on clothes and laundry

Clothes are taking over and I feel it is time to strike back before it's too overwhelming. Laundry, horrid laundry... And sorting, and rotating. With four boys who are growing at various rates I feel like I'm ALWAYS rotating clothes from the downstairs bins (I have a bin designated for each size0-3 months up to 6T) to their drawers, to their brothers drawers, back down to the bins, then back up a few months later for the next brother. Because I'm not great at taking clothes out and down when they are no longer being used their drawers get stuffed and clothes get wrinkled. Plus, they just have more clothes than they need, so I can put off laundry for a while...but I always put it off too long and a chore that could be pretty simple becomes daunting.

And then there are my clothes, with my weight going from regular to chubby to maternity to chubby to regular (4 times!) I don't even know if it's worth it to even try catching my closet up to match my current weight.

I need fewer clothes and a better system. So here's my plan, may it at least get me through the rest of the summer...

Step one: Do ALL laundry.

As I fold I will either put the clothes away in their drawers, in the give-away pile, or the don't fit/wrong season pile. I will limit the number of clothing articles to what will fit easily in the designated drawer and feel relieved to get rid of the extras that are clogging up the system.

Step 2: Bring up all bins

This is rough, but I think if I'm to really get on top of things I need to do it. Take out all clothes that currently fit my kids, put away clothes that don't, get rid of extra, then put them all back downstairs.

Step 3 : Maintain

Keep two smaller bins in the laundry room. One for clothes that need to go to bins and one for clothes to give away. As they fill up, deal with them accordingly. Luckily I have a big laundry room, so this is possible. As they grow out of things & their drawers seem empty, bring up appropriate size bin and refill.

So, that is the task this week. Hopefully it will only take a day or two, but with kids you just never know what a day will bring. That is definitely something I've learned: "To Do" lists have become "Maybe if I work really hard, I'll find ten minutes at a time to work on this stuff" lists.

On "amother" note (okay, I know that was cheesy, it started out as a mistake, then seemed appropriate...) the other day Jack and I were in the car and he asked me:

"mom, if I think I don't want to grow big, will I won't grow big?"

I told him that even if he thinks he doesn't want to, he'll still grow big. This made him sad so we talked about all the things he'll be able to do as he get big. I don't think I convinced him, maybe because I'm still not convinced it's a great idea=)

Noah was scared of fireworks, but didn't cry. He just clung to me and jumped every time one boomed and I held him tight and pointed out the colors. Maybe it traumatized him (doubtful), but I loved every minute of it.