I had a system – a perfectly good system! With three daughters, I would buy clothes for my eldest, when she grew out of them they were passed down to her sister and again in turn to my youngest daughter. Then when we finally had maximum usage out of the clothes, I would bundle them up and pass them on to my nieces.

This system worked really well, until my eldest girls became teenagers. My two eldest started to wear the same size clothes – destroying the ability to pass down clothes between them. They also decided that they wanted to wear clothes that were ‘in fashion’ – deeming them either:

1. Out of fashion before I could hand them down
2. Inappropriate to hand down to my youngest daughter
3. Too large for my youngest daughter by the time they were made redundant.

Luckily I can still pass my son’s clothes onto his cousin, although sometimes my cheeky little nephew helps himself to my son’s clothes before my son has outgrown them.

I must admit; my kid’s clothes have sentimental memories attached to them. When I see my nieces in my daughter’s clothes (pre-teens) it reminds me of places we have been, or things we have done and I feel happy to see that my kid’s clothes haven’t been turned into commercial rags and still have a valid use. I once had a dress that belonged first to my eldest niece before my daughters all wore it and then my two younger nieces both wore it – it outlasted six little girls and I have a feeling my sister may have passed this onto one of her friends with a daughter. It is a perpetual dress – it was obviously so well made that it has lasted twenty years and counting!

My eldest daughters are almost fully-grown now – they are both taller than me already and all my daughters wear the same size shoes as me. The hand me downs have almost ceased and instead the system has now turned into open slather on my wardrobe! I guess the answer is for me to increase my wardrobe to allow for my daughter’s raids!

Do you recycle your kid’s clothes or do you dispose of them when your children outgrow them?

(Picture courtesy of digitalart, freedigitalphotos.net)