How much clothing is needed for an active 2.5-year-old?

[crunchymama514]

In the past I have been one of those mamas who overbought on clothing for the kids, especially for DD . I am cleaning up/simplifying our lives and all excess has to go. I am planning to sell/donate what she does not need. She stopped BFing a couple of months ago, and she is currently PTing but still in CDs most of the time. How many articles of clothing do you think she really needs??

[JudiAU]

How often do you do laundry? We do it once a week and I find that we require about 10 dresses/tops and about 12 pairs of leggings, which she usually wears under her shirt or dress. The kids don't wear anything that isn't elastic-waisted or cotton/soft knit until potty learned. So no jeans, etc.

She is potty learning and is transitioning to cloth trainers with a liner but an accident will take out a leggings.

If you do it less often than you'll need less.

[chel]

I never buy ahead of time. I get hand me downs and the supplement as needed. I would start with 5-10 outfits and go from there

[Chloe'sMama]

I would say my minimum would be:

4-6 pants

4-6 shorts

2 dress outfits

6-8 tshirts

2-3 sweaters

10 undies

10 socks

4 sets pj

i have so much more than this, but i am thinking of going this way....

[crunchy_mommy]

I would say 1-2 outfits a day multiplied by however many days you go between laundry loads, plus a few sweatshirts/sweaters/cross-seasonal items. We pretty much just get by with hand-me-downs and the occasional gift, but if I had to calculate an optimal amount, I'd say:

10 seasonally-appropriate shirts
6 pants/shorts (maybe double that if you're potty training...)
10 pairs socks
~3 pairs shoes (sneakers, sandals, dress shoes, boots, depends on your climate)
3 sweaters/sweatshirts
1 or 2 jackets (raincoat etc.)
1 or 2 hats
1 or 2 dressy outfits (if you attend church or weddings or whatever frequently)
3 sets of pj's

I guess it also depends if you're the type to change her clothes whenever they're dirty/sweaty/etc. or just keep her in the same outfit all day (or naked most of the day).

I really don't mind having a little extra clothing though... If you have the space, it doesn't hurt to keep a few extra outfits (especially if she likes to play in water!) and a change of clothes in the car can be really useful too. But now that I think of it, I see a lot of kids in a different outfit every day so maybe the 'excess' you're talking about is more extreme than I'm imagining!