Clothes storage: reduce, reuse, recycle
Sep. 27th, 2008 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheWe got given 8 battered boxes today. The TFC uses plastic storage crates for their dry food (they've just upgraded to Really Useful Boxes) and gives me the broken ones. Today we got 7 large and 1 small.
And so Rob and I sorted the outgrown clothes.
Now we have boxes stacked in our bedroom, full of handmedowns and gifts not-yet-grown-into and outgrown things, all sorted by age, so when we next feel a need to go clothes-shopping we can do it in the comfort and privacy of our own home.
Every. Single. Box. Contains brand new unworn garments, often with the tags still on. Somehow, my kids get WAY too many clothes.However, it means that every generation of handmedown recipients will also get some stuff brand new, so that's nice, I suppose.
Some boxes contain more clothes than any child could use in a single year; at a later date and in my copious free time I will sort through them and give some of them away or, in some cases, send the fabric to recycling. But that was beyond the scope of this evening's project.
I don't think I need to buy either child a coat until about 2010. Or later.
Socks, though! Socks are sorted into - well, one great big bag of DOOOOOOOM. I'm not sure what to do about socks. I think it will be as simple as boxes labelled "outgrown by Linnea" and "outgrown by Emer", really, and on a trial-and-error basis thereafter.
I feel pleased that we're going to be reusing textiles and that we found a way to re-use broken plastic storage boxes which would otherwise have been sent to landfill. And I'm pleased we won't have to spend money on storage boxes or on children's clothes. Ever again, perhaps.
Not least because this week, I have to buy Emer yet more shoes. Or possibly cut her toes off with the carving knife.
And so Rob and I sorted the outgrown clothes.
Now we have boxes stacked in our bedroom, full of handmedowns and gifts not-yet-grown-into and outgrown things, all sorted by age, so when we next feel a need to go clothes-shopping we can do it in the comfort and privacy of our own home.
Every. Single. Box. Contains brand new unworn garments, often with the tags still on. Somehow, my kids get WAY too many clothes.However, it means that every generation of handmedown recipients will also get some stuff brand new, so that's nice, I suppose.
Some boxes contain more clothes than any child could use in a single year; at a later date and in my copious free time I will sort through them and give some of them away or, in some cases, send the fabric to recycling. But that was beyond the scope of this evening's project.
I don't think I need to buy either child a coat until about 2010. Or later.
Socks, though! Socks are sorted into - well, one great big bag of DOOOOOOOM. I'm not sure what to do about socks. I think it will be as simple as boxes labelled "outgrown by Linnea" and "outgrown by Emer", really, and on a trial-and-error basis thereafter.
I feel pleased that we're going to be reusing textiles and that we found a way to re-use broken plastic storage boxes which would otherwise have been sent to landfill. And I'm pleased we won't have to spend money on storage boxes or on children's clothes. Ever again, perhaps.
Not least because this week, I have to buy Emer yet more shoes. Or possibly cut her toes off with the carving knife.