Why I Share a Closet With My Kids: Our Family Closet

This summer I seriously purged my closet and implemented a capsule wardrobe.

After enjoying the beautiful emptiness of my closet for a few days, I decided to tackle the next worst closet in our home – the kid’s.

My two elementary school-aged sons, Aiden and Cade, share a closet and three dressers, and all of them were completely full too.

In my defense, I did not buy most of their clothes. I have very generous family members who have shared clothes with us.  Grandparents purchase clothes for the boys for birthdays and Christmas too.

As I retrieved the handful of clothes my kids actually wore regularly, I decided that not only was I going to create a {sort-of} capsule wardrobe for my boys, I was going to store their clothes in my closet. Here’s why:

1. 1. To teach my kids to care for their own clothes
      At ages 8 and 11, our boys have been folding and (supposedly) putting their clothes away for a while now.
      They were doing a very poor job so anytime I checked their closet I’d find shirts stuffed on the floor of their closet behind hanging clothes.The problem is that I rarely went into their closet, so I didn’t catch the situation often enough to effectively address it.By moving their clothes into my closet, I see every day if they are doing a good job or not. They’ve done so much better since moving to a combined closet and capsule wardrobe. My guess is that they felt as overwhelmed as I did with the volume of clothes they were dealing with. Fewer clothes makes it easier for kids too!
   2. To consolidate the laundry
      Merging closets puts all our clothes in the same place, and that has made laundry so much easier. We have two closets in our master bedroom. My closet now holds my clothes and that of both our sons. My husband’s closet holds his clothes and two laundry baskets where we pre-sort our laundry into whites and darks.  Now that all our clothes are in the same place, all our laundry is in one place too. Just one simple way that our lives are a little easier.
   3. To teach our kids to dress themselves
      Our sons are at an age where we want them to select their own clothes, but they still need some guidance on what matches and what is appropriate for different weather and events.  Now, I did NOT swap out every item in their closet to ensure every shirt matched every bottom. I selected the clothes the boys liked the best. If they come out of the closet with clothes that don’t match, I send them back in with a suggestion of a different color of top or bottom that would work instead.My older son is a very picky dresser. He doesn’t like jeans, shirts with cuffs, or anything remotely tight. Since I only kept items of clothing he likes to wear, we don’t argue over clothes any more. That alone makes this change 100% worthwhile.
   4. To lead by example
      The last reason is the most important to me. I want my children to value relationships not things, and the best way to teach them is by example.  By sharing a closet, they will see everyday that their mom isn’t obsessed with clothing. Unlike what society tells us, having a closet full of clothes isn’t necessary or important.

I can’t call my boys’ closet a “capsule wardrobe” because I didn’t really limit the number of items to any particular number, or insist that they only keep a certain set of colors to make matching easier (although i did remove most of the red clothes to simplify our laundry).

If you are like me, you head to Pinterest anytime you have an idea (like a Family Closet) that needs a little maturing – there are so many great ideas out there!  But when I searched for “Family Closet”, I only found a few pins.  I guess our decision to make that switch isn’t common (yet) – but  I’m so happy with the end result!

 

Our family closet is L-shaped – in one end of the L are my younger son’s clothes.  His shirts hang, and he has bins for shorts and pants.  We keep his church clothes folded on the shelf (they are in the laundry right now).

 

In the “elbow” of the L-shape of our Family Closet are my older son’s clothes.  Same story as my younger son with bins for bottoms and hangers for tops.  All seasons of their clothes are in the closet.  The only items they don’t keep here are pajamas and underwear, which we store in the the bathroom for easy access after they bathe.  We keep socks in a hall linen closet in a basket.  Honestly, my kids only wear socks on Sundays or when I insist on sneakers instead of flip-flops.

 

My own clothes take so LITTLE space now!  This whole closet was full before.  My tops and shorts are hung above the section with my boys clothes.  My pants and dresses are in the other arm of the L-shape.    I have belts in a basket, and another basket with a lint roller and some over-sized jewelry that doesn’t fit in my jewelry box.

 

As much as I love our new family closet, my boys actually love it just as much or more.  Next question is what to do with the boys bedroom closet, now it isn’t used for clothes.  I’m considering making it a quiet reading nook, or moving their toys shelves in to leave more openness in their bedroom.  If you have ideas, I’d love to hear them in the comments!

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