A couple of weeks ago, this was how my dining room looked. While the babies were napping, I was sorting out of totes into other totes. Carpenter had said that we would take each of the kids clothes' shopping and I was going to be prepared and not buy a bunch of things I didn't need.
Does it sound like that happens on a regular occurence? Yep, for me it does. So I sorted and sifted through the totes. Then I made new totes. There are two totes for each kid with one exception - my second and third sons are very similar in size, so they share, because there is only enough to fit in one tote anyway.
Spring is coming so another good reason to get out the totes was to find those shorts that I had hidden last winter. Seems they always show up wearing the opposite of what they need.
As we sorted, they brought their clothes from their drawers down and I tossed stained and ripped clothing. Made piles of outgrown clothes. One tote per person was my limit. Not going to save more than that.
As I sorted, I simply threw the clothes in the correct bin. That helped me attain more bins for sorting into. Finally my piles were all in totes.
Then, I emptied one tote and wrote down in notebook, the amounts of each thing - shorts, pants, dress pants, shirts, long-sleeved shirts and dress shirts.
As I said before each child has two totes - one if for now (the littler ones also have their memory things in this tote) and the other is for the next size up. It's for what's between them and their older sibling. Bugaboo (dd - almost 10) has clothes from a friend who passes things down to her sometimes. So we try to make sure that the growing-into tote doesn't get to be two or three totes.
The tote that they are growing into goes into the attic - so glad that we have one now. And the one that they are using between seasons with their memory stuff in it, goes on the top shelf of their closet. This way I can put something in it or grab another pair of shoes out of it, if they grow out of the ones they are wearing.
This is the first time I've been faithful to write everything down on paper. Now, I seriously have to find that notebook and get it on the computer. I was planning to have a piece of paper in each tote so I would know what was in it. I didn't do that, but still can as all the totes are labeled. Once I find the notebook, get it on the computer, then I can put those pages in the tote.
I love organizing, but as you can see I'm horrible at it. It's worth it though, to me, to try. In this house, things go into disarray fast, but I'm like a turtle, slowly but surely things are changing for the better around here. Lies tell me it's not worth it - they'll just mess it all up. But I've found that if I consistently stick with a plan, they tend to follow.
Making the most of today,
Steph
