Can I just tell ya how much I love hand-me-downs? And how much my boys love hand-me-downs?
We get them from lots of people who have such nice clothes, so it has been such a blessing.
Ever since the first nice day this spring…the boys have been begging me to get out their summer clothes. (They forget that we live in a state that has 50 degree mood swings during March and April.)
But finally, this week…I made the trip up to the attic to bring down “THE BOXES”.
I’m tellin’ ya, you would have thought it was Christmas.
I’m sitting down on the floor trying to…you know…ORGANIZE the clothes into piles of what will fit who this year….
And the boys are all so excited that they’re grabbing shirts and shorts and exclaiming over all of them and asking, “Does THIS one fit me?! Can this one be MINE?!” (even though they wore it three years ago and it was too small then…)
Several (loud and exciting) hours later…we have our “new” clothes put into our drawers and our sweaters and turtlenecks back into the rubbermaids for next winter…when we get to do it all again.
What a blessing that their drawers will hardly close because they are so full…and we haven’t had to buy one piece of clothing.
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Yipee! I’m the first to leave a comment! My kids love this too. I did it last weekend, I think I will only have to purchase a few things for my oldest two. Everyone else has an abundance!
Good for you!
I have a question for you.
We have three kiddos- I hope to have more. The amount of clothes we have accumulated is alot. I’m wondering if I should just pass most of the stash onto others, or hang onto it all. I kinda feel like I’m hoarding. Other people could benefit from all the clothes out in my barn, but at the same time, I don’t want to have to replace wardrobes down the line. Any thoughts?
I do this too. The problem I have had is that my girls are so different in shape and size. I pull stuff out and it just won’t work for the second one. Or I will have the cutest outfit for her and the skirt will fit at a different time then the shirt. I agree overall though this is great. It makes them feel like they are getting new stuff with out really getting “new” stuff.
It truly is a blessing to have all those hand-me-downs isn’t it? I’m just getting ready to the same thing! (I was actually going to use this same idea for my Gratituesday next week.) I pulled one box out this week and the kids do get SO excited at seeing all these “new” clothes.
I love how organized your system looks. It does take a frugal mindset to appreciate the hand me downs fully. My mom has commented on several occasions that she just didn’t think it would be worth it to have to do all that washing, folding, sorting, and storing. But, I think the fact that we have NEVER had to buy a single item of clothes for our three youngest discounts that theory. :-)
Awhile back I asked my cousin’s daughter where she got her cute flip flops. She said, “Out of the trash can.” After a few moments of confusion – knowing my cousin isn’t in to dumpster diving – I realized her daughter meant the plastic storage container that holds the garage sale goodies and hand me downs! Funny kids!
I am very grateful for the clothes my cousin gives my daughter, and it is an abundance of clothes.
Aah, “reduce, REUSE, recycle.” I was overwhelmed by going through one kids clothes and getting new sizes in drawers and sizes that he has blown through into bins until I read this. One kid’s stuff is less than four kids’. :-) But then, four times times the kids is also four times the fun!
To the question about “should I keep for another child or share,” I wonder if you can do some of both. I’m putting away clothes the baby has grown out of and either I need a bigger tub for at least the 0-3 month stuff, or I need to share some of it. Seems like we had more than he could wear and if I gave some away now but needed something else later, maybe, actually probably, the Lord would provide then too. Not sure how this will actually play out but thought I’d share my musings.