Baby Clothes (and Laundry)

I spend the majority of my time clothes shopping, buying baby clothes. In fact I can hardly remember the last time I bought myself something nice to wear. I've already told you how much I love Carter's but I have a few other favorites too. I really like to shop at Gymboree and Baby Gap. It's pretty easy since in our mall they are directly across from each other. I don't have to walk very far and I get a lot accomplished. I'm also a sale-rack shopper and coupon user. At Gymboree, for example, I only buy from their sale stuff (which is practically everything in the store) and I always have a coupon like 20% off entire purchase, or GymBucks which are $25 off for every $50 you spend. I rarely buy anything full price because it will eventually go on sale and honestly, do my kids really need it right now?

I also take really good care of our clothes. I enjoy doing laundry - it relaxes me. I usually spend an entire day doing ours rather than a little each day. However, this week it took me 3 days (even with my little helper).




I'm a little obsessive compulsive but this is how I do it. First, I sort everything. All the baby clothes get washed separate from mine and my husband's. We have several loads including baby whites, baby lights, only burp cloths, baby towels and washcloths, adult towels, darks, blacks, reds & pinks, scrubs, and sheets. After I sort, I inspect everything for stains and use stain remover or soak if necessary. With the baby stuff I usually do an extra rinse cycle. It might be a waste of water but it's worth it to me. After it's washed and dried, I LOVE to fold it all. I dump it on the couch and go to town. I make perfect little creases and pretty much fold it like the store clerk has to.

Now that I have 2 kids it seems like the laundry has tripled. I prefer to do the laundry myself but am getting much better accepting help. You see, I fold shirts in thirds and then in half, whereas he folds them in half and then in half again, leaving a crease down the center. The end result is the same - the shirt gets folded.

As for ironing - I hate it! I only iron when I have to. I'm so lucky that my husband wears scrubs because I don't have to iron dress shirts and slacks each week. Although I'm sure there are some people out there who iron scrubs.

So back to the baby clothes. After the kids grow out of a particular size I put them away nicely in a bin for storage. With Sophia's clothes, I saved them until I found out I was having a boy. Then I offered them to a friend who had a baby girl recently. She looked through them and kept one bin's worth and returned two full bins. So now I'm stuck with two full bins of baby girl clothes. I debated long (very long) whether to donate them, sell them on eBay or Craigslist, or take them to the children's consignment store. I finally broke down yesterday and took them to Children's Orchard here in Valencia. After looking through them, she bought one bin's worth for $83 store credit or $65 cash. I took the cash. I do shop there occasionally but rarely spend more than $20 at a time. When I got home I started to feel like I made a mistake. I basically just sold at least $250 worth of clothes, if not way more, for only $65. I could probably have sold them on Craigslist or eBay individually for a better profit. Oh well, live and learn.