Clothes

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

Do you feel buried under mountains of kids’ clothes? Or you feel like you’re constantly running to the store to pick up pants that fit? Or maybe you’re tired of managing a closet full of tiny person clothes when your kid would rather wear a t-shirt with a cartoon plastered on it every day of the week? It’s a real struggle. But the good news is you’re not alone. Let’s spend some time today talking about the two decisions your kids’ clothes require and how to make those decisions in ways that work for you. I also share my five best tips on storing and transitioning those clothes. Things You May Find Helpful If you have a few minutes, let me know what you want to see more of on the podcast and blog by completing our audience survey. Plus, one lucky participant will receive a free Planetbox Rover lunchbox after the survey ends. Fill it out here. You may only need to sort and organize clothes a couple of times a year, but laundry happens every week. Check out The Lazy Genius Does Laundry and The Lazy Genius Does Laundry Updated! for a little extra support. Crowdsource answers to your kid clothes problems over on Instagram with me this Thursday around noon when I’ll go LIVE to talk about kid clothes in real-time. Download a transcript of this episode! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon presents Laura versus Fruitflies. Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen, these little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. It's something else here now, something new.

From, exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scary as Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From, binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus.

Hi friends. You're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 116. How to Lazy Genius Kids Clothes. I get a lot of episode recommendations and this is one of the most common for sure. How do we transition our kids clothes with each season? And our kids are humans who keep growing real fast. So how do we make sure our kids have clothes that actually fit them when it's time? What do we do with all the hammy downs? How do we not accidentally buy like four winter coats for our toddler? Because we keep forgetting that we already have one for her. Hopefully, this episode will help you think more clearly about how to tackle your kids' clothes.

But the most important thing to remember is that this is a challenge for a lot of parents. That's why I get asked to talk about it so often. It's hard. You are not missing some magical part of your brain that taught you how to do this. We're all just figuring it out. So just go ahead and pat yourself on the back for the fact that your kids are wearing something. Or they could be wearing absolutely nothing because it's summer and that's okay too. That reminds me actually last winter when my daughter Annie was two. I couldn't find her in the house. Super cool. We thought she was playing hide and seek or something until I saw her completely naked in the fray yard in the winter. It was probably less than 40 degrees outside. So even if your kids aren't

clothed and outside and it's cold, we should bring them in so they don't get hypothermia, but I'm a good mom and stuff just happens, man. We're all doing our best. But today, though, we are going to get through some great tools on how to handle all of those kids clothes. Before we do that, I have a favor to ask. I need your feedback. You are the reason I make this podcast and talk on Instagram and write a newsletter and create cool things like the meal plan to help make your life easier. I do this 100% for you, which is why I need to know who you are

and what you would like for me to do in the future. I would love for you to go to the lazy genius collective.com slash feedback to fill out a quick survey. It's only a handful of questions and shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. It'll help me and my team figure out how to make your life better

in the best possible way moving forward. And as a thank you for filling out the survey, I have partnered with my favorite lunchbox company, plana box, to give away the lunchbox that I've been using for my kids for the last six years. It's called the Rover lunchbox. It's stainless steel. It's basically like a bento type lunchbox with like all the little compartments. It is super easy to use for kids because they just open it and eat. It keeps teachers from having to open and unscrew like every bit of your kids lunch. They can go in the dishwasher. They're indestructible. I love them.

My fourth grader has had his since preschool, and it's still as good as the day we got it. So one survey participant will be selected at random to get a free Planet Box lunchbox. Say that three times fast. It's so fun. And P.S., they are not just kids' lunchboxes. Adults love these things, too. You just don't have to put the unicorn magnets on the front unless you're an adult who happens to be super any unicorns. So head to the lazy geniuscollective.com slash feedback to fill out the quick.

survey. It'll be open until August 7th, but the sooner you get it done, the less I will stress that you guys don't listen to me, like my kids don't listen to me and then fall into a pit of despair. It is the end of July now. We are just hanging on by a thread over here. Again, that is the lazy geniuscollective.com slash feedback. Okay. Let's lazy genius our kids clothes. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give you the two big decisions you have to make regarding your kids clothes just to simplify things. And then we will end with my five best tips on storing and transitioning the clothes. So here are the two big decisions. Wear and when. Sound simple enough. You need to name where you keep clothes that your kids wear now, where you'll keep your clothes that they'll wear later,

and where you'll keep their clothes that they no longer need. Those are the three kind of offshoots of the wear question. Where are you going to keep those three kinds of clothes? The second big decision to make is when do you tend to those three wears? When do you go through the clothes your kids currently wears? When do you pull out from storage the later clothes when later is suddenly here? And when do you get rid of clothes that your kid no longer needs? Transitioning clothes for kids, it feels so overwhelming because the clothes are so tiny and there are so many pieces. And then essentially each item is its own decision. If you think about that on a micro level, it's no wonder we feel overwhelmed. So today we're going to think about it more macro from a bigger perspective.

I think that's the right way to use that word. You just need to decide now the where and the when. So let's start with where. Remember, there are three categories of clothes that need a home that need a wear. Clothes they wear now, clothes they'll wear later, and clothes they can't wear anymore. The clothes they wear now. That one is probably easy. Those clothes are in a dresser or a closet.

Good job. You got one down. Now, in terms of the clothes they wear later, hammy downs, stuff you got from a cousin, you know, you need a place for those too. Our kids each have a dresser where all their clothes go. I hate hanging up clothes with all that is in me. So everything goes in drawers.

The home for clothes that were later is in their closet. So now is the drawers. Later is the closet. Annie has a plastic storage tub in her closet. Ben's are like, it's a literal pile on the floor in his closet. And then we just don't have hammy downs for Sam because he's the oldest and we don't have friends who are bigger than he is. So I just have to remember to get him new stuff. But the point is I have a spot for clothes for later.

They're closets. You can pick another spot, a basement, a garage, a guest room closet. The trick is to pick one location and stick to it. If you store later clothes in a closet and also have a bag in the attic, and a bag in the trunk of your car that you keep forgetting to bring in, it just doesn't work as well. So pick one location where later clothes go. It doesn't matter where it is.

Just have a wear. The final wear category is clothes that your kids don't wear anymore. Pick one landing spot for those clothes. You don't have to label or sort yet. Just have a holding ground for those clothes until the time comes for you to go through them. I have a cardboard diaper box in Annie's closet. next to the plastic tub of later clothes where I put all of her stuff that's too small. Ben has a box in his closet too, same thing. And then Sam, my oldest, all of his clothes that are too

small, they just go directly into Ben's closet for later because Ben gets all of Sam's clothes like the middle child he is. So pick a literal space for those three categories. Close for now, clothes for later, and clothes for never again. Here is another thing to consider when you think about the clothes your kids are done with. You want a holding place for those clothes, so you can just throw in one item when you notice it's too small rather than waiting to purge the entire dresser. It's nice to be able to throw a tank top into the box and be done, right? You also need to decide, though, where those unneeded clothes will go once they leave your house.

Here's one of my most prized tips about stuff that's leaving your house. Choose one path. Send all of those unwanted clothes. to a single place. I would rather miss out on a little cash from clothes sold on consignment than have to sort all the clothes into piles that go to like multiple locations. A consignment sale, a neighbor, goodwill. It's just not worth it to me. It could be to you. That's totally great, but it's not to me. And so I just pick one path. Maybe part of your overwhelm is all the different end locations for clothes you no longer need. It's just too much. So pick one path.

Pick one place they go. So here's an example. Maybe you decide that all of your kids clothes that you don't need will first go to a consignment store. I know I just said one path and I just said first, but hear me out. So we're going to go to a consignment store. They all leave your house at the same time. They go to the same place. Maybe you get some cash from a few of the pieces, but then you take the rest to a thrift store immediately. Technically, it's two locations, but it's one path out of your house. It's into your car, it's to a store, it's to one other place. All the clothes leave the house. They maybe get picked up by the store and then after they're taken directly to a donation box. So just know your path out and keep it as simple as possible. All right. So here's what I do for my kids. Clothes that are too small for my oldest son. Go to my second kid. Right?

Done. Clothes that are too small for my second kid for Ben. They go to a friend who has a son a year younger than Ben. Done. Clothes that are too small for my daughter go, ironically, to that same friend who has a daughter a year younger than Annie. Done. Now it is very helpful that I have literally one final destination for all the clothes that are too small for my kids. But the point is to have a place in mind. Maybe it's a yard sale stash in your garage. Maybe it all goes to a church clothing drive that happens once a year

and you just keep everything until then until you can donate it to that. There are just so many options. But I think the best way to lazy genius those options is to limit them kind of aggressively. even. Too many paths out lead to way much, way too much overwhelm. So, okay, to summarize, the first big umbrella decision is where. Where do I keep clothes my kids wear now, close their role later, and clothes they'll never wear again. Have a holding ground in your house for those clothes, the never again clothes, until you're ready to say goodbye, and then have a severely limited number of paths that they can travel out of your house on. I recommend just one if you can. One day, you're negotiating with suppliers.

The next, you're installing a shelf in the back room. Running a business means moving in many directions all the time. TD's new small business banking accounts are built for how your business moves. It's how we're making banking more human. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life.

You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Okay, now to the when. You can decide now when you're going to go through those three-wear locations. When you go through their current dresser or closet of clothes, when you look through what you already have for the upcoming, winter season, when you empty out the donation box. I do it twice a year. Once about a month before school starts, which is right now, and once in the first few weeks of a new year. Remember, every item of clothing your kids own, it represents a single decision. You have to make a decision about every single thing. So by choosing now, when you will make those decisions, it takes the

pressure off. You'll get to it because you already decided when you would. You'll get to it. You'll You can put it on your calendar even, like you can schedule it. This is Clothes Purge morning. And remember that you already have a holding place for later clothes and never again clothes. So by using those holding places day in and day out, when one item of clothing enters your life, half the work is already done because they already have a place to go. So you're not going through one giant pile of clothes and deciding what to do with each thing. You've already categorized those clothes into now, later, and never again.

you will be surprised how that little bit of categorization, it enables you to make daily clothing decisions when you need to for like, like I said, that tank top that's just too small. So go ahead and choose when you go through your holding places for those three categories of clothes and you won't be overwhelmed by all the possible decisions throughout the year of what you should do with that stuff. Okay. Now let's talk about the logistics of the when. How do you go through the process of sorting? When you go through your kids clothes, you have three possible answers. Wear now, wear later, and never wear again.

And guess what? Since you already have wares chosen for those three categories, they already have a home to go to. So as you sort, make three piles, now, later, and never again. And this might be three piles for each individual kid, right? Because my later pile for each kid is different from each other. I'm not sure if this sounds like overly simplistic

and maybe even kind of dismissive of how overwhelming kids' clothes can be. But I think it's because we just see like a mountain of clothes and each item is one decision. You can lazy genius that mountain of clothes by breaking it into smaller, more manageable mountains that are easy to access throughout the entire year, not just when it's purging time. Okay, so let's talk about my, well, before I do my five tips, let me just recap that really fast because that was really quick about the logistics of the win. When you go through, when it's time to sort, again, you're just putting those clothes into three piles. Now, later, never again. Now later, never again. And then just put them where you've already decided

this kind of clothes go. Okay. So five best tips that will put some context around these two big decisions of where and when. Tip number one. Limit your space for clothes. If the clothes don't fit in the space you have chosen for them, you have too many clothes. If I cannot show you. If I cannot show shut my son's dresser drawer where he keeps his t-shirts, he has too many t-shirts. If I have a giant plastic tub of later clothes for my daughter and cannot fit another summer dress in it, I probably have too many later clothes for Annie. You've already chosen the wear of all your clothes. One of the best tips is seeing those places as finite. If you can't fit it, you don't need it. Which leads me to tip number two. More isn't always better. I remember the first

time I was given two big trash bags full of hand-me-downs, and I thought I had hit the actual jackpot. And in a way, I had because I didn't have to buy a lot of new clothes for Sam. But I also had so much to store and wash and consider every day when I was helping my kid get dressed. It's the same idea we have in our own closets. The more options we have, the more overwhelmed we feel making a decision. So in the same way, you limit the physical space where you store those three categories of clothes. You now, later and ever again, right? See that as a good thing, right? It doesn't mean you have to work from a deficit or that your kid will wear the same shirt every single day. I have lived both ways with drawers packed full and drawers with about like a week and a half,

two weeks worth of clothes. And the scenario with fewer clothes. And the scenario with fewer clothes is always better every single time. So don't feel like you have to buy that dress because it's only $3 or that you have to take that bag of hammy downs when your kid is actually pretty set right now. You don't have to add. The more you have, the more work is required to maintain it. And our kids usually wear like three things anyway. So at least mine do. They just rotate the same Mario shirts all the time. Tip number three. Label your later clothes by year. and season, not by size. All right, so when my kids were babies,

I was absolutely shocked at the number of clothes that were the same size on the label, but way different in actually wearing them. A six-month onesie from one company was bigger than like a nine to 12 month from another. It drove me bonkers. So years ago, I stopped categorizing later clothes by size on the tag

and instead by their actual size, like eyeball and labeled them something like summer of 2018. Especially when you're working with Hamie Downs that your kid might not wear for another year or two, it's really helpful to go ahead and group clothes together that look like they would fit the same kid at the same moment in time for the same season. And then you label by season and year, not by size. Because really the size is like the first step in you figuring out when your kid's going to wear them anyway. so just skip a step.

This definitely makes more sense once your kid hits his one year birthday because they all start to kind of level out a bit when they're like toddlers. But I find the mental gymnastics way easier when the clothes fit into a time of year rather than just like an arbitrary size that might or might not even be true.

Might not even fit the kid. An extra tip with this one. When I sort through the later clothes twice a year, if there are clothes for multiple seasons, okay like if I have a pile of summer like four Tish clothes a pile of cold weather four Tish clothes and then some random five T's that are actually bigger than the four T's so they count I will put those clothes into like plastic grocery bags or something label the bag with the year and the season they're best for and then I'll put all those bags into a big plastic tub kind of in like descending order so like

the biggest clothes are on the bottom you know like the next bag I need is on the top of the container So all the later clothes are still in one place, but you can even categorize within that one place if you want. And if you are concerned that your seasonal math is wrong and that this pile of clothes for summer 2021 will actually fit your kid in 2020 instead, don't sweat it. You've still categorized in a way that you know what bag of clothes is next up, even if it's like a year ahead of schedule. Okay. Tip number four. Write down what you're missing when you go through clothes. for later. When I sort it through the later box and look at the pile for summer 2020, I might notice that I have two dozen t-shirts, but only two pairs of shorts and like one dress.

Go ahead and write on a little piece of paper and you can tuck that inside the bag or you can even keep a note on your phone or something like that of what you will need. Something like good on summer shirts, keeping out for shorts and a dress or more than one dress. My daughter doesn't love wearing dresses. So we don't need very many. Um, but then what happens is you can search through consignment racks with more intention and less desperation because you have time and not because it's like suddenly October and your kid doesn't have pants. So when you think about when you'll go through the clothes to transition them, give yourself some wiggle room seasonally to have space to search for the next season's clothes

that you don't yet have. Like I said, I saw it in July or August and then again in January or February. So there's still plenty of time for me to find fall clothes in July rather than waiting until it's actually cold and Sam needs a coat. All right, final tip number five, lean into your kids' styles. One of the big culprits of too many kids' clothes is that we keep all kinds of styles in the hopes that our kids will wear something we like better than what they like. When Annie was born three years ago, I was determined to have her always dressed, essentially like me, not because, you know, that sounded weird, but like, I was like,

she's not going to be a stereotypical pink and purple sparkly girl. Like, well, not that there's anything wrong with that, but somehow in my brain, it was because I was afraid of having a girl is really what it is. And I was like, I don't want her to be a super girly girl because I don't know how to do that. So I dressed her like me.

It was neutrals and stripes, not a stitch of pink to be seen. Alas, she has preferences, my friends. And that girl is pink and purple and sparkly and unicorns and all the things. So rather than continuing to buy like denim jumpers and mustard yellow tank tops that just take up space in a drawer, now I just get clothes that she loves. I happen to have a toddler who is very sure of her style. So I take her to the consignment stores with me. I hold up stuff and she says yes or no.

And dog on it, she always wears what she chose. Like it's crazy. She knows what she likes. And I'm going to lean into it. Same with my boys. They would rather have shirts with pictures than solid. shirts any day. Now we have one or two, just solid shirts for things like picture day at school or something, but I'm not going to buy my kids what they call boring clothes because they don't wear them.

If I want my kids to dress themselves in the morning, which I very much do, I want to give them clothes they're excited to wear. So lean into their styles as much as you can. And even if it's not your preference, it'll lead to less anxiety for you for sure. Okay, so to recap the tips. One, limit your space for clothes. If the clothes don't fit in the space, you have too many clothes. Two, more isn't better. Three, label your clothes by season and year, not necessarily by size. Four, write down the clothes you're missing so you have margin to find them before you're desperate to need them. And then five, lean into your kids' styles. And remember those two big decisions that you need to make, which seems so simple, but once you name them, it makes things a lot easier. It's a lot more. It's

wear and when. Where do you keep clothes? They wear now, later, and never again, and then have one path out for clothes. They'll never wear again if you can. And then go ahead and decide when you'll go through those three areas to move things wherever they need to go. Okay, so that was a lot of words about kids clothes, but most of us have a lot of kids clothes. So I guess it makes sense. I really hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions about it and want to crowdsource some ideas for your own personal kids clothing situation. I will be live on Instagram this Thursday a little before noon. Usually it's like 1215 Eastern time, but summer hours and babysitters and all the things have made that time a little bit more flexible this summer. So thank you for understanding that. But I will see you

on Instagram at The Lazy Genius this Thursday a little before noon Eastern time. And don't forget, if you have time right now, go fill out that survey. It takes just a minute so I can get your feedback on what you'd like to see happen on the podcast and the blog and all the things in the future. So you could click on that and go to the lazy genius collective.com slash feedback. There is a link in the info section of the episode or you can just type that into your browser. The survey is open until August 7th. And remember that one lucky participant will receive a rover lunchbox from Planetbox free as a thank you for sharing your feedback with me. Thanks for being here with me. Until next time, be a genius about

the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week. You ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life, because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to becoming you wherever you get your podcasts.