1. If it doesn't fit another kid next year...give it away.
2. If it is torn, stained, ripped, or needs repair...get rid of it.
3. After you have stored away clothes, put a under the bed storage box for those remaining seasonal clothes that keep showing up. Then next season you wont be in a hurry to get out the next season, you will have about 3 outfits to wear before you need to get out all of the clothes.
4. Really we all have way too many clothes...me especially. I think 10 outfits per season is good for the little guys. My teens have way-way too many clothes. But take 10 times 14 and you get a messy house like me. This place looks like a consignment shop most of the time.
THY WILL BE DONE!!! +JMJ+
Do you have a family closet? Honestly, it's been a laundry-life saver!! I have a couple of industrial coated-wire shelving units which hold the kids' clothes. Each kid gets a shelf for pants, shorts, long- and short-sleeved shirts, and jammies. We use bus pans (bought them at Sams) for underclothing and socks/tights. Of course, they hang up skirts, dresses, dress pants and shirts. That way, I can literally *see* all of their clothes--things don't get shoved to the back of a drawer or under a bed!! It makes it much easier to know when somebody needs a trip to the second-hand store for jeans or sweaters for the fall/winter, or to garage sales for shorts and T-shirts in the spring/summer. :)
ReplyDeleteLaurazim... Do you have a picture? Can you describe it further... Is it just for the kids... How do you keep it ordered? Clothes and papers... the bane of my existence! Sam I feel your pain!
ReplyDeleteI hate laundry, except the acquiring of it part- I am nearly addicted to clothes shopping.
ReplyDeleteI love this post Sam-these are great guidelines! And Laura I am almost a believer in the one stop shopping spot in the home for all clothing.
I am in themarket for a hanging laundry rack in my laundry room and I will almost be there with a family closet/ laundry room.
Laura, great idea, I have looked into this, but with 14 different people...I just don't have the room. I would love to make my laundry room huge and do this. I will post pictures of my laundry room soon. We just started to purge it.
ReplyDeleteCheryl, I know you all too well to think you are a slob.
Jo, I have greatly benefited from your shopping and wear your "pass overs" daily. I think you will like my laundry system since we are very much in the same sinking boat.
I don't have pics, and I *should*!!
ReplyDeleteI'll do my best to get it all super organized and vacuumed and nice, and I'll post some. The closet is for everyone. My Darling and I have hanging space with little shelves (Rubbermaid closet system) and a dresser for our underclothes and his T-shirts. We also have my childhood dresser for the baby's clothes and the changing pad on top. Diaper supplies are in the top drawer. Because we've been adding on to our home, we built this room specifically to what I wanted--now I'm kind of wishing we'd made it just a little bit bigger. To use all of the available space, there's also a gigantic cubbie that sits above the stairway, since the room is adjacent to the stairs. It's big enough to put a crib mattress on the bottom and still have about 6 inches on either side. At the moment, it's not finished--it's fully dry-walled, but not painted, and there are no shelves in it nor a door on the front. The kids have a bunch of throw pillows in there on the mattress and like to hide and read books, etc. I originally intended to have sewing and crafting space in the room, and this cupboard would have served as a storage place for my supplies...but I don't think that will happen for a loooooooooooong time.....and I'm not sure what I'll do with it in the mean time.
Each person in the family has their own laundry basket, so when the clothes come out of the dryer (around the corner, in the bathroom--yes, upstairs!!), they get sorted into the proper baskets. Each child is also responsible for folding a particular type of linen--kitchen, bathroom or rags. I do the sheets. Sometimes it's even ALL folded AT THE SAME TIME!!!! (A rare event, but miracles *do* happen!)