Clothes Vomit!

**Farm Hunting Update:  Well, we have begun the insane paperwork process for the mortgage company!  Stacks upon stacks of paperwork need to be done and of course we have a question about almost every single page.  We are trying to go through all of our belongings and get rid of a lot of stuff.  Tomorrow is garage sale day!!**

Clothes Vomit

Okay, I guess I did not have to use such a gross title, but honestly, that is what we have at our house!!  Clothes everywhere!  I know we have six people in our family and we all need to stay dressed, but REALLY!!  Do my two oldest girls need 26 sweaters?  Ummm.....I think NOT!

Much to some of my children's dismay, we are cleaning up the puke and scrubbing the floors in regards to clothes.  I searched and thought, and thought and searched for a list of clothing that the average child, teen and adult need.  Looking at all I found and thinking about our individual family's needs I came up with the following list:

Clothing List

• 7 pairs of white socks
• 1 pair each of black, brown and navy socks
• 1 pair of play shoes
• 1 pair of tennis shoes
• 1 pair each of dress shoes - black, brown, white and navy
• 1 pair of waterproof slip on shoes (we camp a lot and need these for the showers)
• 1 pair of boots
• 3 pairs of jeans
• 5 pairs of shorts
• 2 casual outfits of choice
• 2 nice outfits for church, meetings, etc.
• 2 pull overs
• 2 sweatshirts
• 7 long sleeve shirts
• 7 short sleeve shirts
• 4 play outfits (2 for warm weather and 2 for cold weather)
• 1 winter coat
• 1 dress coat
• 1 light jacket
• 4 pairs of pj's (2 for warm weather and 2 for cold weather)
• **now we also need undergarments, but my girls would probably take me out and beat me with a wet noodle if I discussed that number with you guys!!! :)**
• Debate Suit (this is for my older girls that compete in debate)
• 2 swimsuits
• 1 cover up

Now we had this great list (well, I thought it was great!!) and we gathered together to go through everything.  Boy howdy did I get a range of reactions.

Daughter #1 is my more practical child and she thought that my list was too long and we really could get by with less.  As she is explaining why, daughter #2 is looking like she is going to pass out at the mere thought of having to part with some of the gazillion outfits she owns!

Daughter #3 could really care less as I have to practically force her to even change clothes!  If it were up to her she would sleep in the clothes that she plays in.  And my baby girl, daughter #4 began to cry at the fact that she would have to try clothes on!!

Oh what great fun we had!!  :) 

So, we now have a list, four miserable daughters, trash bags, and donate and sale boxes.  I told the girls that anything they kept must be in good condition (stain free, no rips, etc.) and must fit well.  No use in wasting space on clothes that make you feel uncomfortable!!  And so we began!

It took stinking HOURS to go through everything!  Oh and to hear them think aloud through their choice process.  I was highly entertained just by sitting back listening to the self-discussions, crying, moaning and so on!  (If you have kids, you will totally get where I am coming from!!)

Finally they are done.  The stack of clothes that are keepers is much smaller than the stacks of non-keepers.  Not one of the children were harmed in this experiment (no matter what #2 says!) and I even took them for ice cream cones when we were done. 

 The final rule is that the clothing number stays the same. So if you get new clothes, you must get rid of old clothes. #4 received a beautiful shirt and sweater yesterday, so she had to choose a shirt and sweater, that she already had, to get rid of. She was happy to do so due to her excitement over her new clothes.  Perfecto!!

What I am left with now are clean dresser drawers and closets, yet heaping piles of clothes in my living room just waiting to either be sold in our garage sale on Saturday or donated to our church clothes closet on Sunday!!  And I, my dear friends, am looking forward to the best benefit of this clothing purge.....LESS LAUNDRY!!!!

Of course, if they stay and play as messy as they are now, we may need some of those extra clothes back!!!  :)