Every so often, (or more often than not), we come to the point when we parents are trying to encourage the children to take some responsibility for their actions and for maintaining some semblance of order with their clothes. So far, they take their folded clothes and "put them away." Oh, you parents get the quotes, I know you do. I KNOW I'm not alone in this. At least, I sincerely hope I'm not.
The clothes end up in the dresser, but not folded any longer. Nor are the clothes in what I would call the "Proper Place." At one time, the drawers were labeled with what belonged in them so that when one child claimed that he couldn't find anything to wear, I could direct him to the proper drawer to find something on his own without needing too much hand-holding from me.
Yeah.
The drawers are a jumbled mess now. The clothes are shoved into any drawer that seems convenient at the moment. No rhyme or reason. Sometimes, if the child planned well, whatever is hanging out of the drawer can be claimed and worn without even opening the drawer to root around for clothes!
Of course, this child may not even notice that many of the clothes in the drawer do not fit or haven't fit for a long time now. Sometimes he decides that it still fits wonderfully, despite the fact that he has to manipulate the shirt collar and possibly his head to get the shirt on, let alone off.
One day, we decided it was time for an intervention; basically we reset some guidelines, re-introduce the dresser to him, and basically help the kid out.
As we dumped out all of his drawers, My Dearest pulled out a pair of jeans in a size 104 (I don't know...we just pulled them out and read the tag). They were boys jeans (I double checked) and were cut for supremely skinny legs, hips, and waist. Yikes. I don't know how we ended up with this pair of jeans or how they migrated to the top of his pile. Actually, I do; he shuffled around enough that it rotated it's way up naturally.
Anyhow, as I we looked at them in disbelief, My Dearest exclaimed, "I don't know what planet these were made on!"
For those who might have been searching high and low for a pair of jeans like this, I'm sorry, we tossed them into the "donate" pile.
We finished the intervention and restocked his dresser with clothes that actually fit him. Now that another load of laundry has been done, we'll see just how long this re-introduction to the dresser lasts.
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I hear you on the clothing drawers- I need to clean out mine.
But as far as Gaby's go, I have a system that seems to work. First of all, I only keep clothing in the dresser that is her current size and for the current season. Everything is either gets stored in plastic bins for the next kid to grow into, or put in the giveaway pile. Also, I only keep clothes in there that I actually like! If there is a shirt I think is ugly, its gone- I'm pretty ruthless, even with gifted clothing (Phil is much more sentimental than I am). Next, I only keep a limited number of clothes to make matching choices easier for her. I think she has about 5 pairs of pants in her pants drawer, and about 7 tops. Thats it. Voila, it makes getting dressed SO MUCH FASTER!
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