It's that time of yr that drives me crazy......season clothes change

[8filltheheart]

I don't know if it is b/c there are so many of them or if everyone feels this way, but going through the containers in the attic and finding the right sizes for everyone is one of my least favorite jobs. :tongue_smilie:

 

Conversely, I am sure glad my kids have hand-me downs and I don't have to go buy anything new. :D

 

Unfortunately, I won't be finished for umpteen loads of laundry b/c everything smells like attic.

 

Here is a totally frivolous poll. :)

 

ETA: Hmmmmm, it didn't redirect for the poll even though I checked the box. Oh well.....I was just curious how many people actually stored clothes. I actually have friends that get rid of everything after every child and buy everything new every season. I hate shopping and spending money! But, after my morning in the attic, I might re-consider!! (Our attic was the dumping ground when we moved. It is awful in there!! Honey just got a honey-do list today!! :) )

Edited October 2, 2008 by 8FillTheHeart

[1bassoon]

Oh, sister.

 

We've got to do it this weekend - it's finally cooling off a "bit" here in Alabama.

 

And boy oh boy, am I dreading it.

 

And is it just me? My kids have way, WAY too many clothes. We also do mainly hand-me-downs, but it seems like my girls always have about 6 outfits they wear, and everything else is a big pile in the bottom of their drawer.

 

With a move impending, this year I may do something serious about it. As in, "Y'all get 8 outfits. That's it. Maybe 3 for church." I'm fed up. Plus, if we move into a house-sitting situation as may happen, I don't know where we'll keep clothes for the kids - maybe a couple of rubbermaid containers?

 

I feel your pain, girl!

[Nakia]

I actually don't mind doing this. But I only have 3 children and they are all girls. I own several of those huge rubbermaid containers, and they are stored out in the storage building (we don't have a basement and our attic space is hard to get to). I just label the rubbermaid containers with the size and season when we store them, so I can go out there, see what I need, and pull it out. It's a pretty good system. I used to keep every single thing. Now I only keep the stuff that is really nice. I cannot imagine getting rid of everything and buying new every season. That seems so wasteful to me. :tongue_smilie:

[Kanga]

I love it, but I only have 3 kids. I loved it as a kid as well. We would play fashion show. My daughter and I continue the tradition, but the boys will have no part in it.

 

While I am confessing things, I might as well add that I love folding my dc's clothes. I know it is strange, but I have kept this as my chore even though they are older because I really like it. My dd walked in one day and saw me folding her clothes and said, "and this is why I am going to live with you all the way through graduate school!"

[HRAAB]

Give away clothes after one child? Isn't there a commandment or something against that? Never. I have 5 girls (makes it much easier to save clothes), and some of the dresses from the oldest are still being used. Of course, dresses don't get much use around here outside of Sunday because we're all 'jean type girls'. I detest shopping, I detest spending needless money, I love re-using things, being frugal and staying out of stores.

 

Our clothes are stored in big rubbermaid containers in the shed. The weather is dropping about 30 degrees over the weekend, and it is going to be time to sort through, try on and do more laundry.

 

Janet

[8filltheheart]

LOL!! You should have seen my ds's face when I told him he had to try on clothes today! He complained about being tortured the entire time!!

[8filltheheart]

The biggest problem is that I can't sort by size b/c after being washed so many times the sizes they are labeled are arbitrary. I have to look at everything and sort of gauge what I think.

 

Then, on top of that, when we were getting ready to move and put our house on the market, many small containers were consolidated together and extra clothes from closets were thrown in. I really need to spend a couple of days resorting everything. :tongue_smilie:

[LNC]

I only have 4 children, but we have minimal clothes. My oldest passes his down to my other 2 boys. My only daughter's outgrown clothes go to families in our church. So, I don't have any stored clothing anymore. Their closets are (including the boy's shared closet) are about 1/4 filled with clothes. The rest is shelves with storage of other things. I love having minimal clothes for all of us. Makes shopping and laundry painless!

[Tap]

I don't store clothes between my older kids because they are a boy and a girl. I don't have anyone who gives my hand-me-downs. My youngest dd is 8 years younger than my oldest dd so I won't save clothes because styles change and fabric degrades, besides, I don't want 8 years of clothes in the attic!

 

I do store from one season to the next, then I take them to the 2nd hand store to sell or pass them on to friends.

[mysticamethyst]

I have love hate relationship with fall. I really do think it's the best time of year. But, the clothes thing is a HUGE issue here. When we wake up it's in the 60's-70's which is long sleeve weather here, but by noon it's in the 80's which of course requires a change of clothes. By the end of Nov. we will have heat on at night and a/c by afternoon because it will just get too hot. It is a vicious cycle for sure. But the cool nights are so worth it. :001_smile:

[orangeblossom]

I store the 'off season' clothes in boxes in the kid's closets. My kids actually enjoy going through the clothes and trying them on...it's like getting new clothes and they love to get new clothes. I keep two boxes oer child, and we do one box one day and the other on a different day. That way they're not overwhelmed.

[RoughCollie]

I store clothes. My 3 boys wear 2 different sizes, so DS2 always has hand-me-downs to wear. The boys used to wear the same size 2-3 years in a row, but now they are all growing like weeds.

 

I always hope that DD will be able to wear the same size 2 years in a row. So far, that has not happened.

 

We just finished sorting through all the clothes. On the advice of some of you, I have pared-down my kids wardrobe requirements and I have a list, a budget I can afford (well, I have to afford it), and I'm ready to go shopping to fill in the blanks.

 

This is the quickest I've ever gotten this chore done, if you don't count shopping.

 

RC

[Chris in CA]

Our change of seasons means dds stop wearing their bikinis to school in and actually wear ****** CLOTHES!******* You'd think I put thumb screws on them - the torture. We've compromised right now, with bikini tops and shorts.. :001_smile:

[Titus.Two.Five]

Ugh, I know what your talking about! I just did that job yesterday, thank goodness...it is done. :D

[Wendy In KS]

And this is where grandma comes in handy :D I hate sorting through clothes at the season change. With five kids, it is just overwhelming. My older two dds are in too close of sizes to really pass anything down- different body styles. My boys and our youngest dd get lots of hand me downs, which is great on our budget, but can be a pain to sort through. Especially when sizes don't seem to be consistent across company lines. :glare: That means trying on lots of clothes. My kids actually enjoy it, but I don't. Last spring, my mom came over and helped me sort through and do it in an organized fashion. She is coming over tomorrow to help again :hurray:

[Tess in the Burbs]

last night ds put on a shirt that has never been worn, just tore the tag off(bought last year on clearance) that was too big a few weeks ago....and it's 3 inches too short in the arm now.

 

a few weeks? it means everything is too small now. ugh.

[Erica in PA]

I can't stand that job. What makes it complicated for me is that 1. I am not that organized, and all of the clothes that dc are not currently wearing are all mixed together in several different containers, so I have to go through *everything*, every time the seasons change, and 2. We live in an apartment, and have no room to store the containers here, so I have to actually drive 20 minutes to a friend's house to pick up the clothes that I need, and to drop off the things we're now done with for the winter. I'm grateful that they store the stuff for us, but having the clothes there makes an annoying job that much more so.

 

I'll be glad when it's cold enough to know for sure that we will only need long sleeved shirts and long pants-- I don't like it when I still need a little bit of everything out.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

We just went shopping in the closet this morning! My younger ds wanted to wear some pants that fit. The nerve! :lol: So we went shopping in the closet where older ds' outgrown items await. We like shopping in the closet. It's cheap, fast, and we can do it in our pjs.

[amyable]

I love it, but I only have 3 kids. I loved it as a kid as well. We would play fashion show. My daughter and I continue the tradition, but the boys will have no part in it.

 

 

We play fashion show too. :001_smile: We take a day off from school, I dump the contents of our rubbermaid boxes, and we have a free for all trying on anything. The little ones especially like trying on things they know are too big or two small. :D

 

But yes, this is the girls. I'm betting our son won't be so thrilled when he's older. For now we'll just dress him up during the clothing change day. :lol:

 

I save clothes from my first to my second dd (2 years apart), and again between my #3 and #4 DDs. (2.3 years apart). But there is a 3.5 year gap between #2 and #3, and an even bigger size gap (#3 dd is tiny for her age). So I give things away rather than keep them for 4 years. I wind up getting many hand me downs from friends/family anyway - for example we only need to buy her maybe two pairs of pants this fall. I love the local consignment sale's 1/2 price day and also yard saling when I can, so replacing what I gave away isn't very expensive. I do wash every day so we don't need a ton of clothes anyway. I'd rather *someone* be using our clothes for those 4 years than watch them rot away in our rubbermaid.