Sorting Clothes

May 15, 2015

This week I took on the seasonal changing out of clothes. Years ago I created a system to organize the clothes of kids in our home - clear storage containers, sorted by size. As we only had one gender at the time, it was easy. Since then, we have only had the same gender. If I had both girls and boys, I would have to specify on the tag on the outside which it was for.

I also have a separate bin for shoes, with the tag noting which size had which types of shoes - ex: Size 1 - sandles, church shoes. Size 2 - sandles, sneakers, water shoes. Size 3 - sneakers. Size 4 ... ect.

Anyway, it was a sad/happy time to realize that I was able to par down two more sizes. I keep about a week's worth of clothes in each size and will store the with previously outgrown clothes. It was hard to part with some of the clothes, as they hold such good memories. Thankfully our oldest (7) helped and was more ruthless, as those sentimentalities are mine.

Last summer, having smaller sizes came in very handy when a kid came with just a few days worth of clothes, in a backpack from the agency. I was able to not worry about having to go shop. I did have to remind the kids to stop pointing out "That used to be my shirt till I outgrew it." They are too young to understand why, so they were not being mean about it, just matter of fact.

When our kids first came to live with us, there were clothes that were too big/small/ not my style. I washed everything and put it into a bin of their own. This made it easy in case they went back home, which has happened before.

So, I use the clear storage container with "index card noting size" attached to it method. Ideally, I have a set of pjs, 5-7 shirts, 4 shorts and 4 pants, underwear, sweatshirt, and nice outfit for each size. Ideally, being the key word.

What method do you use to organize clothes? How often do you sort through them?