This is the first post in a new series from Sarah and I, highlighting easy “cheats” – housekeeping and parenting shortcuts – we use to make the summer simpler! I hope you enjoy.
Luckily I stumbled across a brilliant solution, quite by accident, that reduces our laundry pile considerably. Ready for it? Okay, here goes:
Put the kids to bed in their next-day’s clean clothes.
Yep, you got that right. You can just forego pajamas. The clothes become the pajamas.
I promise, it’s not as weird as it sounds.
This little trick came about quite by accident in our house a few summers ago, when my younger boys had taken charge of picking out their own clothes in the morning. They’d come down dressed and we’d be out the door before I had much time to check out what they were wearing.
Then one day, I inspected William’s outfit and had a few questions.
“Hey, aren’t those pajamas you’re wearing?”
“Well, they’re just shorts I wear as pajamas.”
“But you wore them to bed last night, right?”
“Yeah…they were pajamas last night, but they’re clothes now.”
Same with Clara. Her usual uniform of capri-length leggings and a t-shirt or tank top works fine as sleepwear. So do soft cotton dresses and stretchy-waisted shorts.
Of course, this isn’t a hard-and-fast “rule.” Clara has a lot of dresses and buttoned shorts that wouldn’t be very comfortable to sleep in. There are nights the boys swap out their shorts or PJ pants in the morning but leave on the same T-shirt, or sleep in just a T-shirt (on particularly hot nights, they often sleep only in their undies.) And sometimes, when we have a late night, they take their shower in the morning, and of course they change their clothes then.
If I had a particularly sweaty child or a diaper-clad baby or toddler who was prone to leaks, I would probably have a different opinion of this “trick,” and I suppose if you were really concerned with having your kids in flame-retardant pajamas, that could also be an issue (I’m not, though I’m certainly not judging if this is a big deal for you.)
I also happen to love pajamas – and think they look super cute on my kids – so I don’t want to eliminate them entirely!
But allowing us the freedom to sometimes say, “Get dressed? But I’m already dressed!” is just one of those lazy little shortcuts that I love to employ in the summer months. It’s not a big thing, no…but over the course of a few months, if it saves me a dozen loads of laundry, I sort of feel like I’ve gotten away with something. Which, to me, is a big part of the appeal of summer: we’re all allowed to be a little lazy!
I’d love for you to try this idea and let me know if it helps your summer feel just a little more easy-breezy! Or, let us know about your own summer shortcut in the comments section.
I actually do the opposite (and not just in the summer!): my son wears his clothes to bed (from the previous day) and then changed in the morning. I do this because he’s so skinny that it is impossible to buy pajamas for him. If I get a pair where the top fits, the bottoms won’t stay up on him. Obviously, on bath nights (we don’t bathe him every night, more like every 2-3 nights) we change him into fresh sweats, or if his clothes are visibly dirty, or if he’s been wearing something that’s not comfortable to sleep in, like a button down shirt or jeans, we change him into sweats. But otherwise, he wears his clothes to bed. However, he has allergies, so it has occurred to me that I probably should do it your way and have him wear tomorrow’s clean clothes to bed, rather than the clothes that he’s been outside in.
Claire, I am not above letting kids fall asleep in the day’s clothes every now and then! Since our kids tend to be evening bath/shower-takers, it just sort of works out the other way for us, but there are definitely nights the kids just flop into bed (or pass out in the sofa) in their clothes and I try not to stress about it too much.
I probably should also clarify that he often bathes in the morning, instead of the evening (he’ll jump into the shower with my husband). Which is another reason why it’s often easier for us to put clean clothes on him in the morning rather than the evening.
I can’t even do this when it’s pajama day at school! My oldest sweats a lot in her sleep no matter the season and my youngest is the worst drooler ever!!! Their clothes stink when they get up! Sometimes my youngest will sleep in just undies… Although when that happens I find her with nothing on in the morning! If it were up to her she would sleep with no clothes!
ha! Yeah, I knew there would be some kids this just wouldn’t work for!
I like the idea here but my people do not bathe every day….although now that they are more active in the yard they do get cleaned up to some extent most nights. In order to make MY life easier…I’m actually worse! My 3yo & 5yo are learning to make their bed as soon as they are out of it, get dressed & then come downstairs….obviously this doesn’t happen every day…but it makes everything smooth for me & they are SO PROUD of themselves.
Our kids aren’t every-day bathers in the fall/winter/spring either but in the summer it’s a lot closer to every day, especially for my 10 year old who is starting to, uh, smell like a man. Plus I feel like they are just constantly FILTHY and we live in a beach town which means sand, sand, everywhere, even when we aren’t actually at the beach. Love that your kids make their own beds and get themselves dressed – there is so much value in them developing that independence, and the bonus is less work for you
Love it! Some of my kids’ clothes probably are supposed to be pj’s, and vice versa. Stretchy cotton is quite versatile!
You know, we’ve wound up using PJ pants as leggings before without even realizing it. At the end of the day it’s just CLOTHES, right?
We do this routinely; I have all girls and they love dresses/leggings. Makes mornings easier when all we have to do is hair/socks/shoes.
We do this often, and mostly during the school year! It makes mornings so much less stressful. For the kids too, it’s always their idea!
And they aren’t regular bathers during the school either.
Yes, I do this too, esp during the school days! Z’s clothes are mostly cotton and stretchy – makes morning times soooooooooo much easier :). On days where I don’t have to venture out as much, I may do pajamas as they’re cute, but cotton clothes are the best!
Yep, I think this is a school year trick, at least in mild climates. Clean clothes to bed makes getting to school way easier! Sometimes they have a dress or skirt they layer on top in the morning, easy peasy. In summer, the mornings are so much more relaxed, so pjs are fine until they want to go outside ? We don’t have a consistent strategy, I just let the kids pick out their own stuff at night, unless there is serious dawdling.
I did this with my kids lots! As you say, not every night, but so many times, it was more routine than jammies were.
I think what I liked most about it was the ease every morning. No waiting, correcting, demanding, or even reminding about getting dressed. Wake up-you’re done!
We do a similar trick and it works great for us. It started when my now-five year old wanted to sleep in his ‘real’ clothes, not his PJs. He’s a clothes horse, and often he gets excited about wearing his new shirt, his new outfit, etc. the next day.
The pajama rules are arbitrary when you think about it. Is the child comfortable? Do the clothes inhibit a good night’s sleep? No, then why not let him wear his tomorrow clothes today?
We do draw the line on our son wearing his suit to bed …. don’t want that Kohl’s special to get too wrinkled for his own good!
My triplet 2 yr olds go to bed in diapers and clean shirts. There is an occasional diaper overload issue (especially for 1 of them- and I triple diaper at night!) but overall, this works for us.