Decluttering Project: Organizing Kid Clothes

One of my goals this month (August 2016) was:

Go through baby/toddler clothes, sort by size and label boxes

I *thought* I had gotten rid of a bunch, but it turns out I've accumulated more than I've gotten rid of. Of course it's hard for me to get rid of any baby clothes because I might need them for a future foster child or future birth child. But it has gotten a bit out of control:

1. Clothes were randomly thrown into boxes. Some folded, some not. Sizes were mixed together. There was no order in the madness! 
2. The boxes of clothes were stored in different places. In a closet here, a closet there, under a bed. 

It took me a few hours at night time to get through this project: 

1. Empty all boxes
2. Sort all clothes by sizes 
3. Fold all clothes. 

I have boy clothes from 0-3 months all the way to 3T. Then the problem I had was, "How do I store all these items?" Some options were: clear plastic bins (which can still be bulky and $$), still use the cardboard boxes I have, or come up with a different solution. I decided that storing them in boxes was bulky and starting Googling other possible solutions.

Turns out a lot of people use those vacuum storage bags to store old clothes. In the past, I haven't had a good experience with vacuum storage bags. I honestly didn't even consider it an option. Well, times are tough and there's so many clothes! 

Then it came down to the budget. I didn't budget for this in August. I do have wiggle room in my budget... But I worry that I make exceptions all the time for things that I feel I "need." Do I need the vacuum bags right now? 

These are the ones I'm looking at, they're about $25.00: SpaceSaver Premium *JUMBO* Vacuum Storage Bags

And these ones, which are about $26.00: Primode Space Saver Vacuum Storage Bags 

So, total about $51.00-ish, before tax. 

I looked at the mess of what is the extra room and knew I had to do something or the clothes would just sit there. 

I knew if I put them back in the boxes, I wouldn't want to move them again. 

I looked at my budget and found that I definitely can afford to invest in the storage bags without impacting anything significantly. So, I bit the bullet and bought them. I did wait about a week before deciding if this was indeed the solution I wanted. 

Here's what it looked like after: 

Here are all the bags vacuumed up and the empty boxes that are also part of my goals this month (August 2016) to get rid of unused/empty boxes to recycling. Now, all these boxes making their way to the recycle bin. I just need to figure out where to store the vacuum sealed bags...! 

I then starting going through all other things "baby" that were still in my son's room. I found: 

1. Baby bibs 
2. Burp rags 
3. Receiving blankets 
4. Baby blankets 
5. Socks of all sizes 

I decided to add these to the things to "store" out of my son's room. His drawers are basically empty now! I haven't had time to sort through these items, so I'm going to add that to my September goals. 

At least I'm making progress now! Yay for a small step in the right direction in my decluttering project!