I can’t believe my daughter is turning one tomorrow and I will have two toddlers. Plus, it officially feels like winter in Los Angeles so I’ve spent the past few weeks working on her winter toddler capsule wardrobe, documenting the process and now I’m ready to share it! Why Curate a Toddler Capsule Wardrobe?I’ve personally been wearing a capsule wardrobe of about 30-40 pieces for five years and can sing its praises high and low--less stress getting dressed, less laundry to do and put away, better for the environment. So when I had children, I applied the capsule wardrobe approach to my kids; I’ve done an infant capsule wardrobe for my son and daughter and a toddler capsule wardrobe for my son and now my daughter.
What do I mean by "a realistic toddler capsule wardrobe"? Too many capsule wardrobe guides for toddlers include about 15-18 pieces total (one I found had 18 pieces total, four of which were shoes and one of which were sunglasses). Other than that, they include only 3-4 shirts, 3-4 pants and 3 pajamas and assume that parents will do laundry every day. That is so not me or any other working mom or dad I know. I am able to do laundry on one day a week, two if I’m lucky, and my kids’ clothes need to last until laundry day. On top of that, toddlers are messy humans. They get food everywhere, they find and play with water any chance they get, they pee or poop through their clothes. In our house, my younger toddler goes through about 3 outfits a day plus pajamas. My older toddler is good with one outfit a day, sometimes two if we go on adventure to the dog park or beach, and a pair of pajamas. We are potty training our son and he’s been doing amazing but we’ve still allotted him two pants per day just in case. Let’s do the math for my one year old’s capsule wardrobe: 3 outfits per day x 7 days + 1 outfit so she has something to wear on laundry day = 22 outfits (this can be any combination of tops, pants, rompers, etc.) and 7 pajamas. You can even do fewer pajamas if some of your every day clothes are comfortable enough for sleep. For fall and winter capsule wardrobes, we also need to think about outerwear. I usually include three sweaters, one raincoat, and one warm jacket. Keep reading to learn about the process of curating a toddler capsule wardrobe.
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It's been about two years that I've committed to curating a completely slow fashion wardrobe and I'm really proud of the progress I've made. This year alone, I only bought three new clothing items, two of them being non-maternity underwear from Kohl's and the other being pajamas for Griffin from Target because we took him there to pick out pajamas and new sheets to help with the transition into our new house.
Other than that, almost everything we've bought has been secondhand. From books and toys to furniture and clothes, these are the best websites I've found for secondhand shopping. *that have nothing to do with saving money.Growing up, there was a huge stigma in my family and culture about shopping at the thrift store and buying anything secondhand. If you didn't buy something new, it was because you couldn't afford it and people from my culture (and I'm sure others, as well) take great pride in demonstrating their financial prosperity.
When I went away to college in Santa Cruz, I was introduced to the "hippie" lifestyle and had a plethora of secondhand and vintage stores to choose from. At the time, I was not yet educated about the harms of the fashion industry to the environment and human lives--shopping at the thrift stores was just the cool thing to do and helped me fit in with my classmates. Over the last decade, the detrimental impact of the fashion industry has become clearer, especially with documentaries like The True Cost and the rise of the slow fashion movement. As Maya Angelou said, "When you know better, you do better." There really is no excuse nowadays to continue feeding the fast fashion machine and causing irrevocable damage to the earth and our fellow human beings. Here are the 7 reasons why I shop secondhand that have nothing to do with saving money. |