Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Works for me Wednesday---Backwards Edition


So today is April 1st. This week the theme is Backwards Edition. I am supposed to come up with a question & hope somebody has a good answer for me. I absolutely LOVE sharing the things I've found that work for me....I also LOVE it when somebody else comes up with a new idea that helps me.
Here is my dilemma: I need an efficient way to do my seasonal clothing switch for all the kids. I need to store my oldest daughter's outgrown clothing for the younger girls and store the younger girls outgrown clothing for my granddaughter. I'm not sure what to do with my youngest son's outgrown clothing at the moment, but I've been storing it, he has younger boy cousins who could probably use it next year. My current system has been a bunch of random Rubbermaid totes with all their out of season clothes mixed together, but it is NOT working.

3 comments:

Traci Best said...

I'm a rubbermaid tote gal myself...BUT I read once about a family who used file boxes. The end of each box was labeled with the gender, size and season. Only clothes that fit that category were 'filed' there. They stacked these boxes in storage shelves in their garage. The Mom would yard sale or get hand me downs or find stuff on clearance racks and then file them in the correct box. When a child outgrew a size she simply went to her storage are and pulled the appropriate box in the next size for that child's gender and the current season.

I've seen file boxes (cardboard) at Officemax recently on sale in sets of three I believe. You might also use copy paper boxes, or even the rubber totes you have...or some combination.

La said...

I use clear tubs (sterilite brand from walmart for just under $5 each). I always label them by taking a full sheet of paper, writing the gender, size and season, and slip the paper on one end so I can read it clearly from the outside. It's super easy to change the label for the tub as different sizes are in it later.

I wish I had used filing boxes just because they would fit better on our shelves. The tubs are big!

I'm in the middle of switching seasons/sizes right now and taking a big load of stuff to the resale shop. Fun, fun, fun. ;)

alpinekleins said...

What a cute place you've created here - so fun! When my kids were little I stored all their out of season clothes in the boxes (rubbermaid) that were just the right size to go under the bed. Then it was really easy to swap them out when the seasons switched.

Now that they're big, it's the gear that gets stored - ski boots, gloves hats, coats, for the summer stuff, mitts, balls, ball bags, helmets etc.