When you are the mother of 6 children, you have clothes. Lots & lots of clothes!
When you don’t know if you’re having any more children or not, you tend to hang onto those clothes. Of course, anything that other kids can grow into will get saved as well!
When you hang on to those clothes, you have all sorts of sizes.
When you have all sorts of sizes, when it’s time to switch out your clothes, it takes a long time!
When it takes a long time, you may leave those clothes, sorted in all their piles in your play room with the door closed until you feel like dealing with it again. Many have spilled over to your bedroom as well and you quit noticing them because they became part of your “decor”.
When you let them sit, you don’t feel like dealing with it again and let them sit for longer than you intended to.
After a while, your husband declares that he’s ready to help with the “your bedroom” part of the equation, in the hopes that he can find his lost shoe. (which he did find….yay!)
Then, your friend offers to come and help you with a project and guess what she’ll get to do? Yes, clothes.
Yes, I’m currently living in the land of disorganization. That is something that I’ve been planning to tackle this summer and it is beginning right away! Today, after a nice Father’s Day meal with my husband and his parents AND a nice long nap with my baby and husband, I decided to tackle the clothes that have been growing in my bedroom. I have a huge stack of outgrown baby boy and toddler girl clothes. Mounds of unmatched socks. Some maternity clothes. Dirty laundry. Clean laundry. Suits that need to be hung back up. Baby clothes that fit. Gloves & Hats for the winter. Winter clothes. Coats. You name it was probably in there! There were 3 dressers stacked high with clothes that weren’t dirty but needed to be sorted and put somewhere. Yes, talk about disclosure. My room was a mess. My play room still is. Thankfully, I’m getting closer and closer to having it right again. My friend Lynn is coming over today to help me with a project and I’m going to have her help me finish up with the clothes. I hope she doesn’t mind! In fact, my mom will be keeping my baby so that I can work uninhibited! I’m so excited! 🙂
I’m in a disorganized mess. My “system” involves placing the clothes we’re not using (or the out of season clothes) in plastic bins and then placing those bins in the basement. They’re normally labeled. It has worked for me so far, but I think I need to scale back on what I keep and how I sort them all as I’m getting overwhelmed every time I pull them out. I also think I keep out too many items for one child. I always plan to keep 7-10 outfits per child, but sometimes it unintentionally turns into more than that. I’d love to have a family closet, but I haven’t figured out where to do that yet. Probably because we keep too much.
While thinking about what I should do with my mounds of clothes, I decided to read up on what some of my blogging friends are doing. Here are some good posts with lots of wonderful ideas!
Getting a Handle on Children’s clothes by Mama’s Laundry Talk
Storing Hand Me Downs by my dear friend Amy at Raising Arrows
Attacking Clothing Clutter by A Slob Comes Clean.
You may also be interested in reading 28 Days to Hope for Your Home. She also has a book called Teaching Kids to Clean that I’d like to peruse very soon!
verymerrysunshine says
I don't store things by sizes, I store by the next child to use the item. Miriam (17) is the oldest and wears things out since she isn't growing anymore. When Rebekah outgrows something, I put it in a box marked Hannah. When I need something for Hannah, I go to her box and see if we have it and if necessary, buy it. When Hannah outgrows it, I put it in Naomi's box. I do the same for the boys. I have one large plastic box for each child. Bulky things like coats and winter boots are store elsewhere.
For winter coats, I only buy Lands End dark green parkas, so they can be passed down to boys or girls. We have been buying for several years and finally have one of every size. When it is time for coats we pull them all out and see who can wear what. I'm starting to have extra coats at the bottom and need to buy more at the top, since they are all growing up.
Blessings,
Melinda
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/prayforhannah
Suz Ness says
Must be the week for that! I blogged about it this week too!
https://mommasuzs.blogspot.com/2012/06/laundry.htm…
Here is what we do for the kids' clothes….
For any an all clothes we are going to keep, they go in plastic bins. There is one for the older girls, that Jessica hasn't grown into yet and then there is one for stuff I find that doesn't quite fit the older two yet. Then when we have clothes that Jessica has outgrown that we no longer need, they go in a CARDBOARD box that is labeled either garage sale or give away. This seems to work really well for our girls. They know if they put something on and it doesn't fit, it is to go directly to the bin. Now, I have to say that we have enough closet space not to need to sort out seasonal clothes, but when I did need to do that, I used the same methods, except had two bins, one for out of season and one for clothes that don't fit. My girls are ages 13, 12 and 6.
Good luck!
Jessica says
I have 3 children & we get lots of hand-me-downs. I kept all my daughter’s outgrown colthes until I had my 2nd son. Then I gave them away. Now I keep my 3.5 yr olds clothes for my 2 yr old. I use storage bins & lable them. I have bins for my daughter, sorted by sizes (8-10, 12-14) & bins for my 3yr old (4-5) & only 2 bins for my 2yr old (winter, size 2-3 & clothes that are between fitting him & my 3yr old). I also have bins for mine & my hubby’s winter/hunting clothes. We have a big, extra room on the back of the house that we don’t heat or cool & that is where I keep everything. For clothes we are currently using, my husband has the small closet in our room to himself (for church clothes) & 2 dressers for work/everyday clothes & I have a dresser for everyday clothes. Then the boys & I share their closet for our church/nice clothes & they have a dresser in the closet & 2 dressers in their room. My daughter has her own closet & dresser. Right now, I have 1 couch & 1 recliner, covered with clothes to be folded/put away. I have a clothes hamper full of my daughter’s clothes to be put away for later & a trash bag full of clothes for the boys, to be put away for later. Mine & hubby’s winter things are stacked up in the bedroom, needing to be put away & I have several containers/bags of things in the living room to be sold/given away. I don’t collect nick nacks or pretties, yet my home is cluttered… with CLOTHES. I have tried to scale down what I keep, but my kids are rough on clothes & shoes, so I like to keep extras. Oh yeah, 2 days ago, I pulled some clothes out of storage, for my 2yr old & they are still on his bed. Gotta get off this computer & conquer the clothing monster 😉
Lisa W says
I actually don't store much anymore. I was finding that items that got put away clean somehow came out of the bins with surprise stains. Otherwise the size and season didn't quite line up or we ended up getting an influx of clothing and had enough in the drawers and closet that we didn't even look in the bins. I just got done purging the children's clothing and donated LOTS. We hold on to keepsake items (mostly infant sizes) and things that can be passed in the next season. Other than that things must GO! If I am not strict with it I end up with piles of laundry (sometimes cleaning CLEAN clothes) because the children make too many wardrobe changes and instead of putting things up, they put them in the hamper. We are a huge work in progress but so far I feel a little relief.
Heather says
I same boat right now with 5 little ones in our home. I really needed to read this today as I tackle our clothing storage! Thanks 🙂
Valerie D. says
Storing clothing…actually laundry and clothing in general!..has long been my nemesis as well. What I've found works best for us is "attic shopping". I used to keep the out-of-season, and waiting-for-the-next-child clothes in bins but was finding myself surrounded by bins. We are blessed with a ton of attic space, so we converted part of our attic into shopping area. By taking six 2×4's and some metal plumbers' piping, a friend made four racks, each about 8-10 feet long, for me to hang clothes on. The 12 months and under clothes are still in bins, but everything above that hangs on the racks in their proper size order…not the size listed on the article of course, but how it really fits! It was a pain tracking down and buying enough hangers for this project, but now, when it's time to switch out clothes or move sizes, I simply take the article of clothing, hanger and all, from the attic and move it down stairs to the appropriate child's closet. I don't think our method would work for everyone, but thought I'd through it out there as something to consider. I guess it's sort of like the family closet…but with only the kids clothes…and only the currently outgrown or out of season clothing…but it definitely works for me 😀
Good luck with your organizing, Sarah…if we don't hear a post from you in the next day or two, we'll send in a search party to make sure the clothes didn't get you! 😉
Amy says
I can certainly understand your plight. I have seven children and we are not sure if we are done either. My wonderful husband made me a storage area in our attic where I store my clothes in either plastic bins or I save the comforter bags with the zippers. They work really nice. I get help from my kids with the laundry. They help me sort in piles and that makes it easier for them to help put them into the washer. I love when my laundry fairy (my 7 yr old) takes them out of the dryer for me and put the new load in. Then a two other children (4 & 3 yr old) push the basket to me in the living room. I sometimes go through the clothing to see if anything has holes or too bad of stains and then they go to either cleaning bin or out the door. All my children, but one, he's too little , help me gather the laundry each day so we don't get too far behind. They are a big help to me. Their ages are 16, 10, 7, 4, 3, 1, and a 5 month old.