The Changing of The Seasons
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When I was living in the Northern United States, Fall was my favorite season. I loved to watch the leaves change color! I am living in coastal southern Virginia now and Fall just simply doesn?t happen. Sometime around January, the leaves sort of fall off the trees and it gets cold. You know that Winter has arrived.
As a mother, I dislike the changing of the seasons because it means that I need to sort through clothing, and store the past season?s clothing away(or give it away) as well as stock up for the next season?s clothing. I must do this for all 5 children.
I suppose I could make less work for myself if I simply went out and bought all new wardrobes every season and gave away all of the outgrown or seasonally inappropriate clothing instead of storing them for the next child. Financially, that?s not possible.
For my son, I have decided to take advantage of the end of the season clearance sales. For example, Walmart has summer shirts on sale for $2 each. You can?t beat that bargain. My son is just almost grown out of his summer shirts and so I bought him the next size up to get us through until November, when the weather gets slightly chilly and we can actually wear long sleeves.
I didn?t plan ahead in winter time and I assumed he?d stay in his winter clothes until it was time to wear spring/summer things. I was wrong. He had a growth spurt and then, even though it was winter and ?cold?, all the clothes in the stores were summer clothes. I couldn?t find any long sleeved shirts or sweatshirts anywhere. I actually called my relatives who live in the northern United States and they bought my son long sleeved shirts and sweatshirts in the bigger size, packaged them up and sent them south to us!
I know of parents who purchase clothes a year in advance in order to get the best bargains. For example, I would buy clothes now for next summer for my son. There?s risk involved in this though because you are guessing as far as sizes go. What size will your child wear next summer? You can make a somewhat intelligent guess using their past growth as some sort of indicator, but you may be wrong. An ?intelligent guess? would go something like this: if your son is 6 months old now and wears 9 month clothing, you should buy 18 month clothing and purchase a few 24 month sizes just in case. If your child tends to be on the petite size or grows slowly, you may wish to purchase some 12 month clothes and some 18 month clothes.
When storing clothes, I always use a plastic bag or a plastic container. I store clothes according to size and season. For example, I would mark the container as 6 months Winter or 9 months Summer. This allows you to find clothing easily.
I?d love to hear from other moms on this subject. Do you have any tried and true tips to share when changing clothes from one season to the next? Do you have storage tips to share? Have you found a great source for gently used or inexpensive clothing? Please post!
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