Yesterday I broke my cardinal laundry rule - I did some. See, a while back I realized that the only way to keep me from feeling like I am continuously running the washing machine is to enforce a rest period in our never-ending cycle of clean - diry - clean - dirty. Weekends are my no-laundry zone, with exceptions for emergencies, such as bedsheets.

On Saturday, while the girls napped and the males were out of the house seeing Spidey 3, I ascended to the attic and spent two hours sorting through the kid clothes again. It started innocently. Doesn’t it always? I wanted to clear out the “outerwear” bin so I could make room for the winter gear we’re finally safe in putting away. (Yeah, I know it’s MAY. We had snow on the ground a mere three weeks ago, m’kay?). Once I got through that bin, I just had to move on to the others that were begging to be pawed through. The girls and Davey need summer clothes and I’m not buying any more until I know what I have on hand.

It’s a pain, going through the kids’ clothes. A huge amount of work that goes like this, four times over:

1. go through dresser and pull out too small/out of season clothes
2. assess what is left to clothe child
3. move outgrown clothes to a storage spot where (a) I won’t forget them, and (b) they won’t annoy Dex
4. find the right bin or a new storage bin in the attic for outgrown clothes
5. find bin of previously outgrown clothes, aka hand-me-downs, and pull out, one by one, clothes that will fit next kid down the line
6. go out and buy whatever else kid needs for upcoming season/growth-spurt

Not too bad, eh? Snort.

Each piece of kid clothing goes through this cycle - new, worn, outgrown, stored, handed down, worn, outgrown, stored again.

My attic is a maze of plastic bins with various itterations of this clothing cycle. For each piece of clothing, I must decide which category it falls into:

• outgrown by Edward, store for Davey to wear in a couple of years [most of Davey’s clothes are hand-me-downs]
• outgrown by Davey, store to give away to cousin(s), if they ever want or need them [I have about 5 big bins in this category - their boy cousin generally overlaps Davey just enough that there is not much to hand down by the time Davey outgrows it. So maybe if my sister has a boy someday…?]
• outgrown by the boys but gender-neutral enough to be worn by the girls [slim pickings as they get older] 
• outgrown by Jules & Mae, store to give away to cousin(s), if they can use them
• outgrown by Jules & Mae, wrong size for girl cousins [store just in case my sister has another girl someday]

Out of my two hours of sorting and retrieving on Saturday, I gleaned three big armloads of clothes for Davey and the girls. I am always glad, when it comes time to find the next bigger size of hand-me-downs, that I have invested the tedious hours in sorting and labeling. Clothes are so rediculously expensive.

I buy much of the girls’ clothes at used children’s clothing stores. That’s one thing about twins - no hand-me-downs. A cute little sundress that seems like a bargain at $8.99 feels less like one when you have to buy two. Of course, Jules & Mae share clothes. Only their shoes have exclusive ownership. But sharing doesn’t mean you can get by with fewer clothes. There are still two toddlers wearing two outfits (at least) each day.

But back to the laundry. After my excursion to the attic, I filled my laundry room with seven massive piles of clothes. That represents about 2 piles from the attic and 5 piles we had generated since Wednesday. Yesterday, faced with a scale replica of the Himalayas in my laundry room, I snapped my cardinal laundry rule in half and tossed it over my shoulder.

Five loads done, two to go, and unworldly amounts to sort, fold, and put away. But before I put away the summer clothes, I’ll have to make another pass at those dressers to make some room.