Spring Cleaning Day 2

Today is a busy day sorting through CLOTHES! My kids are growing like crazy so I have to decide what is good enough to keep if I have another baby, what to set aside for a rummage sale, what to donate, and what to pass on to family and friends with children that would fit into their old clothes. (Our family is big on the clothing rotations for children. Throw out the old, add in your new, pass it on. You'd be surprised how much money this saves!)

Totes are out for clothes I want to keep. I have a box filled with rummage sale clothes. Boxes and bags labeled for friends and family to use. Older style clothes to donate to our local Vinnie's. And clothes that are too stained or too holey even for play clothes are thrown away. It takes a while, our kids have so many clothes! A majority of them hand me downs from their cousins. Allot could not survive another child!

As for our clothes, that's a little harder. My husband keeps his shirts with holes and stained for side work and getting dirty. He's an Auto Tech so his clothes are quite often stained with grease anyways. But my rule of thumb with his shirts, if there is more skin showing than fabric, it's time to throw it away (same with his jeans). Or if there are more stains than original shirt color, it's time to go. If any important body parts start showing, including his nipples, it's a goner for sure.

Any clothes he hasn't worn in over a year or two get added to the rummage sale pile. As with any clothes too small. (He started working out so some of his shirts don't fit anymore). :-)

If you don't have enough clothes to start throwing clothes away, just make a mental check lest of everything that WILL be going as soon as you get new clothes! Rummage sales start soon and second hand stores are full of good replacement clothes for a good price, if you shop around enough.

For my clothes, womens clothing is allot harder. Sometimes you keep those pair of jeans you USE to fit into just in case. Well....here's the deal. If you have some jeans or skirts or even dresses in your closet that are more than 2 sizes too small. Feel free to put them in a tote if you REALLY want to keep them JUST IN CASE. If you need a pair out for motivation, hand it right in the front of your closet so it's the first thing you see. But going down 2 sizes in a year is a challenge for any woman.  So no need to clutter your closet. Anything you absolutely won't wear, donate or add to your rummage pile. Old, dirty, stained, pitch it, unless you need some good gardening/play clothes. And for your maternity clothes, if you are NOT pregnant or had a baby within the past 2 months,...it's time to store them, donate them, give them away, sell them...but it's time to let them go. Same with nursing clothes. If you are not pregnant or nursing anymore, it's time to move on!

If you use to be a size 5 and had kids...it's okay to be a size 8 or 10 now. It's realistic. You have the mommy hips. So don't beat yourself up if you can't fit into your old clothes. Life happens. No one is perfect. Just love yourself the way you are, so long as you aren't unhealthy. If that's the case, then just get some motivation and try, try again!

Now for the unmentionables. You know...undies..bras...that sort of stuff. If they are stained, have more than the normal amount of holes, are threading, loosing buttons, you can't tell if it said JOE BOXER or not at some point, lost it's decals (like flowers or ribbons), or lost elasticity, it's time to throw them away. It is recommended to replace your underwear every 6 months. If you can't do it THAT often, just make sure you aren't keeping anything fitting the descriptions above. For both men and womens underwear. 

Bras usually last a little longer, they say every few years to replace. Just make sure you are wearing the right size! Get rid of those poking ones, wires coming out, clasps not holding, wrong sized, malformed bras. No point holding on to something uncomfortable or non fitting. If you are still wearing nursing bras and have not nursed in a while, its time to put them away. 

I guess you can say socks fit the same previous under garment descriptions!

I DO NOT however recommend replacing these items from rummage sales or second hand stores. :-)

You should by now have QUITE the load for donations, rummage sales, storage, and to pass on. If you can't get rid of them yet, you should at least have a list compiled of all the new clothes you NEED to get and an idea which ones are going when you do get the new ones!

Here is an article from www.howtogetridofstuff.com on what to do with your old clothes. http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/living/how-to-get-rid-of-old-clothes/

Happy cleaning! :-)

P.S. This is also a GREAT time to throw out any damaged hangers and go through your dresser drawers, cleaning them out. You'd be amazed what little things you can find in dressers you forgot you set in there for safe keeping, or a toddler tossed in there once when you grabbed some clothes! And putting away winter clothes would be a great way to un-clutter now if you don't have any more winter weather forecasted...unlike us...