19 September 2010

Packing and Unpacking

Are you getting ready for fall at your house?  I've been diving into our storage bags, organizing and moving things about.

Not too tough to organize my clothes.  I gained 35 pounds this year.  Funny how that sounds.  People love to announce when they lose weight, but never say anything when they gain it.  If you hadn't seen someone for a while, and suddenly see them 60 pounds heavier, it's a bit of a shock, isn't it?  Ahhh... well... so clotheswise?  I think I am going to buy sweatpants from Wal-Mart this year and just forget it.  You know? 

Elf and Emperor did that "growing" thing over this summer.  I've taken their clothes out of their dressers and set up a plastic shelf in their closet.  I'm too cheap to buy proper storage units or new furniture for the children so that they have nicer-looking things.   Right now, they are growing up AND wearing things out.  Maybe later.  :)

So.  I've taken all their clothes out and sorted 'em.  Their underwear and socks go in a milk crate, and each child has two shelves, one for pants/shorts and another for shirts/sweats.  We have a small hanging spot for coats not in use and a bin for shoes that will be grown into or used next season by Elf/Emperor.  Woodjie is using their old drawers.  Yep, the baby is growing up, which means his clothes are too big for a couple of Rubbermaid containers.

Does every large family use Rubbermaid containers for their small children's clothes at some point?  I think I sense an ad campaign coming on here. 

Now it's time to get all the clothes out of the garbage bags in the next size up.  Separate summer clothes from winter clothes.  Pack most summer clothes into a garbage bag.  Label with masking tape and marker.  Leave a couple T-shirts and shorts for each child and figure that I need about seven outfits per child. 

Time to try things on the children! 

Emperor will not wear jeans.  He started screaming that these were TOO SOFT and jumping about.  No jeans.  He can wear the camo pants I bought new from LL Bean for $4000 each years ago.  Yay.  But I can't see myself buying any new ones for a nine-year-old currently wearing G's eighth-grade stuff.  How tall is Emperor going to wind up if he's bigger than G was at this age, and G is 6 ft. 3? Yowie.  Someday we really WILL need a new bed for him, or he will have to sleep sideways to avoid the footboard.

Ok.  No jeans.  No things that are too tight.  No pull-ties.  I'm not kidding when I tell you that aside from the hand-me-down camo pants (that have been patched three times and he needs a belt for), he has nothing but jammies.  Some of these jammies have pink Hello Kitties on 'em.  Arg.

Basement: clothes for Woodjie
Elf... your turn.  OH NO!  He can't do buttons.  No jeans.  That means the 10 or so pairs of pants I so carefully saved from Patrick and G's outgrown clothes are... useless.  Into the bin they go for Woodjie... later... maybe.  (I know you LOVE to store 10 pairs of pants in every size for about ohhh... 11 years before someone MIGHT use 'em, eh?  Our basement looks like something out of "Hoarders!")  We are eking by with some sweatpants and jammie bottoms, but he'll likely need something new as well.  It would be SO much easier just to teach him to do buttons... no, maybe not.


Woodjie, Elf and Emperor's room.
I think all of us will be wearing sweatpants from Wal-Mart this year.  Sigh.

4 comments:

  1. I found it a nightmare to keep 6 kids in decent clothes ... and figuring out who fitted what each season.
    Shoes were the biggest problem, most often they were too worn to hand on down... and they are not cheap!
    Griffin can't do buttons, zips or ties... so dressing him is a mission sometimes too. I recently found some elastic type shoe laces which are FANTASTIC! He only has to pull them, and they tangle up together and his shoes stay on. AWESOME. lol

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  2. Yeah well I gained 5 this year and Im determined to come out with a deficit in spite of it! LOl

    Peter will only wear jeans! He refuses to wear cargo pants or sweats or anything, it's got to be jeans. Funny how kids are all different like that!

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  3. There was a time I had trouble gaining weight. Not anymore. Why do gain weight so easily when we get older? Except for my dad, he's still skinny like has been all his life. What's the deal with that? Why didn't I get the skinny gene?

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  4. First had to say that when Olivia saw the picture of the boy's room she said, "Oh, beautiful!" Sadly, we are fast running out of hand me downs and if Granny doesn't get some more from Aunt Yvonne, Aunt Heidi, and Cousin Denise soon we will be buying new clothes next year. Who wants to do that? I save stuff in flat plastic tubs that slide under the bed--we don't have a basement.

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