Hey there!
This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for you guys for a long time.
In fact, one of my most frequently asked questions (besides where to buy ethical leggings) is how I manage Kit’s wardrobe.
We’re at a point now where we have to buy her a new wardrobe every time she moves up a size, but in the last year (she’s two) that has slowed down a bit which has been nice on the old budget.
So right now I practice a two season capsule with her wardrobe: one for warm weather and one for cold weather.
And with it being in the 50’s and 60’s here lately (which is a regular heat wave for us Northern folk), I decided to go ahead and put it together a little early.
Now. Before I proceed:
One of the second biggest questions I get asked is how to practice ethical fashion with a toddler wardrobe.
That’s a really tough thing to do (unless you have the resources… which we do not) and I struggle with it as much as the next person.
You may not agree that this is “good enough”, but this is how I handle it:
- Thrift as much as possible.
- When thrifting is not an option, I try to buy quality clothing that I can either sell or pass along to family and friends when we are done with it.
I would love to say that the quality clothing I mention above was coming from small business owners who are 100% producing ethical clothing.
But, our budget just does not allow for me to do that right now. And often thrift store prices aren’t all that cheap either so…
we get most of our non thrifted clothing from Gap or Old Navy. Like I said before, it’s not as ideal as I would like it to be, but we almost never wear out of their clothes so they can be worn by other kids after Kit is done with them.
But I do try to keep her wardrobe as small as possible.
And I know some of you will wonder about laundry so I’m just going to be straight with you. We don’t wash our clothes that often. Sometimes that means Kit will wear an outfit for two or three (even sometimes four) times before we wash it. As long as it’s not obviously dirty or smelly we keep on wearing it. So we don’t really end up doing more laundry just because her wardrobe is smaller.
Side note: we do a lot of dresses because I find them to be so much easier to throw on, but also because it’s cheaper to buy one piece vs. buying a “set”.
What do you think? Do you have a capsule wardrobe for your kids? What are your must haves? Let me know in the comments below!
I’ll try to link to as much as possible below, but like I said above, a lot of it is thrifted or handed down.
Until next time,
I am also guilty of not being as stringent with ethical clothing when it comes to my kids. Their wardrobe is half Carter’s, half hand-me-downs and secondhand purchases. But I definitely struggle with the secondhand because most of the items that end up in sales around Alabama are way too cutsy for my taste. I do two capsules a year as well, and I try to have on hand 8 everyday outfits plus 1 fancier outfit; this way I do laundry once a week. I would LOVE to do laundry less, but my son always manages to pee through a diaper during nap time, and we spend most days outside in the backyard getting pretty dirty. We usually end up passing on about 75% of their wardrobe as hand-me-downs and the rest gets donated to local charities that support families in need.