Overwhelmed! With LOTS of laundry!!!! And piles of mess!
We are between homes right now so we are living out of suitcases. Elias, my sweet Elias, or Conner, my sweet Conner (we still aren’t sure which one or both), decided it would be fun to throw all of the boys clothes out of their suitcase and all over the bedroom. Fun.
I was not pleased! And to top it off, they have WAY too many clothes!!!
It is time to minimize.
I’ve read and heard so many positives of having less clothes. I mean really. We do laundry at least 2-3 times a week and there are only 7 days in a week. So Monday, while I was waiting for my husband to get home for our appointment, I made a plan and went for it.
I searched what others suggested as far as how many clothes a person and kid needs. I used two sources. One was from Living On A Dime and the other was The Purposeful Mom.
Then I made my own plan. Here is what I decided was best for our family:
Kids
7 casual, can get messy shirt
4 nice shirts
5 long sleeve
3 jeans/casual pants
2 nice pants
5 shorts (we live in Texas and they go outside a lot!)
3 pjs
2 jackets at most (maybe a super heavy for traveling to cold places and a lighter one for Texas lol)
Adults
7 short sleeve nice
7 short sleeve button up (especially good when I’m a nursing mom)
7 three-quarter sleeve
7 long sleeve nice
7 tanks
7 casual dresses
4 church dresses
7 skirts (probably could do less but I have a lot and they are all so different lol… I know! I still have room to learn)
3 capris
3 shorts
3 pants
And away I went. The boys clothes turned out to be the easiest part. Although it wasn’t super easy to clean their clothes out, since they have a lot of cute clothes that were given to them, but I did it! And the suitcase looked soooo much better!
Don’t worry, the clothes are being donated to a good friend who is about to have a baby boy!!!
Three days later and I am already loving the downsizing A LOT!! After I do laundry, the clean clothes often get stacked on top, especially right now when we are living out of suitcases. With the same clothes being on top the bottom clothes rarely get worn. Anyways, this is the drive behind cleaning out the clothes!
Today it was easy! Conner has 7 casual shirts and made deciding much easier!
Now to my clothes 
NOT easy.
But I wear that… Sometimes.
It will fit again someday.
Yes I do need 3 different solid black short sleeve shirts!
So I started with short sleeve shirts. Decided to split up short sleeve shirts and short sleeve button ups so I could keep more haha. Defeats the purpose I know, but I was thinking of having another baby and breast-feeding. Button ups can be convenient, although I think I have the art of nursing in almost anything down by now.
It. Was. Hard.
So after I put a few in the donate pile and started feeling overwhelmed, I said to myself, “That’s a good start!” I continued on in this same manner as I went through the rest of my closet.
Now I’m on a new quest. I’m setting out to try to wear everything I have left, to prove that I do in fact wear it. And if I don’t, it goes in the donate pile.
For me my husband’s was easy ;-). I’ve been wanting to clean some of that out for a while lol.
But wives, be careful. I made sure to keep it out for him first and told him what I was doing to give him a “say” in some of what stayed. He was sad to see some go and kept more than I wanted, but I told him, “That was a good start!”
Our closets are “lighter” which makes choosing easier and quicker! I’m very happy and we were able to make a great clothing donation.
Have you cleaned out your closet before and found peacefulness?
His Rib 
We just did this with the girls’ clothes. I kept what fit first, and then limited it by what fit in the drawer and closet space. If it didn’t fit or made the drawer crowded, it went away! I donated 2 trash bags full. And, we still have a storage tub of clothes that are too big for when they grow a little. It felt great!
A friend of mine did a 30 outfits in 30 days challenge where she only had certain pieces of clothing (similar to your breakdown of clothing) and had to pair it with something different every time to get herself out of the rut of wearing the same thing over and over. (How was that for a run-on sentence?!) I don’t know if I’d have the patience to do that! LOL
I really really really need to do this!! Mine and the kids clothes!! I have so much that I never ever wear but how do you get ride of something you “might” need again!! Lol Nikayla’s clothes are coming out of the drawers and she needs new clothes so bad! My problem is trying to find the time and patience to do it.