Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Help for Growing Families ~ Preserving Clothes



As I sit down at this computer trying to think of a helpful idea or tip for growing families I am at a blank. I even asked my husband, can you think of anything that we do that could be helpful for growing families and he just gave me a stare. I told him that was exactly how I was feeling. We have five boys and two girls ranging from age 9 to 6 months old. The boys being first and then two girls. That makes a big difference when you look at large families of different gender order. Five boys first makes a big difference in the dynamics of the home. I wonder if Mother Hen would agree as well. You would think I would have some ideas!!

Anyway, my tip this week is for preserving the children's clothes. We notice that the boys clothes kept getting stretch out and not lasting as long. We decided to try something to see if it would work in order to help the clothes last longer. We make them sleep in their pajamas for nap times. That means that they have to change their clothes twice a day. They take off their clothes, put them on their shelf, put on pajamas, nap, and put their clothes back on. I really wondered if this would make a difference when my husband came up with the idea. Several years have passed since we instituted this policy and we have continued the PJ ritual. We were glad to say goodbye to the stretched out clothes. This allows us to pass down more clothes to the younger siblings. YEAH!
We also let our children wear the same clothes several days in a row if they are not too dirty. If we are not going anywhere then what does it matter. Plus, they are not getting in bed with these clothes on either! This also preserves the clothes and less loads of laundry:)
Not sure if this will help you or not but thought I would share "saving" clothes the Shelby way. Let me know what you do preserve clothes!

Check out more "Help for Growing Families" at my friend over at Ship Full O' Pirates!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, Amy, I do agree about the dynamics thing, although I can't really imagine what it would be like any other way. Boys are very hard on their clothes. When my Pirates were very small, we used to do a similar thing for nap-time, not with the intent of saving their clothes, but just to make more of a habit. Take off everything down to t-shirts and undies. Makes a good transition activity, and nuthin' says nap-time like a lack of pants! ;)

Laura said...

I think your right on with the clothes and the dynamics! See we have 3 girls first and then 6 boys to follow. I think it helped "Lots" that the girls were first they are great mother hens/helpers. Yet I wasn't ready for the wear and tear boys do on clothes, very different from girls.

We also wear our clothes more than once, the boys are in the same outfit today since Sunday after church...it's been wet and rainy and we've been in the house. No spills and their still clean...clean ones tomorrow:)

It does really help with the laundry!!! The other thing I do is I hang a lot of their clothes to dry, it helps keep the color and shape. I've done a couple of post on laundry on my blog under house, I think?!

I'm enjoying your blog and your sweet family :)

Tracy said...

Another thing that works for big families with lots of the same sex children (I learned from a friend!, is to save the oldest child's clothes for the 3rd born and the 2nd oldest for the 4th born...etc. This only works out if they are portioned about the same...but instead of one shirt going through everyone in the family it only goes through 2 or 3. And you aren't sick of it by the time you see it on the last kid! LOL!

Amy said...

Laura,
Thanks for checking out my blog. Feel free to visit often. I checked out yours as well and look forward to reading more. I bet it is different with having the girls first however my boys are big helpers. My 9 year old irons all of the children's clothes and they all help with a lot of the cleaning around the house. Preparing them to be good helpers to their wives if they are sick, recovering after a new baby, or just need help!!!;) Of course,the two oldest boys also mow the yard too. That has been a big help for my husband and having extra time around the house.