Kids outgrow clothes long before they wear them out
By the time our kids are 7 they've moved through about 12 sizes. Each one fits for a while and then it doesn't, and nothing about the clothes has changed except her.
Researchers in Norway spent six months collecting every garment that 16 households stopped using, 620 items, and asked about each one. Adult clothing ended because it had broken down: nearly half of it had holes, tears, or a worn-out look. Children's clothing was outgrown. Parents said the same thing about item after item, that their kid wore it for one season.
Which is why "used" is a strange word for it.
Used describes something that's been consumed
Most of what a kid grows out of has barely been consumed at all.
Some of it is genuinely finished. Play clothes, leggings with worn knees, a shirt that lived through a whole summer. That's real and it's easy to see.
Then there's everything else. The dress worn to two birthday parties. The sweater from a grandmother that fit for one winter. The thing with the tag still on it, because it never got cold enough.
This is what we fill our closet with
Every item is inspected by hand against The Closet Standard before it goes in, so what you're shopping is clothing that was outgrown rather than worn out, and it goes to a kid who's the size that garment fits right now.
