For years, I have kept the kids' "BW clothes" in a box in a closet - pulled out clean to pack for the trip, know I have all three sets ready and handy... this goes for fleece, wool socks, hats, and rain gear. Water shoes, rain boots, snow boots, swim suits, etc. are used as normal.

Now, my 12yo son has figured out that they are comfy for everyday wear too. He's been sneaking on fleece pants for middle school and his Xmas present (REI expedition weight pants) have been to school 3x in 5 days. This kid is HARD on clothes, and I just know the fleece will be thinning in no time and not optimal come our May trip.

So for ME, I plan to scoop them back up out of the next round of laundry and move the "BW Box" from his closet to MY closet and try again to confine the clothes so they're ready and available for BW (or similar) adventures.

What do you do?

We don't have separate BW clothes for the kids. But they only wear the BW stuff once in a while. Not 3x a week :) I have a couple kids in my class that wear the same fleece hoodies everyday but they are always clean so I wonder how often those poor parents have to wash those shirts.... Kids like to wear what's comfy. Neither of my daughters will wear jeans. They love sweatpants, wind pants, fleece, and dresses.

our trips are not frequent, I say if she wants to wear her "BW" clothes then wear them. I gave away zip offs and other pants/clothes she outgrew after wearing for 1 trip.

Yep - at the rate kids grow we encourage them to use as everyday too. Alot of it is also used for hunting, skiing, etc.

Depends. If it's something really nice that I want to keep that way, I'd stash it. If it's the fleece pants my mom made for them, they can have at it. So speciality clothing I keep separate (as I do for myself) but basic stuff I would probably not care about. BWP, I would probably do what you are planning to do with those REI pants...put them aside. He's old enough that he's not outgrowing them in five minutes and it would be nice if they were in one piece for your May trip!

Rain gear they can wear at other times if it's needed, but I try to always put it back where I'll know exactly where it is.

MOgirl, we are still waiting for Linnea to fit into those fine zip-offs. ;-)

@ducks, my eldest daughter actually has a sensory disorder... and yet middle school fashion "pressure" finally got her into jeans this year for the first time - she is in 7th grade and 13 years old. I never thought I'd see the day.

As to same clothes every day, that's also my oldest with her hoodies. She has 3-5 of them, so could spread them out, but she gets one she likes and keeps wearing it - but this same child doesn't get things dirty at all - she even comes back from a BW trip and I have to look close to see which clothes she wore. No clue how she does it.

@MOgirl, I should have expanded my "save for" description. We do pull them out for other camping/outdoor trips as well, so to me, they get plenty of use for what I pay for them (everything is a deep discount bargain with no single item over $20 and many closer to $10). My kids also were almost always the same size (all three of them). But now, I can count on oldest to be one size ahead, so her stuff can be passed down for the most part if it's still in good shape.

Canyon wears his BWCA clothes every day. He wears his hikers or muckboots to school, he refuses to wear jeans so he wears only patagoinia or gramicci canvas pants. The only clothes he likes are "outdoor" clothes so he really does not have seperate BWCA gear. Kid refuses to wear any socks that are not smart wool. Not thinking seperating his outdoor gear out will work.

Funny whiteH20, nope won't work for you. That's one way to solve it I guess - just have "enough" outdoor clothes so that it's not an issue.

Kid had an excuse this week as they went skiing with gym. He went out the door in complete BW gear :)

we have camping clothes that are treated with P for ticks. I let them use them if we are going hiking that day, or spending a lot of time out in the woods for the day. Other wise if we are going else wear they wear other clothes. I try to make the camping gear last for every kid so they must follow the rules

Hybrid of reserve and everyday wear...

We treat our camp clothing with P for ticks as well so I generally keep them bagged during the camping season to extend the effectiveness of the treatment. Label says 6 washings or six weeks but we treat once at the start of the tick season. Once the camping season is over they can wear them anytime.

i love it that other kids like to wear their BW/camping clothes for everyday school wear. mine love their fleece and wool socks and wear 'em all winter. since we're outside so much every season, i don't pack anything away. i tried to as i like order, but we kept going back to to the bin to dig stuff out.