What to wash...

I have been going through all the clothes that I have been getting. I know that the boys will go through lots of clothes during the day. I know that I need to be prepared by having prewashed some clothes in advance before they arrive.

Here is the question:
How much do I prewash? I mean the boys will out grow the preme/newborn stuff fast, what can I keep the tags on and how much should I wash?

I know that I can get more for my money when the tags are left on when I turn them into cash at the second hand store.

What did you do?

Thanks,
Jenn

 

Jenn, I'm one that washed everything because I needed everything ready just in case. I guess alot depends on how much you have. Worst case if you need more clothes, you can wash them at the time. :good:

 

QUOTE(TwinLove @ Mar 4 2009, 05:25 PM) [snapback]1214811[/snapback]
Jenn, I'm one that washed everything because I needed everything ready just in case. I guess alot depends on how much you have. Worst case if you need more clothes, you can wash them at the time. :good:


Me too! I wished I wouldn't have washed EVERYTHING before they came, I def. would have taken some stuff back. I had about 14 of those PJ things w/ the elastic at the bottom & they didn't wear ANY of them!!
Mine lived in the snap or zipper footed PJ's and onesies for the first few months :good:

 

I had planned to wash everything....but my DH kept at me that I don't need to wash every single thing....especially the premiee/newborn stuff.....so I washed all of the clothes that other mom's gave me and I washed about 1/4 of the clothes that we purchased. I figure if I need anything else I will wash them when the time comes....if not I can take them to consignment. Good luck!!!

 

Personally, unless you really think you'll be selling stuff and not using it, I'd wash it. Stuff shrinks and there's nothing more annoying to me than waiting until I think something should fit, then washing it and having it actually be too small to use or use more than just a handful of times before they've outgrown it. With newborn stuff, you might wait until your babies are born and then wash as much as you need. But even then I've had some newborn stuff that really only worked for the first week or so, and some that was more a 0-3 size that lasted for a couple months or more.

 

Before the babies were born, I just washed the newborn sizes. When they were close to going into 0-3 month size, I washed them. They are now in sizes 0-3 months and I'm getting the 3-6 month clothes ready. I left tags on until I wash them. That way I can take something back if I don't like it on them or if it just doesn't fit right.

 

It does depend on how much you have. I had SO much clothing, I washed enough for say 2-3 outfits a day, for several days. You can always do a quick load of laundry if you need more.
Also, the first month or so, you put them in comfortable clothes, cause its so hard to get them dressed and undressed. My singleton was in zip up footed pjs for AWHILE! Also, the zip up ones are amazing. At 1am, trying to snap those leg snaps correctly, forget about it.
So put aside the cute going out outfits, to wash if you actually plan to go out with them and use them. They grow out of the newborn stuff pretty quickly. Those are always easy to exchange or sell later.

 

I planned to wash everything as well!

 

QUOTE(TwinLove @ Mar 4 2009, 05:25 PM) [snapback]1214811[/snapback]
Jenn, I'm one that washed everything because I needed everything ready just in case. I guess alot depends on how much you have. Worst case if you need more clothes, you can wash them at the time. :good:

This was me as well!! A lot of the outfits I had from preemie-6 months were only worn once. Thankfully once their growing slowed down a bit, we were able to get more use out of their outfits.

 

Ours also lived in the zip or snap PJs, and still do most of the time unless we're going out, I washed everything but probably didn't need to- we used some premie stuff for a few weeks, then were in 0-3 until they were about 4 mos old. BTW, Gerber runs smaller than Carters, so use those first! GL!

 

Here is a secret- to this day, I still leave tags on DD's clothing until I put it on her for the first time! Most of our stuff comes from Gymboree or Carter's, and they both have liberal return policies. I also belong to a Gymboree message board, and there is a selling forum. I have better luck selling new stuff than used stuff.

I will wash the stuff that I got from the resale shop, and I will rewash the hand-me-downs from DD, but I will be keeping the tags on the new stuff until we use it.

 

I think you need to consider what time of year you will deliver as well. I will deliver in April/May so I''m thinking some PJ's and lots of onsies. Then take it from there...

 

I couldn't figure it out either so we just washed everything THe only things that went unused were some of the more cutesy newborn outfits. They were born in December and wore sleepers pretty much all the time unless we left the house - then it was onesies and pants if I felt like messing with it.

 

I only washed a couple of weeks' worth of stuff. I also only washed things like sleepers & onesies that I knew for sure we would use. Some people gave us frilly little dresses or other cute outfits that we just never got around to using. They wore sleepers practically round the clock for the first 2 months. I returned a whole bunch of stuff to Baby Gap (with tags still on) for $80 when they were 6m old!

 

I've only washed the resell stuff I bought plus one pack of onesies, their coming home outfit and the receiving blankets. I'm waiting to see what size they are before I do anything else. I left the tags on everything else.

 

I figured it was gifts so I washed everything in size newborn and below. It seemed to me that I should at least make an effort for the babies to wear everything at least once since it had been picked out for them. My girls fit in the preemie stuff until 1.5 months old, then newborn for 1.5 months, and then tended to wear the size that was equivalent with their age. My boys were large at birth but still fit in newborn items for at least 1.5 months. Like the others, I used mostly onesies, socks, and pajamas during the first few months. It was too much of a pain to bother with actual outfits unless we had to.

BTW, I also washed the sheets, carseat cover, burp cloths (we went through tons of these with the 1st three kids), bibs, and blankets before the babies came.

 

I'm not a prewasher of new clothes. Never hurt any of my kids or myself.
I do wash preworn clothes.

 

The first month, ours mostly just wore the gowns with elasticized bottoms and the zippered sleepers. We barely used onesies or socks at all so I wish I hadn't washed all of those; could have exchanged them for a larger size! (We're using onesies now more that it's getting warmer.)