The seasons are changing and so are the wardrobes. I actually don’t have to do much to my wardrobe this year, as I did a pretty thorough capsule wardrobe for myself last year, but both of growing kids definitely do! I’m dedicating this post to Alex‘s wardrobe since I had so much fun doing it. The idea behind a capsule wardrobe is to keep the idea of minimalism in mind, only buying pieces that match. That’s precisely what I do but if you have kids, you understand that one pair of pants just ain’t happening. I absolutely have to buy a pair of pants per day of the week. Alex loves to play in the dirt, eat paint, rub almond milk on his legs, you name it. HIs clothes are trashed by the end of the day, so I definitely only get one wear out of them. Even with pants for every day of the week, I have to stay on top of the laundry, but I have to do that for my husband anyways, so I don’t mind. The other thing I want to mention is that with my kids, I have to find the right balance between cost of clothing vs cuteness. I would love to spend lots of money on the cutest clothes ever, but in reality, he’s probably going to poop up his back so, I like to keep it all fairly reasonable. Here’s a look at what I came up with for fall/winter 2016.

bicycle shirt, orange/cream shirt, yellow shirt Old Navy / football shirt Gymboree / camo pants Old Navy /

shoes Stride Rite

pants Old Navy / t shirt MeCute T-shirt Designs

Alex is wearing 24 months now (he is 14 months) and so he’s in that in between stage where he’s not really in the baby clothes but also not fully in toddler clothes. I’ve found so many cute boy clothes, but a lot of it is really expensive. I just don’t want to spend a lot of money on something like mini Boden, and then worry about his ruining it so my main stores for him are:

Old Navy

Gymboree

Target

Carters

I really love finding moms who make really cool stuff, like my friend who made this shirt above. You can custom design a t-shirt and they’re really inexpensive. This shirt is super soft. You can check out he Etsy shop here and her Instagram here and here. She makes lots of awesome stuff.

fleece jacket Carters / hoodie gymboree / vest Old Navy

Kids Capsule Wardrobe Tips

Everything should “go” together. Just make sure all the colors coordinate. I love to mix prints and I do that a lot, so I just make sure they’re all in the same color family
Start from the bottom up – pick however many pair of pants you want. I picked 6, I think. Then, add however many shirts you want. I have 8. That’s your basic setup. That’s good for mild days (which is mostly what you have in the winter). Then add whatever layers you need based on the temperature. I got the vest for cool mild days, fleece and hoodie for a little cooler OR if I want to be able to take off a layer for when it gets hot in those warm South Carolina afternoons, and I also have a nice Columbia winter coat. I buy those too big so they can get two years out of them.
Keep shoes simple – Since Alex just started walking in the last couple of months, I’ll only buy him one pair of shoes. Once he gets older, I usually stick to two pair, maybe three at the most. In the winter, it’s usually a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of boots.
Make sure you have enough for multiple changes in a day. It’s just different with kids. I can wear the same pair of jeans several times in one week. Kids cannot. I stress, they cannot
The cheaper the clothing, the higher up the number you need to get. Carters runs small. Old Navy runs big, sometimes. Gymboree always runs big. Just keep those things in mind when shopping because who the heck has their kids try on clothes?