The most adorable photo of my children will get a few dozen likes on FB, maybe some comments too. But within minutes of posting my new organizational system, I had scores of likes and tons of comments. So I am blogging about it for posterity.
Uniforms and laundry are a big thing in our house. For the last six years, I’ve stored the boys’ uniforms (everything from socks, undies, shirts, and shorts/pants) in a large round bin. No, I don’t fold their clothes. Please. Life is too short. Everything they wear to school goes in the big bin. It’s a mess. As they’ve gotten bigger, so have their clothes. (Shocking!) The bin is frequently overflowing, plus they’ll dig through it and leave a ring of questionably clean clothes around the perimeter of the bin. I never know what’s clean or what’s dirty, so I end up washing it all again just in case.
About a year or so ago, I bought a mesh shoe organizer and put it on the back of the bathroom door to store all those little things like washcloths, extra razors, my stash of Breathe-Right nose strips, multiple colors of hair dye, etc. It then occurred to me that maybe I could do this with the boys’ clothes. But the shoe organizer pockets are too small.
Amazon to the rescue! Found one with 15 large pockets. How perfect is that? Three kids, five days a week of uniforms. And only $8!
Each pocket holds a pair of socks (matching, even!), undies, shirt, and shorts. The Friday pockets have spirit shirts because they can wear those on Fridays. Oliver gets pants because he prefers them. Fortunately, I have more than 15 shirts (uh, who knew?) and tons of socks and underpants so I only have to stock those once a week. Shorts and pants will have to be washed throughout the week, but now I can see at a glance what we need and how often I need to wash uniforms. And no more scrambling at the last minute for a pair of matching socks.
Granted, this will be easiest if you have triplets who are all the same size and if they wear uniforms but still, it can be modified to work for you.
The end! Yay! Woo!
Melissa
Um, I love your idea of one big bin for their clothes. It didn’t take long for me to accept my kids’ clothes drawers will not have tidy, folded contents, but the bin is pure genius. We already do an average of two loads a day, so washing the whole dang bin probably doesn’t add to what would be our average.
Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
Melanie Harari
Agreed. I tried once to “KonMari” fold and organize my kids’ drawers, and they immediately took everything out and piled it on the floor. One big bin sounds amazing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pam Kocke
Life is way too short for folding kid clothes.
LikeLike
Lisa Sims
I wish we had uniforms! The who gets which shirt disagreements make me crazy. Folding? What’s that? Our boys put away their own laundry with all the skill and carefulness of 7 year olds. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person