School Uniforms - how many to buy?

[BOST99]

My oldest is starting private school in the fall and I was just sent the order form for uniforms. Unfortunately looks like only one place sells the "approved" uniforms so I can't shop around. She's young enough that the uniform is just school branded gym cloths so no dry cleaning needed.

I'm just not sure what is a reasonable amount of shirts and sweatpants to buy. I admit I'm totally overthinking this. But just trying to find the right balance between cost of uniforms and not wanting to commit myself to have to do laundry every other day.

BTDT parents - any advice on what worked for you?

 

[TAX GUY]

My oldest is starting private school in the fall and I was just sent the order form for uniforms. Unfortunately looks like only one place sells the "approved" uniforms so I can't shop around. She's young enough that the uniform is just school branded gym cloths so no dry cleaning needed.

I'm just not sure what is a reasonable amount of shirts and sweatpants to buy. I admit I'm totally overthinking this. But just trying to find the right balance between cost of uniforms and not wanting to commit myself to have to do laundry every other day.

BTDT parents - any advice on what worked for you?

My first suggestion is to see if the school has a second hand store. Ours did and it was WAY cheaper buying gently used uniforms. With that said, you could easily get a couple to a few and not break the bank. If you only can do new, we were able to get away with doubles of everything. Granted, that was 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of shorts, 2 shirts (polo and button down), 2 sweaters. Only one gym short and one gym shirt since gym was once a week.

 

[King Schultz]

Way back in the olden days when I attended St. Matthews Catholic school in Long Beach, CA. our uniform for boys was salt-n-pepper cords (pants) and a white dress shirt.

As I recall, we (my younger brother and I) had 5 shirts each, a clean one for every school day, and 2 or 3 pairs of pants. My mother would wash everything on the weekend, hang it up in our closet. and not have to worry about it during the week.

 

[design_mom]

I went to Catholic school for 12 years. I agree with checking to see if you can get them second hand. Our school always had a "uniform exchange" in the summer where people could buy/sell outgrown uniforms.

I usually had 2 skirts/jumpers. They could usually be worn more than once before washing, but I had "a spare" in case one needed to be washed during the week. In elementary, we were allowed to wear pants in the winter months, so I had 2 pairs of pants, too. I had 5 shirts and socks (enough for a week), and one sweater. Like King Shultz, laundry was done on the weekend unless something *had* to be washed.

Most of my friends had similar amounts of clothes. Also, you can probably buy more later, if you find you don't have enough.

 

[learningtolive]

My daughter started preschool at a private school last year. Her "uniform" was their gym uniform. We bought 5 shirts, and 5 pants. They also offered shorts but we got the pants only. IT worked out, especially if I had a weekday where I couldn't do laundry I still had her outfits for the week.

 

[BOST99]

Thanks everyone! I had no idea about a uniform exchange but makes total sense.

 

[ahutton]

When DD went to private school we hit the uniform exchange, and then bought a few pieces to fill in the gaps. Her outfit was a sailor style shirt with a tie and skort; we had 3 skorts, 4 shirts and 8 ties. The tie was two pieces and we lost half of one here and there, and those really did take the majority of lunch room hits. In winter they could wear tights or leggings under the skorts, we had bunches of those because they were cheap and easy to find on clearance just about anywhere.

I loved uniforms - they lasted all year and washed up better than regular clothes. She wore the leggings around the house in winter with sweatshirts and tshirts, and had a few pairs of shorts for warmer days after school. I swear we spent less when she wore uniforms, and we never had to fight about what to wear!! She is about to be a high school junior (this was in K) and she still remembers how much she liked uniforms.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Agree with the uniform exchange. I was on a huge budget when my kids went to Catholic school, but I got them 5 shirts, two pairs of pants for my son, two jumpers for my daughter, and one pair of gym shorts. I changed out as needed.

 

[scrhsa]

I went to Catholic school for 12 years. I agree with checking to see if you can get them second hand. Our school always had a "uniform exchange" in the summer where people could buy/sell outgrown uniforms.

I usually had 2 skirts/jumpers. They could usually be worn more than once before washing, but I had "a spare" in case one needed to be washed during the week. In elementary, we were allowed to wear pants in the winter months, so I had 2 pairs of pants, too. I had 5 shirts and socks (enough for a week), and one sweater. Like King Shultz, laundry was done on the weekend unless something *had* to be washed.

Most of my friends had similar amounts of clothes. Also, you can probably buy more later, if you find you don't have enough.

Yep, we did it this way too. We also had a grey school logo shirt they could wear on Mondays and field trips. One dress skirt and they each had about four shorts /skorts
and one or two pairs of pants. Though my middle dd never wore the pants. They just had blue shorts and grey tshirts for pe. We ended up with quite a bit of shirts by the time my youngest finished 8th grade To this day my girls refuse to wear any kind of polo shirt

 

[anneboleyn]

My DD8 attends Catholic school, and I buy 4 jumpers for her, and then I get 8 long sleeved and 8 short sleeved blouses. I get these from School Belles and I wait until around the 4th of July when they have a huge sale. The school also gives all the parents a 25% off coupon for the site so that it is not too expensive. With the sale and coupon, this costs about $150, which I don't think is too bad. They wear their gym clothes on Wednesday, so I like to have a jumper for the other days of the week.

So I think having one shirt and pair of pants (whether it is shorts or sweatpants) for each day of the week is good to start!

 

[MickeySP]

My DS did parochial school, we had a weeks worth of shirt, 3 ties, 2 gym uniforms & 2 pairs of pants & shorts. Made it so much easier doing a weekly set than having to do loads of wash mid week.

 

[tvguy]

K-12 our kids had to wear uniforms and we made do with 3 each. We did at least one load of laundry every day (30-33 loads a week), during baseball and soccer season both kids were going through 3 sets a clothes a day. So they always had 2 clean uniforms ready to go. No wonder we wore out a washer and dryer every 7 years

 

[CaoilinnsMom]

Another thought for secondhand uniforms is to check for a mom's Facebook page, or something similar, and ask if anyone has any uniforms they would like to sell. I agree with 3 or some bottoms and a shirt for each day. If it is just gym wear I might get a bottom for each day, so you don't have to do midweek laundry.

 

[dollarmite]

It's pretty standard for Australian school students to wear a uniform, so most people I know, myself included, buy 5 tops and 2-3 bottoms. My sons' school requires they wear the full formal uniform on Monday. This mean proper dress shirt and tabbed shorts (boys) or blouse and pleated skirt (girls), with tie. They can wear it other days too if they like, but most just wear the unisex shorts and polo top.

At primary school there was also the option of their sports house shirt. I think we ended up with 1 formal shirt, 1 sports shirt and 3-4 normal uniform shirts, plus 2-3 pairs of shorts (1 formal tabbed pair, plus the normal shorts).

Some schools require girls wear a dress/tunic every day. In that case I'd probably buy 3-4, as I wouldn't want to have to do laundry every day.

 

[lizabu]

My daughter started at a Catholic school last year. The suggest at a minimum three pants and three shirts. We ended up with 5 pants, two shorts, 5 polos, 2 long sleeve polos, a vest a sweater and a sweatshirt. She's a teenage girl and it never ends. I thought I might save money with uniforms but every time you turn around its dress down day and apparently the way the kids at her new high school dress is not the same as how kids in grade 8 dressed. And then there's shoes and everything else.

 

[jevs]

Like many posters, 5 tops - including sports top. 2-3 pairs of long pants and shorts including sports pants. One school wool jumper, 1-2 school jackets for boys. For girls, summer dresses x 3, tops x 5, winter/sport bottoms x 3, school jackets x 2, have bought a winter dress as well but she doesn't like wearing it.

It's slightly different for my boy in secondary school, more formal. The younger two can get away without the school emblem on the clothing (It's a P-12 school, so the uniform is similar all the way through in colour etc).

 

[Sabeking]

We usually do five tops, four bottoms and a sweatshirt with the school logo. Advice: when you start to get those grease stains on the shirts from lunch put Dawn dish detergent to sit overnight and then launder the shirt the next day.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

My kids have all gone through Catholic school. Love uniforms!

For the girls I would buy 2 jumpers or skirts (younger girls wear the jumpers), 4 shirts, 1 pair of shirts for warmer months, 1 gym suit, 2 sweater, 2 vest, 5 pairs of socks

Boys- same as above except substitute pants for jumpers

 

[Minnesota!]

We typically have 3. Two short sleeve, 1 long. 2 pants, 1 shorts.

Each kid has a sweatshirt, too.

No gym uniform...they just wear play clothes from home.

We can get ours at Target, but we also have a uniform exchange in August...

 

[JediBonas]

I don't mean to hijack this thread but was thinking of starting a similar one. I was wondering how much people usually spend on uniforms. My twins are going to a private kindergarten in the fall and I just bought uniforms, ended up spending about $550 (that was with 10% off for ordering early). Is this typical? I got them each three regular uniforms, two gym uniforms and then the sweaters and v-necks.