Reining in all those clothes!!

I wish I was talking about my own clothes! Well, those need organizing as well but not to the extent my kids' clothes do. Since we're still considering having a 3rd kid, we're holding on to Derek and Kristen's old stuff but it's so hard to keep track of what is where.

** By the way, hello and thanks for checking in even though I have written in 3 months! Still catching my breath from the move - renting throws a whole other variable to the what-furniture-to-buy when under tight budget constraints, which puts askew what-goes-where, so we're still living with boxes - but I'm trying to gain traction again. Much has been going on in my head that I want to share and I can't wait! **

I originally bought these grey cloth storage thingies and thought they were the awesomest things ever. They're pretty spacious and....and...and!!.. they come with dividers. Dividers. I love dividers. Helps me find things. Bags with just one compartment throw me off because they're like cavernous mouths that swallow up my stuff. Dividers at least make the mouths smaller.

Anyhoo, I found out during the move that they aren't that great. We have to be gentle with them as the handles were tearing off, and I can't really see what's inside. Yes, there are windows but I have to position them a certain way in order to view them.

I've decided then to use plastic bins. I was advised by a professional organizer to get ones with straight sides so that there isn't wasted space when putting them away but I've barely had time to get the bins, never mind be uber picky. I happened to be at Target last weekend, looked at the bins and decided to go with ones which allow me to stack well. The lids allow the bottoms to nestle in and not slide around.

Since we're still adjusting to the budget of not living in a condo and have had other purchases due to the move (the Expedit cube is my new furniture fave, which I'll possibly write about in another post), I'm only going to buy a few at a time. The first ones I bought are 3 of the 60L size and a shallow one with the same perimeter dimensions.  I've started unpacking 2 grey thingies but realize I need to open up the others to see what goes in which bin. Yeah yeah, I'm a perfectionist, but I'll breathe easier once it's done. =)

In conjunction with this rearranging is my desire to inventory the clothes. Yep, I want to know exactly what baby and kid clothes I have, or at least how many of what, if not down to the colour and fabric (kidding! I don't have that much time!). I looked up any clothing inventory templates and surprisingly found very few offerings. I thought if there are tons on organizing chores and such, surely there would be a good handful on clothing inventory!

So, I decided to make my own, which is what I ended spending most of today on. I'll use these while I unpack the grey thingies and keep the sheets in a binder for easy reference for when people want to borrow things or if we have that craziness called a 3rd kid. =D

Here's a pic of my day's efforts, done in between meals and light cooking and nursing to sleep and consoling a clingy kid. Not bragging, just saying that you shouldn't expect much! At least it's useable and nice to look at. I'm hoping to make it a bit prettier and eventually purchasable on Etsy. If you're interested in a rough version tho, I'll be happy to send a copy to the first 10 people who comment!