How to Organize Your Off Season Clothing

If you have a big family like I do, it can be hard to organize your off season clothing. But storing this year's summer clothes means saving money next summer. And saving your oldest child's outgrown clothing can mean free hand-me-downs for your younger child. It's not just a matter of saving the clothes, it's finding them when you need them again. Here is how I do it for my family.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Plastic storage containers such as Rubbermaid or Sterlite
• Permanent markers
• A computer

1. Invest in plastic storage containers. You don't have to buy them all at once. You can buy one or two each year until you have enough. Plastic boxes will protect your clothes and are easier to carry because they have better handles, too.

2. Number the storage containers. Use a permanent marker to write the box number on both ends of the box. Write it nice and big so that you can see it clearly from a distance.

3. Use your computer to keep track of what you put in each container and where you're keeping it. As you pack your clothes away, take notes and even pictures with a digital camera. Enter the info into Word or even Excel so that you know exactly what you put into Box #14 and where you stored it. You can go into a lot of detail ("Johnny's winter sweaters size 4T, Tom's winter coat, My dress pants, the kid's hats, and one blue mitten. Stored in the left hand corner of the garage near the tennis rackets.") or you can keep it simple (Boys winter clothes - 3T - garage). A more detailed list can allow you to spend less time separating the clothes into the 'right' box. It means that you can have one box to put everyone's off season clothes into as you wash them rather than have a dozen or more boxes in your living room as you try to separate each person's clothes into their own box. But the drawback is that when it comes time to unpack your clothes, you won't have a single organized box of one person's clothes. One person's stuff will be spread out in several boxes.
   
   If you have kids in your home, I'd advise adding sizes to your descriptions so that if you run into a pre-season sale you'll know what you need to buy without unpacking everything. If you decide to use mostly photos, be sure to take a picture of where the box is, as well as what's in it.

4. Date the inventory. If you unpack your winter clothes and fill up the same box with summer clothes, you'll need to update your notes. And if you don't enter the date when you make changes, you may not realize that you're using an outdated copy of your inventory.

5. Print out your inventory AND save it on your computer. Numbering your boxes has the advantage that you're able to reuse the same box over and over and not have to worry about labels falling off. But you have to have a current copy of your inventory or you're just going to end up wasting your time hunting through boxes. So back yourself up and keep a copy on your hard drive AND in your desk.

Resources

• eHow Home and Garden Topic Guide

[karileighk]

on 8/1/2009 Very important to plan ahead of time!

[DiscountTickets]

on 7/24/2009 Such a clever idea, great artice, I never thought of doing this before. Thanks so much.