If your kids are like mine, then they can be tough on clothes.  When you go to pull clothes out of the laundry bucket, they might be covered in spaghetti sauce or chocolate, coated in mud or streaked with grass stains, splatter with paint or sticky with an unidentified goo.  Holes mysteriously appear in their clothes, and entire items of clothing sometimes disappear.  If, like me, you can’t afford to keep replacing their wardrobe, then here are some tips to help make your childrens’ clothes last longer.

1. Try to keep clothes from getting lost.

Keep dirty clothes hampers in the same places, including one in the kid’s room.  Children can learn from a very young age that clothes go into the hamper when they take them off.  Look for common places that clothes get forgotten, including in the yard (especially if you have a pool, even just a paddling pool), the car, by the bath, even behind the sofa.  Limit the amount of extra clothes that they take with them to school, friends’ houses, etc., and make sure that clothes that they take away are labelled with their name.

2. Use decent laundry products.

If you’re trying to budget and manage household spending, it is tempting to switch to cheap and/or store brand laundry products.  In my experience, this is one area that is worth spending on to buy decent products.  Find a good laundry detergent and stick with it.  If it’s more expensive, pay attention and stock up when it’s discounted or when you have coupons.  Using a good detergent will help your clothes to last longer, look cleaner, and avoid stains.  Some detergents are so harsh that they actually cause your clothes to deteriorate faster!

Also, use stain spray.  Spending an extra pound (or dollar) or two will save a lot of money on trying to repair or replace clothes.  A good stain spray used regularly will keep your clothes looking new for a long time.

3.  Dress for the occasion.

Let your kids have some junky clothes that you don’t care about.  Those are the clothes they should wear when they’re painting, helping bake a chocolate cake, mountain biking, etc.  I’m not saying to never let them wear their nicer clothes, but if they’re doing something that is guaranteed to be messy, dress for it.  Have at least one outfit that is saved for dressy occasions like church, weddings, miscellaneous ceremonies and functions, etc.

4. Learn how to add a patch.

Don’t abandon clothes just because they get a hole.  If, for example, the jeans are in otherwise good condition, either let your kid wear them with the hole in the knee, or learn how to patch it.  Especially in a lot of dark trousers (like school uniforms) you can add patches that are very discrete and hard to spot, and adding a small patch is cheaper than replacing them.  If you don’t like to sew, you can also buy iron-on patches.

5. Buy quality clothes.

Clothes don’t have to be expensive, but they need to be of a decent quality.  If you buy poorly made clothes, they will fall apart faster.  Quality clothes will last longer.  Pay attention to which of your kids’ clothes fall apart the fastest or last the longest.  If the same brand of clothes consistently falls apart, then stop buying that brand. 

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