Recycle

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but.... until Caroline was born, I kept every single piece of clothing that Luke ever wore packed away in diaper boxes in our 3rd floor closet.  Every piece.  From the newborn onesies, to the adorable (very worn) fleece footed pj's he wore at 18 months, to the very worn shorts and stained T-shirts he wore to Martha's house and Escuelita.  I just could not bring myself to get rid of them or give them to someone else.  So as he outgrew clothes, I threw them in an empty diaper box, and upstairs they went.  Needless to say, I accumulated quite a few boxes.

When we found out I was pregnant, I was glad I had all of it, because we might have had another boy.  In the last few months of my pregnancy, I painstakingly went through the boxes (yes, I did some lifting) with the infant clothes, and pulled out anything that could be gender neutral, plus blankets, sheets, swaddle sleepers, etc.  I gave them to my mom to wash and get ready.  The blue infant clothes were on standby, waiting until delivery to see if it would be a pink baby or a blue baby.

I said before we were shocked that the baby was a girl.  Very surprised.  But from that moment on, I fell in love with baby girl clothes.  I once used to hate the sight of them, but now they are delicious.

During my maternity leave from work, I felt the need to purge the 3rd floor of excess clothes.  I finally felt able to part with them.  I went through and pulled out a few pieces I wanted to save.  I saved the tiny infant clothes that they both wore, and several other sentimental items.  But the vast majority of the old, worn, shabby, stained clothes were donated to a local woman's shelter.

One morning, I loaded up the back of the car until it was completely full.  I dropped Luke off at the bus stop, and Caroline and I took a drive to the shelter to drop off the clothes.  It felt like a huge burden lifted.  I felt glad to give the clothes to someone who really needs them, rather than collecting dust in my attic closet.

It is taking several car loads of boxes to donate everything.  I just put a load in Matt's car to take to St. Vincent DePaul tomorrow.  I think we still have at least 1 car load left.  But we're making progress.

I appreciate that my sister-in-law Mary and my cousin's wife Katy gave be bags and boxes full of baby girl clothes, including the MOST adorable swim suits for this summer!!  As Caroline outgrows her clothes, I feel wistful as I put them in the boxes.  But I'm not saving all of them.  I just pulled out several boxes of infant clothes for Mary and Owen's new baby.  While I'm sad that Caroline no longer fits into them, I look forward to seeing them again on my new baby niece this fall!!