Tri-Moms: Clothing a Bunch

Today, Kristin and I are happy to introduce you to Christy, the newest member of Tri-Moms. Please, check out her blog and leave her some comment love.
Oh, and for those who are wondering...no baby yet.
Clothing a Bunch
This week's topic is something our seemingly ever growing family sure knows about.  While my husband Tim and I have added three (soon to be four) children to our family in the last 4 years, because of God's wonderful provision through people who love him, we have not had to increase our clothing budget at all!
Thankfully, God has proved his faithfulness in providing clothing for our children time and time again. Of course, we've also had to humble ourselves to accept hand-me-downs (not really an issue since I grew up wearing them as well), realize that our children don't need the very latest fashions, and get creative with what we are given.
As a whole I believe we've only ever bought shoes, socks, and underwear for our children. Even with those items, we are blessed with parents who have helped us tremendously by purchasing what our children need for Christmas and birthdays instead of filling our home with unnecessary toys.
In fact our biggest challenge with our children's clothing is not keeping too much. Since our girl clothes will now be passed down from Emahry to two little sisters and since we still would like more children, it seems logical to store at least some clothes after the current wearer has outgrown them (especially since we've been given almost all of the clothes, making them completely free). However, there comes a point where being good stewards could easily turn into hoarding.
On our latest move I reevaluated all of the clothing we had stored away in boxes and totes and limited myself to one box per size, gender and season. We then passed on the blessings that had been given to us by sharing the remainder of the clothes with other families. Even with the smaller baby sizes sharing boxes we had numerous boxes to find space for. 
Thankfully, since we are now living in a two bedroom townhouse, my parents were more than happy to let us store the too small boy's clothing and the far off girl sizes in their attic. Also, the kid's new room has the largest non-walk-in closet I think I've ever seen, so we were able to pack in all of the clothing that our four kids will be wearing in the next year onto the top shelf and part of the floor of the closet.

For some this may still seem like a lot of clothing, but so far we've found that the one box rule works great for our family. For the smaller sizes, when our children make more messes and ruin more clothing, we are able to keep more items. As they grow and are a little gentler with their clothes, we are able to save less and still have plenty of clothing for each season. 

So, how do you deal with clothing a bunch? Are you blessed with hand-me-downs or grandparents that purchase clothing for your little ones? Do you shop end of the season clearance racks or hunt for clothes at yard sales or thrift stores?

Do you store clothing to pass on to younger children? How do you keep your clothing storehouse organized?

Be sure to hop on over to Kristin's blog and new Tri-Mom, Christy's blog to read their ideas on this topic.

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Up Next:

September 6: Lesson Planning/Organizing the School Year
We'd love to have you join in with your tips and plans in our comments section.

Coming Soon:

September 20: Getting the whole family involved in homeschooling

October 4:  The joys and fears of our children growing older

October 18: Traveling with children
November 1: Thanksgiving crafts and recipes

November 15: Teaching the meaning of Thanksgiving

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