A sudden change in temperatures sends a shiver down my spine and it's not because I am cold. It's time to change out the clothes for the kids. This task is a big job in our house, bigger than it used to be. With kiddo #1, the first time it got cold, I went to Target and Old Navy and bought the next size of pants and long sleeved shirts. With kiddo #2, I went to the basement and hauled out the tub of kiddo #1's clothes and then went to Target and Old Navy to buy clothes for kiddo #1. (He always gets the new stuff). Now repeat this scenario for kiddo #3 and add in kiddo #4, baby girl, with a completely different set of tubs and clothes to sort. This makes for lots of tubs, sorting and trying on pants to see what fits. (Total aside, does anyone besides me have boys who hate trying on clothes? My oldest would rather do extra chores than try on pants. He hates it!). I am very thankful we have all the hand me downs, it is managing all the hand me downs that gets a bit hairy.
The above mentioned process usually takes me a couple of weeks to complete. This year I decided to do one kid at a time to simplify it and keep down the number of open tubs sitting in my room. Then I worked with them to try on clothes, swap out the clothes in their closet and put the outgrown clothes away. We're also getting to the point where some of the clothes are going directly from one boy to the next without ever making it to the tub. This creates confusion at laundry sorting time because the older boy is convinced that is his shirt when in fact, it is no longer his shirt.
I keep a running list of who needs what from the store. Since my oldest is so adverse to trying on clothes, I buy them online, get them shipped to our house, go through the pants trying on drama at home and then return whatever doesn't work back to the store. This year he needed the next size of pants for the length but the waist is too big. So he is wearing 12 slim skinny jeans with the adjustable waist bands cinched up AND a belt. The length looks great.
We got lucky this year since everyone has a winter coat that fits. The only thing I haven't checked yet are winter boots. You know I'll be doing that the first time it snows.
