Loving lately: Clothes Recycling
I love getting rid of stuff. Decluttering is like the best part of organization; which I think is directly related to my good mental health.
I’m a part of this very well orchestrated system of clothes recycling. In a group of friends of mine, I have the oldest son and my sister has the oldest daughter. It all kind of branches out and braids back in from there.
I pass the outgrown clothes of my oldest son to my sister’s son and likewise she passes her daughter’s clothing to my daughter. Then when her son outgrows the attire, they get passed back to my third child, my second son. After that, it starts to get fun because when my second son gets too big for his wardrobe, it is passed to my sister’s sister-in-law, Annie’s oldest son.
When he’s finished they get pass back to my back fourth baby and final son. Anything that is worth passing, which always seems like a lot because things are always being added, gets moved to my sister’s other sister-in-law, Erica’s baby boy. I also pass anything from my daughter to Erica’s oldest child and daughter.
She passes those close back to Annie who has a baby girl. And I’ll admit I feel very good about our system, because everything gets good use. For those of you keeping track, that is a total of 10 boys and girls.
The kids have clothes. It’s a blessing. It’s also a big head ache. My basement is like a storage unit. I could probably use a better labeling system. But the best part of my organizational day is when I pass my only daughter’s or my last son’s clothing on- because I know they’re never coming back. What Annie and Erica do with the clothing after that, I don’t care. Good riddance! And sure there might be a day when I’m’s stricken with grief for times gone past about my kids who are all grown up and don’t fit into those baby clothes anymore.
But today’s not that day. Today is the day I pass on totes or large plastic bags or even a little grocery bags with stuff that I don’t have to see again or at least isn’t taking up space in a drawer for a child who can no longer wear it.
(Healthy sigh of relief)
And thank you to my brother-in-law, Ryan, for many of these adorable pictures of all the clothed children.