A Hannah Clothing Update

Hannah with her recent creation -- three skirts on top of each other. This is ALL her.

Facebook is funny. A few times in my parental journey, I've put out a plea. When I have, I can't help but think: I doubt anyone else will come up with something. We've tried everything. What else is there? 

But nearly every time I am pleasantly surprised. Here was my plea:

Parental Advice Requested: We have a four-year-old whose FAVORITE activity is changing her clothes. We require her to do all the clean-up that is required of this past-time. She must put her clothes in a basket when she is done using them and at the end of the week, she has to sort and help put all those clothes away. But still it is a daily MOUNTAIN. Yes she is responsible but I still have to guide her in cleaning up, putting away, etc. It takes a lot of time for me. JB and I cannot figure out what to do. This activity burns calories, occupies her, and really helps with her gross motor skills. (She's better at buttons and zippers and ties than any of her older siblings.) But it drives me BONKERS despite all these things. And part of that is that her closet in our room since our flood occurred. What do we do? (And note that while limiting would be a great idea, this still means I have to try to monitor which is impossible while running a farm and homeschooling four kids.)

P.S. Here's a link to a post I wrote just one week ago. And the closet now looks just like it did one week ago. 

This time it was my sister-in-law, AD who really figured it out for me. She asked:

Exactly what is the part that makes you crazy. Very specifically? I would get a big basket. All her clothes go in the basket. Like the one you got us for Christmas for blankets. She can wardrobe change as much as she likes, but all the clothes need to go back in the basket. Don't sort the basket. Pull clothes off of her that look dirty. Maybe keep 2-4 outfits/church dresses out of reach that you want to look nice or be easily found. Do they need to be sorted. Maybe limit the amount of clothes to 35 instead of 50.

Lots of people had some good ideas, but this really made sense to me. The part that bugged me was hanging all the clothes up again and getting them back to where they were before. If I eliminated that need, would the problem be solved?

So I came up with a basket for her dresses/shirts, one for skirts, one for pajamas, and one for dress-up clothes. I also hung up a few things that I wanted to keep nice (like church dresses). And now, anytime something is on my floor, I just tell her to come in and put it away.

It seems soooo simple. But it truly has made things so much better around here. And to think: the solution came from my sister-in-law who I text everyday.

Hurrah!