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I have been trying hard to come up with a way to help my children to take care of their clothes. We will work together to get their bedrooms sparkling clean and then a week later we won’t be able see the floor because the clean, once folded, clothing is mixed with dirty clothing. It seems that the process of coming up with exactly the right outfit to wear, includes emptying the drawers. I asked a friend of mine how she manages to keep her children’s drawers so tidy, she replied, "I do it for them, if I gave them their clothes to put away, they’d put them in the corner of the room and pretty soon they’d be all over the floor." That sounded familiar! But, with a family our size, I don’t have the time to constantly sort through everyone’s wash and I certainly don’t have the time to pack everyone’s clothes away for them. I felt like that was also depriving them of the opportunity to learn how to take care of their clothing.

So I came up with a plan. I had each child bring me their clothing and I had them sort it into the pants pile, shirts pile, etc. Then we matched outfits. I got office boxes and they put a week’s collection of clothing in each box. Three decent outfits, 2 church dresses for the girls, a church outfit for the boys, a chores outfit, underwear, 6 pairs of socks and sweaters to match.

It has worked very well. For two weeks now there have been no clothes on the floor. The laundry is immediately put away and my children pin their socks together so that they don’t get lost in the wash.

What happened to the other clothes? When the children are sick of the clothes in their drawers they may trade a box, pack what they have in a box and trade it for another collection. I especially love not having to fold baskets of socks. When they wear out the ones they have I have a bag for each child filled with socks that are in perfect shape.

We have all learned that "Less is certainly More".