Baby Clothes: Letting Go

**This is a long post.**

If you don't care about kids clothes then skip it.

 But I like reading what other people do...

so I thought I would write down what I did.

And I think it will help me stick to my plan this way too!

I have been sorting through baby clothes.

Deciding what to keep and what to give away can be tough.

Since we kept the sex of Eva a surprise...

we gathered a stockpile of unisex baby clothes.

Tons of stuff.

No one wants to not have enough things for their baby...

and when you are a first time parent - you have no idea what you will need or like.

So we had piles - t-shirts, onesies, pants, sleepers, sacks...

In every size all the way up to about 12 months.

Then Eva was born...

We were giving clothes as gifts.

Little girl clothes.

And she grew so fast and out of things so fast.

I sorted and cleaned her things and packed them away.

The only things I really let go of were things that had stains or I just didn't like.

If it graced her sweet little baby bootie and it was in decent shape...

I packed it away for our future baby #2, with a sniffle and teary eye.

Fast forward to being pregnant with Theodore.

I cracked open those boxes of baby clothes and started to get ready for him.

As I was on my third load of laundry... I realized I had a lot of baby clothes.
Maybe too many baby clothes.

Some of them I remembered Eva wearing and they made me cry a bit.

Seeing those tiny baby girl clothes made me hope for another girl... 

just to see them on a little one again.

Then Theodore was born was born.

He only wore the newborn size a few days...

and all of the little girl things were replaced with little man gear.

Reality, common sense and hormonal balance finally caught up with me

 when he started growing out of the 3 month clothes..

I was drowning in baby clothes.

I had some big realizations...

I put my babies in the same favorite outfits over and over - the rest just sat.

20 onesies, 15 sleepers, and 10 pairs of pants are way too many.

Babies are not born in the same season often, and Eva's things were the wrong size for Theodore.

Family and friends will give you cute clothes that are the right size for the new baby.

I rarely dress babies in clothes that I wouldn't sleep in myself.

Tastes change and the trendy things aren't worth the space.

For the unisex clothes...

I sorted everything by size and type. 

Immediately getting rid of anything Theodore didn't wear, that was stained or wore out.

Then I set a number for each item that seemed reasonable to keep.

I picked out of the pile my favorites until I reached the set number.

Making sure that things were mix-and match color wise.

In newborn size:

6 onesies

3 t-shirts

4 pants

4 sleepers/gowns

In 0-3 month size:

10 onesies

4 t-shirts

6 pants

6 sleepers/gowns

3 sweaters/sweatshirts

For the bigger sizes my unisex stash is less plentiful.

But I am keeping the same "rules" and ditching the rest.

If it is season-less, in good shape and worn a lot, it makes the cut.

But no more than what a baby could wear in a week.

Now for the gender specific clothes:

At first I wasn't going to keep anything.

We are planning on having another baby sometime...

but that would be years from now.

But my heart just needed to keep a few things, 

so I set a number.

3 outfits in each size... 

that I loved to pieces.

That was it.

The things that have already accumulated for Mr. Theodore I also went through.

I made sure it was the right season and something I would dress him in.

Then I made a list of the items he needs in each size on my phone.

I was very specific... 3-6 month sweater in tan or white - 6-9 month green pants.

I went from 7 bursting at the seems storage totes to 3 that aren't half full.

A unisex/maternity/general baby tote that will also hold blankets/swaddles and the like.

Then a boy tote and a girl tote.

For Eva's clothes...

She is wearing a 3T-4T now...

so the 2T stuff has to go.

I donated everything girly.

Everything.

If Theodore can't wear it, it was donated.

At first I thought about keeping a few girly outfits.

But then, I realized that if our possible next baby was a girl...

it would be over 4 years until these clothes would be worn.

If it was a girl.

So away it went.

I took notice of the things that were barely worn...

I will not be buying Eva jeans or really dressy clothes.

She doesn't wear them.

I also made note of the things that were so wore out that I couldn't donate them.

Those items were added to a list of things to buy for this year.

I know she will wear it.

And that it it...

There are bags and bags of donations and some empty totes.

Now I need to tackle my closet... EEEK!