One of the biggest tasks I have found with having lots of kids is switching out their clothes when they size up. Our kids survive off of hand-me-downs, so clothes are kept all down the line for the next little one to need them. So as you can imagine, we have tubs on tubs on tubs of kids clothes. WAY more than we need. Its one of the biggest things I want to downsize in the near future. Not to pitch everything, but the things I just don’t reach for. Why fill their closet with clothes they’ll never wear? I don’t want to. So one day when I have nothing else to do (so absolutely not even ever once for the rest of my life forever) I’ll sort and purge and feel sooooo much better.
This is a job I put off as long as I can. The three younger kids have been in ill-fitting clothing for so long already, so today as laundry was going, Brady took all the stuff that normally went to Rowan’s closet and decided to put it into Solly’s. Which made total sense and was the right move.
Except then Rowan had next to nothing to wear.
So I ventured under the stairs into the abyss where all the tubs are held. I dug out the 4T and 6T tubs, so I could put Solly’s 4T stuff away and give Rowan some clothes that fit. It was a pretty arduous task but it happened. Solly really enjoyed getting to put all the “keepers” in his closet. “Any more keepers?” after every item. It was cute. He was super happy. Rowan helped hang up all of his new stuff too, and was grateful. Tubs went back downstairs. It was good. Done.
At that point, I figured I was already elbow deep, I may as well catch up Waverly, too. She still had lots of 18-24 month stuff in her closet, and she is wearing 3T now. Of course, I had gone down into the tub months ago and grabbed a handful of items to get us through, but I didn’t go through it all. Should have. But yesterday was the day.
I hauled up the tub of Laela’s 3T clothes, and started pulling stuff out that Wavy would wear, separating out what I knew we wouldn’t use, and pulling old small stuff out of her closet. I had most things out of the tub, but I was leaving behind some summer stuff. Dresses, swimsuits, tank tops and such. As I was digging through those last few items to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, I saw a tshirt sleeve. I grabbed it and pulled it out.
Barf.
Right. That is why I hate switching out their clothes.
Because every time I put away clothes for Solly or Wavy, I feel like a fool, holding onto things that have no purpose. Things that only hurt me to still possess. Things that gather dust and smell like storage. Things that could be serving others but rather, they just sit and stare at me. Just because of maybes. Just because of thin lines of possibility.
Why should I save all of these stupid clothes when there is no one to wear them?? And when there may very well never be someone else to wear them?! Not knowing is miserable, and I am really feeling that today.
So naturally, I put it on the internet 😒
Thank you to those of you who don’t tire of my grief. Its not budging.