Elementary school wardrobe

[BennyPai]

My girls are starting Kindergarten & First Grade this year in New England. We are on a tight budget for school clothes. What do you consider to be the essentials for Fall and Winter school wardrobes... including shoes & snow accessories? Please list!
For example, what is the minimum # of pants in your Kindergarten/First Grader's closet?
TIA!

[sanguine_speed]

I do laundry every day, so that means at least every other day an item will be washed (some days I only wash lights, the next darks/colours). This also means my kids only need a few of each item, and I do very much restrict to what we need. We do need more than two because there are accidents and my kids are getting older and appreciate choice.
We also have fall/winter/spring for the school year.

So, my grade 4 student and grade 2 student have:

one sweatshirt
one sweater (fleece or wool)
5 or so long-sleeved cotton tops
1 or 2 dressy tops, such as button-up blouses
1 or 2 skirts that coordinate with dressy tops
one vest
6 pairs of pants (2 cotton or fleece, 2 jeans, 1 corduroy, 1 dressier)
plenty of socks/underwear
1 or 2 special occasion outfits
indoor runners
outdoor runners
dressy shoes

Plus outerwear, of course.

I find keeping a limit on the clothes in the house helps us all feel more organized, and there is just less room for clutter. Laundry must be done and clothes never take over the laundry room.


i also realized I didn't fully answer your question. I think we have more than the minimum. 3-4 pairs of pants would suffice. One special occasion outfit. 3-4 tops, especially for kindy and grade 1, would suffice. But, this also assumes that you make full loads of laundry in time to wash. It wouldn't be frugal to have very few pieces of clothing if you had to run the washer or dryer far too many times with less-than-full loads.

For winter gear, we buy snow boots, a full snowsuit each, two hats each, two pairs of mitts each (somethign is always wet or lost!), neckwarmers.

[nola79]

Thank goodness the schools all wear uniforms here. Also, our winter weather is very mild, so we only need a light to medium jacket and a pair of gloves and hat.
I just bought ds 4 pair of shorts, he has about 5 or 6 shirts, and 3 pair of pants. (He could get by on less, though)
1 sweatshirt usually gets him through most of the cool weather. He does have about 4 different hoodies to choose from, though. Only a few occasions he's had to wear the jacket/hat/gloves combo.
He only wears 1 pair of shoes at a time, I usually have to buy him a new pair about every 6 months.

[IngaAnne]

A lot would depend on how often you do laundry and how hard your kids are on their clothes. For me, a comfortable amount of clothing would be a full week's worth (5-8 outfits). That way you can get through the week without doing laundry or repeating an outfit (if your kids are sensitive about that type of thing). If your daughters are fairly neat or you don't mind laundry, you can probably get by with less pants (3-4 pair) by wearing something like basic jeans, khakis, or dark leggings twice in a week. I'd suggest a combination of basic solids and prints so they can mix and match items and not feel too limited despite the small amount of clothing. For shoes, you could get by with just one pair of shoes per child, if they are a style appropriate for running and playing. Personally, I prefer two pairs, one sporty pair and one slightly nicer pair. Practically speaking, having an extra pair of shoes is good just in case one pair gets wet and doesn't dry in time for school the next day, but it's not necessary, as long as, they have one good pair (and plenty of drying time).

If you get one thing as new, I'd suggest the shoes. They'll fit your child's foot better. I'm not sure about your area, but around here it's garage sale season, so the kid's clothes deals are everywhere.

[Smithie]

I grew up in Maine!

You daughters need full snowsuits, two washable pairs of mittens apiece, two washable hats apiece, and insulated boots. They should each have a pair of pull-on shoes that they can leave at school to wear inside the classroom. Teach them to zip/unzip their snowsuits so they can take off the top part of the massively overheated school bus.

As for what goes under the snowsuit - my mom favored plain pull-on crew neck shirts and pants with elastic waists. We were very poorly off when I was that age, and I would say that I rotated between 5 fall/winter school outfits, and then got taken out to buy another five outfits and two pairs of shoes in the spring. At home, I wore play clothes that she got as handmedowns or whatever - there was definitely a distinction between play and school wear.

[Alyantavid]

We have lots of jeans since my son seems to burn through them pretty fast. At least 5-6 shirts, several sweatshirts, a big coat, snow boots, gloves, snow pants, hats. Hats and gloves tend to get lost. He also sometimes wears Underarmour or long johns if it's really cold. We keep tons of socks and undies for both our kids too. If they'll be any kind of program, you'll need some dressy clothes as well.

We get most of our son's school clothes at TJMaxx. He likes the brands and they're cheap enough we get lots of things.

[sweetcheeks]

I like to have about 4-5 pairs of jeans (different washes for variety) each for my 2 school age kids (DS1 is starting Grade 2, DD - kindergarten). They are both very rough on their jeans so I like to have a lot of pairs so each one lasts longer. They each also have 1 pair of khakis and DD has a few pairs of various colored leggings (capri and full length) to wear under dresses.

DD has oodles of dresses but that's because my mom and I sew her dresses and we each go a little crazy each year making cute dresses. Each kid has at least 6 short sleeve shirts, 4 solid colored long sleeve tees or thermal shirts (great for layering under the SS ones), 2-3 sweatshirts and 3-4 sweaters.

As for winter wear, I buy my 2 school age kids separate parkas and snow pants. It often gets cold here before the snow starts to fly so they don't need the snow pants right away. I also don't have room in my front entry closet to have 2 full snowsuits for each of them plus a warm parka for when it's cold but there's no snow. They each have a pair of well-insulated boots (the kind with the pull out liners are fab, they dry faster), 2 pairs of washable, well-insulated mitts, 2 washable toques and a neckwarmer. They each have a pair of indoor runners they keep at school and a pair of outdoor ones for when there's no snow on the ground and a pair of rubber boots for spring thaw/rainy days.

I know you said you're on a tight budget... can you check out yard sales in your area? The other weekend, I found 3 pairs of jeans for DD from The Children's Place in like new condition for $1 each! I also found some new t-shirts for her for 25 cents each. Can you do a clothing swap with a friend? We're saving some money on winter gear this year by swapping with a friend. We both buy our children's winter gear from MEC and my DD will fit into her DD's outgrown winter gear and her DD will fit into my DS1's outgrown winter gear. We both buy the kids' gear in gender neutral red so it works great to swap for either gender.

[annethcz]

I know you didn't ask about this, but you may want to wait a little while before buying school clothes. My kids wear their summer clothes for all of September, and a good portion of October. And we live in MN, so it's probably a similar climate. On days when it's cooler, my kids sometimes bring a sweatshirt to wear in the morning, but by recess the sweatshirt is left inside.

My kids have waaayyy too many clothes (I LOVE hand-me-downs), but at the minimum I think I'd want 5 bottoms and 8 shirts (mix of short and long sleeve). Plus a light jacket, winter jacket, snow pants and boots. I'd also buy one pair of good quality sneakers and one pair of nicer shoes.

[zebra15]

Well this depends, is there a school dress code you need to account for?
If NOT, at minimum 7 bottoms and 7 tops plus something to layer over since you are in Maine and it gets COLD there. So either sweaters or fleece, probably 2 each. The lower grades tend to get messy with art projects and playing hard at school so I wouldnt plan on wearing anything twice. They will need underwear, socks, shoes, boots, snowsuits, coats, hat/mittens/scarf (x2)

So I guess 7 full outfits each plus a fleece and sweater
socks, underwear
shoes
plus full winter gear

I dont know if any of the kids have a b'day coming up but you could always ask for clothes as bday presents.

Stride rite outlet has great shoes, just like the mall for a fraction of the cost. Columbia outlet has great deals on clothes. I dont know if either of those are near you. Last year I got DS a Columbia fleece jacket (all we need in AZ) for under $15 at the outlet, they claimed retail was $45 for kids?
I found shoes super cheap too. Usually around labor day the outlet malls have super fall and winter sales.

[BennyPai]

Thanks for all the replies!!! This will help my DP and me to plan for school shopping...
I will have my sewing machine back soon, so I may find patterns for jumper-style dresses to add to the wardrobe...
Ann, it probably is a good idea to wait on some items, because my oldest dd had a growth spurt and none of her September clothes fit by her December birthday!