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melanie
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 12:28pm | IP Logged
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How long do you all keep hand me downs for younger sibs? I have a 12yo girl and a nine month old girl, and I'm trying to decide whether to keep the 12yo's outgrown things for the nine month old. No obvious need has come into my path for passing them on, and I'm tempted to hang onto them, especially the nicer things, but then I think that someone could be using them all that time and I shouldn't hold onto them.
Then I have an even more vague issue with the things my youngest boy and girl outgrow. We plan to have more children, but I'm not expecting at the moment. I need to decide whether to hang onto the things they are outgrowing or pass those on.
Anyway,I'd be interested to hear what others do.  I'm cleaning through clothes today while I'm switching out the seasonal clothing.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 1:12pm | IP Logged
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Well I always hang onto baby things for a bit (a year or 2).. I just can't part with them that quickly.. and then I've gotten pregnant fairly quickly..
I would probably only save some of the very nicest things from the 12 yr old.. that's a long storage time and depending on your storage conditions it would be so sad to store things and have them ruined from being stored.
Now, that's not the case with everything.. elastic is one thing that's more tricky to store.. but my 2 yr old wore one of MY dresses for Christmas from when I was her size. a pretty green velvet dress with white collar and cuffs (no elastic.. just a few buttons) so that's been mostly stored for about 36 years. But each of my girls was able to wear it I believe.
And there's some things that were made for my kids (things my grammy made for instance) that I simply won't get rid of.. those can be tucked into a keepsake box for when my kids are grown, themselves having babies.
But I don't think I would have saved things in the larger gaps I have between girls/boys except that we don't get u/s as a rule and so I don't know if I'm having a boy or girl and so hold onto things.. and then by the time I'm ready to part with things again I'm pregnant again etc.
I do reduce things.. the kids always get gifts or we buy matching things etc. so I don't need a whole wardrobe stored away even with handing things down. So when we change out I always reduce down.. things to pass on, things to keep, things that are worn out and need to be thrown away.
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juststartn
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 2:29pm | IP Logged
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I think I'd discard the majority of the things from your oldest dd...with the boys, that's trickier. I think I would hold onto the things from Teresa, and the good things from Jack. And discard/donate the rest.
I had three girls followed by twin boys, so I've got this big gap from Sophie (dd#3) to any potential future dds. None on the way yet, unfortunately. So, I'm keeping a good bit of the boys' things, some of Sophie's..the hand me downs from the older girls are pretty worn by the time Sophie gets through with them, so there is not much left.
Rachel
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Stephanie_Q
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 2:56pm | IP Logged
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I got rid of all the clothes that had elastic in them when my youngest girl turned 5. I also pared down rest by handing them on to friends who have younger girls. I haven't kept anything that is worn or stained - but I'm lucky to know two families who are happy to get "play clothes" for their kids.
My youngest son is 2 and I'm starting to get anxious about holding on to *most of* our boy clothes since we are still waiting for another baby...
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anitamarie
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 3:01pm | IP Logged
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I tend to hang on to the clothes that are still in good condition. I have 6 years between my boys and 5 1/2 years between my girls. Plus, we have been gifted with hand me downs from sister who has 2 girls, who are 13 and 10. My 2 yo is actually wearing onesies that her 13 yo cousin wore.  We do have enough storage space, and I am the type to not let go of things that still have a useful life - we just bought our first TV after 14 years of marriage, since my college 20" worked just fine, thank you. I did purge a lot of the girls' clothes a few years ago, just for style reasons. I also got rid of most of the boy clothes because a very real need presented itself. I say get rid of horribly dated clothing and save what you can to save $$ later. Clothes only get more expensive.
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 5:09pm | IP Logged
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I have a five year gap between dd's #3 and #4, and tried to save clothes to pass down to the younger. When I took them out to try them on her, they hadn't held up very well. The major problem was that elastic had dry-rotted. I suppose I could have replaced the elastic, but with nicer things readily available on sale or at thrift stores, it didn't seem worth the trouble. If you don't find someone who obviously needs the things, maybe you could take them to a consignment shop or to a pregnancy center. We wound up donating a lot to a
St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home in our archdiocese.
Peace,
Nancy
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melanie
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 9:24pm | IP Logged
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Yep, ya'll are right about the elastic, I'd forgotten about that. My SIL gave us some things that had belonged to her son when my 4yo was born...her son was 10 at the time, and most of the things with elastic had dry rotted. So I think I at least need to pass on the things with eleastic in them.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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Red Cardigan
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| Posted: March 04 2009 at 10:40pm | IP Logged
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I would only keep a few "special" things.
We only have three girls, and they're all close in age. But I *still* ended up having to get rid of the older two dd's things b/c youngest dd, 18 months younger than the oldest, was wearing the wrong season's clothes all the time (e.g., the sweatsuits or corduroys would fit her in July...in Texas...) etc.
And I did a big clean out of baby things, even though it made me  , because I realized that IF IF IF God ever blesses us with a new little one I won't want to use baby items that were stored outside in a garage in the Texas heat for over a decade.
I have a couple of pretty, special little-girl dresses saved. If we're not given a new baby, or if we were to have a boy after all these years, those are the dresses I'd pass along to grandchildren.
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hereinantwerp
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| Posted: March 05 2009 at 11:31am | IP Logged
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I hang onto mine, and even "collect" for the future from garage sales, etc. My sister has passed me many nice things from her daughter (8 years older than my daughter).
BABY clothes are very easy to find used, they wear them so little, it is so easy to find brand-new like things. So actually my priority is more size 3 and up--these are the ages where my kids have truly worn things out and it is hard to find nice kids clothes used. Especially--pants/jeans without worn knees/holes, and nice tops without stains! Shoes, boots and coats are also expensive, as are nice dress clothes. These are my priorities for saving. I toss anything worn, stained, ill fitting or that I just didn't like.
I buy the large CLEAR storage boxes at Walmart with the white lids--I think they are 5 or 6 dollars. About the size of a laundry basket. They are stacked up in the basement. I write the size range on a sheet of paper and stick it on the side where I can see it--these boxes get rearranged so it is good to have the labels be easily movable. Of course when I get into a box I go through it again, and sometimes end up tossing some things. But it's a relief to open a new size and realize I am already fairly equipped, and only need to get things to "fill in", verses feeling like we need everything!!
If you do decide to donate, Catholic Charities, Women's shelters, battered women's homes, sometimes crisis pregnancy centers for baby items--these places can often use kids' clothes.
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Schelleau
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| Posted: March 09 2009 at 11:15am | IP Logged
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Quote:
| I toss anything worn, stained, ill fitting or that I just didn't like. |
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I do the same. As babies, my boys wore (unisex) clothes that belonged to me (and were worn by my sister as well), my 18 year old brother, and my two nieces. As clothes are outgrown, I pack them into suitcases stored under my bed - I keep one big suitcase of newborn-00 clothes, and another for 0-1. A smaller suitcase holds 2-3 as by that stage I have less hand-me-downs and I only save the best of what my older son has worn (most of it having been treated pretty roughly and worn to shreds by him lol).
My second boy was so big, half the newborn stuff never got worn - he went straight into 00s, and at 7 months he is now outgrowing size 1s so the elastic in his brother's clothes hasn't had time to deteriorate! most of the 2-3 suitcase is taken up with boots and shoes, because they were so expensive and only worn for a few months before needing the next size up.
One hint I have - when my first son was outgrowing things, I just washed them & shoved them (tidily) into the suitcase. Then when I was pregnant with my second I had to go through and sort everything from memory into sizes (as most of the labels were gone/washed out). It was a huge job, especially with DS1 having a great time 'climbing the mountain' and leaping all over the bed as I tried to sort and fold .
This time I was more methodical and packed things away in like sizes & seasons, so when I am blessed with baby number 3 (here's hoping & praying) everything is ready to go. I even wrote what was in each pile (eg size 000 summer suits) and put little pieces of paper on top to label them. (Of course, these got mixed up the first time I opened the suitcase to add another item... so I learnt to tuck them into the folds of the top item.)
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| But it's a relief to open a new size and realize I am already fairly equipped, and only need to get things to "fill in", verses feeling like we need everything!! |
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Amen to that - especially with young babies, when the clothes are so small and easy to store, you don't know in advance what size you need to start with, and they are outgrown so quickly!
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melanie
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| Posted: March 09 2009 at 11:44am | IP Logged
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"One hint I have - when my first son was outgrowing things, I just washed them & shoved them (tidily) into the suitcase. Then when I was pregnant with my second I had to go through and sort everything from memory into sizes "
Good hint...we are learning that now...either the labels are so faded you can't tell the size, or the labels have been cut out completely, or a cotton dress that started as a 2T has shrunk so much that my 9month old can wear it. :) I'm trying to store them by what size the "really" are versus what size the label might say.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 09 2009 at 12:03pm | IP Logged
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re-label.. it's the only way to really remember the next time.. take a sharpie and just write your size on the label (this works for readable labels that you dont' agree with the size too) on lighter colored things without a tag you can use a sharpie on the fabric.. I like writing on the inside bottom edge of the collar.. it's the thickest and you won't get bleed through to the outside. And you won't have to hunt for it.. dark colors that you can't relable are the hardest.
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SimplyMom
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| Posted: March 09 2009 at 11:47pm | IP Logged
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I used banker boxes. I label the size and season on the outside and then store them in the basement. The banker boxes are relatively inexpensive, sturdy and stack neatly.
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sewcrazy
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| Posted: March 10 2009 at 2:52pm | IP Logged
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I have saved very little from one child to the next. My children have very different coloring and what is flattering to one, makes another look jaundice. Also we have been blessed that we always have what we need when we need it. 90% of stuff leaves the house as it outgrown.
It has been out lot, that all but the first 2 boys are very spread out, and only 1 girl in the bunch. I don't see the point of hanging on to stuff so it can get moldy in my basement.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 10 2009 at 3:21pm | IP Logged
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what you use for storage can depend on your climate, and storage conditions (garage, basement, attic, outbuilding).. like pests that can get at boxes and eat through cardboard or even plastic.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: storing hand me downs for younger kids
