We are spending the entire weekend indoors. Partially this is because it has been raining nonstop since Friday, but mostly it is because we are all sick.
Being indoors, it has been a good time, in between taking care of everyone, to go through my kids clothing to update sizes and seasons. This is a big job for me, especially when I have the energy of a sloth to go with the other ill symptoms. I keep a lot of hand me downs, especially for my youngest son (since he has an older brother). These clothes are stored away in the attic in boxes and bins. I started with my youngest, since he grows through sizes the fastest of my three.
Identifying the clothing isn’t too hard, although sometimes I combine sizes, such as 24 months and 2T into one bin to save space. I first do an initial weed out of the drawers, to get rid of anything that clearly doesn’t fit or is too light for the coming fall weather. I retain one or two short outfits just in case the weather still has a couple of warm days in it (such as today where it is 80 and humid after a couple of weeks of temperatures in the 60s and low 70s).
Next, sort clothes up in the attic from the bins and bring down batches in smaller boxes. (Normally, I just ask my husband to carry down the bin, but he is ill.) It gives me a good chance to see what I have before it makes it all to the drawers. Are there enough jeans? Do I have too many long-sleeved shirts? Sometimes I can even weed out unacceptable cloths, such as those sweaters that have longer arms than mid-drifts, clothes that I know my kids won’t want to wear (for example, my oldest doesn’t like sleeveless tops), mysterious stains that were missed or developed while in storage, etc.
Check back again later today for the second half.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog and caring for little ones in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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