Wednesday, April 22, 2009

WFMW - Storing old clothes



This is my first WFMW post, and I struggled with what to write, but wanted to give back to all those who shared the great tips I've been reading. Then, I started to move Winter clothes into boxes and get out the summer clothes. Kids outgrow clothes quickly. Since I've got a younger brother trying to start a family, I've been saving all my kids' clothes so I can hopefully pass them along to him and his wife someday. When my oldest was born, I stored everything in diaper boxes, because they were handy. But there were problems with storing them in diaper boxes:

  • They're all different sizes and shapes, which makes stacking them neatly hard.

  • They're very "busy" on the outside making them difficult to label

  • I usually did NOT buy boxes of diapers at Sams club because they were cheaper if I used a coupon at Walmart or Kmart and I often had a coupon.

  • Storing clothes in the coordinating size diaper box was not feasible for my kids. They were out of diapers at age 2 and diaper size 4. So using the boxes at Sams that would give me three box sizes (they have 1-2 as the same size, or at least they did) and a LOT more clothes sizes in there (0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 9-12 months, etc).
So, I switched, when my second daughter was going through the clothes, to using copy paper boxes. I work full time and at the time I was working at an office that went through a lot of copy paper. There was always a stack of boxes waiting to be recycled. Here are some of the benefits:



  • They're usually close enough to the same size that the lids are interchangable even between brands.

  • They stack easily and neatly

  • They're sturdy

  • Since the lids are interchangable, label the lid with the size, then you can empty one box with the new bigger clothes, put the small clothes in that box and just put the right lid on the box.

  • They're often designed for storage so they usually have a spot to list what's in them.
So, if you know someone who works in a big office, ask them if they're willing to save the boxes for you. They work nice when you're moving too, again because they stack easily.

Head over to We are that Family for more Works for Me Wednesday posts.

3 comments:

annies home said...

great idea I am going to pass this to my daughter since her mother in law is a secertary

Aubrey said...

Thanks for stopping by! I do not actually have any kids, but we did fondue with my niece and nephew over Christmas (they are 3 and 18 months) and we ended up giving the 3yo a small bowl so he could dip it himself. He needed a little help, but really seemed to enjoy it. The 18mo old mostly just ate fruit. But if you don't trust your kids to dip, you can drizzle either the chocolate or the cheese over everything. But I do think part of the fun is getting to dip it yourself. So maybe just put down a plastic tablecloth and expect a mess! Hope that helps!

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