Keep clothes neatly folded (er, rolled) with hairbands

Sheri! I love you! You have just made my back-to-school organizing so much easier!

I have a 4 year old daughter who LOVES to try all of her clean clothes on... EVERY DAY! To minimize the mess I have begun rolling her clothes and using ponytail holders to keep them together. This way, even as she rummages through her drawers, the clothes stay together.

Also, we have a special basket in her room for clothes that have been 'tried on' but are not dirty. The combination of these two have cut my laundry almost in half!

This is also a great way to pack readymade outfits into drawers, so kids can more easily dress themselves.

Related: Organize kids' clothes into color-coordinated "capsules" so they can pick their own outfits

Comments

[CM]

Why ponytail holders rather than regular rubber bands? Is the idea that she'll use the ponytail holder in her hair with the outfit?

[Daffodil]

I'm thinking that the ponytail holders were suggested because they stretch like crazy but aren't going to break easily the way rubber bands do. And if the idea is to reduce laundry, you wouldn't want to use those grubby rubber bands that kept your newspaper all rolled up in your front yard!

[Annette]

I love the basket idea! I don't have any daughters yet, but I distinctly remember my mom's frustration at the number of clothes I "tried on" as a child.

[mes]

I use the clothing roll idea for our toddler whenever we travel. Each complete outfit gets bundled up. It was originally for my own convenience, and for organization of the suitcase. As a side benefit, my hubby was thrilled that he didn't get in trouble for dressing our son in non-matching clothes.

[Whitney]

I have this problem with my stepdaughters. I had to tell my youngest girl twice to seperate a large laundry basket full of clothes into dirty and tried on piles. Drives me nuts. :)

[Connie]

What an awesome idea!! I've got 3 daughters, ages 3 1/2, 2 & 8 mns. Their dressers are all in one bedroom, the same bedroom they all play in... often unsupervised while I'm doing my duties. Needless to say, clothes are CONSTANTLY getting sprawled out acrossed the house.

You can only imagine w/ all the laundry, just folding clothes can be an adventure. My "little helpers" are drawn to the piles of clothes as I attempt to fold, only to knock over the entire stacks in seconds. Accident? On purpose? Who knows! But w/ this idea, GENIOUS, no more of that.

This way, too, each girl's clothes could be identified by different colored bands.(Helpful, now that my 2 & 3 year olds' clothes are getting to be similar in size)

[Courtney]

I think i really like this idea. I have my 2 girls in one small bedroom and don't have room for a traditional dresser so i use a sweater organizer in their room but the clothes are constantly everywhere and drives me crazy. I'm gonna try this, see if it helps. Thanks!