Thursday, January 26, 2012

William Morris Thursday - My girls' wardrobe


I'm linking up again this week with Jules' William Morris project. Get the full scoop here.

I know I said I would be done with my coffee table project by now, but neither my schedule nor the weather has cooperated. My theory is that the two have conspired against me to keep it from getting done. The days it's been nice out, I haven't had time and this past weekend, when I had a full Sunday to get it done, it looked like this.


I don't know if you can tell by this picture, but that's some other town's dirt in the air. Not sure if it was Midland or Lubbock, but it wasn't ours. It doesn't do that very often, but when it does, I don't go out. For anything. I stood on the porch just for a minute to get a picture of the sun and my legs were stinging from the sand in the air.


So I stayed indoors and did some organizing. Not as much fun but so necessary. I have 3 girls and two of them are 19 months apart, so I feel like I am overrun with girl clothes. To make matters worse, both of the kid's grandmas like to pick things up for them now and then and I have a great friend that passes most of her girl's stuff down to them. That makes for mounds of clothes in my house. An unnecessary amount of clothes. I've known for some time that they have too much, I just couldn't bring myself to pare it down. Well, trapped inside my house this weekend, that's what I did.

Here's all the clothes they own. Well, I should say all the clothes they own that are in season. There's more in the attic for summer. The piles toward the top of the picture belong to my youngest daughter and the piles in the bottom half of the picture belong to my two oldest daughters.


Oh, wait, I went in their room and there were clothes everywhere. I mean, everywhere. I didn't get a shot of it, but I did get a shot of the big basket that I hauled out of there and then had to sort because I didn't know what was clean and what was dirty. In their defense, I haven't modeled very good habits when it comes to the whole business of clothes. They come by it honestly.



I put that into the wash and then sorted it. Then, I had the girls pick their favorite outfits. I probably let them pick too many, but we did make a sizable dent in it all. Some of the rejects will go back to my friend and some will go to the consignment shop in town.

Here's everything hung up in their closet. I have to admit, after the girls chose everything they wanted to keep, and we loaded that same blue laundry basket with it all, I felt like it was still too much, but once I got it in the closet, it looked normal. Normal, of course, by first-world standards. ;) I was thinking about buying a Martha Stewart closet system like the one Andrea posted about last week, but since I don't have the extra cash right now, I rummaged around my house and found cheaper, flimsier versions of the components I needed and that will have to do for now.


They're only 5, 8 and 9, but they are already showing a propensity for shoe hoarding. God help me.


All the usual dresser stuff, panties, socks, pj's, t-shirts and leggings, went into this dresser. Which I will be refinishing as soon as I can find a hole in my schedule to do it. It's a hand-me-down from my sister's husband, who gave it to us for our son's nursery 13 years ago. I haven't even begun to suck the life out of this thing. That's what a well built piece of furniture is worth.


This is the girl's other closet. Obviously, I have given them free reign to use it as they please. Eventually I will take it back and organize it. Not today.


And that's my completed project from this week. I've been so motivated by everyone's accomplishments, I think this just might be the catalyst I needed to get it all done. Thanks Jules!

14 comments:

Alana in Canada said...

Good for you! It can be difficult to weed out girls' clothing.

That is some impressive dust, too. Great shot of the sun.

Sharon Hermens said...

Honey, I am so proud of you!! I also want to tell you I love the second pic you took. That is one that should be framed and hung!! You are so darned good at everything you do!! Love you.
Mom

Alice Almighty said...

Looks so clean and tidy! Fantastic!

Kelly@The Reading Nest said...

Ugh, I have to say that does NOT look like fun. Good for you for tackling it, because obviously the hard work was worth it!

Lais said...

I have 3 girls too and can so relate to your clothing situation that can be very tough to sort through. That dusty day outside sure made for a productive one inside, what a great use of your time. My 8 year old son has been walking around with the occasional flood water pants because I haven't gone through his drawers to get the small clothes, poor guy...you inspired me to get on that asap. Thanks for sharing your progress!

C.G. Koens said...

Well done! I laughed over their shoe fettish - watch out indeed! ;-) Popping over from WMP - lovely to meet you!

Melissa said...

I go through my boys' closets fairly regularly, but keep avoiding my daughter's closet. So many hand-me-downs and outgrown stuff that she just doesn't ever wear. I'm so impressed that you sorted all three at once!

pamelotta said...

@Alana - Thanks! It feels good to do it!

@Mom - I'll get it printed for you for your cottage! ;)

@Alice - Thanks!

@Kelly - You're right, it wasn't fun, but my girls are so excited that I think they might be motivated to keep it clean for a while!

@Lais - I have always had a hard time in this area, especially when the seasons change and I have to switch everything out. Maybe paring down the amount was the missing piece. We'll see. Thanks for stopping by!

@Carrie - Lovely to meet you, too!

@Melissa - That was the only way to do it because they are always mixed up anyway! Feels good to have it done. Thanks for stopping by!

May said...

We were blessed with friends who shared clothes too. I did appreciate it so much. It saved us a bundle. But i do remember when hefty bags of clothes would get deposited how overwhelming that could feel. So, I understand how great you must be feeling after tackling this.

Jules said...

Your mom is right--that second picture is amazing!

My dad loves to buy the boys clothes. I think it's not fair, because one of the benefits of having boys is that you get out of chore of dealing with tons of clothing and shoes. Turns out, my dad didn't get that memo.

But, you've given me hope that I can organize their closets! You did such a great job!!

pamelotta said...

@May - Yeah, I have a love/hate relationship with being in a clothing ring with my friends. I get excited when the bags come because I know I didn't have to spend money on them, but that quickly turns to receivers remorse because I get overwhelmed with it all and I don't treat them as carefully as if I had spent my own money on them.

@Jules - Thanks! Thankfully my son has a personality that compels him to constantly weed through stuff and purge. I don't know where he came from. ;)

Mary Ann Pickett said...

Wow! This is so impressive! I felt good about just doing my closet. Now you have motivated me to do more!

Unknown said...

Okay, I really need to clean out our closets...big project, but so worth it! Great job.

janet said...

It looks very clean and tidy!