Hand-Me-Downs

It's almost that time of year again, when I take things to the children's consignment shop to sell. Friends recently gave us some clothing from their children, so it was time to sort through all the boxes to see what fit, what to pass down from one child to another, save for later, and finally, decide which to donate, use for rags, or sell.

This was an all day job! First I sorted through the boxes and separated by gender, then by size. Working with the girl clothes first, I had Evelyn pull everything out of her drawers and we took out all the too-small clothing, and then let her pick what she wanted from the pile of clothes in her size.  10 short-sleeves, 10 long-sleeves, 10 shorts/skirts, 10 pants/jeans. Repeat two more times for Gretchen, then Sylvia.

Clothing that Sylvia no longer wears is an easy decision-- most of those will go to be sold or donated. Clothes too small for Gretchen or Evelyn will be saved for the next year or two, until they are too small for even Sylvia to wear. I have quite the pile of clothes that are in good condition to sell, and some that I know won't pass the consignment's store inspection, but still have lots of good wear left in them, they'll be donated.  Clothes with holes and bad stains will be turned into rags. There are some bright colors-- I'm thinking of a rainbow rag rug with some of those...

Well, how about that? I actually followed through on my idea and started a rainbow rag rug!! I may do a double rainbow, since this isn't very big and I've only 2 more colors to do-- blue and purple. Using kid-sized clothes presents a challenge, since as it gets bigger, I won't be able to take the color all the way around. See the yellow? I barely made it one and a half times around. It's looking really nice, though-- the colors are kind of muted in the picture, it's much brighter in real life.

I didn't finish going through all the boy clothes yet. I hope to finish that this week.

 Another advantage of sorting the clothes is finding out what we need or are short-handed on.  It's nice to see that I won't have to buy any clothing for at least a year or two, except for shoes. We're well stocked on pretty much all articles of clothing, which is a nice feeling when one's husband is out of work and money is tight.

 We are so blessed to have such good friends that think of us, and lucky in that we don't mind hand-me-downs. We've always practiced what we preached to the kids, about buying used at the thrift stores or yard sales, saving money, and making do or do without. I'm glad to see that the kids are happy with what they have and no gumbling about it being "old" or belonging to some other kid. Thanks for thinking of us!

<3