mommabird, my DIL saves clothes from the older DD to pass down to the younger one. She boxes them up, by sizes, marks them, and then stores in her little overhead attic space. My suggestion is to go through and REALLY look at the condition and sizes of what you have. Then box up and LABEL what's keepers. Do you have a space in a closet that you can stack up the boxes? How about using a plastic trash can that seals, cover it with a cloth (boy related!) and use it as a table or a night stand. Have lots of clothes? Let them have SEVERAL night stands! LOL

Good luck - there's no reason to be embarassed by your situation. We're all on here cause we have "issues"! LOL

Now, tell me why I have four coffee/occasional tables in my tiny storage shed....LOL

Take a day and commit to really going through the stuff and putting it in labeled boxes like des said. I bet you will get rid of at least half of it. Betcha.

An entire room of clothing would overwhelm me also. Now, while you are doing this--really give it some thought. Are you always buying the oldest a complete wardrobe because you are going to hand it down? Then, by the time it hits the youngest a bunch of it is looking pretty bad so you end up having to get him some things anyway?

I've come to the conclusion that kids really need few clothes and when they don't have tons we actually keep up with the laundry. It's impossible to keep the laundry up when everyone has tons of clothing.

My boys have approx. 5 pair of jeans, 10 shirts, 10 briefs and pair of socks. PJs. One pair of tennis shoes and then either sandels or boots, depending on the season. They wear lots of cut-offs since they blow the knees out of the jeans by the end of school anyway.

My 12 yo is down to three pair of jeans and since he's growing like a weed, I'm not buying more than that. He wears them 2-3 days and we just down the laundry frequently.

A room full of clothing is still a great deal of clothes, even if you are passing them down. Where do they all come from? One real advantage to having less is we actually wear them out. I always know who needs new underwear and socks.

Be more selective in the clothing you keep/buy and just make a date with yourself to do a load of laundry a day. You can still use the closet in the guest room for storage, but as you noticed, if you can't find what you need it is really frustrating.

Gloria

I just had another thought. You said that DS #1 wants his own room. Okay, recruit him to sit in there in the floor with ya and fold all the keepers and bag up all the thrift store/trash stuff.

Bet he'll do it if he can visualize himself, all alone, in a room without his brothers! LOL

Hand me downs are great - it does not mean you have to keep everything, though, to ensure a full wardrobe for the young siblings.

I took everything of my daughter's out and found that she was WAY overstocked on tops, and very understocked on pants/shorts. This was leading to frustration in our house also.

Once you do the sort, you might uncover something logical like my top situation, that can be safely purged, yet still leave the younger ones with plenty to wear.

As for gettign DS to help you sort--can you pick a shirt (one for each size) that you *know* is still the right size, and lay them on the floor to use as a gauge?

Then DS can lay the shirt he's testing on top of the "gauge," and put it w/ the one it is closest to without being smaller.

I never have tags in the kids clothes, bcs we cut them out, so I wouldn't be able to tell without doing something like this.

And I have the same problem TREKaren has with handmedowns--too many of the wrong thing, or nothing matches. I got really ruthless a couple of years ago. Every top has to have its own bottom to match. Maybe 3 shirts can be spare.

Also, I take the first 2 weeks of any season, and *I* pick the clothes she wears (DS is easy; DD is picky). If ever she says, "no, I don't want to wear that," out it goes!

And I agree w/ Gloria--it's better to have fewer clothes and wash them more often (or wear jeans, or shorts, 2 or 3 times. (of course, then you can have a few more tops than shorts)

But what a pain kids' clothes are, aren't they? I have to pull out the summer clothes and sort them out, weed them out, and go buy more.

Tell you what: we'll make a pact--you and me, and the kids' clothes. Do a dozen, tonight--minimum, more if we can swing it. And check back in tomorrow.

Count me in on that pact!

Tuesday and Thursday are good for nothing else this summer. These are going to be my house days. The kids will want to be at the pool the other days, nothing will get done. But these days, we have gymnastic 1-3 and tae kwon do 6-7, next door to each other, back and forth for me on those days. Consumes the day, but the breaks in between will be a good time to set the clock and get something done. I will sort through a pile of clothes in between those activities today.

And for what I don't keep, I even drive past Goodwill on this trip. Straight into the car they'll go, drop them off.

Mommabird, I'm curious as to how you managed to keep so many boys clothes so clean that they were able to be handed down?

Someone asked where they all come from - good question since I feel like I never go shopping! I have 2 dear friends who each have 1 boy slightly older/bigger than DS#1 so they give me a lot of stuff. I do garage sales for a lot of their clothes.

I will take you up on your challenge to do a dozen a night, Talley Sue. Grate idea on using a "Gage" shirt so DS can help sort. HE's willing!

My problem is also TIME - between work, Scouts, and baseball I am hardly ever home so things seem to get worse and worse. I have been sharing baseball with DH his year - we don't both go to every game. The boys haven't even seemed to mind. One or the other of us is there & they are satisfied with that. There are nights when 2 of the 3 have baseball games either at the same time or slightly overlapping. I do the Scout stuff because I'm a leader.

Summer is just NOT the best time to try to get organized!!!

THANKS everyone for your help.

OK, I got the DS's summer clothes out, and have put away some--only some--of his winter.

This kid must have 50 shirts. I want him to get rid of some bcs they're getting small, but he LOVES them. And I can understand why--they have really great designs (picture a velociraptor ripping its way out through your shirt). And he wouldn't let go of any of them. I think I'll try to spirit some out.

We went through the bottoms from DD's box of next-season clothes. Now we need to do tops (tonight, maybe). Then we need to buy some clothes. This year, the clothes in the store are just crummy. JCPenney's girls' clothes are either ugly, or they aren't coordinated sets. Add to that the fact the DD is really picky and has the skin sensitivity of The Princess and the Pea, and this is just not a good year for buying clothes. A bummer, bcs last year was great!

So, don't forget tonight, ladies! I'll check in tomorrow.

I rarely do clothes shopping, but usually order from a catalog or hit the thrift store. Before we went to Reno, I promised DD we would actually go out and shop for summer clothing. She just turned 9 and I am NOT dressing her in stuff which looks like the teens are wearing. I'll never understand mothers who allow their little girls to wear stuff like "I'm a hottie" on the front. In Kim's size their was a shirt with two Reece's Peanut Butter Cups right on the boobs, saying "yum yum."

We ended up at Sears and bought what I would have normally ordered from Land's End anyway, but she was happy getting to try stuff on in the dressing room.

Gloria

It sounds like you have to give away or toss a lot of clothing. Be brave. What everyone says is true, children really don't need that many clothes. I would urge you to sit down at your computer and make lists of what each boy needs. For example, maybe your oldest needs a blazer and good khaki pants. Dress shoes. But maybe black tennis shoes would suffice as dress shoes for a younger son. Plan for two Sunday bests, one for every week and then an outfit for special occassions like Christmas or Easter. Make a list of types of shirts and pants and shorts, etc. for each size that you plan to hand down. And then knowing what you might need, you can garage sale/thrift shop for the clothes that you don't already have. That will help you let go of the excess.

Next, have the son that wants his own bedroom to sort, fold and stack the clothing by type. Just think, if you find the notion of sorting by size frustrating, imagine his response. Don't overwhelm him or "punish" him for the lack of order in that spare bedroom. Just get him to fold all the shorts, pants, nicer shirts, and T-shirts into like piles. Plus socks and underwear. Next, you size each sort and glean only the best for the younger boys. Throw anything away that is stained or torn or pilled or hopelessly out of fashion. Start stacking your new piles based on size. Look at your lists. If DS#1 is 12 and DS#3 is 4 years old, then you have to divide the clothing into several sizes. But if DS#2 is right behind DS#1, then just move the clothes from one closet to another. Do not allow them to hoard clothing. If they must have a shirt or two as a keepsake, put it away. But be ruthless.

Go to Kinkos and get paper boxes. Label each one according to size and contents and store in your attic. In the fall, change out the seasons and sizes. Don't allow yourself to toss outsized clothing anywhere in the house. You can realistically do this in about a week.

Mommabird,

So... how's it going? As a sports & Boy Scout mom, I know how summers are!

Here are my suggestions in case you're not on track yet.

Let's say you have boys clothes in sizes 6-8-10-12-14-16. Get 6 boxes and separate the clothes by size a little bit at a time. Flylady's 15 minutes a day will accomplish more than you suspect. I would keep more outfits per season that others suggested (example: a week at scout camp takes 10 days worth of clothes for dirty sweaty boys, LOL).

Toss the really junky stuff. Make a quick list of what you know you NEED. I can guarantee you I didn't have any size 10 jeans after the first kid wore them! Don't buy anything at garage sales or thrift stores unless you're SURE you need them (no matter how cheap those size 12 shirts are, don't buy shirts unless they're on the list).

Keep things like coats in a separate box. If your size 8 kid needs a coat and you don't have a size 8, give him the size 10. He can wear a sweatshirt under it if he needs to.

Keep all sports & scout stuff separate from regular clothes. Trust me, it's just easier.

P.S. My boys didn't own blazers before high school. Until then, a shirt & tie was fine. They also didn't own dress shoes until then, we just spiffed up their hiking boots.

So what are you ladies doing with Scouts in the summer? That's a really slow time for us with activities. Too many families take off and go fishing or camping. DS and the DH just got done with a week at camp and they will go fishing later this month. That's about it until school starts back up.

Gloria

Our Boy Scout troop runs a 12-month program. We still have weekly meetings for the boys, monthly camping trips, service projects (we have several school boys working on their Eagle rank), merit badges, religious emblem training, the usual committee meetings, etc.

Julie

Well, I can relate to these posts! I read them the other day and actually went through all of DS's clothes last night, amazing that a 4 month old baby had 4 BOXES of clothing that no longer fit him. I now need to tackle my 4 year old DD's closet.

Before I had DS I saved ALL of DD's clothes thinking that I was probably going to have another girl, surprise! I had a boy, so now I need to get rid of literally 11-15 boxes of girl clothes sized newborn-4T... what do I do with them? Plus, now I need to rid myself of the boy clothes as well, any ideas?

Friends and family keep telling me to hang onto them because "someone will have a baby sometime" what I think people forget about is that the clothes need to be "on season" as well. If someone has a baby girl in the winter, my clothes are useless to them, as I had my girl in the summer, I think you can see what I'm getting at...

Basically, I just want the clothes GONE! I don't need them, my kids don't need them, and I don't know anyone who's having a baby right now. My basement would have so much more room if I ditched DD's stuff... it would be great. Have any of you ever gone the consignment route? I was thinking of just dropping it all off at the local Salvation Army, as I have done that before with my own clothes. Does anyone know of a charity that would benefit from these clothes more? It would be nice to donate them to a women's shelter or something similar....

Sorry to jump in on your post mommabird, sounds like you are making progress, and thanks for the inspiration everyone!!!!

Try call a local crisis pregnancy center. Ours takes clothes up to size 2T and provides them free of charge to low income women (and teens) having babies. I preferred this over our local Salvation Army (which over-prices baby clothes).

emmhip, they really do go through clothing quickly. All of our local charity thrift stores will take children's clothing. Many are run by local churches. We also have charity groups who give the clothing to families, rather than selling it. Our local Salvation Army is a bit high, also, but the money goes to run the local alcohol treament facility so I don't mind paying the prices. If you have a local Freecycle group, that's an excellent way to give them away.

If you are in a rural area which may not have the charity organizations, I would call a local church and tell them what you have and I'd bet they would know of a family which would love to take them. A local hospital social worker is also a good source of information. Just get out the phone book and start hunting.

Gloria

Wow that is a lot of clothes

I have 5 kids and have been passing everything down as 4 wear boys clothes (dd is a tomboy). We are also limited on space as 3 share a room. I use a lot of underbed storage, I got these big baskets from IKEA that are about 25 x 35. Out of season clothes are stored under the bed if they still fit or will fit someone else in the coming season. EAch kid has his own bin and a separate bin for winter clothes such as gloves etc. Sports equipment is not a major problem as they are not into it. Anything that is not going to fit anyone for a year goes to the attic. I wish I could say its a labeled box but its more like those space bags

Still, their rooms are under much better control since I implemented this

My method is to sort clothes by predicted usage date, season and like sizes and intended child. I then use a vacumn bag and stash it under my bed.

The label might say "Summer 2008, Sarah" If unsure about a size I will guess earlier rather than later- that way I can move it on to another bag if I have to. Sometimes I guess wrong, and the clothes are too big, but usually I am pretty right.

Shoes- they are a pain to store. But I wrap them in a plastic bag and put them in my predicted vacumn bag too.

So, come summer 2008 I grab Sarah's bag and we go through to see what fits/close enough fits, then I rebag anything that doesn't.

If the size and season won't match your child- pass it on early to save space. Also, if you know the shape of the garment is unlikely to suit another child, move it on too. (eg slim fit pants that won't fit chunker siblings).

Em

Just went through the closets this week before school shopping.We had three piles.Toss - the pile for anything stained or torn ; Recycle - the goodwill pile,good clothes only;and Keep - the clothes that my son will actually be wearing.A variation on this would be an additional pile called Children's consignment-featuring nearly mint clothes with classic name brands.They can be traded at a consignment store or sold on the internet.

Has anyone had any experiences good or bad selling clothes on Ebay?

halle, I haven't sold clothing on eBay, but I do buy quite a few things for my kids. I have certain brands for which I will search. Lands End, Gymboree, Nordstrom, Hanna Andersen, etc. I know how thoses clothes are sized and how they hold up after being washed. I dislike lots where brands are mixed because there is usually only one brand I want. I dislike mixed sized lots. You'll also have better luck with clothing for the correct season.

I also expect to get a really, really good deal on the clothing because I'm adding in the shipping when I consider the cost. If I can purchase something from Wal-Mart new for the same price or less, I won't do the eBay items.

Good luck if you decide to sell that way.

Gloria