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teachingmom
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Virginia Bluebells
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| Posted: March 21 2005 at 12:29am | IP Logged
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Thanks to you ladies and this thread, I spent a few hours earlier today going through the clothing of my 5yo and 6yo. I gathered three large plastic bags full of clothes and shoes to give away. And their closet and drawers are still full, for the most part. But now they can actually find things. Since we are on Spring break this week, I'll move on to the next bedroom tomorrow. Thanks for the motivation! 
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Jeanne
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| Posted: March 28 2005 at 5:51pm | IP Logged
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Happy Easter!!
I just told my kids we need to get better control of things on the homefront. With hand me downs, gifts and friends always passing items to us we are bustin at the seams with cloths. Thank you for all the ideas on how to control this.
In regards to laundry, we try to do a load everyday. If not it turns into a mountain pretty fast with 8 of us.
I have a sorting bin, one for lights,one for darks and one for whites. I have been putting my lights and darks together lately much to the chagrin  of my husband. We bought the large front loader washer and dryer last year, which has helped tremendously.
Last year we bought some large dressers for the kids, they each have 4 large drawers and 2 small. Three large for in season and 1 large for cloths that we think will fit for the next season.
We have a large hallway upstairs, so we have them lined up there. That frees up the bedrooms for the beds.
My laundry nighmare is doing a load of whites(I always put it off as long as possible). With all the different size feet it takes a lot of time to match up the socks. I can't wait till sandel season!! 
Does anyone have a great idea to make this task go a little faster?
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Jeanne
mom to 9 (21,19,17,15,12,10,6,4,8 months
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
P hi li ppians 4:13
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: March 28 2005 at 11:28pm | IP Logged
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"Does anyone have a great idea to make this task go a little faster?"
My only suggestion for laundry is about sorting socks. I also can't wait for the summertime when I don't have to bother with socks and shoes, and then sorting socks from the laundry. But, earlier in the winter, I bought each of my 3 kids all new socks, all white. My oldest had ankle socks, so they were easy to tell apart and match up. I marked each of the younger two kids' socks with symbol to match them up. Now I just have to match up the symbols!! It does make it quicker.
This is a great thread, because I was just telling my husband that our kids have too many clothes. They pretty much wear the same 5-6 outfits all the time. Lots of clothes just taking up space, making it more difficult to keep the rest of the drawers organized.
Thanks,
Noreen
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Mary G
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| Posted: March 29 2005 at 9:34am | IP Logged
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kingvozzo wrote:
They pretty much wear the same 5-6 outfits all the time. Lots of clothes just taking up space, making it more difficult to keep the rest of the drawers organized.
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This is the problem I have with all mine -- especially my older ones -- if it just came out of the wash, wear it so they don't have to put it away! This means that they wear the same 1-3 things and INSIST they have nothing to wear! I just organized my 14yod's dresser and found 10 PAIRS! of long white socks, another DOZEN short white socks and various others -- and she can NEVER find matching socks!
Blessings to all for a productive, organizing Easter Week!
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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TradCathMom
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| Posted: March 29 2005 at 10:12pm | IP Logged
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I don't have a whole lot of wisdom in this department (ok, none at all actually)  But I have been getting *somewhere* with socks. I started sorting and sorting and sorting ... how on earth do they all get separated, I know they all wear 2 socks at a time.... well, I think so anyway! I had many leftover socks after the sorting and I put them in ziploc bags according to who they belonged to (the 2 girls who wear the same size share a zip loc) and then when the next load of laundry is done and there are no mates, I either put it in the zip loc or take out the sock that belongs with it. It's been working pretty well. Believe it or not my husband doesn't have a single sock in his bag! (now someone tell me how it is that mens black socks never fade the same black?!
I will agree with those who said about limiting the # of clothing, the less we have the more we tend to keep up with laundry and be on top of things. I really would like to go back to the days of having 3 dresses and not worrying about how we smelled
One thing for laundry that we did was get one of those laundry sorters with 3 compartments. I have the person assigned for laundry for the day to go and collect all the laundry hampers (we have 2) and they sort them into darks (and we wear alot of red! but they just go in darks), lights (lighter colors) and whites. Then when the bin is full I run a load (of course it always overlaps but has been working pretty well...
I try to have them wear clothing that is still respectable clean more than one day. I found some over the door "hooks" at Shopko that have been working great for hanging their still-clean clothing on at night and their still-clean pjs on in the morning (and then putting on the still-clean clothing).
I don't even bother folding, I just sort into 11 different baskets (those "softer" ones so they can carry them by the handles) labeled with 9 different names and one for bathroom and one for kitchen. I set them up on the chest freezer, a table and on a couple storage bins and just toss them into the right basket. Everyone is *suppose* to fold their own laundry and put it in the drawers with a bigger one helping a littler one (this is ideal, mostly they just dump it into drawers... ) So long as there aren't pant legs and shirt arms hanging out of drawers I'm ok with this for now... some day we will be neat as a pin (
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Julie
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Patty
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| Posted: March 29 2005 at 11:05pm | IP Logged
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My children do their own laundry! How's that for a solution? Two are in college and even when they're home they wash their own. Almost 16yo dd washes hers. 13yo and 9yo dds wash theirs together, and 11yo and 5yo ds's wash theirs together. 5yo helps 11yo put it away, too. One nice thing about this system is that we don't have to sort out every load...it all goes to the same bedroom. I wash dh's and mine on Wed., the boys do theirs on Thursday, and the girls on Friday. On Saturday we do sheets. I do a load of everyone's whites as needed, since nobody has enough whites to do an entire load, and I wash towels as needed.
We do have too many clothes, though, esp. the girls!
God bless,
Patty
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Chari
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| Posted: March 29 2005 at 11:53pm | IP Logged
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From Irene in "toys"......
I realized that I need to be more aware of the amount of clothing each of the girls has and be more willing to pass on the hand-me-downs we really don't need to others who need them more.
Irene, I solve this problem when we exchange our summer and winter clothes.......every Spring and Fall
I have the kids each take out their clothes, I add the "new" seasonal clothes from storage to the piles, and then we pare down to only what can fit in their drawers. Each girl gets one drawer, 1/3 the closet for hanging clothes, and two small drawers for underwear and socks.........if it doesn't fit......something goes......
I have been doing this for years.....and it has been a system that works well for us.
Also........anytime during the year when I notice bulging drawers or closets.......we purge
chilly......brrrr......
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Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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Jeanne
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| Posted: March 30 2005 at 7:01pm | IP Logged
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Julie,
The ziplock baggie for the mismatched socks is a great idea!! I'm going to try it. Right now I have a small basket full of unpaired socks. I have no idea how our washing machine keeps eating all those socks!!
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Jeanne
mom to 9 (21,19,17,15,12,10,6,4,8 months
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
P hi li ppians 4:13
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: March 30 2005 at 7:54pm | IP Logged
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Boy! Everyone has such great ideas!
I recently read an idea on the internet for socks. It was to give each kid a lingerie bag & have them put their dirty socks in those.
Our 4 oldest dc (3 boys & 1 girl) wear white sport socks all winter. I've been getting either the Keds or Hanes brand at Walmart. It's great how they have the brand name printed on the bottoms of the socks & color-coded. Someone from a large family must have given them that idea ! Anyway, it sure makes it easy for our 6-year-old twins to sort & fold socks.
Also we have gotten hugely simplied with clothes (like many of you). Now that our girls wear only dresses that has helped immensely. My oldest daughter has 3 play dresses - long-sleeves in the winter & short-sleeves in the summer. She uses leggings under her dresses in the winter & shorts in the summer. I made her 2 cotton jumpers that she can wear in winter or summer with turtleneck or t-shirts underneath. They can be used for Mass or going out somewhere. Then she has 1 dressier dress for Mass and/or special occasions. I have been able to get those at JC Penney the week after Easter on sale.
Our boys have a large collection of t-shirts which they pair with shorts in the summer & sweats in the winter. For Mass, they have khakis and a couple of winter & summer shirts.
What is with the disappearing socks?!! I'm convinced it happens in every house!
Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6 kids)
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TradCathMom
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| Posted: March 30 2005 at 8:34pm | IP Logged
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BrendaPeter wrote:
What is with the disappearing socks?!! |
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We are *suppose* to move sometime by fall, I will let you know how many loose socks and hair "pooboos" (and pens!!) we find. I told my husband that I'm sure we will have to make an extra trip with the trailer just to haul those
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Julie
Wife to Tom
Mother of 11
Julie's stuff
Trinity Acres
JMJ * AMDG
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Clothes
