How do you keep clothes straight?? haha. I know sounds like a crazy question, but its really drives me bonkers sometimes. We have a 5 and 6 boys (soon to be 6 and 7) who can pretty much wear the same clothes. I hang all their shirts in one closet and just put all underwear together and then divide them. (if 4 pair where washed each gets 2). We are getting close to doing the same thing w/ our youngest two also ( they are 1 and 2). Anyways I have gotten over trying to separate socks. We have a "basket" of socks and this is what mainly drives me bonkers. I've tried sock bags, I've tried making sure I had pairs, rolling them up and putting a rubber band around them. But we just go right back to a sock basket. Though it doesn't bother my kids or the hubby (his socks go in too), it does me. There are socks that the older have out grown, but I just can't get myself to go through them, b/c I know the younger ones can wear some of them. Anyone have some ideas so that I can get rid of the basket and socks back in dressers. I know I'm nuts. :)
Buy them white socks with different colored toes...one gold, one grey. Use a Sharpie to mark their initials on the bottom. ;)
My response is a little too simplistic. They each have a hamper and get their clothes washed on a specific day. Works for us...
I'm not sure about a solution for the socks, but one thing I did to tell my kids clothes apart was this...
I have 3 girls, each about 2 years apart... (August '82, April '84, August '86), and then, 5 years later, a boy.
Anyway, with the girls, to make it easy to tell which clothes went with which child, I just made a small hatch mark (a slash) on the tag.... 1 slash for the oldest, 2 slashes for the second, and 3 slashes for the third... that way, as one child outgrew an item, I just added another slash and passed it on to the next one!
That worked really well for us, anyway.
My 2 girls were close in age and wore the same size growing up. My 2 boys were also close in age and now their clothes look alike.
For boys socks and underwear, I bought different brands for each. The older boy always wore Hanes, the younger got Fruit of the Loom. Easy to sort clean laundry. And to see if one wasn't changing undergarments if that brand wasn't showing up in the wash!
When my girls were little, they often got different colors of the same thing. One got the purple t shirts and the other got pink. One got the the blue version of the dress, the other red. One picked out flowered panties, the other butterflies.
You can also use a sharpie and mark a little dot on the tag or in an inconspicuous spot. One dot for the oldest, 2 for the second child and so on. That way, you can add a dot each time a garment gets handed down to the next oldest child.
my sis & I just shared. :) It wasn't a big deal since we were so close in age. Socks are pretty generic in size.
One dot or two dots. My mom put one dot in sharpie on the tag for me and two dots for my sister. When I passed her clothes, it was easy to add a dot. My mom wrote MOM on the toe of her socks...though sometimes we wore them anyway. Maybe get each kid their own brand? Circco for one and Old Navy for the other? Have the kids match everything in the sock basket and throw out what doesn't fit anymore or doesn't have a match. We did that before a big move.
If I had another child close in age to DD, I would get tag mates. http://www.mabelslabels.com/products/tag%20mates You can put a new tag over an old one or if you pick at it long enough (I have not found this to be easy to do) it will come off, but they don't come off in the wash. I actually had a tag mate outlast the name and number area on DD's jacket. The manufacturer's tag fell off and the tag mate was fine. Another reason for the tags is that they also help the item come home from school or a friend's house.
A while back i got rid of all my kid's socks and bought about 10 packages of ONE type. It was driving me absolutely nuts trying to sort them and always having odd ones. I did the same with mine. (i have one type of white sox and one type of dress sox) Now they can just be thrown in our drawers - no need to pair them. It has been wonderful and well worth the investment.
I used colored hangers. Blue for the older kid, Red for the younger.
I now have a second bar in the closet so older goes on top, younger on bottom.
They have their own dresser drawers, which I labeled with their names. They each have a drawer for socks & underwear. My older prefers longer socks, my younger likes shorter socks, so I do sort them and put them away. I sort and pair socks while watching tv.
We have a permanent sock basket in the living room that only gets moved when we have guests over. The kids are responsible for finding their own and sometimes for sorting them (personally I love laundry work over any other, so I admit to being "that mom" and still doing all of their laundry and pairing up their socks when they come out of the wash). The basket has been there for at least 12 years, and the only socks that get sorted out of the basket are my husband's work socks, they are the only black socks in the house and go straight to our room instead.
I learned that having 4 kids means lowering your expectations sometimes. Although I do their laundry, I haven't touched the dishes or cat box or vacuum for a long time, they do all of that. It's a trade off. The sock basket started after my 3rd son was born. I used to mark their socks, or try to get different ones for each kid, but it never worked for long. We like our sock basket, it works for us.
The easiest thing I can think of for socks, which I have started a little with my son, is just buy all the same pairs. Then all the socks match all the other socks.
As for different sizes between your youngest and oldest, is it possible that they each have their own hamper basket, and you wash loads per person? Then you wash all of son A's clothes and while son B's clothes are washing you are able to put away A's clothes before they ever get mixed up.
I agree, it might drive me a little nutso, so at least you're not alone there ;)
Best of luck,
KATIE
Sort all of the socks - I mean EVERY sock. Get rid of any that are in bad shape or don't have mates. Pair them all up. Then put them in separate piles for hubby and kids 1 - 4. Take a permanent marker (make sure it's one specifically made not to come off in the wash - laundry marker I think it's called). On the bottom of each pair write the 1st letter of their name and a #, keep going with the letter + the next # up for each pair (each pair would have the same # on both socks). For example: Hubby's pairs would be H-1, H-2, etc. Kidlet would be K-1, K-2, etc. Child would be C-1... Then every sock will be easy to match b/c you just have to throw each into their corresponding initial pile then match by # - H-1 sock goes with the other H-1 sock, H-2 sock goes with the other H-2 sock. This makes it so easy the kids can help when it's laundry day!
My boys wear the same size most of the time. They share all socks, pj's and underwear. My ten year old prefers to wear jeans and the seven year old prefers sweats and rugby pants, so I divide them that way. They are of course free to wear each others pants. My seven year old still likes shirts with stuff like Star Wars or MArio Bros on them, so he gets those types of shirts, and my ten year old is more into the brand names (Hurly, Nike, Adidas, Ecko...) so he gets those. Again, they are free to wear each others shirts. So basically they do share everything.
They each have their own underwear (DS1 wears solid colors, DS2 wears stripes ;-)). Socks - total and split (if I wash 10, they each get 5). Pants, I can still tell apart - one wears a 5, the other a 6. With shirts - I usually need to have one of them sit with me and tell me if the shirt is theirs or their brother's.
I would say either get diff colored socks. One kid wears black socks all the same and one wears white. One with stripes. Etc.
And the same with clothing if that's an issue too.
Otherwise...just deal with it. :o) lol
I have 3 boys. And seriously...as OCD as I am....my laundry NEVER gets put away. It gets washed...dried...then thrown on a couch or bed and sorted through when something is needed. lol
I gave up. :o)
get socks with black stripes across for the older boys and socks with red stripe across toe for younger boys. hubbys on his own lol. and dump the basket of mismatched socks on the table and tell the kids its a game. they can do it each week and receive an extra privilige when its done. (extra half hour video time, trip to the park etc)
I trash socks that aren't matched,worn out or have a hole in them the rest get rolled up put into each dresser where they go.Having another basket is crazy that is why you have a dresser put them where they go.Get off the computer and do this chore you'll be glad you did finally go through them.Crossed off the list at the end of the day
Instead of you going through the socks to see which is outgrown... tell your eldest child, to do it.
Meaning, HE can tell, which socks are too small, right?
THEN, tell him, to put all the tight/outgrown socks, in a certain basket. That you put nearby. A basket that is distinctly different looking, than your sock, basket. And label that basket "outgrown socks only."
Then, with the outgrown socks in that basket, your younger child, can wear them. Right? And it will already be, sorted.
My kids are 6 and 10. Instead of ME going through their clothes to see which is too small or not. I tell my kids, to do it. Why? Because, they can.
And THEY know themselves, which clothing/socks are too small.
And I tell them, to put all outgrown clothes/things, in a certain basket.
I do this, too. It is not just advice I am giving. I do this, and my kids do it too. AND since outgrown things are already in a certain basket, all I have to then do is: get rid of it, or give it away or donate.
Makes things a LOT easier. And your kids, can do it.
Let them.
And put your HUSBAND'S socks, somewhere else. HE can do that. He is a grown up boy.
AND, when washing socks... what I do is:
I have lingerie laundry bags. One for each person. AND then, the socks/underwear for each of them, goes into its own, lingerie laundry bag. THEREFORE, once the laundry is done... *I* do not.. have to sort all the socks and pair them up. Because, each person's socks is ALREADY in its own lingerie mesh laundry bag. And then, I just take it and dump it all into their socks drawer/basket etc. OR I give my kids and husband their lingerie mesh laundry bag and say "here's your socks, go put it away..."
And, the person who wears the socks, can pair them up or just put on what they want. I am not going to, pair ALL the darn socks. Because, both my kids and my Husband, can do that. And know how.
