Tuesday, June 17, 2008

When you've packed all your clothes

I like our wardrobes lean. Fewer clothes to buy, fewer clothes to store, fewer clothes to wash!

But it does present a problem when packing. My solution: 2 bare bones outfits to wear the week before, with daily laundry in between.

I suppose we could live like this all the time. Gulp.

(HT: Rocks In My Dryer)

14 comments:

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

I'm pondering school-uniform purchasing right now and the conclusion I'm coming to is that I'll gladly do laundry more often rather than purchase an entire week's worth of monogrammed shirts at $20 each! I'm thinking 3 shirts at the most, and maybe we can get by with two!

Southerner said...

When we had our FL home on the market I packed all the kids toys and books and extra clothes and dishes and fluff decor items. I LOVED it. I only left a few cars and legos- which we could stash in a basket quickly and put in closet. You do have to stay on top of laundry but no junky drawers, no piles in front of the washer.

If I remember, these trays are in the laundry room. You DID NOT climb your pregnant self on the washer/dryer for photo- please tell me not so that I can quit picturing you all squished up these teetering on the edge, sweet Elise standing at the bottom looking up figuring out how she is going to get up there, with Andrew in the next room building a camera extender arm for next time.

Anonymous said...

You COULD, but would you want to?

Daiquiri said...

I read that article through RIMD this over the weekend...yikes. I don't think I could do it. And if there are 6 people in my family, does that mean I get 600 things?? Even so...I'd have some serious work to do.

I don't have any better solution for you on the packing thing. Unless you live out of the suitcases for the few days before you leave, and throw a couple of loads in the washer the night before, and then into the suitcases?

Renee said...

We have WAY WAY WAY too many clothes. I was just thinking my daughter needed some shorts. Yea, right. She has a ton of dresses she can wear in hot weather. Even though I'm not buying clothes, they are handed down, there is too much. I'm thankful for them. Very thankful. But I'm thinking we need to pass the blessings along.

Anonymous said...

I liked not having too many clothes to deal with when we were in London, but I also found that the 4 or 5 outfits we had were not sufficient for times when we were traveling. I'd love to pare down our wardrobes some more, but maybe to two weeks worth of clothes or so, not quite as little as we took overseas.

Jessie Weaver said...

Meredith, Maybe you could come over and help me figure out how to "lean out" my clothes. I have a whole dresser and closet full of non-maternity clothes and it is putting me into spasms! Why do I have all those clothes in the first place? My DH is afraid if I get rid of them I will buy more after baby is born...

Anonymous said...

Meredith, I have been trying to figure out how to hang my trays without putting a hole in them. Yours look so lovely on the wall, would you mind sharing how you hung them?
Thanks. Mrs. L.

MommyLydia said...

Ugh. Daily laundry would NOT be frugal over here! We still have too much clothes (and seemingly not enough of the RIGHT clothes). But we go two weeks between washing as well, and conserve our quarters.

Anonymous said...

I didn't read the link but you know what would be interesting to study - if we leaned out our closets that much, would the ensuing laundry end up costing the same if not more - of some carefully selected items of clothing? Water, detergent, time to do laundry - it all adds up. not to mention energy used. So I guess I am of the school of thought better to have a bit more and do laundry less but I've never done the actual math.

Julie @ Creating This Life said...

I agree with you and am applying your approach to packing too. I'm packing less for our upcoming vacation and plan to hit the hotel laundry room about halfway through the trip.

I hate having bags full of sweaty, dirty vacation clothes when we travel and a lighter suitcase will be welcome too!

Lizz @ Yes, and So is My Heart said...

What a great idea! Why hadn't I thought of this? I also like our wardrobes lean and it is never a problem except for traveling. Thanks for the tip.

Kendra Fletcher said...

So, with ten of us, that's 1,000 things??? Yipes. Sounds like more than I want to keep track of, but then we have over 2,000 books alone... homeschooling family...

Hmmmm. Maybe those of us who educate at home should have more. Tink of all the waste we're eliminating by educating our children here.

Anonymous said...

The thing I like about your plan is that there won't be laundry left undone while you are gone....and other than what you bring home, it will be caught up when you get back!

Mary