Organizing the kid's clothes

Husband and I have been working diligently to clear out the clutter in our life like so many other people who are thumbing their noses at Old Man Winter (and illness) and leaping into Spring Cleaning mode whether the weather is cooperating or not. We began with the laundry room, climbed up into the attic and then headed back inside to wade through the quagmire of clothes in our kids' closets. We got them cleaned out and reorganized over the course of two whole weekends. Hip hip hooray!!! Maybe, if my courage holds out, I will tackle the school room next like Cheryl plans to.

I was looking for a way to help my girls keep their stuff sorted since their clothes are so similar in size unlike my bookend boys. (It's pretty easy to tell a 5T from a 12 slim.) We divided the girls closet which is just a big wide closet with French doors (not a walk in) into a section for each of them separated by one of those hanging shoe racks. Then I made these hangers and labeled them appropriately.

They were pretty easy to make. I cut 4" x 5" pieces of cardboard and used a utility knife to cut out the keyhole shape; pretty paper glued on the front dressed them up a little. The labels were some old, blank address labels I had that I used my fancy scissors on.

This is Sunshine's side of the closet where you can see the dividers in action. I think they might start showing signs of wear if I were to take them on and off the rod too much, but they were so easy to make, I could replace them anytime. If you try to make your own, let me offer this tip. If you have a shelf above your closet rod, measure the distance from the top of the rod to the bottom of the shelf. The distance between the top of the keyhole and the top of your divider should be less than that measurement. Otherwise, the divider will get stuck when you try to put it on and you will probably ruin it when you try to remove it. Don't ask me how I know.
Now then, here is what we are hauling out of here. What's inside these bags? You sooooooo want to know, dontcha?

• 91 hangers
• 50 T-shirts
• 44 sweaters/ sweatshirts
• 37 dresses
• 35 pairs of pants
• 16 dress shirts/blouses
• 11 pairs of shorts
• 6 ballet leotards
  
• 4 nightgowns
• 3 skirts
• 1 swim suit
  
• and counting as the last few things trickle in from the laundry

And I assure you... my kids are far from naked!

Now, I'm not sharing this just to get a pat on the back for my decluttering deftness, but rather, to give a few pats instead. Many of the items we are giving away were gifted to us by some incredibly generous people that we are so blessed to have in our lives; three beautiful young ladies who take such good care of their clothes that they are more than usable by the time they arrive at our door and a spunky little "godsister" whose taste in fashion perfectly coincides with my daughter's. Thank God for big girls who still love to twirl in poofy pink dresses! So I would like to say "thank you" to these big hearted benefactors. We hope to imitate your kindness in a small way by passing along our remainders to those who can enjoy them now.


P.S. You should know that this was a multi-season full wardrobe clean out. Also, I kept tally for the purpose of blogging but I would highly recommend that you do the same whether you have a blog or not. I never would have imagined that we were giving away that much stuff or that we even had that much stuff to give even though I knew we had too much. Bye now!