This is probably my only area that I have trouble downsizing. My boys have a ton of really nice clothes. So many in fact that they each have there own full size dresser plus they have a small closet with hang up clothes. Everything is kept neat and tidy so it isn't a clutter problem but I do want them to move into a room together soon so I am hoping that they can share a dresser.

I buy most of their clothes at upscale garage sales and I make a bunch as well. The only things I buy new are jeans, undies, socks, and shoes (or I ask for them for gifts). With the way I acquire or buy there clothes I only spend about $50-75 a year to cloth each of them and people are always saying how great they look and are flabergasted when I tell them how I got ahold of the item and for what price.

Anyway, how many items of clothing do you think is reasonable for a child to have? My kids are going to be 2 and 4 in the next couple of months. We are at home most of the time but do go to church and run errands a couple of times a week. I think my biggest problem is that I am afraid to not have enough clothes just in case they stain something and I need to toss it. We also live in the country so sometimes we go through a couple outfits a day because they get filthy while playing.

I'll be watching this thread with interest. I, too, often wonder "how much is enough". I often swing from one extreme to the other. Either they have to much or not enough of the right kinds of clothes.

Did you look in the tightwad gazette? I just pulled out my copy the other day. Maybe I'll look up what she has to say regarding the "right" amt of clothes for kids.

Bobbi Jo,

I have been thinking about your thread all morning. I scoured the TG and was unable to find anything as to how many clothes a child should have.

But I was thinking this would have to be an individual matter. For example: We don't live in a climate where it snows, therefore, we don't *need* snow clothes. We don't live on a farm where my children get constantly dirty (though I wish we did so they could), so my children don't need lots of extra changes of clothes.

So these examples make me think that this area of frugality/culling would definately depends on the unique needs of that particular family/child.

In the TG, there was an awesome section on logging what your child has and noting what clothes your child needs. This aids in thrift shopping/garage saleing. This might help in avoiding purchasing something that isn't needed or avoiding duplicates.

This really helped me. I am going to get a little spiral note book (from the dollar store or thrift store) to keep in my purse with the boys' sizes, what they have and to project what they will need. I would like for their next year in school for them to have all second hand clothes (cept undies, shoes and socks) and not *look* like it. My children go to a private, Christian school and many of the families are quite wealthy. For my older son, who is in 3rd grade, I am feeling the pressure to start having him dress in a more *trendy* fashion to avoid being an outcast. (We all can remember just how mean children can be). So I feel like I have to walk a real fine line between overspending for his clothes and being true to my values. I think the notebook on what clothes they have/need will help in the area.

I plan on going to that system and want to have an idea of what I need so I can make my notebook while sorting through the clothes I have in the basement.

Thanks mama!

I actually wrote down this past summer everything I thought we needed from kitchen stuff to clothes. When I get home I'll have to pull out my notebook to double check exactly what I had written for clothes. I based my figures on doing laundry twice a week. It seems like I had figured that for Maddy and Donny, they should each have 5 casual shirts (short sleeves in summer/long sleeves in winter) and 5 casual bottoms (pants for winter/shorts for summer), two dressy outfits, a pair of dressy shoes, a pair of sneakers, ten pairs of underwear and ten pairs of socks. Now, I've never actually gotten their clothes pared down to this because of all the new clothes we seem to receive constantly from relatives. But I thought this amount of clothing was enough to get us comfortably from one wash day to the next. I also thought that the relatively small number of clothes would also be motivation for me to stick with my wash days. However, I am really laid back about stains and the kids wearing dirty clothes. If the kids go out and play in the dirt, they usually just stay in those clothes unless we are going somewhere (or if they are really excessively dirty such as when they occassionally put dirt in their pockets which is destined to fall out onto the furniture or they get wet or muddy).

here's my thinking...
I imagine myself packing a suitcase for a week - say you were having a worker come to your house and had to pack up clothes for a week. No access to closet or dresser.

What would you put in it?

Obviously there are items you might not pack but want to have (i.e. my BIL got married last summer and dd was in the wedding and needed a fancy dress).

My starting place is:
I would think 1.5 or less outfits per day. We do mostly solid colors or stripes around here so things are interchangeable.

We also change PJs every day as she eats bfast in her pjs. (mom is too sleepy to get her dressed and then feed her. I need that coffee time while we are eating bfast :)
Socks, several pair of shoes (well we do slippers + 1 pr of nice shoes + next year we'll do sandals in summer).
Also a warm indoor thing (ls shirt in summer and sweater in winter) for about every other day.
And a warm outdoor thing.
swim suit or whatever for getting wet
Enough underwear or diapers to last as long as laundry


If it helps any...I do laundry 2 times a week.

Oh man... I am not tackling this area yet. At least with my dd... my son is 7 1/2... and yes, the average little boy needs twice as many clothes than the average little girl in my experience. Alex can easily go through his entire closet (espically pants) in a week... where Cyan has things from last summer that she never wore... and most of them were from relitives. I am starting to make them "trendy" clothes... well at least trendy for our area... like patchy pants and hoodies etc. And that is helping with the whole issue of him not fitting in. But the issue still remains, I think it is easier to find girls clothes than boys at places like thrift shops etc, and also I think that it is easier to have your boys need more clothes, and therefor harder to not spend more money on them because of the whole thrift shop girls clothes conspiricy. (I always buy socks and undies new too... (My dd has SO many cool socks!! my weakness) but have only bought one pair of shoes new for my kids in 3 years.)

Love Val

As boys get older they are rougher on their clothes and it is very hard to find decent items at thrift stores or yard sales for them :( Gabe is going into a 4T and I have already noticed a big decline in the quality of used clothes I can get.

I am hoping though that since my boys will be homeschooled that I can get away with a few good outfits. My boys love and would live in the lounge pants that I make them so I will probably use them as the basis of their wardrobes (it is nice too because they double as pj pants) and then add church clothes and nicer casual clothes around them.

I went through all 11 tubs of the boys clothes last night (this is from newborn to size 6-8) and pared it down by two extra large garbage bags. I kept track of everything they have and plan on making a re-usable list today of the items. I will post a blank list on here so that anyone can use it.

Yep, and have you ever noticed that it is pants??? I can find about 500 good shirts for Alex, but only about 4 pairs of pants a YEAR... lol.

I have started buying up hemp fabric... it just lasts SO much longer!! Right now I have a bunch that I am cutting into patchy pants for my kids. Cyan will get one hip pair of flare bottom patchy pants and Alex will get two pairs of wide legged patchy pants out of the $14 that I bought the hemp for and scrap corderoy from the bags that I made earlier this year. That feels good. :)

Oh and I wanted to mention that if you get shoes at Goodwill, always go and get your kids some insoles. They are cheap and you can cut to fit, and then the shoe molds to their foot. That is how I have been able to buy my kids thrift store shoes. And they have some GREAT ones. Cyan has about 10 pair... no joke... including Doc Martin sandles I found for $2.85, and a little pair of Nike's that I got new for $5 with the tags still on. Alex has Doc boots, a pair of grey VANS and a pair of Nike airs... all nearly brand new, all under $6. I may just have luck, or no one else is willing to get shoes used and so I find all the good ones. lol! I have most likely spent about what I would have on one or two pairs of "new/good" shoes for them, but they have many more pairs... not frugal, but thrifty. Shoes and socks are my weakness... if they start to grow out of shoes and socks I end up getting them like 5 pairs of shoes second hand, and 12 pairs of socks. I can't go shoe and sock shopping and still keep my head. How silly I am... lol.

Love Val

I think when I figured for the boys, I figured about 10 outfits per season. We go to a casual church so they can actually wear the same clothes they wear during the week to church.

For winter their wardrobe consists of jeans/khakis/sweats and long sleeve t shirts/sweatshirts or rugby shirts. In summer it is shorts and polos or s/s t shirts.

I also have at least 2 pairs of swim trunks for the boys as we swim alot in the summer.

Winter they have one pair of shoes that are brown slip ons that can be dressy with khakis or casual like tennis shoes. In the summer they have tennis shoes and sandals.

I think 10 pairs of underware and socks are great for us also.

My problem is that I have all the clothes from one boy to pass on to the next. With Eli he is a stain monster and I don't really like to dress the boys in anything with noticable stains on it. So I need more clothes for Eli so that I can toss or recycle what he stains.

I think for the older boys that 5 pairs of pjs are enough for us. For the baby I have about 7 sleepers for him (in his current size).

For winter coats they each have a lightweight jacket and then a heavier coat.

Wow Robin! You have it down to a science! lol... I know that we would need more shoes for both the kids all year round. I live in WA and the rumors about the consistant rain are very true. lol... we need rain boots, at least two pairs of sneakers and a pair of snow boots (at least this winter... last year rain boots worked fine for the weather). That is the bare min to keep Alex's feet dry. I am glad that one pair of good shoes works for you so well. What a money saver!!

Thanks for listing that out... it sounds like a good plan!

Love Val

Well with our move to Missouri I may have to get the boys snow boots but we haven't yet. I think shoes is the one thing I am pretty good about with them. They have way too many clothes and it is a constant process to keep only 10 outfits (someone is always buying or giving us clothes or I can't resist a super sale). So I really try to keep the shoes down plus it makes it easier for me when we are going somewhere. They don't have to dig through styles to find their shoes. I will say that I buy high quality shoes and will try to buy a brand/style that is water repellent for winter and this helps us not have to have a pair of rain boots (so far at least).

Okay, this is the info. I was looking for when I asked Bobbi Jo on the other thread.

Thanks so much for your input here. This is great.

Kristin :)

I started this system a few years ago and it has worked great for us.

I have 7 children, w/ #8 on the way. I do laundry for each child one day a week, but am doing laundry everyday. Does this make sense? lol

Anyway, each potty trained child has 7 everyday outfits and 4 town/church outfits. They have 3 prs. PJ's, 7 prs. underwear and 3-4 prs. socks. My kids hate socks. lol
I keep 1 swimming suits/trunks each. For shoes, they have rubber birki clogs for play, 1 pr. church shoes and 1 pair seasonal (snow boots or sandals). The birkis are washable and waterproof, so the cover a lot of ground.

We live on a farm, but this amount still works fine for us. We keep 1 lightweight jacket and 1 heavyweight coat, 1 pr. gloves/mittens and 1 hat.

That pretty well covers it. If something comes up, I can always throw something inot that days wash if necessary, but I usually don't have too.

I forgot to say that for infants, I usually keep 12 outfits, but then most of their can double for church too. Everything else is pretty much the same, along w/ about 18 diapers in each size and 7 covers, 2 dozen wipes. lol I don't put shoes on them untill they are walking and then usually only have 2 pairs untill they are 3-4 years old.

Aileen,

How do you manage laundry? I would love to do that with our laurndry since I think sorting it and putting it away would be much easier (my big problem). Also do you children wear pjs more than one day? My boys eat breakfast in their pjs so we need more of them.

Thanks

Robin

I decided to schedule laundry for exactly those reasons. It is so much easier when nearly everything belong to one person. My 11 yr. old son folds laundry and puts things away. He has a hard time figuring out what goes to whom and so this really helped, but it is more efficient, even for me.
Here's what I do:

Mon- 13 yr. dd
Tues- 11 yr. ds
Wed- 9 yr. ds
Thurs- 5 & 7 yr. dd's who share a room
Fri- Mine/dh and our 2 little boys who share my room

I do diapers usually on friday and one other day, just depends on how bad they are. lol

My kids used to eat in their PJ's too, but it really added to the laundry and # of PJ's we needed, so I have them get dressed first now. I also have 4 bibs that I use for the 2 little guys.

I do kitchen towels/rags one X pr week or so, depending on how many messes we have and throw them in with those. The bibs are made from terry fabric too.

The kids have their own towels and hook in the bathroom and it gets washed on their day. We hang it to dry and re-use in between unless it really needs washing sooner.

Hope you get an idea or 2 from this. lol

With this many kids, I find that organization helps keep me sane, lol and makes things run so much more smoothly.

when their little laundry baskets are full. My oldest are 4, 6, and 7 so they can operate the washer and dryer. When the clothes are dry they put it all in a big basket and sort them on the living room floor and then they put them up (everything is hung up except pjs, undies, and socks) (their closet has roads that are at a child's level).

I wash DH's and my clothes separate from the kids. (I also have a load of cloth diapers 2-3x a week for our 7mo ds.)

I like to have 7 pairs of pants for each child, at least 2 pair of dress pants, 7 shirts, 2 dress shirts, 7 undershirts (they are worn every day), at least 14 pair underwear (we change after a night's sleep as well as every evening), and I don't have a set number of socks. I'd like the boys to have 4 pair of pajamas (but, as usual, my oldest ds is lacking). I have been doing laundry only once a week, but lately (since the pinworm incident) twice a week.
The boys each have 1 pair of play shoes and 1 pair of dress shoes - as well as one pair of winter boots. Every one has a winter coat and a light weight jacket.

This is what I think would be necessary as the minimum for a week. My ds's #2 and3 have a lot more than that as we have been given handmedowns from others. My oldest ds does not have enough to even make it through the week.

We pared down the kids clothes to 2 clothes rods in the laundry room. :-) All 4 of hte kids clothes fit there,

For the boys - 10 shirts for everyday, this includes long and short sleeved. We kept 2 additional 'church' shirts. They have one pair of 'church' pants. We kept - 5 pairs of pants (jeans, casual, sweats). One pair of sneakers, a pair of 'church' shoes.

Lauren was tougher because of dresses and jumpers. I tossed most of the jumpers unless they were a jumper set with a coordinating shirt), only kept the dresses that I liked on her. She has 3 pairs of jeans and about 8 tops to go with them. But... she does have about 8 dresses, too. ;-) She has 6 pair of socks and too many tights (but she does use them all). She has a few pairs of shoes.... gifrls just need different shoes for different outfits! lol

Now... with the underwear/socks.... My boys all wear the same socks. I bought 3 pkgs of 12 pair of the same kind of socks in the same size. They each have one pair of 'church' socks, too. With underwear, each of the boys has 12 pair (too many for Austin and Nate - I am thinking 8 pair woudl be fine). Lauren has 15 pairs of undies... but she's potty training. :-)

I have their clothes hanging on colored hangers (each child has his own color hanger) on a rod/shelf thing in the laundry room. On the shelf above their hangers they each have a white plastic basket that holds their undies, socks, undershirts (for tae kwon do), and wallet/watches/etc.

We need to pare down again... but that is my basic guideline for clothing.

Now... I need a guideline for me. All of my clothes fit on 4 hangers and one drawer. :-/

Before I started back to work and put my girls in school, they barely needed anything. Her is about what they wore each week. They were 2 and 6, both girls.

lots of undies (always getting wet or muddy, etc.)
couple of pairs of shorts
few t-shirts (usually worn without shorts, thus extra undies)
one or two outfits to wear to "town" (we live in the "stix")
couple of Sunday outfits

in the winter:
4 or five pairs of pants, at least
lots of socks
shoes (generally ones that tolerated mud and rain well)
good sturdy jacket
couple of turtle necks
more undies

My girls stayed in their undies on indoor days and summer days. On cold days pants would be tolerated ;)

That said, we have two dressers full and one closet full of clothes, I mean stuffed. My aunt never had children and can bargain shop better than anyone I know. She is constantly bringing them Oshkosh shirts for $.75, jeans for $1, BRAND new with tags. I can't spend that much time in the mall to catch those sales.

But, this is what my girls "needed" and wore regularly. Now, it is a different story. My oldest is in uniforms. That seems easy until school is out like at Xmas. Then you need a whole nother wardrobe.

bumping

Not sure if this is correct, but here I what I do for my boys ...

First of all, I wash once a week ...

my 6 yr old

6 uniforms for school
about 4 sets of non-school clothes
school sweater

my 5 yr old

about 10 outfits total (interchangeable school/weekend)


both boys

10 prs of underwear each
10 prs of socks each
10 undershirts each
5 sets of jammies each
school shoes
play shoes
1 heavy coat each
1 light jacket each
snow boats
waterproof gloves
2 winter hats each

Originally posted by Sunbeam
For my older son, who is in 3rd grade, I am feeling the pressure to start having him dress in a more *trendy* fashion to avoid being an outcast. (We all can remember just how mean children can be). So I feel like I have to walk a real fine line between overspending for his clothes and being true to my values. I think the notebook on what clothes they have/need will help in the area.

I also live in a really pretentious area with lots of wealthy people, and Alex goes to the neighborhood school. We have the same trouble. One of the things that I have found is that if his backpack and his coats are new each year, and his shoes are "the good brands" he has a fine time. No one really cares about the clothes... they care about the accessories. So I still get his clothes at Goodwill and garage sales, (although for a 8 yr old it is getting harder and harder because most of those boys distroy their clothes.) and no one even notices. His coat was from Value Village but it was a brand new Old Navy coat (bright yellow) and it passed with out fail. His back pack this year has been an issue. So next year I will get him a new one. This year he has my old one with patches on it. Doesn't fly. And your right, kids are mean.

Love Val

that if you will consider not tossing stained clothes but having certain clothes (which may have some stains) to be the grundge/play clothes you wouldn't need to have so many items.

My kids have their nice, stylish, nonstained clothes for visiting and school, etc. A nice outfit for more dressy places and several old comfy, (yes stained) play clothes for exploring the outdoors.

Their jammies are saved from stains by them tucking a cloth napkin in their neckline.

Socks are our big issue here. We can't seem to keep enough around and they often are misplaced!

I too read the TG and loved an idea that she had... I too go through the same thing with my 3yr old. I have mostly shopped at second hand stores or garage sales ( minus the obvious that should always be purchased new). My problem was I would buy things several sizes in advance as well, especially when wal-mart has real nice shirts on clearance for 1-2 dollars. I would throw everything in a large tote and go through it every 6 months or so.
This last time around I noticed clothes I overlooked that were never worn and now too small.
The suggestion was to get several xerox ( or rubbermaid) boxes and label them to your needs(i.e. 2TB= 2t boys). when you purchase clothes ahead or your child outgrows them amd you want to save them for the next sibling that way you don't have to dig through a box of many sizes ( which can be frustrating) to find what you need. Now that I am expecting again all the outgrown clothes go into 1 tote until I know what I am having. If it's a boy I will seperate and box..If it's a girl....Shopping here I come.
I know space is often the issue I just stack the totes in my son's closet for now and if his pants don't fit ..i just open the box and (hopefully) I will have a pair that does. This has saved us financially several times when I thought I would have to go buy new pants for Kodi. A new wardrobe for $5(and storage). Hope this helps.
Jodi

Hey Bobbi Jo,

Our kids are about the same age and it sounds like we live in a similar area with very active outdoor kids.

My kids each have about 10 outfits. Because I do laundry frequently enough I don't think they need anymore than that. About 3 out of the 10 outfits are totally junk outfits especially for playing in the mud, puddles, dirt, etc.-including the socks. The rest are clean and passable. They also each have one dressy outfit. This number really works for us and they both share one dresser, and it is a small dresser!

As for shoes -they each have a pair of rainboots and a pair of junky thrift store tennies for outdoors. Then they have one nicer pair of tennies or sandals depending on the season, and a pair of dress shoes.

They each have one box of "future clothes" in the basement for each of them. I keep a list on the top so I have a running tally of what I have in what size. That way I never go overboard when buying ahead and I know what they need with just a quick check. It works!

I was just thinking about this because we had to attend a funeral last week (my grandfather passed away unexpectedly), and we had to go buy DS #1 new dress clothes. I usually buy everything at garage sales or heavy clearance, but sizes seem to be a little weird at the moment. I thought everything went from 6 to 8, but, apparently, DS is going to need 7's???? Are there 7's out there? We have a couple, but I hadn't seen many.

So, DS is totally in 6's, and if he grows anymore, he will be out, lengthwise. The waists on all of the 8's seem huge, though. Maybe by fall, he'll actually be that big? Or, I am in trouble and have to find a whole wardrobe of 7's by fall?

If I had my way, we would have bought size 7 dress pants, but we bought 6's because DH insisted that they should fit perfectly. ;)

Anyway, my thought was that for us, I think we need to have two dressy outfits in the event of a funeral for the wake and the funeral.

After reading the posts, I am wondering about play clothes. Here's the thing--DS is really getting to be hard on his clothes at recess. I have a couple of neighbors who say all their kids' clothes are playclothes, and I am kind of feeling like that needs to be the case, possibly keeping a pair or two of nice jeans for visits to grandparents, etc. Kind of gets in the way of keeping things to a minimum, eh?

Also, at our school, the kids go out unless it is something like below 15 degrees outside or raining. As such, we must have snowpants, heavy coats, boots, mittens, hats. DS has worn holes in the knees of his snowpants this year, so I am going to either have to find another pair for DS #2 or figure out a way to patch them. I am hoping I can do that easily.

We also require a second set of tennis shoes for the gym and he wears those at school in winter when he wears his boots to school.

I am a bit frustrated because the kids eat lunch in their coats (no one to stay and help kids get ready to go outside after they eat their lunch, and they can go out as soon as they finish their lunches), so DS's coat has stains all over the front. I washed it once, and nothing came out, so I am going to have to try again. I just don't know how easily grease is going to come out of nylon....

I'm starting to wonder how much I can plan on being passed on to DS#2 from here on out...

Sorry to go on.

Well with our move to Missouri I may have to get the boys snow boots but we haven't yet.

I've lived in Missouri all my life and have never had a pair of snowboots. I was just thinking how lucky we were not to need a bunch of shoes - lol.
Neither of my boys has ever had a snowsuit or snow shoes - and we've done just fine so, no worries there. :)

I just wanted to share in the gripe that boys are harder to find clothes second hand for than girls. As Devin's getting older it's actually getting easier to find clothes - apparently a lot of preteens get to be clothes horses and it seems I'm finding more clothes for him, but am unable to find clothes for Logan now. Thankfully I have some handmedowns from Devin, but lately I've been having to buy Logan new clothes - but part of that is just his stocky build - he's got a size 5-6 top and size 3T legs - lol.

I don't have any idea how many clothes are necessary. Devin has WAY to many clothes, and Logan never has quite enough.

just a note on getting food stains out of coats -- dab some dish detergent (the hand washing kind) on it and scrub the area by hand, then throw into the laundry as usual. I have gotten rid of some stains that have gone through the drier several times like that (stain remover didnīt work). Logically thinking, dish detergent is made for grease so it comes clean pretty nicely :)

--anu

When the girls were here i was trying to go through their closets because they had to many clothes.

First thing go through and anything they dont want put it in a pile to go through later to decide weither to take it to a good will or a consignment shop. ( i try to take any clothes with no stains and no raggid edges and no fading to consignment, that helps pay for the kids next round of clothes.) If they did want the clothes then they had to try them on, if they fit then they could keep them if not then they went in the "pile". We had a problem with the youngest(9) wanting to keep all her clothes *rme* even the shorts and top set that looked like a bathing suit it was so tight and showed her midriff *lol* i had her put them on and look in the mirror and she was like okay now i get it put it in the "pile".

We cut it down quite a bit. They had a set of clothes to play in the mud( including underware and socks) ... i kid you not they would go play in the mud mud .. and come home looking like Swamp thing.. the clothes were stained orange from the clay in the mud, which was fine. When they got tight they got thrown out and they would wear another pair of clothes that were getting dirty or that they didn't like.

They each had a bathing suit to play in a kiddy pool or their slip and slide with or go to a pool party or what ever.

They had "play" clothes one or 2 pair of jeans and shorts and several shirts that were already getting ripped or faded, where they could go out in the woods and work on their "house" or go to the pond or what ever and if they ripped more holes in them or got them dirtier then sin it was okay. But they looked good enough to go over to the neighbors house to play KWIM.. i couldn't send them over in their mud clothes.

Then they had school clothes which were nice without stains.. they had about 7 pair of pants and 7 shorts .. and several long and short sleeved shirts more like 20 or so just so they wouldn't look like they were wearing the same thing everyday. Then they have a small drawer for socks and undies .. the youngest allways got tons of socks because the older 2 always stole hers and she never had any.The oldeest had about 3 bras she liked and the middle girl had 5 bras because her older sis gave her the ones she could no longer wear as she developed.

We get them a pair of slippers for around the house once a year. A pair of tennis shoes and a pair of nicer shoes that they wear til they are either worn out of to small .. usually every 3-6 months. Then a pair of sandels for i the summer.

Then there are church/party clothes.. their grandparents usually buy them these .. the frilly dresses and stuff they hate to be seen in *lol* ..as well as the shoes .. so we dont worry about that .. although grammie has got a closet FULL of frilly girly dresses at her house *rme* We only had a nice black skirt and white blouse for each of the older 2 for band and a nice conservative pair of black dress shoes and a pair of tan hose. We also had a nice dress for each of them that they liked, which were not frilly, which they either wore black dress shoes with or white dress shoes.

Forthe stains try this homemade remedy that blew me away ( from MIL)
Equal amounts of:
water
amonia
dish soap ( I prefer Dawn)
About cup of each use from a spray bottle, apply this to the area and if tough let sit a few. wash as normal. The Dawn helps with grease the amonia works wonders and the water thins the mixture out to spray it.
This has amazed me any times, you can use it on anything (i.e. coats) after you wash the item check it, if the stain is still there do it one more time
Good Luck
Jodi

:jump:

bumping this up because I really need to clean out the kids' clothes, and where we're in the transitional phase between winter clothes and spring (though more like summer these days lol) clothes, that I'd do it now.

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to thank eveyone for posting their suggestions. I've started trying to cut the clutter and having three girls between hand me downs and new clothes I was so overwhelmed. I think I can cut out some stuff now without feeling cruel.

Maybe we should sticky this? This is such a great thread. Thanks for bumping it.