Springtime!

Well, almost.  The weather outside is fooling me into doing a bit of a tidy in the house.

We keep all clothes up to about size 14 or 18 when older children outgrow them.  So pretty much around middle-school age (grades 6-8), my children need new clothes all their own.  Which means all my older children are done "passing down" anything but a pair of winter boots and a gently used jacket, really.

I label clothes going into storage by size and season in... garbage bags and keep them in the closet.  I know, super classy!  But it does cut down considerably on moths and whatnot getting to them.  I save a lot of money by using this system and also by saving shoes for the next child if they're in decent shape. 

So I've been digging through bags of used clothes, rounding up things by season and washing a few loads here and there and re-organising the closets of the littler children.  They also have some "new" shoes from older siblings. 

I do wind up buying several new items for each child, but I would say 3/4 of Woodjie's clothes and shoes are hand-me-downs.  We find that thrift stores are excellent places to find very gently worn and pretty little girls' clothes for Rose.  For teen girls?  Not so much.  There is no way my child is wearing a skirt shorter than Uhura's or sport clothing with as much 'attitude' as I see on the racks there.  It will be a sad day when I stop finding cute things for Rose when I thrift.