Okay, I’m a fish out of water here. I haven’t done a Works for Me Wednesday in a long time (and besides, who has time to go through that list anyway?). I’m short on content lately because I usually write at night. I’m still writing, it’s just not going here as much as it’s going there. My poor blog feels neglected, so I’m thinking really hard about something else that’s working around here besides having my kids clean the bathroom for me this morning (which really really worked for me today).
Here’s all I could think of: the communal clothing share. You see, we’ve got four girls between the ages of 5 and 9. That’s a lot of girl clothes. A couple of them overlap in some of the sizing and I’m trying to avoid the whole “she stole my favorite sweater” scenario at least for a few more years. So, I instituted the “if it fits you, you can wear it” policy.
In addition to this, most of the pajamas, socks, and under-things are fair game for anyone. I got so tired of separating out items that anyone can wear into two rooms. I also didn’t have enough drawers for each room to get a dedicated sock drawer or a dedicated t-shirt drawer. When I made the summer/fall clothing switch, I changed that up, too.
The older girls have the dresser with one drawer for sweat pants, one drawer for pj shorts, one drawer for pj t-shirts, and one drawer for under-things and swimsuits. The younger girls have one drawer for socks/tights, one drawer for one-piece feety pj’s, one drawer for two-piece pj’s (feety and otherwise), and one drawer for mid-weight pj’s and gowns.
Here’s the kicker: anyone can go into either room and utilize any of those drawers for any of those items. The girls sort of grumbled when I first explained the new system, but since then, not a peep. It’s made it easier for them to help put the laundry away too and that really works for me, Wednesday or not.
Okay, blog quota filled for today. For more tips on what works, see Shannon’s site, where the list grows by the hour.
7 Comments
October 22, 2008 at 3:03 am
We have a communal share “sock box” and milk crate for PJ’s in the bathroom… both have been good mental health providers. I’ve sometimes wondered if I shouldn’t just haul the dressers down to the basement right next to the washer/dryer area!
The mine/yours clothing thing I’m still working on. My oldest has a hard time with letting #2 wear stuff that she’s grown out of, fit notwithstanding. She wants to “hold on to favorites” to “pass down to her children”… seriously … hahaha! … although I think that’s just a fancy way of saying, “I don’t want Sophie to be able to wear this.”
October 22, 2008 at 9:41 am
We do this too with our two oldest girls. They share almost everything-pjs, socks and panties. They’re only 20 months apart, and really close in size. It really works because I can’t imagine trying to seperate all their stuff.
October 22, 2008 at 9:55 am
Some friends of ours do kind of the same thing with their girls (4 between the ages of 6-11). I have a feeling we’ll be doing it with our boys in a few years – they’re 21 months apart and right now they’re in 24mos/2T and 3/4T!
October 22, 2008 at 11:36 am
That’s a great idea. I don’t think my own kids — a boy and a girl, 4.5 years apart — would appreciate the share-your-clothes system, though. Bummer.
I do have my son fold his own laundry, however, and that definitely works for me.
October 22, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Haven’t you ever heard of green and yellow? I hear it can go either way. And I’m totally sure you can convince your kids to share. It’s all about the spin.
Okay, so I’m kidding. I need to go to bed.
October 30, 2008 at 3:55 am
Sometimes my boys are not the best judge of what “fits.” More than once I’ve had to tell them that a shirt was too big or those pants are now highwaters.
Still, we have informally adopted the same of clothing situation. . .
Though these days it seems like my oldest keeps wearing clothing that is too small. Maybe it’s more a reflection of his growth spurts than wearing his brothers’ clothes.
November 3, 2008 at 9:23 pm
So I am coming in late on this, but completely agree with you on the communal clothing. C & D share jammies, t-shirts, socks, and undershirts. Their underwear lives in the same drawer, but C knows that he can’t wear D’s. Also, C kept trying to wear D’s pants, and finally I figured out to tell him that he could wear only the pants sized 7 or bigger. And we’re good to go. One more crazy-maker (sorting clothes) put to bed!