Thursday, May 7, 2009

Changing Sizes


As part of my spring cleaning, last week I decided to go through the girls clothes, switch their winter and summer ones, and move everyone up a size. I wish I would have taken a picture when I was in the middle of it all, but I was too embarrassed to let you all see how crazy it was. (this is due to the fact that I am a shamefully vain person, something I really need to work on!) Having all girls is a huge blessing and an even bigger blessing than that is Ashlyn! (my niece who is a year older than Hailey) About 3 or 4 times a year my SIL Robin brings me bags of clothes that are too small for Ashlyn. Beautiful clothes from GAP and Gymboree and well, you get the idea!

So back to having all girls, I have a bucket for each size of clothing and when I go through the clothes I pretty much have to bring out every single bucket and go through this huge sorting process that usually ends up taking 1-2 days! For Lilly I usually have 2 sizes out at a time just because as she grows in and out of things I can have them, so I moved her from 3-9 months into 6-12 months (so I had the 3-6 bucket, the 6-9 bucket and the 9-12 bucket out for her) I moved Natalie from 2T-3T and still had some residual 18M things (once again 3 buckets) I moved Ally from 4T-5T and took all of the remaining 5T stuff from Hailey and she is now wearing 6-7. These clothes didn't so much have buckets, because they were already in use.

One of the side affects of living in Idaho (something I hadn't really experienced until last year) I now have a winter wardrobe and a summer wardrobe for each size, so in the spring I move their summer clothes to the shelves and their winter clothes to the drawers (readily available for those June snow days) and in the fall I switch them back.

Having four kids clothes in the same closet/dresser requires some real dedication and planning, I cannot believe how fast that poor closet can become a total dissaster. I TRY to do a load of laundry everyday and am in there everyday straightening it up. It is a good thing they are all small so I can fit it all in!

5 comments:

Sunnie said...

i honestly know exactly what you are talking about. it takes skill to keep things running smoothly- and clothing is just one of the things we deal with. when the seasons change, so do wardrobes. i have one less kid, but still three girls so we sift through, pass down, give away, and put away clothes at least twice a year. such a joy- i'm always so glad to have it done.

Layton Mom said...

I wish I could just shift everything but unfortunately I have to pack it all up and then dig it all back out again in a couple of years. It really is a huge pain in the neck but such is life. At least I have the clothes to put away and the kiddos aren't going naked. :)

James and Tricia Thomas said...

Holy organized!! I would never show you my messy closet!!

Nat said...

Ah yes, I need to do the transition of the summer clothes/shorts coming out. I can't wait until all three of my boys are the same size so I don't have to do the hand-me-down shift-then they can all share the same jeans and shirts! :)

julie said...

I often feel like I am drowning in girl clothes! It really is hard to keep track of all the sizes and appropriate seaasons. Sometimes I just want to start getting rid of the clothes, but then I think - what if I have another girl? So all the girl clothes stay for now.