It's That Time of Year Again!

Daylight Savings Time has come, and the forecast for the week at my house is temperatures in the mid-70s.  That means it's time for our semi-annual seasonal clothes swap!  With 6 kids, this takes a bit of time, so I've carved out several days this week in which we'll work on it.  Thankfully, a few years ago, I established a good system that works for us (many, many thanks to Michelle from My Blessed Home for the inspiration!), so it really shouldn't take too long and I can still get school done while we work.   The biggest part is going to be doing all the laundry beforehand, so I don't miss anything!

I've also found that my younger ones tend to have a *lot* more grow-into clothes than the older ones.  In fact, I usually end up with a shopping list for the older ones, and an overwhelming mass of clothes for the littles!  What I've started doing for the littles, is once it's been determined which clothes fit for the season, they (or I, depending on the age of the child), pick out about 5-7 outfits to keep in their room... the rest go back into the box!  That way, there isn't an overwhelming amount of clothes for the child to try to manage (ending up with clothes strewn all over the room, or perfectly clean clothes that end up in the dirty laundry, and so on).  And, if a pair of jeans gets a rip in them, or a bad stain on a shirt, I can just find a replacement in their box!  Murphy's Law at my house is, if I let a child have ALL the jeans that fit at one time, ALL the jeans that fit will end up with holes.  So, I keep some nice and fresh in storage!

My dilemma this year is, for the first time ever, there is no little boy following behind... so there are now boxes of little boy clothes all the way up to 2T that no one is wearing!  I am going to do a big sort and purge of them, just to cut back on some of the overwhelming amount of clothes there are.  I actually have the sneaking suspicion that the newest little one to come will be another boy, BUT, now is as good a time as any to get those clothes really organized and ready. 

Girl clothes are a totally different story!  We have been so blessed with generous amounts of clothing for Miss Rachel, and I've tried meticulously to keep them under control and organized.  I think the hardest part is all of the "extras" that come with girl clothes!  Instead of just pants, shirts, and PJs for boys, she's got pants (which include capris and leggings), shirts, PJs, skirts, dresses, diaper covers, hair bows, and so on!  So trying to organize her dresser has been a challenge for me.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, though!

Is anyone else working on the seasonal clothes swap?  Do you have a system that works great for you?  I'd love to hear about it!