How Much Baby Clothing Do You Need?

Last updated on March 3rd, 2025 at 08:51 am

One question my new mom friend recently asked me about was how much clothing, cloths, and bedding they realistically needed in that first year. And the overall answer is “less than you might think.” But let’s break it down more specifically. How much baby clothing and bedding do you actually need? So, before you go wasting all the money, here’s what to know from a mom who’s currently going on her third kid.

Some important notes about baby clothing

The first note is that you’re going to be doing laundry all the time. All the time. This estimate is based on you doing laundry all the time. If getting laundry done is more of an issue for you (you have to go to a laundromat or something), then you’ll probably want some more clothing/bedding to accommodate the longer times between laundry. In general, you’ll probably be doing a load of laundry once a day or every couple of days.

Even if you buy tons of clothing to avoid laundry, you won’t want your items sitting around covered in spit up or poop. So, even with all the clothing in the world, you’ll still be doing laundry. So, you might as well save your money and get less clothing.

Second, if your baby is in daycare, you’re going to need more clothing/bedding because they’ll need ones for there and ones for home. Daycare typically wants 2-3 outfits minimum, and if you’re providing bedding, you might need to provide two sheets in case they need to change it. Your daycare is going to have its own requirements. Granted, you’ll be washing these too, but you’ll still need enough clothing to actually maintain the two locations. So, if your kid is going to daycare, tack on 2-3 of everything.

How much you’ll need of each item

Here’s how much I would recommend having on hand when your baby comes.

Clothing

You really don’t need that much clothing. You’ll think you do because if you have a baby shower, you’ll have a car trunk full of clothes, but you really don’t need that much. What you need is also going to depend on what season your baby is born in. For instance, you’ll need fewer full pairs of pants and more shorts if you have a summer baby. If you’ve got a winter baby, you’ll need more hats.

In general, I would recommend 5-7 onesies. If you’ve got a summer baby, probably 4-5 short sleeves and 2-3 long sleeves. If you’ve got a winter baby, reverse that. You’ll need 3-4 pairs of pants or shorts because they’ll only be wearing these during the day, whereas the onesies they’ll be wearing at night too. I would recommend 1-2 sweatshirts or outer layers depending on season too. You’ll probably want 3-4 for a winter baby.

If you’ve got a summer baby, I’m a HUGE fan of rompers. You can go all in on rompers. They’re the absolute best in my opinion. You’ll definitely still want 1-2 long-sleeve onesies and pants for colder days, but yeah, rompers for sure.

You’ll also want 4-5 pairs of socks (maybe more for a winter baby), 2-4 hats, and maybe some mittens to keep them from scratching themselves. I personally never used mittens, but I can understand wanting to have them on hand.

I also personally never bothered with buying PJs until my kids were at least 6 months old. I kept them in onesies, changed the onesie periodically or when they got dirty, and just put them in a swaddle or sleep sack. Once they were a little older, I had 3-4 pairs of PJs that were based on season. You honestly don’t need them until they’re actual toddlers. You can just buy more onesies if you want.

Please note that your baby will not be wearing shoes for a while. There is zero need to buy baby shoes unless you want them for the cute factor.

Swaddles & sleep sacks

These are super important, but you’ll also be washing them all the time, so you don’t need as many as you think. First, if your baby is swaddleable, you’ll want to experiment with the right swaddle. You can do this through the ones you get at the hospital, the ones you get in registry boxes, and hopefully hand-me-downs or thrift stores. (I personally love the Halo swaddles.) Once you find a swaddle that works for your baby, you’ll need 3-4. That way, they can puke on them a couple of times, and you’ll have extras while those are being cleaned.

This goes for sleep sacks as well. Both of my sons rolled on their sides immediately, so we always opted for sleep sacks. I would recommend 3-4 sleep sacks and washing them. Once they’re older and they’re not spitting up as much, you can buy a few more to extend time between washes.

Bedding

Similar to swaddles and sleep sacks, you really just need a couple of extras to have when you’re washing them. For bassinets, I recommend 4-5. For actual crib sheets, we’ve honestly managed the entire time with two – one for washing and one for using. They probably won’t be in an actual full-size crib until around 4-6 months. Again, once they’re older, they’re typically spitting up or blowing out less, which means you can get away with less. If your kid is spitting up all the time, you can buy more. But having two is a good start.

Burp clothes & bibs

Okay, here’s the one thing you can’t really have enough of. I probably own twenty to thirty burp cloths, and we were still running out, even with all the laundry. Buy all the burp cloths. Go ahead. You definitely don’t need fancy ones. I have some muslin ones that I love (Be forewarned: they shrink in the dryer for sure), but you can buy whatever quality ones you want.

Blankets

You don’t need them! Maybe one or two for putting the baby on the floor safely. I think having one or two on hand is probably a good idea, so you have somewhere soft to temporarily set them down. But if you’ve got a playmat or a baby lounger, then you can probably skip them.

If you’ve got swaddles and you’re practicing safe sleep (meaning no blankets in the crib!), you really don’t need them. I ended up giving away or throwing away the egregious number of receiving blankets we had. If you’re using them as a swaddle, you’ll obviously need more. But I always found that more stressful than just having an easy swaddle.

Washcloths and towels

Yet another item that you don’t need a lot of because of the amount of laundry you’ll be doing. I would recommend 2-3 towels depending on the number of baths you’re doing (which will depend on the season – summer equals more baths).  Keep in mind you’ll need at least two washcloths per bath – one for the face and one for the body. So, buy a good-sized package of washcloths, and you’ll be fine.

Why I recommend such small amounts

As they get older, you might want more clothing, if only for the cute factor. When they’re a newborn to about six months old, you can get away with the bare minimum, truly. Once they’re crawling, walking, and getting into things, you’ll want more clothing to make sure they can get dirty. But again, you’ll be doing so much laundry, what does it matter? It’s really all about how much clothing you want and are willing to spend money on. (It’s also worth noting that you’ll get tons of clothing for your baby shower because it’s the most fun thing to buy.)

Here’s the thing. I spent SO much money on clothing, and it turned out to be wildly unnecessary. When I went through my firstborn’s clothing to see what we needed for my second, I found myself drowning in clothes, including many that were never worn.

For our third (a summer baby), we are buying a bunch of basic, white onesies, some simple pants, and some cute rompers and leaving it at that on the clothing front. I’m not even bothering with anything else. It’s not worth it. Baby will be fine, and we’re already doing laundry constantly because of the older two.

I hope this was helpful and possibly comforting as you collect for your newborn baby! If you’ve got questions, feel free to leave them!