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Forum -> Household Management -> Organizing
Bins and bins and bins...



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debsters1101




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 11:54 am
I've been diligently storing my kids clothing in bins since my oldest was born 7 years ago. I label by size and season. Thank goodness my mother has a large attic!!! As luck would have it I had a winter girl, then a winter boy, then a summer girl. I also had no washing machine for a few years so I had loooooots of clothing for them so I wouldn't have to do laundry too often. The bins are taking over!!!! I now have a huge bag of my daughters size 5-6 clothing ready to be binned and a huge bag of the baby's size 12-24 month winter stuff to be binned. When does one say enough is enough????? I so wish I could just say forget it and give it all to a worthy tzedaka organization. But then I get to thinking about future kids..... I'm more of a "classics" buyer than a trendy buyer so most stuff doesn't really go out of style.... So I don't have that excuse. We certainly are not rolling in money to buy new clothing with if we don't have to so that's not an excuse....but the space being utilized and the energy it takes to pack away all this stuff every few months is driving me bananas!!!
What do you all do with allllllll that old stuff?
Thanks for any ideas or insights ( or great reasons to donate the clothing Smile )
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little_mage




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 2:50 pm
I'm having similar problems. I keep debating about those vacuum bags, but the reviews are so so mixed that I haven't quite pulled the trigger. You'll still be doing lots of sorting/bagging, but at least the finished product will take up less room.
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debsters1101




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 2:59 pm
Yeah.... With my luck I'll have a summer boy next lol and THEN I'll never have to buy clothing again for #5 and on..... Right?? Ugh I don't know....
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Pita




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 3:01 pm
If you don't think you will have more have a garage sale or donate. I always try to think whether the cost of storing/storage furniture is more than the value of the clothes.
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debsters1101




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 3:08 pm
Hmmmmm a garage sale. Hey that's not a bad idea!! Even if I sell for $1 a piece I can feel like I'm not throwing out perfectly good clothing (not that tzedaka= throwing out Smile )
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amother


 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 3:09 pm
I have all of my tubs in the same size (7 gallon) and I limit clothing to what fits into those tubs. I am having a hard time getting rid of some of it, because not only do I hope to IY"H have more children someday, I had twins before and in the back of my mind is the hope I'll have them again — and then I'd be really happy to have a surplus of clothing!

But keeping to the fixed container size really helps me from going overboard. We get bags of hand-me-downs periodically and without some limits we'd be drowning in clothes worse than we are now.
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sky




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 3:39 pm
I also have lots and lots of bins. I have crawl space in my attic and buy the bins on sale so my cost of storing them is miniscule. And I've reused a lot of clothing between genders. If it costs me $5 to save 2 seasons worth of clothing it is definitely worth it cost wise. But I'm running out of crawl space.

My clothing is inexpensive and non-trendy so definitely re-usable. My daughter this season is wearing 100% clothing from the bins. I also love pulling out the clothing and re-using it brings back so many memories.
My youngest son is now 6. I think I'm going to stop saving his clothing at this point. If I would save it then no one is wearing it for at least 7 years, and at that point I'm not sure I'll really want it. I'll probably donate whatever is in great condition to a g'mach but the clothing is pretty cheap s o I don't know if anyone will want it.
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acccdac




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 5:00 pm
just to give you some hope, I noticed that as my boys grew up.....I had many many bins of boys stuff (my first 2 are boys), as they got older the amount of clothes got less.

Pants never lasted more than year, they end up with holes ALL THE TIME. I also found that by the end of the school year their shirts were too stained to put away and save. So that limited the amount of clothes actually being put away.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 11:15 pm
I noticed that as my kids are growing bigger, 1) their clothes are larger and take up more space 2) same for their wardrobe in general 3) they grow more slowly and do more things, so the clothes get worn more, stained more, and worn out more. So I definitely prune more as they get bigger, I keep more of the baby things because they are just *sweet* and it's easier to justify because it takes up less space, and satisfies my "what if we have another."

I keep:
- Things I'm especially attached to
and/or would be hard to replace (e.g. expensive item)
- Things in excellent condition
- Most baby clothes in decent condition
- a handful of good basic items so that if we do have another they won't start with nothing. Just not an overloaded wardrobe. But I will have at least a couple of solid tops and bottoms in each size to get them started.

I make an attempt to sell on craigslist or ebay (garage sale is a much better method, I think, but you need to live in the right kind of place to pull that off...)
- Season-specific things in great condition (e.g. the size 3-6 months pink snowsuit that was worn a few times; what are the odds of having another girl AND at the right time of year to be 3-6 month size in winter? for those odds I'll buy a new snowsuit. Unless, see above, I was especially attached to it for irrational womanly reasons.)
- Occasion-specific things in great condition. Even if I do have another girl, odds are low that I will also have another close relative get married when they are size 9 months... with a green color scheme.
- The excess from the handful of basic items
- Baby gifts that somehow never got used

Things that are not nice enough to sell I donate via a community swap or freecycle; I think gemachs need nicer things for their clients' dignity, but sometimes people looking for a freebie for fun and profit are more willing to take on somebody's used play clothes or pajamas. Things that were nice enough to sell but didn't get bought tend to sit around and either wait for another attempt or get reabsorbed into the bins, losing pieces along the way to the donation bag.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 11:16 pm
Also I keep much more things from my older daughter because I have another girl less than 2 years younger (and bigger, so she grows into the other one's clothes with only about a year delay) but then when the second girl is done with them I toss much more (especially because it's been through 2 kids' worth of wear, often more because many were handed down in the first place). for a year or two I'm willing to store the full wardrobe, then it has to go.
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proudema




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 07 2014, 11:21 pm
I only keep what I really loved. Otherwise I donate to tzedaka or give to siblings with kids similar ages. Why should good clothing waste away in storage when someone can get use out of it? And no, I'm not rich.
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amother


 

Post Tue, Jul 08 2014, 9:03 am
I had my third boy two years ago and we havent had to buy him a thing - definitely worth keeping, but like you, after 4 kids and keeping pretty much everything, the amount of those plastic storage boxes just keep on growing... I wish I could just throw it all out.. or give it away... but I can't seem to do it...
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fbmommy




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 12:42 pm
After spending hours sorting through bins last week I can totally sympathize.
What I find helpful is that I use one bin per year, meaning for each size I only put away one bin of both winter and summer clothing. This means I pick from the best, and anything that I wasn't crazy over and Know I wouldn't reuse doesn't even get put away. As they get older you'll find that kids can wear clothing for more than one season and by the time they finish with the second season there's really not too much to put away except pajamas, accessories, some very dressy clothes and a few basics. These come in handy even if kids are several years apart.
My daughter's stuff I started giving away because she is almost 5 and most of her clothes from size 3 and up I doubt I would reuse. The baby stuff is still worth keeping.
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ora_43




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 1:40 pm
ITA with what seeker said.

I only store things that there's a good chance someone will need within 2 years. (If it's a really expensive item, maybe a bit longer).

Three thoughts that help me get rid of old stuff:

- Time is also important. It's not worth me spending 20 hours sorting clothes in order to save 100 shekels. That's horrible pay. (For me, it's also that space is worth a lot of money, but if you have a big attic that's less relevant Smile ).

- Price used kids' clothes as used clothes. Like, maybe a certain outfit cost you 100 shekels. But now it's used, and it's worth maybe 10 shekels. So it's not like if you need to replace it, you'll need to spend 100 shekels. That would be if you wanted to replace a used item with a new item. To get something just like it - ie, something used - you can spend a lot less.

- Just think how happy it could make someone else.
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