Hellobee

Once we knew we were having boy/girl twins, I set about gathering and organizing clothes. I had kept almost everything of Miss H’s so I had plenty of “girl” clothes as well as a good amount of gender neutral clothing, as we had not revealed Miss H’s gender before she was born. For “boy” clothes I purchased a lot of gently used clothing from friends in sizes newborn-3T! Needless to say, I had bins and bins of clothes needing to be organized!

And…I was completely and utterly overwhelmed.

Eventually I hatched a plan for how I was going to manage everything. I first separated everything I would use for Miss Hop from clothes for Mr. Hop. I then sorted all of the clothing by size and type.

From there, I purchased two I Think I Canvas closet organizers with drawers from the Land of Nod in two different colors; I designated a dark blue one for Mr. Hop and a tan one for Miss Hop.

(image via Land of Nod)

(image via Land of Nod)

I then labeled each drawer with the following categories using my trusty label maker:

• Pajamas
• Pants/Onesies
• Socks
• Next Size Up
• Next Size Up
• Too Small

The first three drawers contain the clothing they are wearing at this moment in time – pajamas, pants, onesies (or shirts), and socks. It’s pretty self-explanatory but it helps immensely to have these drawers dedicated to what is fitting them right now.

The two “Next Size Up” drawers are where I can place, as you can guess, any clothing in their next 1-2 sizes (depending on what I have and how things are fitting).

Finally, the “Too Small” drawer is where clothing goes once they’ve grown out of it. My biggest annoyance is when Miss H would grow out of something and it would sit in her drawers for the longest time before being tossed on the closet shelf. Then the too small clothes would pile up before I finally had time to relocate them elsewhere. Having a dedicated bin for these clothes ensures that whomever is getting the babies dressed has an easy place to put the too small clothes. About once a month I’ll go through the small clothes and divide them up between clothing I’ll donate, clothing I’ll save for sentimental reasons, and clothing I’ll sell or give to friends.

Anything that isn’t their current size or the next size up gets stored elsewhere. Underneath each of their cribs I have a storage container. In Mr. Hop’s I have all of his larger clothing that goes beyond his current and next sizes. For Miss Hop I just have the clothing that is currently two sizes too big; the rest is stored in bins in our basement because I have all of Miss H’s clothes. There’s a lot!

What started out as a basic need to get things organized has turned into an incredibly helpful system. Because I don’t dress the twins during the week (their nanny or Mr. H does) and I don’t put their laundry away during the week (again, their nanny or Mr. H does), this is the best way for keeping things organized. It ensures that things get put in the correct places and keeps the too small clothes out of rotation. And, by keeping some larger sizes conveniently stored under the cribs, when I am home I’m able to quickly do some clothing shuffling as the babies move up to the next size.

Finally, this system helped me tackle what I think was most overwhelming for me: organizing clothing that tended to be gender-specific. If I had boy/boy or girl/girl twins then I could more easily throw all of the 3month onesies, for example, into a drawer and be done with it. But as Mr. Hop looks a little silly in frills and bows, that approach would not have worked for us! I need to keep things separate so that it’s easy to grab outfits and also easy to determine what I need to buy for them.

I have, however, found one accessory that works for everyone: bunny ears!

How do you tackle organizing your LO’s clothing? Any tips or tricks?