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Parenting - Cleaning Out Your Clothes Closet

Cleaning Out Your Clothes Closets
by Rachel Paxton - rachel@creativehomemaking.com

Keeping your wardrobe up to date is easy if you start by sorting
through all your unwanted clothing and donate it to charities.

I'm always looking for people to give my daughter's outgrown
clothes to.  Every 2 months or so my daughter and I sort through
her clothes and make one pile for charities, and another pile for
the consignment store.

I've found to keep your child's wardrobe up to date (and your own
for that matter), you have to regularly go through and weed out
the outgrown and unwanted clothes.  If you don't you just end up
with closets and bags, and often even piles of unwanted clothing
that will never be worn again.  After awhile it just gets to the
point where you don't know where to start.  Making cleaning out
your clothes closet a regular routine will save you a lot of time
and energy later down the road and even help you to keep your
wardrobe up to date.  It takes us an hour at the most to go
though our clothes and sort them out.  When you do this regularly
you'll find you don't need as many pieces of clothing you maybe
thought you did, and you actually wear and enjoy the clothing you
do have.  My winter and summer clothing both fit into half of our
small closet, and I no longer find my family's outgrown and
unwanted clothing stored all around the house.

So what can you do with unwanted clothes?  The easiest thing to
do is donate them to charities.  Good Will, Salvation Army,
women's shelters, and other charities are always looking for
donations, and they will often come right to your front door to
pick up your unwanted clothing for you.

If your clothing is still in really good condition and you want
to take the time, you can consign your in-season clothing and
make a few extra dollars.  Check your local Yellow Pages for
consignment store listings.

I saw a great idea on TV that I thought would be fun to try
sometime.  A group of women got together in someone's home and
brought their unwanted clothing to share with each other.
Someone took the time to organize the clothing and display it
attractively, and then the women got together and took home their
pick of clothing.  They could take whatever they liked as long as
they had contributed some of their own clothing.  It was neat how
the event was organized.  The women had make-shift dressing rooms
where they could try on clothing and refreshments were served
while the women visited with one another.  It looked like a lot
of fun and a great way to update your wardrobe.  This can also be
done with children's clothing and toys.

The next time you look into your family's closets and see even
one article of clothing that hasn't been worn in the past 6
months, maybe it's time to sort through them and pass some of the
clothing along.  The more organized your closets are, the more
easily you and your family will be able to find the clothing you
truly love to wear.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of
What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick
easy dinner ideas.  For recipes, tips to organize your home, home
decorating, crafts, and frugal family fun, visit Creative
Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com and Suite 101 at
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/creative_homemaking.   To
subscribe to their monthly newsletter send a blank e-mail message
to FreeRecipes-subscribe@egroups.com.