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Clothing Swap Survival
By Kendra | October 9, 2009
“The picture’s a little blurry, Mom, but that’s ok. It’ll hide your wrinkles.” ~16-year-old
Andi recently asked me about how we tackle the seasonal clothing swap. In our part of California, autumn lasts approximately 24 hours and then BAM! It’s winter. And cold. There’s no real transitional time, and so our swap tends to be relatively quick and dirty, although I have gotten it down to a system that works for us.
First of all, I try to handle any new clothing that comes in by way of purchase or hand-me-downs right away. If I don’t put it away, it languishes on a countertop somewhere, and typically all the way until the next season. I have big Rubbermaid boxes labeled by size and stored in a large hall closet. When we had a much smaller home, everything was in labeled boxes and kept in the garage.
Next, I keep an inventory of clothing we own, marked by sex and size. I make notes as necessary, noting whether a sweater is part of an outfit, etc. With a good inventory, I can be sure I’m not purchasing something we don’t need or I can snatch up a really great sales rack deal even if no one is currently wearing that size. If it’s on my inventory as a need, I tend to buy it.
When it comes time to actually try on clothes or swap them out, I find that taking one child at a time works best. I used to try to do the whole thing in a day or two, but I’ve found it stresses me out far less if I focus on one child per day. It then takes a week or more, but that’s ok. No one will freeze or overheat in the meantime.
During our swap days, I keep donation bags at the ready. Right now we’re handing clothes down to three different families, so I have their bags plus a thrift store bag labeled and handy. As I am doing laundry this week, I can grab clothes that need to go and just toss them into the appropriate bag.
Nothing is perfect. We find strays throughout the season, but I just pile them neatly on a shelf in the hall closet and deal with them when I can.
Topics: Home Organization | 19 Comments »
October 9th, 2009 at 2:59 am
Thanks for sharing your survival tips! I have stressed over this for years…..and when I read your title I remembered that I have been putting that off. Inventory is something I haven’t tried. Sounds like a good idea.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:44 am
I am fortunate to have a lot of kiddos that I can just transfer clothes from one kid’s part of the closet to another part. But it does get overwhelming. I try to do all the boy clothes one day. There are 3 of them and I think boy’s clothes are so much easier to do than girls. I do the girl clothes the next day. There are 4 of them and it takes a while…all those capris, shorts, dresses, pants…boys have shorts and pants. Don’t even get me started on the shoes!! But…despite the fact that I get frustrated at sorting clothes…I am very thankful that I have all these little (and some not so little) bodies to take care of and sort clothes for!
Thanks again, Kendra, for your encouragement and advice! We all love ya!
October 9th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Oh and P.S….you look great!!
October 9th, 2009 at 5:34 am
HI Kendra….I love your BIG closet…I have 6 kids plus one on the way and sorting clothes is a huge job. My kiddies are so close in size that it hardly makes it to the bin first. I love your system for making less stress..even if it takes longer it is worth it for mamma!! Take care…I love your blog and read it everyday (when I have time). It has given me some real great ideas on how to organize my big family.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Funny I am doing this today too!! I feel a bit odd pulling sweaters down when the afternoons are still getting up to 80 degrees out, but the mornings are chilly! I keep a box in my kids room for hand me downs and items that are still big enough to get another season out of, that I later will put in the attic. I took three bags, 1) for a family we are handing down to 2) Goodwill and 3) trash for those items that have been to the point of no return
I keep a running list of what needs to be purchased and keep it with me when I go out and about so if I see a good deal I check my list!
October 9th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Kendra-who-keeps-an-inventory-of-the-clothing-in-her-house,
I am nearly speechless that you are *that* organized.
(And it’s one of the reasons I love you so much! You ROCK in the organization department, girl!)
We tackled our own clothing yesterday. It took three adults, and all.morning.long.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Thanks for the ideas. I think it’s funny the different ways we mommas come up with ways to organize ourselves to stay sane. I have to do a swap in one day or I go insane with all the clothes and boxes sitting around. I did our swap a few weeks ago. I can never tell what the weather in TX will do so I have to work ahead to be ready. Yesterday it was 85. Today it’s 65. Next week we’re in for another 85. i have to keep some of my warm weather clothes out just so we don’t go ripping through my boxes.
Karen
October 9th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Great suggestions as always, Kenj.
What I really want to know is:
What are you doing skinny-mama?! You look great!
Very trim (and no wrinkles to speak of!)
Happy Day,
Shannon
October 9th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Thanks, Shannon! Been working hard at it, and I’m an old bridesmaid this November with the bride’s teenage daughters- talk about motivation!
How are you feeling these days?
October 10th, 2009 at 2:18 am
What does your inventory look like? Do you actually have each piece of clothing listed by type, size and season?
October 10th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Maybe in a post (or as a reply to my comment), you can elaborate on how you keep an inventory? I have 4 kids (7, 5, 3, and 10months), and I’m not organized at all. This is one area that usually takes us a month. I like your ideas. I’m just not sure I can implement it immediately.
Thank you so much!
October 10th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Jennifer and Dovey-
I can share that in a bit…
October 10th, 2009 at 9:16 am
My biggest problem is updating my list of clothing bins. I have a list of just the bins so clothes can come down from the attic. This fall (when the attic is clean out) I will attempt a clothing inventory.
Maybe I will keep in my household notebook so I will not lose it!
Thank you so much idea!
April
October 10th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Soooooo….are you gonna tell us how you’re getting in shape to be a bridesmaid????!!!
Inquiring minds want to know…ya’ know?
LOL!! Dawn in SC
October 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Over here on the other side of the world, we are heading into summer and I have made the same mistake that I do EVERY year……swap the clothes over too early!! (you’d think I would learn!). This year was a particularly deceptive year. We had 5-6 weeks of really warm weather and as we don’t have a lot of room in the kid’s closets, I thought I was safe to do the big swap. But no………..the past two weeks have had me back scrounging through the oh-so-neatly-folded-and-carefully -stored winter woolies!!
October 10th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
My dear organized friend,
Very good work, and you look great! No wrinkles, and I know wrinkles.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Jeannie- Barely! You look beautiful, friend!
January 9th, 2010 at 5:40 am
Kendra-
I love your website and organizational tips. I loved your tip about keeping a running inventory or clothing so you know when you are low on something and keep an eye out on bargin racks. My new year’s resolution is to inventory the clothing for our family so I too can shop bargin racks. I was wondering what your inventory looked like and what your favorite internet sites for clearance items are.
January 9th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Hi Sarah-
I just keep a little Excel spreadsheet. Nothing fancy- on the left side the categories are clothing items: long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts. t-shirts, jeans, church pants, sweaters, etc. Across the top are the sizes.
My favorite sites are Gymboree and Crazy 8 because they both have big clearances during which you can also earn GymBucks or Crazy Cash- a certain amount for every dollar you spend. Right now I have $40 in Crazy Cash to spend this month either in the store or online. I’ll probably head to the mall to our local Crazy 8 to spend it on the clearance racks and avoid shipping, too, although I never pay shipping on those sites because I plan out the purchase to provide free shipping.
I also like the Lands End clearance for bathing suits, but if I’m out and about (rare!) I’ll go through every clearance rack I can with an eye for what our needs will be. One of my sons life guards at local pools and must have mostly-black swim trunks. I found two pair on the clearance rack at Kohls for $15 each- pretty good for brand new trunks that will last him the whole summer. (He’s in men’s sizes so $15 is a good deal
)