We have been blessed with enough clothing to clothe an entire continent - twice! We only have three children but we seem to amass mountains of clothing. Since we believe we are called to trust God with our family size, I've been saving everything in case of more children. This led to not being able to walk through our basement - literally. God has lead me to a simple, freeing truth - the children can/should only wear one set of clothes at a time. Seems a little obvious doesn't it?! So, I relentlessly organized in an effort to work less on laundry and run more. Here's what I came up with.
Stage one: label drawers with every one's name, whether it is winter or summer clothing (I have chosen not to use dressers - only child accessible tubs so they can put their own laundry away and choose their own outfits in the morning).
Stage two: take out what doesn't fit, stained, unmatched, or simply not liked or comfy
Stage three: label summer and winter clothes
level 1 - mud/play clothes
level2 - decent going out in public clothes
level 3 - church clothes
Stage four: go through match outfits and reduce to your set number of manageable clothes
This is by far the hardest but most worth while stage. Here's how it looks for us for winter clothes: Ethan has 5 outfits in levels 1&2 but only 3 church outfits= total 13
Nathan has 5 outfits for level 1, level2, and level3= 15 outfits with 15 extra t-shirts (we go through alot even in winter!)
Andrea has 5 outfits at each level also =15 outfits total
Plus three jammies for each older child - no jammies for Ethan yet - only babyleg outfits!
Why go through this year long process? To rid myself of frustration, teach my children independence, enable my husband to take over the laundry system as needed, and to free up more time to seek the Lord, rest, and run!
What clothes or laundry taming tips have worked for you? I still need all the help I can get!
Because I'm a better mother when I run...And I'm a better runner now that I'm a mother!
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