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Spring cleaning with little ones
Jessica Newell – holding 2-year-old Sawyer, with husband John holding 6-month-old Thomas – divides her kids’ clothes into three categories: give away, loan to friends and resell.
Buzz Baby is a column about life with babies from the perspective of a first-time mother. If you have baby stories to share, leave a comment under this article or email [email protected].
Babies come with stuff: bulky strollers, car seats, high chairs and often more extensive wardrobes than their parents. Spring cleaning with little ones in the house can be difficult.
Our 1-year-old twins attend a Mother’s Day Out program at a local church school. Somehow their teachers manage to have their tiny students complete an art project each day. How they do this blows my mind – props to you, Ms. Jennifer and Ms. Lee.
The teachers send their masterpieces home in the kids’ school bags. At first, I saved them. I tried to throw one away, but literally I couldn’t place my little one’s work of art in a trash bag.
Or could I? After all, they were accumulating quickly.
So, I started saving only the ones with hand prints or foot prints on them. Some cotton balls glued on a cut-out sheep is adorable but not one to keep, I decided.
(Luckily, technology is catching up. For instance, there’s an app called Artkive that stores images of your children’s artwork to save forever without the clutter.)
I felt a little better when I learned that some other Buzz moms, like Jessica Newell, have systems. “[Daughter] Sawyer’s art hangs on our pantry door, and when she brings home a new piece, I take an old one down and put the new one up. My husband then takes the art into his office” to display.
“Some of the more crafty pieces that haven't made it to the office end up in the trash. I'm ok with [that], considering how much we are actually keeping.”
Jessica and her husband John, an insurance broker, welcomed baby boy Thomas to the family six months ago.
Jessica said when it comes to spring cleaning out the kids’ clothes, she doesn’t let emotions get in the way. “I've always been really good about getting rid of stuff. I clean out our closets and dressers every couple of months and don't have a hard time letting go of things. With all of the items that we accumulated with Sawyer, sorting through it to make room for [Thomas] wasn't difficult for me.”
She stored clothes that she wanted to keep as Sawyer grew out of them. But, when she found out she was pregnant with a boy, she decided to take a second look. Having a boy “was a great excuse to pull those out and sort through what I had saved.”
For items with value, Jessica uses Facebook buy-and-sell trading groups. (Search “buy and sell” on Facebook for groups in your area). She warned sellers to price appropriately. “If you are trying to get your money back on clothes or gear you've purchased, it's not the way to go,” she said.
Christy Morton has a hard time getting rid of outfits her children – Ian, 8, Elise, 2, and Anna Marie, 6, – wore in professional photographs.
For other moms, like Christy Morton, spring cleaning clothes is a little harder. “Outfits that I have professional pictures of them in I just can’t get rid of,” said Christy, laughing.
Christy and her husband Keith, who works in commercial banking, were high-school sweethearts in Lake Charles and have three kids, Ian, 8, Anna Marie, 6, and Elise, 2.
Christy saves outfits in large plastic bins in the attic. She labels the boxes by size (12 months, 2T, etc.). Some of her older daughter’s outfits were personalized with monograms. Christy was even able to remove a monogram from a dress Anna Marie wore so Elise could wear it. “It was such a pain. Every night I worked on it,” said Christy. (She recommended instead taking items to a monogram place that will remove a monogram for around $7).
“I gave my neighbor all of the play clothes and pajamas that were [Ian’s). It’s fun to see him in Ian's old play clothes that are still in perfect condition and are getting more life out of them.”
Christy said she and Keith are clearing out the big baby-gear stuff like exersaucers and strollers. “It is really nice to have [Facebook buy and sell groups] where you can sell these items. These pages were not around nine years ago,” said Christy.
You’ll probably find me working on our baby stuff this spring. I’ll try not to let my emotional attachment to their cute newborn outfits get in the way. Wish me luck.
For more on Facebook trading groups, check out these articles:
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