An Afternoon Project

*Disclaimer - If you have at any point been living under the false pretense that I keep an immaculate house, well, be prepared to learn otherwise.*

I had put it off long enough.  We've been living in this house since the middle of last September, and during all that time I had not filed away ANY of the clothes the girls had outgrown. As things became too small or the seasons changed, I'd just empty the hangers in their closets and toss the clothes into the spare bedroom and shut the door. (Shutting doors, I find, is the key to ignoring those pesky projects you'd rather not try and tackle.  Out of sight, out of mind.) This means that there were clothes the girls wore towards the end of LAST summer that were still sitting around, waiting to be grouped with their like-sized sisters.  All manner of clothing and shoes, sizes 6 months all the way to a few 2T items Melanie started to wear towards the end of winter.  Adding to the pile was a bunch of newborn and 0-3 months items I had shuffled through when my friend Amy had her daughter last October. Oh, it was a sight to behold!

 In the beginning, there was Mount "I Don't Want To Sort Clothes", close relative of Mount "I Don't Want To Put Away The Clean Laundry" (Yes, mountains have relatives.  At least in my world they do.)

There they were, just sitting in an ever growing pile, waiting for me, pitifully calling my name.  I tried to ignore them.  In fact, I was getting pretty darn good at it.  The clothes did, after all, reside in the same room as the iron and drying rack, two items I use on a very regular basis.  But ignore them I did.  For 8 long months.


Until today.


Melanie had asked to go visit Grams and Gramps after church this morning, so Matt walked the girls over to spend a couple hours playing and I set to work.

In the middle there were lots of piles!

 I sorted.

And sorted.

And sorted some more.

Newborn and 0-3 months in one tub, 3 months and 3-6 months in another.  I got all the way through to 12 months before the girls came home to be my little helpers.

Claire really enjoyed playing with all the Velcro on the shoes

 She even tried on a few of Melanie's old shoes.

Matt fed the girls lunch, I got Claire to go down for a nap and was able to finish sorting, folding, boxing and labeling everything. *insert sigh of relief here*

 In the end there were nice, neat stacks of organized clothing tubs!

The 2T clothes are still in a laundry basket since I ran out of storage bins, and Melanie still has a lot of 2T stuff in her closet, so that will be a project for another day.  Nevertheless, I'm feeling really good about my accomplishment.

Now to get some containers to sort all the shoes by size...