Create a Fun and Practical Minimalist Wardrobe for Kids

What is a minimalist wardrobe? Why should you try a minimalist wardrobe for your kids? How can you create one?

Check out our handy guide on why you should try a minimalist wardrobe for your kids and how to create one!

My Journey to minimalism

I certainly was not anywhere close to minimalist before having children and when our first daughter was born she had a plethora of clothing in all varieties. We were absolutely inundated with baby clothes, they were everywhere!

As a sleep deprived, first time mum I was struggling to keep on top of the housework and the huge piles of baby clothes laundry that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The dresser was bulging and trying to find something quickly was just not happening. Something had to change. So to google I went, how could I manage all this stuff, more organisation? I tried all sorts to manage the ‘stuff’ but nothing was working, I wound up back at square one every time I tried something new.

Quite by chance I stumbled across a blog called ‘Becoming Minimalist‘ by Joshua Becker. I have to say that this was a game changer. Joshua chats to you about the joys of owning less and shows you that having less is definitely more; it leads to a better and more manageable life. It leaves you with more time to enjoy the things you want so you aren’t always managing the things you don’t. An absolute revelation. 

I went on a minimalist deep dive to learn all I could, naps times were now research times. Soon I knew, I needed less. How to get there? What is the first step? Lots of people were discussing clothing and how having a ‘capsule wardrobe’ had really helped them day to day to just make quicker decisions about clothing and the having less laundry is such a win. So the first foray into minimalism came in reducing not only my own wardrobe but my baby daughter’s wardrobe too. 

I knew I had to take the bull by the horns as something had to change so I made a plan to reduce what clothing we had by 50%. After all, minimalists were saying that you only wear around 20% of the clothing you own 80% of the time. I was a little nervous about what would happen; what if I cleared out something only to need it in the future? What if I missed the piles and piles of clothing we didn’t wear? What if it turned out I absolutely loved doing pointless laundry?!

I decided that take that first step and it lead to a much easier to manage home and allowed me to enjoy motherhood a little more, removing some the stress that naturally comes along with it. I can safely say it has been one to the best things I’ve ever done and I wouldn’t go back. 

As my daughter has grown I believe that the benefits of minimalism have helped her as well. Having an easy to manage wardrobe with limited choice has helped her decisions around clothing easier. She is able to pick her own outfits with ease as everything matches and she can help with the laundry and tidying away more easily now that she is older. I really think this would have been much more challenging if she had, had tonnes of clothing to choose from and manage. 

Want to try it for yourself? Check out my guide below.

The first steps – Think about your lifestyle and what you really need

The first thing you need to do when you’re ready to take the plunge and reduce your families wardrobes is to think about your lifestyle and what clothing you truly need day-to-day. I started by making a list of all the occasions that we needed to dress for, from nursery right up to weddings. Then taking this list I separated them in to categories such as daily, weekly, monthly and ‘less often’. So for example play clothing would be needed daily whilst a wedding or special occasion outfit would be need only once or twice a year.

Once you have a good idea where your family are going you can work out what outfits you would need for each occasion and have a good idea of how often you would need this type of outfit and therefore how many iterations you would need. I soon realised that we had way too many fancy dresses for my daughter and no where to wear them! She would definitely have outgrown the majority before she had, had the opportunity to wear them. 

I also considered the season and after checking out Project 333 decided to have a seasonal wardrobe. I figured this would ensure that we would have seasonally appropriate capsule wardrobes each year.

Inventory and Decluttering

The next step is to create an inventory of every. single. item of clothing in that wardrobe, all of them, every last one. This one took me a while I’ll be honest, as there was just so much stuff (how could such a small human have so many clothes?!).

However, once I had finished it really helped me work out what we had far too much of and which categories I needed to reduce (significantly in some areas, yes the pretty frilly dresses).

I took each category one by one and worked out which clothing I could use for which occasions I had listed earlier. Comparing the two really helped me work out what we truly needed to get by each week.

I started by picking out my absolute favourites in each category and then I went to the other extreme and removed clothing that was damaged or I really didn’t like. This left me with the ‘middle’, those clothes that were ok but there was still far too much of; I needed to weed these down to what we really needed. 

Build your wardrobe

This is where the process got super fun but equally tricky! At first I found that I wanted to keep more than we really needed but the more practice I had at minimising the easier it got. I found that I preferred the ‘onion’ method, peeling off one layer at a time rather than a massive declutter all at once although you might prefer to just get rid of everything you don’t need all at once! Whatever works for you is the best option, there really is no right or wrong here. 

So consider what you’ve already got in your must keep ‘I love these’ pile and start to create outfits from them. Try to mix and match the items and see how many variations you can get; its amazing what you can do with a limited number of items when you try. Remember to make sure you have a variety of outfits for all of your identified occasions i.e. nursery, playing, meals out, special occasions.  

Start then to add in clothing from your ‘they’re ok’ pile to bulk out the items you’ve already selected. If you’re anything like me you’ll have plenty to choose from!

Make sure to think about a colour scheme. I find it helpful to have a base neutral, such as navy or cream (a nice olive green can work well too, although for kids I tend to avoid black as it feels too harsh but if you enjoy using black go for it!). I also find that plain clothes are often easier to match up than patterns. If you love pattern try having plain ‘bottoms’ and patterned tops or vice versa. If they are all within the colour scheme they should work nicely!

Babies in particular can be super easy to put a capsule together for. You can usually get away with sleep suits and cardigans for quite a while. I would say don’t go fancy here! Having a selection of baby grows that you can just chuck in the wash is so much easier that faffing about with frilly dresses and tights! We parents need ease when we have a new born!

And don’t forget seasonal wear, we have a capsule wardrobe per season. This can mean that you can get away with less clothing in rotation. The out of season clothing can be stored somewhere clean and dry and be swapped out when the weather changes. This means you don’t have to manage it every single day. I have some lovely wicker lidded baskets from Ikea that fit under the bed for storage. They’re super easy to access as they are in the same room but I can leave them alone until I need to change over the clothing.

Do remember that you will probably need some clothing that you really don’t mind getting mucky if you’ve got small kids. Ones they can play out and get muddy in and you really don’t care! I had a bin of clothing especially for this purpose which I set aside outside the capsule wardrobe. It was just a few extra items but it meant that the capsule worked and items didn’t get damaged as quickly and didn’t need replacing constantly.

If you really don’t have enough to make a capsule with or you are missing certain items to be able to make your necessary outfits consider a range of buying options. I really love buying secondhand, particularly for kids, it means that I’m not as ‘precious’ and usually less frustrated when they inevitably get damaged at the park!  

Hand me downs can also be a great option, however be sure not to accept things that aren’t a good fit for your scheme or don’t work in outfits. 

If you’re in the market for new, new clothes I always try to purchase durable, good quality clothing. It usually lasts and washes better! However when the budget is tight I try to pick up good quality secondhand options from Boden, Joules, Frugi and JoJo Maman Bebe as they last for years (and will work for siblings too).

The Numbers

So, I know what you’re thinking – but how many items do I really need?? 

Start with your list of outfit types for each event you have – how many days do you have to wear this kind of outfit? What’s your wash routine? Do you wash once a week or more often? The more you wash the less clothes you need. 

If you’re really not sure I found that our wardrobe’s hovered around 15-20 items per season (We usually needed the extra few in winter to account for extra layers such as coats, jumpers and winter boots).

Start at around 20 pieces if you’re not sure and work from there. You can also have a ‘maybe’ bin for a few pieces that you keep with the out of season items that you can dip in to if you need more. You can always remove more if you find you have too much.

Examples

Here are a couple of examples to help you on your way to a reduced easier to manage and kid friendly wardrobe: –

15 item wardrobe, for 5 Year old girl, summer season – 

• Leggings x 2 
• Dress or playsuit x1
• Skirt x1
• Shorts x1
• T-shirt x6
• Cardigan 
• Zippy jacket
• Raincoat
• Pumps or trainers

15 item wardrobe, for new born baby boy, winter season – 

• Sleepsuits / baby gro x 6
• Footed Trousers x1
• Long sleeve poppers vests x2
• Short sleeve poppers vests x2
• Cardigan
• Soft light jacket
• Pramsuit
• Hat

Final thoughts

If there’s one piece of advice I can give you its, don’t get hung up on the numbers; numbers aren’t the most important thing here. As long as it works for you, that is perfect. Minimal-ish is good enough, it doesn’t have to be the most minimal wardrobe in the world!

The key is making sure the items work together so you can create lots of different outfits from limited options. 

Also, once you have a capsule wardrobe do consider storage options and organisation so that everything has a place – I really love the drawer organisers from Ikea they are super helpful in keeping things in order.

I really hope you find this guide helpful on your journey to less. Do let us know in the comments below if you have any useful tips about creating minimalist capsule wardrobes! Happy minimising!

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