Last weekend I decided to finally switch out the kids’ summer clothes for winter clothes. Although this task is annoying, it is an easy way for our family to save money. We ended up purchasing a few new items, but the bulk of our winter wardrobe came from things we had saved and stored in our crawlspace. Today I want to share our clothing storage system with you.
From the very beginning, John and I knew we wanted a large family. Starting with our first daughter, we began saving clothes she had outgrown. To reduce the clutter in our house, we decided to store the clothing in our crawlspace, which is not climate controlled. To make sure the clothes were protected, we placed everything in plastic bins with secure lids. Now that we have 5 children, the number of bins we have accumulated is a bit ridiculous.
Each bin has a label with gender and clothing size. In the past few years, we’ve been purchasing clear clothing storage bins, which makes finding what we need even easier. I wish we had done that from the beginning. But you live and learn.
Finding the correct bin for each child can be a chore. Inevitably, the bin we need is always on the bottom on the stack. Fortunately for me, John usually pulls everything from the crawlspace. Then I have the tedious task of sorting through each and every article of clothing. I usually end up donating the stained and damaged clothing. Everything in decent shape goes back into rotation, while the out of season clothes go back into the bin to the next child.
I always make sure to complete the clothing transfer on laundry day, so I can switch out all of the clothing in one fell swoop. There is nothing worse than having too many clothes in our dresser drawers. We don’t have the space, the time, or the energy to maintain all of that clothing. And my kids don’t have the sense to pick out the correct clothing to match the weather.
Speaking of weather, since switching out our wardrobe to long sleeves and pants, the weather has been exceptionally warm here in NJ. Oh well. My kids will just have to sweat until the weather cools down again. Mama is not pulling bins out of the crawlspace until Spring!