The Great Seasonal Clothing Swap - Part 1
On Sunday we finally began swapping out the kids' summer clothes for their fall and winter clothes. As tedious and time-consuming as this process is, I love it! It reminds me how truly blessed we have been when it comes to hand-me-downs.
Here are the first of the boxes and bags that Eric pulled down from the attic. The kids started looking through them as soon as they hit the ground.
And they kept looking, and "sorting" and building boats out of the boxes. And I reminded myself what a blessing little helping hands are, so I was not at all bothered by this mess and extra work. Not at all!
I decided to tackle Gracie and Olivia's clothes first. In the past I've tried doing everyone at once but that has a tendency to get out of hand really quickly, and I end up spending hours past bedtime sorting and folding.
I sorted through their boxes and pulled out everything to be washed. I'm a little anal-retentive when it comes to clothes from the attic. I know they were put away clean, but I refuse to move the clothes to the drawers without washing them again first.
I had to take a break half way through the day today in order to take Isabelle, Alex and Olivia to a homeschooling craft and play group. Eric stayed home with Gracie. When I walked in the house, I was pleasantly surprised to see this -
Eric folded all of the clothes that had been washed for me! He even did a load or two of laundry. That was such a treat! What a guy.
I pulled out Olivia and Gracie's drawers to take out all of their summer clothes and any clothes that no longer. Then I filled up the almost empty drawers with all of their new clothes. I also sorted, folded, and boxed the old clothes for the attic.
I am so grateful everyone gets as excited over this project as I do. I just love the fact that the kids want to do whatever they can to help. And as they get older, their help is starting to really be helpful.
Tomorrow I will finish up. I still have to hang and organize the girls clothes in their closet. I would have had time today, but I decided that my helpers needed a break.
There are times when I go through all of our boxes of hand me downs and could just cry. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of family and friends. If someone were to ask me how we could afford 4 kids, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to say that God takes care of all the details for us.
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17 comments:
That is SUCH a job... and one that I find myself (unfortunately) stretching over weeks. I need to just get it done!
We just did the clothing sort last month. I love doing that. It is so thrilling to see God's blessings, as He provides for our little one. :) Oh, my... what a job with 4 little ones, though- well done! :)
Blessings,
Michele
I, too, have been incredibly blessed with hand-me-downs for my kiddos. It's such a blessing! And it's so much fun to turn around and be that blessing for another friend whose children really need those clothes...I've finally gotten the kiddos' closets ready for fall/winter, now I've got to start on mine & hubby's clothes. Somehow, that's just not as much fun.
What blessings!
I have watched God, for 16 years now, provide miracles for my children--- they are His, and He is a great Provider!
Your little ones are precious!
What a blessing to be able to look at your tasks with joy. We have four children as well and have been by blessed with may offers of gently used clothing.
I too need to begin putiing away summer items and pulling out fall items.
I am so glad that you stoped by my blog and decided to follow. What an awesome tackle.
What adorable helpers you have!
I can relate to your feeling blessed with hand me downs, isn't it so wonderful! We started "the swap" this weekend as well, I am about half way through it, because my SIL gave me 2 more bags of clothes this weekend!
Blessings,
Steph
Hand-me-downs have definitely been a blessing to us as well. God is good!
WE went through a bunch of ds's clothes a couple weeks ago and were able to give clothes to a family in our church. It was wonderful as she said she had been praying for clothes of that size. God is good! :D
Thanks for sharing!
Here in Florida all we have to do is pull out the thin jacket from the closet lol.
How wonderful that your hubby helped you out like that. And I know from which you speak when it comes to hand me down clothes. You gotta love em.
Great job.
Blessings my friend.
Kim
Oh how fun! I did the switch earlier this month and I have to say that I was feeling truly blessed by having all the clothes for my 5 kids. It definitely was a job! I still have to go through all their outside winter gear which I am going to do in the next couple of days as there could be snowflakes in my neck of the woods come next Tuesday!
Now if I can just get my oldest to stop growing we will be all set! LOL! He has gone from a 14 slim(27x25) to an 18 slim(27x30-31) in one year!! Needless to say his winter clothes are at a minimum but my mom & MIL have been helping me find new things for him as well.
I have also been blessed with hand-me-downs...I have a little sister who is only a year older than my daughter! I had been so worried about her not having warm clothes this fall but now her drawers are overflowing!
I don't have kids but for me laundry is the worst punishment in the world... and I'm a total freak when it comes to wearing something that is not 100% clean and smelling fresh.
So my Eric (whose name is Eric, by the way) has realized that I become the happiest person on Earth if I come home to a neatly folded pile of clean clothes. And he uses that trick. And I don't mind.
How lucky we are, having an Eric!
What a great thing for Eric to do. My Husband does that a lot for me also. We are in the process of sorting clothes as well. Our children are older so we do not get too many hand me downs any longer. But God still blesses us with great clothes.
I always feel a little overwhelmed when I do that big job! ut it's always so much fun and the boys get so excited about it. AND, I agree...it is so wonderful to see how God provides us with so many clothes!
Wow! That's a huge tackle!
This task is on my to do list too! But after trying to unpack after moving this summer I am still not confident that my little helpers will be much help!
But you have inspired me, maybe I will let them "help"!! Haha, we will see!
I need to do this for my little girls. I dug out their winter coats today and found some really cute clothes as well. I am so thankful for hand-me-downs as well! My sister keeps me fully stocked -she has 2 girls that are just a bit older than mine so we are set for life!
And the girls love it! They are so excited every time their aunt hands us a bag of clothes!
Grammy's Recipes
I did the same just a few weeks ago. It's a job, but well worth the work!
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