#6 The Clothes Situation

Years ago I babysat for a family of 7 children. I loved it. One of my memories was that of a bedroom (it was actually being used as a spare room). In this room was a "collection" of clothes that rivaled the backroom of Salvation Army! The closet was full (almost to the top) of clothes that were clean but never put away and the middle of the room held a LARGE pile of clothes that had been donated to the family but not gone through.

What I saw was a hugh amount of wasted space and time. I could have easily found myself in that same predicament if I had not been careful.

First of all childrens clothes are really easy to come by. #1 you can go to the store and buy them. 2. You can accept hand me downs from friends/family. 3. You may acquire them from birthday and Christmas presents. 4. You can shop the yard sales or thrift shops.

I say all of this to say Don't keep too many clothes at a time. If you find your laundry situation looking in the least bit like the scenario mentioned at the beginning it is time to TAKE CONTROL.

1. START

2. Take a pile and go through it piece by piece. If it is stained, ripped, worn, missing a button or has a broken zipper, throw it in the "get rid of" pile.

3. Figure out what your child REALLY needs in a 10 day period of time....that should be enough. You know you tend to wear the same things over and over anyway.
If something does not fit right, is uncomfortable, unsnaps too easily.... get rid of it!

4. Do the same for out of season clothes. Sort, wash and pack away those that you want to keep, easily marked for another child or another season.

When the kids were all at home this was a HUGH JOB FOR ME! It was one that I did not look forward to but the kids loved it and I did it at the change of the seasons spring/summer and fall/winter. I took banana boxes (I had no money for plastic containers) and sorted everything by girl/boy and type of clothes... ie: boys long sleeve shirts, girls pants, girls sleepwear, etc. I did not go by size as 3Ts may fit a 2 or a 4 year old.
(I realize that there will not be many of you that will run into this same problem :))

Wash and fold the clothes and put them away. Keep up with the laundry... throw a load in. Clothes right out of the dryer will be relatively unwrinkled. (a wet towel thrown back in with a load of dry clothes will help take out wrinkles as well)
At the peak of my family I was doing approx 27 loads of laundry a week! What would happen if I missed one day?!!

I had a laundry room down cellar (thank God) and put up a long counter I used the one we took out of the kitchen but you can find remnants at Home Depot... the formica is better than wood as it is smooth and stays clean easier. I made piles for each kid and each bathroom closet etc with the older kids having baskets underneath the counter. As soon as the baskets were full I called the kiddos down and everyone took their clothes and put them away. (dirty laundry was brought down every morning it was someones chore)
I also hung a pipe/dowel from the ceiling so that I could hand things up right from the dryer.

When the laundry was really dirty ( my husband was a tree man) I used stronger detergent, even made my own soap for awhile. I used bleach to keep my whites bright as well.

You will feel GREAT once you get your laundry situation under control... Just DO IT! Keep a bag/basket collecting all the time of clothes to get rid of. It will be so much easier if you just keep up with it!