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graciefaith
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 10:41am | IP Logged
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We are moving into a smaller home. I've read the thread on small homes but i'd like to ask how you ladies store clothes? I have 3 girls so we keep all the clothes and just hand them down. My MIL and mom like to buy the girls clothes when they find a good sale. My oldest is always the one who needs the most since the other 2 get her hand me downs, which are in great condition btw. But, both my MIL and mom cant resist buying all 3 new clothes. So, that means with each passing season, the other 2 get more clothes on top of the hand me downs. Let me just tell you, it's A LOT of clothing!
Our new home does not have much storage space. I really dont know what to do. It's about 10 boxes or so of clothes ranging NB-6yo. I'm going to try and go through each box and get rid of the ones that are truly ragged and ones that were never really worn. I know this might be God's way of telling me to declutter even more.
Do you think using those vacuum storage bags will make a difference?
You have no idea how much STUFF we have. A lot of it dh's. He picks up hobbies here and there and not to mention he has a love for these Gundam/Transformer toys and collects them. He has 5 boxes or so of it all(big boxes) and will not part with them. If it sounds weird to you, it was to me as well when we first got married. But after being in Japan, i have realized that this love or hobby is not as uncommon as i thought. It's a very normal hobby there for men. In fact, we had a housing inspector who came in to look at our old house before we moved out and he marveled at dh's collection. In defense of Dh, he has been collecting them since he was an early teen so it's not something he has just picked up.
Anyway, any suggestions on how to store the clothes? Dh has an idea on where to store his toys so my only problem is the clothing. TIA!!
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Blessed wife and mom of 3 girls, Sept. '01, Dec. '02 and Oct. '07
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 10:58am | IP Logged
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I store clothing in totes.. the vacuum bags might work really well.. but you'll need a way to store those so that they're not falling all over the place.. in a box or something probably.
What you might want to do is come up with a list of how many of each item you want to keep. Easier if you think of your oldest for this since she isn't getting hand me downs.. if you have to fill in the holes in her wardrobe.. what do you get?
So once you have a list.. then it's easy to thin ALL the sizes down to that amount.. this let's you get rid of anything ragged etc.
Because I use totes.. I've found that if it won't fit in a single tote (18gal size rubbermaid) then it's too much. And because of the size of the clothes it also naturally lets me have more for the little ones that may need to be changed more often and less for the older ones that can manage to wear the same jeans more than once before washing.
newborn and 0-3months both boys and girls in one tote
3-6, 6-9, 12 and 18 months both boys and girls one tote each size.
2 and up are in one tote each size one for boys and one for girls.
Then we get handme downs from others so I have sizes that are bigger than my biggest..
plus I do have an extra couple of totes.. two of my girls are in the same size so I need more of those.. but once they're out of a size I'll weed it down to a single tote again.
So there's usually the size they're in and the next one up that has 2 totes.. and there's usually a tote one size up from my oldest and one up from that with anything bigger.
So my oldest is in 12's and I have a box of 14's and one tote with anything bigger (it's going to get weird soon with all the mix of larger girls and junior sizes and all that)
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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
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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LisaR
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 11:19am | IP Logged
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I would not store the clothes between the 02 and 07 girls. that is an awful long time to be in storage- unless you have a really small 02 or a really big 07 
my kids are all about 2.9-3.4 years apart- I notice that the 3.4 years apart is even too long to store clothes well.
so I buy new clothes for the 3rd and 5th (well she is a girl, too) children, make sense?
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 12:07pm | IP Logged
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I don't have any problems storing clothes for extended times.. My almost 2 yr old is wearing things that her 11 yr old sister wore and they look great.. no problems at all.
Perhaps it's the climate? I haven't lived anywhere with consistent high humidity for instance.
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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
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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LisaR
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 12:19pm | IP Logged
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yes, even in the home we have high humidity in the summer. the elastic really does not do well after sitting for over 3 years. I've also liked knowing that the clothes go right into circulation to someone else, and we've always been gifted with hand me downs when there has been a need as well...
well, and we have no attic storage, so there really was no room to hold onto much.
I've got 4 rubbermaid type tote boxes that store clothes, for the five kids, and then one more for dh and I to share (seasonal stuff) if it gets to be more than that, I give it away!
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
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Right, part of it for me is that by the time I'm up to sorting clothes (beyond what's needed) after a baby is born, I'm pregnant again and since we don't typically get ultrasounds I don't know until the new one is born if it's boy or girl clothes I need and round and round I go 
Also, what and how much you save will depend on your resources.. if I lived in an area where I could easily get more things second hand like I hear many people do.. you know.. go to salvation army and get bags of clothes for a few dollars.. I'd be much more inclined to get rid of things.. I don't have anything like that here.. and the closest place that might is 132miles away.
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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
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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amyable
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 2:21pm | IP Logged
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If *I* had little storage space AND a set of relatives who loved to buy clothes (and didn't stop when I asked them to ), I probably would save next to nothing of those clothes for the next child - a bare minimum. I would ebay or yard sale them or (most likely for me) give them to charity - knowing that my relatives would just have the child outfitted for the next season whether I kept stuff or not! I think the vacuum bags are great for under beds, etc if you don't have other things that need to go there. I have found we need the underbed space for boxes of the kids "treasures" because we have several children sharing a small room with a teeny closet.
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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graciefaith
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| Posted: Oct 21 2008 at 12:07pm | IP Logged
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Thank you ladies! I've gone through some of the boxes and got rid of excess and/or stained clothing. I have a box for each age and season so that was roughly 12 good sized boxes of clothes. I only have a few more to go through. I put them in vacuum bags and hopefully all will fit under our beds.
For this winter season alone, my older 2 have 22 jeans!! They are slim on the shirts but i'm not going to let myself buy them anymore. You know, in the end, they only wear a certain amt. of it over and over while the rest lay untouched.
I also thought for a brief moment that dd3's wardrobe was looking slim and that i had gotten rid of too much. But once i put them all away, I could see she has enough to last the winter.
Lisa, so far, the clothes are still good so I'll keep passing them down until they're truly worn out.
My mom and his mom buy lots of clothes but more for the older 2. The last weekend we were there in FL, my parents took my older 2 out to the movies and the mall. They were there for 6hrs! My mom told them that it was *their* day and she would not say no. lol Lets just say they came home with lots of bags and full of LOTS of sugar.  She always says i ruin the fun b/c i say no a lot. Ah, the joy of being the grandparents.
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 21 2008 at 3:07pm | IP Logged
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I vacuum storage my clothes and shrinking it down does make a big difference. The down side is many of my bags often spring a leak so I have to tape up with duct tape, it sort of works. When we lived in our 'big house' we had a decent sized walk in wardrobe and so I stacked them high on a couple of shelves. I fit more than eight bags on the two shelves.
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Erin
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: storing clothes
