How Many Clothes & Toys Do We All Really Need?

i have 7 each for me my husband and kids on long sleeve shirts and short all casual. I have 7 dress for each 7 pairs of jeans and 2 pair of slacks I have 4 blanket sleepers for the baby. 2 coats one dress and one work and one jacket each. my oldest has one of each dress and work coat. I have 4 pj pants and so does the boys baby has about 7.3 pair tops and bottom thermals. 1 pkg socks and 7 pr underwear. I have one pair cowboy boots one pair dress boots one pair tennis shoes and 1 pr sandals. I have 4 pr shorts so doesnt wear shorts and oldest has 3 pr and baby 7 pr. but I need to weed the babys out. by what dont fit anymore.

toys are broken they are gone if she doesnt play with them they are gone.get rid of stuffed most of the animals. if she has baby dolls keep the 2 she plays with the most. and so forth. mine most of his toys are small cowboys horses and cars. books. everything else he pretty much ignores except for a few big toys. anything she has outgrown get rid of. this is a good start.

My daughter just turned 1 year old in October, I have decided that I am going to go through her toys every year and donate 3-5 toys to the local women's & children's homeless shelter. You know the grandparents are going to buy more toys for your children as they grow, so you can get rid of a little each year. This will also help kids know the importance of donating, giving and to be selfless, especially with the up coming holiday season.

All I can say is that I need a 12 step program for this one

Depending upon how spartan you want to be...I read in a professional organizing book that we only really need 14 outfits per season. If you wear each and every outfit once that is 2 weeks of clothes (obviously) with a season lasting 3-4 months, this means you would only wear each outfit 6-8 times. I can live with that....but it takes constant maintenance and sorting and giving away.

I have counted out my clothes many times and dwindled my shirts/pants down to 14 each for the upcoming season and I have never worn them all. We normally go back to favorites.

Such a great question. Earlier I asked for ideas for gifts for my daughter... in part because we already have all the toys (!) I have two boys aged 4 and 5, and she's turning two. It's crazy what we have.

I do limit clothing though, I hate to see clothes I paid for sit unworn. I try to buy most used (although my 5 year old gets new stuff usually - boys are hard on clothes). I make a list of what they NEED and stick to it. I try to keep it to what can be worn in a week (in case I get behind on laundry). Beyond that is extra.

We have about 20 movies. That is more than we need. Lately we've been getting one or two at week at the library. I'm considering donating many that we have that do not get watched. Really, when I was as little as my kids, we had to watch what was on network tv, and we survived! I feel like I'm contributing to my kids instant gratification problems by having everything at their fingertips all the time :)

For my own closet, I've been purging. I stay home, I don't need much. I'm trying to only have stuff I wear, and really like. Everything else has been donated. I was happy when a friend visited lately and commented on how few clothes I have. I have what I need, nothing more...

I also get a zoo membership and childrens museum membership and a membership to our local landscape arboretum for x-mas each year. Those are heaven for me, and I use them a ton.... I just wish it would in turn make for smaller piles of toys gifted... my mom just seems to buy more even though she's purchased the memberships.

Good luck!
J.

I am constantly getting rid of toys and clothes but it doesn't seem to matter. I will clean up the living room and within 5 seconds, I have 50,000 little things (small animals, mickey mouse clubhouse dolls, puzzle pieces, books, stuffed animals) all over the living room It looks like my house pukes toys every minute or so.... Lol. Our kids don't "need" any toys. We are so blessed to live in a place where we are so rich that we can have what we have. God bless America!

One factor to consider is how often you do laundry. When my daughter was young I made sure to have enough clothes that I could go 2 weeks without doing laundry if I had to. I usually did laundry every week. The extra week was a cushion for the odd times I wasn't able to do it that week and to add variety.

I didn't stick to this plan. I'm a shopper and did have a few extra outfits for both of us.

As to toys, I suggest you decide on storage and have enough toys to loosely fill your storage space. Pack the rest and rotate toys so that the kids have "new" ones from time to time.

Encourage the grandparents to invest in their grandchildren's college funds. My daughter is asking me to do this instead of buying clothes and toys. I haven't managed to set up an account. If my daughter would set up an account I think I would put money in it. I have realized that I was over doing the clothes and toys and have begun to spend less.

My grandchildren watch movies over and over. They also stop watching some but always come back to watching them again. I keep all the movies and have a great number but I think it's worth keeping them. At 10 my granddaughter is watching some of the kiddie ones such as Little Bear and Barnie. I figure that her children will watch these movies too and so am planning to keep them.

My husband has the most of all of us... and I officially refused to wash his clothes some time ago... so I'm not even going to attempt to quantify it.

What we *actually* have

Ds8 : 5 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts, 15 shirts (short and long), 1 down vest, 2 jackets (one a heavy coat, one a lightweight jacket), sports uniforms, 1 set of snow clothes, 2 swimsuits. 3 pj bottoms (we usually have about 10, but I JUST culled the ones that were inches too short) - he sleeps topless. A drawer full of socks (all the same kind, so no matching needed... sports socks are kept with sports uniforms). A drawer full of underwear. 2 pairs of shoes, 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of hiking boots.

Moi : 4 bras, 2 sports bras, a drawer (sm) full of underwear. 3 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of pants. A drawer full of camisoles (I'm rather fond of tanktops). 2 short sleeved shirts & 2 long sleeved shirts. 1 skirt. 2 ball gowns I keep but can't fit into (sigh). Underarmor. 1 painting outfit (I'm DIY'ing my house). 1 workout outfit. About 5 jackets of different types (I live in seattle, it's varying degrees of cold and damp most of the year). Snow clothes. 1 swimsuit. 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of heels, 1 pair of flats, 1 pair of shoes, 1 pair of hiking boots. I wear these same clothes for EVERY season, for years on end. As something becomes to worn to wear it get shifted to the "DIY/ Hiking" pile, or patched/mended or cannibalized to mend something else, & replaced.

Not that I wouldn't LOVE to have 14 outfits for each season, and enough lingerie to fill a boutique. But I'm unwilling to spend the money. Most of my clothes have to be made for me unless we're talking jeans and stretching cami's... and I still have to order those from the UK (just TRY and find a 36-38 inch inseam here in the US in women's pants). Unless they're ball gowns I can't buy dresses at all. (The curves are in the wrong places, hips at my waist making me look preggers is the least of the problems with the 'lasagna noodle' silhouette dresses off the rack give me.) Off the rack my jeans & pants set me back $80-$160. (I know many women buy expensive clothes on *purpose* -and at one time when I had money to burn, I did as well-, but I have no cheaper alternative). Luckily I'm "artsy" so I can get away with patching them "artistically" as they wear out to get extra life out of them.

In my dreams I would love to have a walk in closet full of clothes that fit, feel, and look wonderful. A chest overflowing with lingerie. Boots, and shoes, and heels galore. But when it comes right down to it if 2k lands in my hands my first thought is "plane tickets or camera or ripping out my stairs and replacing them or tuition" not "shopping".

Here's what I have always done as an adult, and what I have started to do with my own little family. Every year, usually a few months before Christmas, we go through stuff and throw it out. I recently just went through all of my 20 month old's toys and threw away all things that were broken, and donated what I thought she didn't play with anymore.
Don't get me wrong she still has a lot of toys, but there are a lot that will be donated next year (or after her birthday in February). She has 3 toy boxes full. Our toy boxes aren't really toy boxes, they are just small plastic bins I got from IKEA.
Clothes change constantly. Weather isn't consistant at all where I live. One week it was a high of 62 and the very next week it was back in the mid 90's. So I keep her dresses, jackets, and sweaters all hung up, I never pack them away because I am never sure when I need them. All other clothes are kept in a storage system (wire box system from target 15 bucks) and separated. Usually she has a variety of things, and they only get donated or put in her baby quilt pile when they are too small.
For my boyfriend and I, we go through our clothes every year (we are currently doing it). I can honestly say there are two pieces of clothing that I have held onto for over 15 years. They have sentimental meaning for me, but I never wear them. Other then that, if I have had it for awhile, and never wear it, it needs to get donated.
We have a ton of movies that are kept on our two bookshelves and DVD towers. We didn't have cable or regular TV for close to a year, so DVD's were our only source of entertainment. We try to keep them organized neatly.
I grew up with my mom being what I call an organized hoarder. When you walked in her house it looked clean and organized. But every room had numerous entertainment centers, shelves, bookshelves, dressers, desks, etc. You wouldn 't believe how much she had in her house. Seriously....who needs 15 bottles of peroxide? So growing up with that, I tend not to like a lot of stuff. What I don't use, I don't need and someone else could benefit from it. Good luck decluttering...which reminds me I need to get back to my closet to finish the job. =)

Most Americans have way more stuff than we actually need - JMO.

We moved out of our house last year for a major remodel project (which also removed my biggest storage closet). I couldn't believe how much stuff we got rid of.

When we moved back in we had a yard sale and made $300. I'm getting ready to have another one! Turn that stuff into $$$.

Good luck.

Not a lot. We have a closet in our family room. My rule is: we keep whatever fits on the first three shelves and on the floor --ignoring two or three bigger floor items. So, when the space it eaten up, things have to go!

In fact, all of my friends are frantically shopping for toys for the holidays, and I asked my mother to buy clothes. Yes, that is right, my kids will have more cloths under the tree than toys. We don't need the toys. They take up space, only get played with momentarily before their interest wanders off to something else, etc. It's wasteful. So for xmas, my kids are getting winter wear: snow boots, long underwear, etc. I hate the waste of it all. In fact, I buy a very limited amount of clothing for the kids, and I just wash every other day. It's amazing how little you actually need.

The rule of thumb in our household (10-yo son, 7-yo daughter and 4-yo son) is that if they don't pick it up by the end of the day, it's either Freecycled or put up in the attic until I do the big toy purge in January. At the beginning of the year they do seem to have a lot of stuff out but by early spring nearly 90% of their toys are back in the attic. It's just too overwhelming for them to deal with. In both rooms they have a large toy bin system and under all the beds there are plastic totes; DD has an old nightstand just for her Polly Pockets, paper dolls and so forth. And STILL, they usually don't want to put their toys away.
As far as clothes go, I don't like to do laundry every week so they have enough clothes (I'm talking shirts and pants, not underwear, pjs and socks) to get through many weeks.
I have a friend whose boys' toys have taken over the house. There are toys in every single room, lining every wall...kitchen, living room, dining room, all the bedrooms, the bathroom and back porch. The clutter just makes me claustrophobic!!! Toys have their place and that is the kids' bedroom and a few in the tub.
I have asked the grandparents to not get them much since they refuse to pick them up and what's the point in getting a nice toy if it's given away or put in the attic within a week? They are getting better at complying but it's been tough for my mom whose love language is gifts.

K.

YES my family has too much stuff & more to come they won't stay in these clothes & shoes they get outgrown time to buy new..As for toys' they get broken I pitch them don't rebuy the same toy they will get one with their Bday $$,Christmas,or just because...I have everything organized it's not clutter because I declutter all the time why put something back when it is outgrown torn or stained.Had 2 garage sales this year made $400.00.I always get asked how is your home so clean & organized how do you keep it up with 3 kids I just do it is how I manage I can't stand a dirty home unorganized home it makes me go into panic mode.

we got too much, i'm constantly getting rid of toys my daughter has, clothes, lol i had a walk in closet that had so many clothes the rods were bending (seriously) and it did have a reinforced middle connected to a 2x4 above it, and it STILL was bending