June 02, 2009

Cleaning Up the Clutter

Hubby and I have lived in our house for nearly two years. Not only are we buried in laundry, we are still buried in boxes. Some days I feel like 10 years from now we'll still be trying to unpack. It is all I can do to keep my daughters' closet organized and right now I'm failing in that area, too.
We're slowly making progress. Most of the boxes in our guest room, den and bedroom have been unpacked, so at least the other boxes are "hidden" in the basement. This weekend Hubby was able to unpack a few boxes and I managed to sort through baby clothes. Yes, my daughters are almost four and I still have boxes of baby clothes. No, I am NOT holding on to them "just in case." My moms of multiples group has a sale twice a year and you are only supposed to sell seasonally. I have only participated in two sales and I just didn't have time to tag everything. This weekend, though, I managed to sort most of the remaining clothes into "sell" or "donate" piles. I ended up with five boxes of clothes to donate and it took just a half hour for some triplet moms to claim those boxes.
My daughters' closet is another story. I can only keep things "in season" in their closet or it becomes an overflowing mess. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to take out the winter clothes, so it is now an overflowing mess of winter and summer. Hubby is so fed up that he insists I pick out clothes the night before if it's his job to dress the girls in the morning. (Really, I think this is just an excuse and he simply doesn't want me giving him a hard time for dressing them in polka dots and plaid... together. His fashion sense is a little off.)
So, my goal for this next weekend is to organize that closet. I may literally be buried in laundry before this is all said and done.

12 comments:

MaryAnne said...

Good luck! We moved into our house a couple years ago also, we unpacked the boxes but that doesn't mean everything is organized! I can't imagine moving with four two-year-olds, moving with one 18mo was more than enough for me!

Have you ever tried selling your old clothes as lots on ebay? It might be easier than organizing and tagging for a sale, and if you make it into bundles that fit into the flat rate priority boxes shipping is easy too. Although you still do run into the problem where they sell more easily if they are the right season... The larger sizes especially can sell for quite a bit (based on when I've bid on lots - I don't have any experience selling yet).

Stephanie Barr said...

I just donate everything salvageable.

My daughter, just 15 months, loves to be dressed up in girl stuff. Lee would just as soon she wander about in a diaper, but, if I'm home, she'll bring me clothes. She picked her own outfit out this morning.

I'm glad I'm not chasing four of her, though I love her dearly. She got shots this morning and I'm REALLY glad I didn't have to handle for screaming punctured children at once.

Quadmama said...

MaryAnne: I've thought about going the ebay route, but just haven't ever done it. I've actually had a lot of success with the moms of multiples sale, even if tagging everything is a huge pain.

Stephanie: Speaking of shots... the last time my four needed shots they were actually pretty good. But when it was the last sister's turn she was sitting in her chair with her shirt pulled down over her knees (their shots are in their legs). I felt TERRIBLE making her have a shot after that.

The Rantings of a Drama Queen's Mum said...

Good luck on the getting the closet organized. I usually donate stuff to Goodwill, Freecycle or Craigslist. I have fun getting rid of things.

Quadmama said...

I like making room for new things. I always try to find some clothes to either pass on to friends or donate to various organizations, but having some extra cash from the sale is nice, too.

Stephanie Barr said...

Not selling the clothes has more to do with laziness than any other reason. I have all of Roxy's old clothes in boxes, but I haven't bothered to donate them yet. If I had to price them, I'd have them when she graduated high school.

Quadmama said...

Don't get me started on how long tagging takes. Despite my good intentions I always put it off to the last minute and then swear next time I'll start sooner.

Sadia said...

Over three years in our house, and we still have unpacked boxes. I've considered tossing the unpacked ones; we haven't missed their contents in three years!

We're not buried in laundry, but the floor of my bedroom is. At least it's washed laundry.

Jacqueline Miller said...

Good luck! I hate organizing the clothes for my 2 boys - I can't imagine doing it for 4!

I'm also big on picking out clothes in advance - in fact, I put my boys to sleep in the clothes they're wearing to day care the next day!

Quadmama said...

Sadia, we've talked about tossing our still-packed boxes. If we haven't needed the stuff will we ever?

Brooke: oh, my girls would never agree to sleep in their clothes. I've tried when we're leaving early for trips and they'll do it, but on a regular basis? I'm lucky if I can get them to wear the socks they slept in.

Kristi said...

1 1/2 years in our house, we cannot get a car in the garage because it's so full and we can barely walk through the overstuffed basement. Ugh! It's a mess. Planning for a yard sale late summer or early fall. Good luck to everyone!

Quadmama said...

Our one promise to each other is that we would be able to park both vehicles in the garage... thank goodness we have a big basement!!!

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