One of the nice things about having all girls is that I can hand down from one girl to the next a lot of the clothes.   One of the downsides of having all girls though, is that there are a lot of clothes to hand down and store.  I mean what girl doesn’t like clothes?  Anyway, so over the years I have worked out this system to keep them stored, somewhat organized, and out of the way.  There is nothing special or original about this approach. I just seem to get quite a few questions from other parents about how I store and organize their clothes, so I thought I would share it here on the blog.

How I sort the clothes

I use a simple system of sorting the clothes by size.  Right now they are broken down into groups of sizes 6/6x, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, and a generic teen size.  I am lucky that I have all girls, because if I had a mixture of girls and boys, then I would have to probably sort them by size and by sex.  I also don’t do any differentiation of the teen sizes.  I have found that as they become teenagers, they grow less and hold onto clothes longer.   The two teenagers have a lot of clothes in their bedrooms and when they grow tired of something or grow out of something they either give it to each other or toss it in the teen box.  Once my youngest grows out of the smallest size I have, I donate them to our church rummage sale.

I also do not do any sorting by season.  All clothes regardless of season are stored together by size.  I try and separate them in the bins by seasons, but more often than not, they just get lumped in together and we sort them out at the start of a new season.

How I store the clothes

All of the clothes are stored in plastic bins in my basement on shelves.  I mark the lid of each box with masking tape and write the size of each one.  If Bobbie were here she would tell me to also mark the sides of the bins as well so that I could see the size by all angles, but I haven’t managed to find the motivation to do that.  She would probably also tell me to use clear bins, so that I can more easily see what is inside, but I haven’t done that either.

I am also fortunate to have a full size basement and plenty of room to store them.  If I didn’t have a big basement then I would probably still store them in bins, but keep them in the girls’ closets.  After Lilly grows out of the smallest size we have, I just reuse the bin for another size or something else.

How I manage the switch between seasons

Right now we are in the process of switching out clothes between winter and spring/summer.  It gets hard between seasons because it isn’t warm enough to switch completely to the spring/summer clothes, so we still need to have some winter clothes handy as well.  Right now the bins for my two youngest are at the foot of my bed and because my 10 year old is wearing a winter size 10, but will need a spring/summer size 12, I have an extra bin.  Basically all we do is go through the clothes, find things that fit and that they like, hang the new clothes in their bedroom, and store most of last season’s clothes in the bins.  We still keep a few things from last season on hand in their closet, so that they are available on cold days.  I also keep the bins at the bottom of my bed for a few weeks, so that I can quickly store the remaining clothes from last season.  If I put all the bins away in the basement, then I would have a pile of clothes that looks like this

sitting on the table at the top of my stairs all summer long until the fall rolled around and we go through the process again.  This way I can quickly store the clothes and have all of the winter clothes back in the basement by Memorial Day.

A note about shoes and a word to the wise

I have found that other than the shoes they wear on nice occasions or to church, that it is hard to hand the shoes down to the younger girls.  After a season running and playing outside, sneakers get really gross looking and well worn.  I keep all the shoes that are worthy of saving for the younger girls in one bin and we just sort through there to find something that fits.

Also, a word to the wise; teenage girls like to wear their mother’s shoes, so if you don’t want them wearing your shoes, buy ugly mom shoes.

I like the predictability of a regular family schedule.  It helps keep us focused and less frazzled and when the kids were younger helped to minimize melt downs and power struggles.  Throughout the year our family schedule will change slightly around school schedules and summer breaks, but during the school year our general family schedule looks pretty much the same week after week.  Here are some of the key ways we manage and stick to our schedule.

We establish anchor points in our day

Basically an anchor point is the time our day starts and the time our day ends and we force everything to happen and get done within these anchor points.  For us, our start point anchor time is 6:00am and our end point anchor time is 10:00pm.  Before six o’clock in the morning and most definitely after ten o’clock in the evening, the house has to be quiet with little to no activity.  This doesn’t mean that everyone is in bed at ten o’clock; it just means that if you are still up you have to be quiet and respectful of those sleeping.

Plan our schedule in blocks

Whenever I am planning our schedule for the week, I think in terms of blocks of time rather than minutes or hours and try to manage our schedule to fit into each block as best I can.  For us there are basically five blocks – Work & School, Household, Fun/Family, Grocery Shopping/Errands, Activities & Sports.   As a general rule a typical day during the week will look like this for us:

6:00 – 9:00 AM – Get Ready for School & Work; Morning Routines; Light Housekeeping, Chores or Do List Stuff

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM – Work & School (For me and the kids; my husband doesn’t get home until later)

4:00 – 7:00 PM – Dinner, Homework, Household Chores, Activities & Sports, Groceries/Errands

7:00 – 10:00 PM – Evening Routines & Bed

Other than our family dinners and maybe some light reading together in the evening, we don’t do much in the way of family activities during the week.  We save family fun stuff for the weekends or Friday evenings so that we can enjoy them more.

We keep Sunday’s free

We try really hard to keep Sunday’s free of social commitments or work.  We try and make Sunday’s about relaxing, spending time together, and regrouping.  After a long week of school, work, and commitments, all of us need this time to just let our bodies and minds rest both physically and emotionally.  I minimize all household chores and responsibilities and keep dinner really simple.  For the younger kids, we try and get all homework done on Saturday and encourage the two teenagers to do so as well.

I shut down after seven

Once seven o’clock rolls around each night, I am basically spent for the day.  So I don’t plan on getting anything productive done after seven each night.  I focus on getting all the important things done earlier in the day.  The most I will get done after seven is getting the two youngest in bed, folding laundry, or putting in a load of wash, but that is about all.

Question: How do you manage your family schedule?

The clutter in my kitchen has gotten out of control lately or maybe just my effort to keep on top of the clutter has gotten lax, so I took some time this morning to get it organized because I couldn’t stand looking at it any longer.

This organizer sits on my kitchen counter and its main job is to keep track of the school papers and library books for the two youngest kids as well as be a place for us to charge our phones, hold our household organizing binder, and store hair clips and pony tail holders (in that little drawer).  I also use it to hold file folders for various committees or volunteer work I do.  This is the go to place for things and paper we need on a frequent basis, but lately it has become a dumping ground for stuff we don’t know what to do with and overrun with old papers that need tossed.

Did you know that kids bring home A LOT of paper?

I know our schools have gotten much better about this over the years, but there is still a lot of paper that each kid brings home and when left unattended grows into this

The two lower spots are used to keep track of the school work and paper for the two youngest kids.  They are both still in elementary school and still need help keeping track of their school work.  The two oldest (15 and almost 14), keep track of their own things.  And if you saw their bedrooms you wouldn’t believe me, so we won’t go there….

Sometimes I just don’t feel like dealing with it all

So it gets stuffed in our household organizer and ends up looking like this

The reality is that I really DETEST filling out forms and if I have to write a check for that form, then I REALLY detest filling out that form.  So I have a tendency to put filling out forms off as long as possible and as you can see sometimes miss deadlines…  I now have a call into the art teacher to see if I can still send in our order form….sheesh….

If we know where it belongs then we should put it there the first time

My family suffers from a condition called IDontKnowWhereItGoesitis….and when it hits them the organizer ends up looking like this

I try and keep this top spot clear and open, so that we can charge our cell phones and keep the cords neatly tucked behind the organizer and to also store temporary items that we need to keep track of like this fish giving bank for church.  But as you can see, there is only one item there that technically should be there…everything else has a home of its own.

When I keep on top of it all, it looks like this

Doesn’t that look better?  It is much less emotionally draining now and makes me feel less overwhelmed.  And to keep it from getting out of control again, I have added cleaning it out to my household planner.  It is a five minute job that when done really helps to clear my mind of distractions and find things faster.

A while back I wrote Simple Questions Every Family Should Ask the Night Before and since writing that piece I have realized there are a few more questions that should be added to the list.  I have recapped them all here and created a simple checklist for you to download and print to help you remember.  Keep the checklist in a very central location, refrigerator, bulletin board, etc, so that you can quickly and easily reference it.  For those of you who like to try and keep things digital, you can copy it into a note or reminder app.

What’s on our calendar and does everyone know it?  Do all family members understand what it means to THEM?

Review your family calendar and make sure everyone knows what is going on as well as the expectations and implications.  For example, sometimes I need to pick one of my kids up from school early for a doctor’s appointment, so this means

1. She needs to know she is being picked up and to have herself ready at a certain time.
2. Her sisters need to know they will be walking home alone that day.  Do they have their key?  Do they remember the rules about being home alone?
3. I need to write a note to the teacher letting her know that my child will be picked up early and at what time.
4. I need to make sure that any of the people I work with know I will be unavailable.

The goal of this question is to eliminate confusion and improve communication.  It is also a great way of teaching kids how to anticipate and manage implications.

What specific things do we need for the events or appointments on our calendar?

These are items you will need specific to the event or appointment.  It would include things like sports equipment, snacks, books/reading material, calendars, and notes/files.  The goal here is to be as prepared as possible and make the best use of our time.

What are the 3 most important MUST Do’s for tomorrow?  And who is doing them?

These are the things that really have to get done.  They should be the priority for your day.  Try and keep the list to no more than three items so that you can be effective.  The goal of this question is to help keep you focused, help you prioritize, and help keep you productive.

What specific things or information do I need to accomplish my MUST Do’s?

Think through as thoroughly as possible the things you will need to accomplish your MUST Do’s.  Go through each item and ask yourself “What do I need to accomplish this?”  Gather everything you need or at a minimum know where you will find it.  So for example, if one of my MUST Do’s is to order a replacement part for my dryer, I will need to know these things:

1. The manufacturer and model number
2. The name of the specific part
3. Who am I going to call?

The goal of this question is on improving productivity and saving time.

What’s for dinner?  Do I need to take anything out of the freezer or pick anything up from the store?

This question is all about making meal planning easier and meal time less chaotic.  Try and do as much meal prep as possible, so that you can spend less time preparing the meals or having to eat out or run through fast food drive-thrus.

What are we wearing?  Is it clean? Where is it?

This question is particularly helpful when specific outfits, school uniforms, or sports equipment is needed.  The goal of this question is to help make our mornings less rushed and crazy.

Are we buying or packing our lunches?  Do we need lunch money?

Ask the question to flush out any lunch requests early and to make sure everyone has enough money to buy.  Try and pre-pack as much as possible to help make the following morning easier.

Question:  What questions or routines do you go through every night to help make the following day easier?  You can tell me by leaving a response by clicking here.