Clothing Swap Out

Every six months I swap out the clothes, trading the winter and summer clothing.  Being May already, I decided it was about time the summer things came out!  This is always quite a task - especially as we get more kids in this house!  It doesn't help either that we have three girls, all born in different seasons, so it ALL gets saved and handed down.   We keep the tubs of clothes in the basement.  AJ is kind enough to drag up the tubs for the sizes they have outgrown, and the tubs for the sizes they are moving into and we set up a staging area.  I create a big pile of all the clothes that need to be put away.  I open up all the lids and do a quick sort, tossing the clothes into the correct tub for the size. 
Then after that I close up the lids on the sizes that I don't need, and then start sorting out outfits for the sizes we do!  I never pull out all the clothes.  I only take out about 10 outfits for each person - some more, some less.  That kind of depends on how old they are which has a direct relationship to how dirty they tend to get during the day.    I also go through and pull anything that needs to be thrown out or donated.

I still find myself surprised every time that there is *something* we need to go out and buy still!  For example, I discovered this year that Idgie need shorts.  You would think with hand-me-downs from two older sisters, 3 cousins, and a few friends, that we would be in need of nothing - yet I had to go buy a few pieces to augment what was there. 
Generally the task of going through the clothes is tedious, but what does make part of it fun, is seeing old "friends".  I can pull out a shirt or a dress and it brings back memories of when one of the girls wore it and what they were like.

This picture doesn't do it justice of just how full my living room felt - but here it is.  The girls' tubs are lined up by size in front of the couch there, and you can spot two of Lincoln's tub there in the back.  Then that pile of clothes opposite the tubs, is everything that needs to be put away before I can pull out the new stuff!

Rating:  3 Lollipops