The weather here in WA state is getting cooler so I decided this was the weekend to prepare for the change with switching out the kids clothes. I keep main collection of out of season clothes and handme downs/"to grow into" clothes in a tub in the closet. Each boy then has a drawer of play clothes and one of church/school clothes and a drawer with opposite season clothes. So when it is time to change clothes I pull all clothes out of the drawers and get out the tub. The child (victim) tries on things that may fit this year and things that don't work yet go back in the tub.
Things that fit are sorted into a play pile and a school pile; before they go in drawers they are marked so they can be easily identified as they come out of the laundry. C or P for church or play and then a single line for E, 2 lines for G or 3 lines for M-- as they get passed down they have a line added to the tag and change from C to P as they wear out. This is when I get frustrated because clothing makers are moving from tags to tagless shirts and it is a real pain trying to mark a tagless shirt without damaging shirts in a visible way.
After the new season of clothes is stowed in drawers it is time to sort out the old season of clothes. A few warm season clothes are left in an extra drawer for those strange out of season weather days; I try to make these clothes that the boys haven't given a fair chance so they at least try to wear them a few times before they are passed on. Clothes still in good shape that might fit next year go in the tub and things that are too pitiful head to the donation stack. Also heading to the donation stack are items that I simply can't bear to look at again. As I moved out the winter clothes last May there was a large purging of M's clothes because anything that he wore when he was in the body cast was tainted in my mind: when I saw him in it I was taken back to that time. ( I was the same way with clothing I wore when pregnant. If I wore a "regular body" item like a sweater many times while I was pregnant then when I tried to wear it again while not pregnant I just couldn't do it. Yes, I have problems. And probably too much time on my hands.)
E was fairly simple this season. He hasn't grown that much since last year. In his tub he has some terrific summer shirts that I got for $2 on clearance at Target last year. It was amazing to see G's growth over the summer. Jeans seem fine, but shirts are so funny because they show his belly. His tub has no winter clothes left to grow into so E needs to grow quick or G will actually get some new clothes. M grew quite a bit too and will be wearing lots of clothes that are new to him; luckily he is still happy he gets to wear clothes he used to see G wearing.
love and hugs, B
2 comments:
I hate dealing with clothes for just the two of mine, I can't imagine dealing with 3 boys worth of clothes. It would be easier if the clothes could go right from Nick to Dan but there's a 4 1/2 year difference so there's a bit of a time lag between them. I have totally unorganized bins in the basement. I just go down and dig stuff out as it's needed in a very inefficient way but at least I haven't resorted to buying new stuff for Dan.
Nick has this thing about tags and always wants me to cut the tags out of his shirts. I'm like 'no! no!, I need the tag with the size so I'll know when Dan is ready for it.'
oh! I miss G's pig pie!! :)
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