For the past year or so, I have tried to be mindful of how much is too much and how much is too little when it comes to clothing. I have re-read what I wrote last year on this topic several times over this year to try to renew my enthusiasm for being a good steward of our closets.
I have found that I am pretty spot on when it comes to our older children. They have about five outfits for everyday (from socks and underwear to pants and shirts) and one or two fancier outfits for Church and special occasions. The baby is a bit more tricky since he still goes through clothes quickly (though it is much better than when he was a tiny baby last year).
Having fewer clothes has meant that I have to do laundry more often. Washing, drying, and folding a load of clothes or linens each day has become a part of our routine. We have also been able to learn to take care of our things a bit more. One goal that I have for this year is to have a smock or a pinafore to put over our little ones when they eat or are doing something creative.
One area that I am still working on is out-of-season and outgrown clothing. We are fortunate to receive hand-me-downs from several families and we also have very generous family. As we receive clothing that we can't use at the moment, I go through it and take out what we can use and give the rest away pretty quickly. The problem is that as time goes on, our stored clothing grows. I have always felt that I should keep clothing for future children, but perhaps I keep too much.
Not too long ago, a friend was expecting a baby girl and she mentioned that she would be very grateful to have any girl clothes that anyone could spare. Initially I thought, "But what if I have another baby girl?" I realized how selfish I was being I did end up going through our girl clothing bins and found FOUR giant trash bags of beautiful clothing that I could give to her. I decided to keep the things that were special to our family and offered her nearly everything else. It is so nice to see her daughter in things that Sugar Plum wore as a little baby and it is good to have the clothing used and not wasted. Around this time, I also was able to re-organize how I store clothing that we are not using. I have one bin for each gender and each age (under a year, 12-18 months, 2T, 3T, etc.). I marked the bits and if I found that I had more than could fit into the bin, I needed to pair things down. This has really helped me to keep things under control.
Last year, we started the tradition of gathering clothing for donation on the feast of Saint Martin (November 11). It is such a sweet way of remembering the saint who cut his cloak in half to warm a beggar he met on the road. I would love to hear about what you do with clothing storage and what your children have in their closets and drawers. I'll try to do a quick post on our autumn wardrobes in the next few days.
6 comments:
I like your idea for celebrating the feast of St. Martin. Our third and fourth graders will be learning about him in church school this year, and that might make a good project for them.
I've gotten into the bad habit of leaving laundry until we have a mountain in our hamper. It takes all day to catch up. I need to start doing one load a day like you...
I do laundry about twice a week, four or five loads each time. They're not going through clothes that quickly, there are just a lot of us.
As far as clothing, each child has approximately a week's worth of play clothes and several church outfits (since we're there at least three times a week). The girls all wear the same size socks (Finally!!) so they have one sock drawer. That has helped a lot.
As far as storage, each season change (hot/cold) I go through everything in the attic (usually labeled "boys' fall/winter, girls' fall/winter, boys' summer" etc. I match up clothing to child (who fits what) and put together piles for each child. Then I go through the clothes we're phasing out. If they will be able to be worn the next season by someone (even if the current owner will have outgrown them) then I bag them up for storage. If no one will fit into it and it's not a very special outfit, then I bag it up for the thrift store.
Since sometimes due to uneven handing down one child winds up with a huge pile of clothes for the new season, I'll go through it and winnow it down to a reasonable number and give the rest away. Then I make a shopping list of who needs what.
We don't have any children in our external family older than ours so there's no family handing down anymore. We also don't have other outside hand-me-down sources since we've been living here so I try to make do and get by. Otherwise, the clothing budget (small) would burst at the seams.
I still have baby and toddler things in storage (albeit, not a huge amount) because I haven't quite resigned myself to the idea of not having any more children. Eventually this will have to be addressed.
I like the idea of sorting clothes on a particular saint's day. (November 11 is the feast of St. Thedore the Studite, as well, our son's patron saint.)
I have one bin per size too that holds summer and winter clothes. Baby brother's room looks like a sweatshop exploded since almost everything is out right now while I pack up summer and sort for autumn. We do a week's worth of play clothes, one nicer play outfit for errands/friend's houses, and 1-2 church outfits. Add in the necessary outerwear, and way too much. I'm at the point like you that I've basically decided to let all of the baby clothes go. I'm keeping our favorites and I know hand-me-downs are plentiful if they are needed again. I simply cannot store everything forever!
I completely understand what you are dealing with. With 4 little ones, it has taken me almost 6 years to get where you are. It is such a freeing feeling to simplify and help others who are in need of clothes also. I enjoy this time of year when we get to switch over and cull through clothes. Especially when you find out that God has provided once again and you need to purchase very little!
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