What you need first is three colors of hangers. Which is not hard I found mine at target. Originally I dreamed about cute green or blue hangers for my little boy, but then in desperation and in my frugalness (if that isn’t a word it should be) I bought the hangers at Target and they only had the three color packs. And this turned out to be a good thing.

I looked at my boxes of hand me downs (another sign of my frugalness) I had generously recieved for my first son. I started hanging all the cute little itty bitty newborn items on the nice pretty white hangers. I stared at the huge box of clothes with clothes from 3-6 months to 2T in there neat little piles.

Then it hit me. I could use each color of hangers to mark the change in sizes inside the closet. That way when Zane out grew the most recent size I could box them up for the next baby in our lives (ours or a friends). This was great when he was in between sizes, too. I could slowly integrate the next size up or if I was low on an item, like pants, I could snag one from the next size up. This also helped my husband grab the right size. And it helped me be able to see that I needed more shirts or pants for when he was going to fit into the 9-12M sizes, so if I saw something at Goodwill or on sale I could snag it (or mention it to some friends or family who liked to buy clothes).

Here is how it Works for Me. I use the white hangers for the most current clothes that fit. The white ones always stay in this spot mainly because I have more of them. I rotate the blue and red hangers as I change sizes. Anything bigger than what was hanging was placed in a bin at the bottom of the closet. I also kept a box at the bottom of the closet so that when one item in the group didn’t fit or was out of season I could pack it away. I would just spend a few minutes rotating clothes when he was finished with a size.

An example would be when Zane grew out of his newborn sizes. I packed away his newborn clothes. I pulled the 3-6M sized clothes off the blue hangers and placed them on white hangers. I then pushed the 6-9M sizes (on the red hangers) next to the 3-6M clothes and hung the 9-12M clothes on the empty blue hangers putting them at the end of the closet.

Another big tip is to hang clothes as outfits. Match up shirts and pants as you are hanging them up, put a sweatshirt or coat with it if it’s a cold season. My husband has trouble matching things and he really liked it when he could just grab an outfit preassembled. I liked this for when I was in a hurry. If it was a “nice outfit” or one I didn’t want to get dirty at daycare I hung it backwards so it was hard to unhook. Now that we wear PJs I fold/roll up the pants and shirt together, so I don’t have to find a match and it is easy to grab.

I am going to be holding a contest this week for a free layout created by me. You can see my work at Uniquehorn Designs. Please come back for more info. And if you are really interested make a comment to this post and I will let you know when the details are up.