Hand me downs question

[Anonymous]

How many clothes do you actually pass down? I don’t buy fancy clothes for my kids and so many shirts are stained and leggings ripped from my older daughter that there aren’t many nice things left for my younger daughter. Even if we do get nicer things, the same happens. Do most people buy new clothing for each kid?

[Anonymous]

I’m the 3rd person getting hand me downs and most are still usable, although I’m guessing less around age 5 when they do wear the clothes out a lot more. Most stains come out with Oxiclean.

[Anonymous]

We take care of our clothes. If something is ripped or stained it’s not given to the younger one.

[Anonymous]

I would never pass down anything ripped or stained!! Geez...

[Anonymous]

Everything. I’m a laundry pro and never had anything ripped

[Anonymous]

I have 2 boys 2 years apart. When they were 5 and under, everything was handed down. They were young. He didn’t care.

Pants have not been lasting now that they are in elementary. My kids are skinny and DS wore his pants for 2 years this round.

I had to buy new pants for both boys. Shorts are fine. Sweatshirts fine. Jackets fine.

[Anonymous]

Almost everything we have is a hand me down from my nephew. Nothing has rips or stains.

[Anonymous]

Once we got past baby phase, we stopped having many hand me downs. My kids are really hard on clothes-they wear out knees, rip clothes climbing trees, come home with paint spatters. The only things that get passed on are dress clothes, winter gear, and pajamas.

[Anonymous]

Maybe keep a few just stained things for the diaper bag or back up at daycare..ripped does not get kept. Some kids are just harder on clothes.

[Anonymous]

I have one kid. I buy all her clothes used because I like nice quality but cheaper prices. I pass down most of her stuff but throw away anything stained or with rips.

[Anonymous]

Nothing ripped or stained. I kept only my favorites that were thoroughly tested by my first to be hardy and robust clothing! I have a 7 year gap. I put the clothing I wanted to keep into water tight containers for safekeeping. My second child wears mostly these hand-me-downs now. I’d say 70%. She has less outfits, but they are the good ones. Kids only need a few outfits a season. If they are durable they last after repeated washings.

[Anonymous]

Unless it's ripped I will hand it down. I figure the person I'm gifting to also needs some clothes that are just for play and it doesn't matter if they have a couple stains.

[Anonymous]

We have boys so things may be different. We don't pass down underwear and socks but pretty much everything goes to the younger brother: occasionally ripped or stained. NBD. We don't hand me down the ripped/stained stuff outside the family, though.

[Anonymous]

I have three girls, and hand just about everything down. Unless there are rips or stains, which is very rare. When we found out the second one was also a girl, we got more generous buying the older one more "high end" clothing like Hanna, because we knew it would be used for at least two kids. The cheaper things, like Target, Old Navy, Carters, etc, looked a little sad when they got to DD #3, so we did end up buying her a few new things here and there. DD #2 gets a couple of new pieces each season, but not much. Usually when it's something she really really likes (like the avocado dress we just bought at Target).

We don't pass down underwear, but socks are usually okay. I store all the clothing by size and season (warm/cool) in big see-through plastic bins in our laundry room. A few times a year, I do a big swap out. The kids love checking out all their "new" clothes. When DD #3 outgrows clothing, I either pass it on to a few friends that I know will use it, sell it at Totswap, or donate.

[Anonymous]

The majority of clothes my son wears get passed down to my nephew. He is 4 now. And about half of what he wore was passed down from an older nephew. I do like buying new clothes though, so I still buy a lot of new stuff!

Pants are the one thing we don't pass down much because they get worn/ripped/raged looking. Socks also don't seem it make it past one kid. I have, however, passed down and accepted underwear (gasp!) - I would never ever do so outside of our family, but figure it's NBD after a hearty wash cycle with bleach. And the kids wear them for such a short period of time it's not like they are worn out.

Stuff like button up shirts and jackets go through many kids before showing wear.