Store It, If You Can

Guest post by Kelly Saunders

Sometimes I get overwhelmed. I have over twenty 18 gallon totes filled with clothes for my kids.  I have both genders and clothes for both up to a size 4 for boys and 6 for girls.  I thought about giving some away so that I wouldn’t have to store them but let me tell you why I keep all my baby clothes.

The main reason I keep all of my baby clothes is because I am not done having children yet.  My boys will be two weeks apart on the calendar so keeping my boy clothes will save me tons of money for the second one.  I shouldn’t have to buy a stitch of clothing for the newest member of our family when he gets here soon.  We might be done, but if we aren’t and we have another girl, then I can hopefully use my girl clothes.

The second reason I haven’t given my clothes away is I enjoy blessing others as I have been blessed.  When Little Bit gets here at the end of July, he will be the 5th or 6th boy to have worn the clothes.  My girl clothes have gone through as many as six girls, depending on the size.  I have been blessed with many hand-me-downs and I enjoy loaning them out as well.  There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the relief on a friend’s face when they don’t have to shell out a lot of money for clothes since they are setting up a new nursery.  I really enjoy that feeling of helping others.

Having said all that, I realize most people don’t have a lot of storage space.  So pick and choose what you want to save and what you want to give to someone, sell at a yard sale, or consign.  I have chosen to keep all my clothes so far but will have one heck of a yard sale when I am done.  I choose to store my children’s clothes in storage totes sorted by gender and size so everything is organized.  Space saver storage bags are another great alternative.  My sister actually has a storage until she pays for in order to store miscellaneous items so her clothes go there.  Whatever your storage capabilities are, just be smart and reasonable about it.

Hope this helps you justify keeping your children’s clothes.  I will say though, that when you done having kids . . . SELL, SELL, SELL.  Get rid of your baby toys and don’t be sentimental about baby clothes.  I didn’t want to put my kids in my baby clothes and I can pretty much guarantee, no matter how cute your kids are dressed, they aren’t going to want to use clothes that old to dress their kids.  So get rid of them.  It’s that simple.

Hope to talk to you again soon.

Kelly

Note from Karen:  Thanks Kelly for the guest post.  I also kept our children’s clothes until we were done having babies.  I had a boy and a girl so I was not able to use all of the clothes again, but some of the items were unisex.  It was helpful to have all of the toys and baby items for the second child.  I tried to make sure the expensive items (carseats, high chairs, etc.) were unisex.  When we were done, I consigned a lot of them, put them in our yard sales, and gave a bunch away too.  Reselling the items brought in some extra income and I was also able to bless others with the remains. 

image (c) Karen Weideman