How to Extend the Life of Your Children's Clothing

Children by nature love to fully explore their surroundings. In reality, our lovely children are hard to keep up with since their energy at times seems endless. This bound-up energy is usually expressed by jumping, sliding, and playing hard.

All of this activity is extremely hard on their clothing. Clothing can be expensive and must be durable to be a practical purchase. It always better to have a few quality pieces, than numerous pieces of lower quality. Very thin cotton or synthetic blend pants, are usually not the best choice for play wear.

Fabrics

Thin synthetic fabrics, will show wear and tear faster. Wind suits and synthetic athletic wear needs to have an inner lining. These athletic pants can be purchased with a light weight or heavy inner liner. Name brands like www.nike.com and www.reebok.com carry great lightly lined athletic pants. www.landsend.com carries both weights of liners. The very heavy liner is great for outside play in the colder winter, wet months. Lands End clothing can also be purchased at Sears retail stores.

Blue jeans, cotton blend trousers, and corduroys can be reinforced prior to being worn. Iron on patches are easy to apply, and can extend the life of pants. Many brands of name brand pants already have knee patches in them. Levis Strauss has a good selection of different styles of pants and blue jeans. www.levis.com

School uniforms.

Elementary-aged children are very hard on their pants during recess in school. Most school uniform pants are cotton blended khaki type pants. Many schools now require uniforms to be worn throughout the school year. Knee patches work well on uniform pants. By taking a few minutes with each pair of pants to apply the iron on patch, you will be saving money. The cost of the iron patches is under $2 for one pair of pants. This small investment can extend the life of the pants.

Stain Removal

Stain removal products should be a staple in any home with children. Any type of spray type removal product should be purchased. Have a small bottle of this in your bathroom. If your children are small, immediately after their bath check their clothes for stains. Spray the stain remover immediately before placing the clothes in the dirty clothes hamper. Keep a small stain stick or wipes inside your car, purse, and laundry room. Stain sticks are great, because you can treat the stain and you have up to a week to wash the clothes. http://www.spraynwash.com/product.html#3 Stain wipes, are great when you are on the go. http://www.shoutitout.com/clean-stains-go.aspx

Establishing which clothes are for play is extremely important. Make it a house rule, to come home and put on play clothes before playing outside, and immediately after school. Paying a little bit more for quality clothing is a great investment. After a few weeks your children will adjust to this new rule. It's great to not have to cringe every time that your children slide, jump, or tumble while playing hard. Know that you have done all you can to extend the life of their clothing.