Alright. Even the most simple and minimal amongst us will have to procure clothing now and then. Especially the small folk among us who change sizes twice a year.
There are many ways to make a thoughtful, minimal closet. From thrifting to sharing to doing with less.
But if you have 5 minutes today … how about starting with a plan?
No matter what, we should go into our shopping experiences with a plan. Otherwise we’re likely to contribute to the chaos.
Below is a prompt (get your notebooks!) along with my answers as an example.
Take just 5 minutes to make a plan before you do any spring/warm weather shopping.
Exactly what kinds of clothes do you need? How warm will it get, and what will you be doing?
Me: I need casual clothes for myself and my kids in which to hike, beach, playground, and garden. It gets very hot out. But we still need layers.
How much do you need? Do you want more items and less laundry pressure? Or perhaps the opposite?
Me: I want 5 tops, 5 bottoms, and 2 sweatshirts for each kids. I did fine with 1 swimsuit each last summer so I’ll try that this year, too. My number is a little arbitrary. Theoretically I started thinking about clothes for Monday-Friday but I know for a fact there will be days we have a midday wardrobe change; and I also know for a fact that I’ll be doing laundry more than once a week. So this seems like the middle ground for me.
What about shoes and holidays? Me: I would like 1 pair of sandals and 1 pair of sneakers per kid. It’s not very important to me to dress up or match for Easter so we will just see what we have that day.
With this brief plan, I went ahead and got a lot of things for my kids in one trip.
I am deeply grateful to be able to provide my kids with what they need. I felt confident knowing I was buying what we could truly use, not just what looked good online or cute at the store.
For even more breathing room:
If you have the time … dump all of your kid’s clothes on the floor (or nicely lay out yours on your bed ;) to see what you’re starting with. Filter out what’s too small. Keep what still works. Make some room before adding on.