FashBlog.com

Every spring I dread this time of year, those few weeks here on the East coast where it's not quite cold enough to wear winter clothes, yet it's still too chilly for summer clothes. This means I have to have access to my entire wardrobe. Even worse, I have to have access to my daughter's entire wardrobe (which is much larger than mine is).

Every year at this time I go through all of my drawers and closets, as well as my children's. It's time o take inventory, clean out the old, make way for the new, etc. It's a daunting task, mostly due to the fact that my children are still young enough that they tend to grow out of their clothes from season to season. This means we have to have a "fashion show", which is what I call it when we try on all of the clothes to see if they still fit. By the time she tries on the third dress or the fifth pair of capris, however, my daughter is bored of this game. And my 3 year old son? Well, he won't even participate in the game at all.

So how do I eventually muddle through the task of changing over my family's r clothing wardrobes? It takes patience and organization, but it feels so good when it is finally done.

First I take every piece of clothing out of all of the closets and drawers. Everything-- even socks, underwear, etc. Then I painstakingly go through every item and put them into three piles:

Pile 1 is for the items that I am keeping.

Pile 2 is for the items that no longer fit or items that my family no longer wears, but that are in good enough condition to sell on EBay (I only sell items that are in like new condition).

Pile 3 is for Goodwill.

I also have another pile-- for items that are just plain worn out (that's called the rag pile, because my husband is always looking for new work rags).

Also, when I clean out my daughter's closets and drawers, I sometimes put aside some of the cutest items that no longer fit so that I can pass them on to a relative.

Once I have the drawers and closets cleared out (keep in kind, I do this task one room at a time, over a period of a few days) I start restocking. I usually put the items from the last season in storage bins in the closets, to make more room for the current season's items. I'm always careful to leave out a few must-haves, like a sweater or two, even if summer is just around the corner. It's easier to keep a few pairs of jeans and sweater or two available, instead of trying to dig through the storage bins if it gets cold.

As I put everything put back into the closets and drawers, I can better see what gaps are in my children's wardrobes. For instance, this season my daughter will need all new shorts-- none of her shorts from last year fit her, which is good because it means she is growing. She actually wore size 4T for the past two summers, so I'm glad we're finally moving on.

I the tackle my other two piles. The clothing for Goodwill gets folded and bagged, then dropped off at the nearest Goodwill site. I tend to do this right away, because I don't like to keep stuff laying around and also to prevent myself from attempting to pull that skirt I haven't worn in 10 years out of the bag in a last ditch bout of remorse.

The Ebay pile takes a bit more effort. I first inspect the items to make sure they are indeed in as good condition as I think they are. If they pass the test, I take a digital photograph of each item and then I list them on the auction site, using a description template to make the job easier. True Ebay aficionados use EBay's "Turbo Lister", which apparently makes the job of listing multiple items much easier-- I'll have to try it sometime.

Once I have all of the family's clothing sorted through and put away, I feel a true sense of organization and calming. True, the closets and drawers will be jam-packed again soon-- I need to put all the new summer fashions somewhere! Still, there's less guilt in buying new when you have passed the old on to someone else.