One of my goals for this year is to minimize mine and the girls’ wardrobes. Since Andrew already has barely any clothes, he’s off the hook. This has been a consequence of many things but the main one was that I am tired of washing/drying/folding/putting away load after load of clothes each week. And there’s only 4 of us. There is no reason for us to have mounds of clothes piled up all over our home. I seem to be able to handle the washing and drying but the folding and putting away was causing much too much grief in our home. So for everyone’s sake (and particularly the sake of our marriage) I decided to pare down and organize. The closet you see in that picture is of all of Lucy’s clothes, minus a hoodie and 2 long sleeve shirts. I buy all of her clothes for the year 2nd hand at a consignment store here in town in one trip. If she receives any hand me downs or gifts I have to make the choice of “one in, one out,” though I do allow flexibility if the numbers aren’t working. And folks, here is the trick to this… Once you buy the year’s (or 1/2 year depending on how you do it) worth of clothes? Stop Looking!! Unsubscribe from those promotion emails, do not wander into the clothes department at Target and, for the love, don’t click on those clothing sale links! You don’t need any more. They will only hurt your wallet and sense of peace. You can be mad now but you will thank me for this some day.

Getting back to Lucy’s closet, displaying her shirts and dresses helps me to see what she has and putting the closet rod at her level allows her to pick out what she wants to wear, furthering her independence. I have never hung any of her clothes before this (feel free to judge) so when she walked in and saw her clothes hung, even though it was only a small part of all her clothes she previously owned, she was in complete awe. “Oooo momma! Look at all of my beautiful clothes!” I plan to eventually hang all of Nori’s clothes using the remaining hangers and the bottom 2 basket spaces once we move her out of our room into Lucy’s.

Next up? My clothes! Wish me luck!

P.s. As an aside, one of my greatest hates in life is packing but with this new setup, when we came down to FL for spring break, all I had to do was grab her spring/summer clothes and she was packed. There were no decisions to be made. I think I heard the angels sing.

[edit: Please find the right least number of clothes for you. Some of us need more than others due to jobs, activities, etc. which is why I titled this minimize and not minimalist. And if you have a piece of clothing that gets worn out, by all means, replace it if you need to (if you can’t affordably fix it, first). My goal for this post is to get us to reflect on all of our clothing and look to where we just have too much, let go of what we don’t need, stop buying more, and start to enjoy putting our clothes away because each piece gets worn, has a place and we can close each drawer.]