How to sort, save and store kids clothes

There is no school today.
It's Saturday, it's June, the sun is shining and the bugs and blooms are out.

I have one graduate this year... we DID it!

I still have all the books and papers lining the shelves and they call out to me as I sit and enjoy the quiet stillness in a house where I get up long before the rest of it's inhabitants. But, the days do not stay quiet. There is busyness coming.

Even with no school today, there are always things to be done. These days in between the teaching and the textbooks have tasks of their own.

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One of those many tasks is the Spring Sort. It begins with the hauling of ALL the clothing bins from the basement. Then, they get stacked in order from smallest sizes to biggest sizes.
With six boys and one girl at home, I tackle the boys clothes first.

I start with the baby clothes and I purge and I fold and I touch every piece. Yes, I touch every piece.

If you know me, then you know that a lot of clothes ended up on FB marketplace this year. I am very proud of myself for that. There are so many and no matter how adorable they are, it just doesn't make sense to keep them all.

I still have bins of clothes in every size, at least in boy clothes, for now.

I prefer the 16 quart clear bins. They hold just enough baby items for me to feel like I'm prepared. By about size 5, the clear bins hold just enough of each item (pants/shorts, dress shirts, tee shirts, etc) in these bigger sizes so that I never have to buy new clothes just because someone decided they would gain ten pounds or grow three inches overnight.

By about size 12, I have to switch to the larger storage tub - I would prefer these in clear also, but they are harder to find at a price I'm willing to pay.

The folding and the sorting and the touching... it goes on for days. I take over the room with the television in it, so the more the children desire a chance to use that machine, the more willing they are to help me out with this process.

Together, we are learning economics.

Why? Why do we do this at the change of the seasons every year? Why does EVERY closet and dresser have to be emptied? Why are there so many bins?

As I answer their questions, I am teaching them about frugality, about waste, about reusing important resources instead of replacing them. I am teaching them about the cost of goods and the benefit of saving and protecting these items for the next year or the next sibling.

It is a monumental task, and some say it isn't worth it. But, if I go shopping for boys jeans I will find that even a cheap price is about $12/pair - even Goodwill charges $8 for a pair of used jeans - I can save hand me downs for free or pay 50cents to $1 at a rummage sale. Let's say, each boy needs one pair of jeans, and I have six boys:

New: $12 x 6 = $72
Thrift store: $8 x 6 = $48
Rummage: $1 x 6 = $6
Found one in a bin downstairs! $0 x 6 = $0

If I spend an hour sorting and storing all the boys jeans, I have earned somewhere between $48 and $72 for that hour - while teaching my children.

That is some money that can go right into the Vacation Savings Account. How's that for some Vacation Education?

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