Day 313 - Baby Clothes

All the kids were healthy enough to be in their classrooms and at daycare today, so I had the whole day to myself at home. I had thought about getting a massage to alleviate any left over holiday stress, but I didn't. I thought about taking a nice long nap, but I didn't. The mission today was organization. (Pats self on back for being restrained and dutiful.)

I intended to spend one hour cleaning the bedroom, and one hour cleaning the craft room/guestroom/office/storage room. (And I am totally that kind of person who has to set a timer for myself in order to stick to a task, otherwise I end up clipping my toenails or reading a magazine that has been unearthed. I am so A.D.D.)

When it took me a whole hour just to fold and put away all of the laundry that was sitting at the foot of the bed I had to revise the plan. It was then, that I realized I'd be spending the rest of my day in this room.

When we had Elise, we moved some furniture around our bedroom to make room for a rocking chair in the corner. The chair has since been removed, but the space that remained became a catch-all for every living piece of clothing that was too big or too small for these bodies that are growing up way too fast.

Back in the day of one kid, and a little bit into having two kids, I had the mother of all organization when it came to baby clothes. I had separate totes in each size for each sex all labeled with nice labels that I had made on the computer. We had the totes stacked neatly from floor to ceiling in the basement. I could find things so easily when I needed them, but more importantly, it looked good.

For a while it seemed like Luke and Maria were going to be the only kids we would create, so I started selling off, little by little, the least favorite of the clothes in those totes, yet I still hung on to a lot of my favorite outfits...just in case.

And then Elise happened. For the first few months, I kept up with it all...the processing of the clothing sizes. But as abruptly as my world was turned upside down with being a "single" mom of three...my keeping up with non-fitting clothes (for any of our children) seized to exist. The best I could do for the time being, was to process out the non-fitting clothes by throwing them in the corner.

So, after being quarantined in my room most of the day, and throwing things into piles such as "give away", "garage sale", "consignment sale", "keep for Elise", "keep cause it's my favorite outfit ever", and "oh, this fits ____ right now - I forgot that I had bought this!" my work was done.

2 bags are going to Goodwill.

1 basket is ready to be tagged for the garage sale and the consignment sale.

1 huge load was rejoined with those totes in the basement for Elise to wear later.

And I created 1 little pile of sentimental outfits I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to part with...like this one which was given to me by one of my students, Mackenzie, at a surprise baby shower in my classroom. This outfit was worn by each of our children the day they came home from the hospital. I'm too sappy to give it up! (It's not stained...it's the lighting...darn lightbulbs keep going out on me.)


So, that was my day. And really, not very many thoughts of having another baby crossed my mind. 'Cause if we had 4 kids, you can just lock me away for serious!


Now, who wants to come over and help me match socks?