Clothing Inventory

I'm always on the lookout for good deals on kids' clothes so that I can stock up in advance on the sizes they're growing into. To start, I keep a tote for each size in the garage that just says "Bigger Sizes" and when I buy something for them to grow into, I toss it in there. But I invariably pull the bin out and discover that, while my child has plenty of shirts and pants to grow into, they have zero pairs of pajamas, or church clothes, or whatever. Periodically I look through the totes, and sometimes make a list of what I have, which I either bring into the house and promptly lose, or put in the bin with the clothes, where it's completely inaccessible.

This week I had my husband drag the "Bigger Sizes" clothing bins into the house. I'm in the mood to do some shopping, and I needed to know what I had an excuse to buy! I had the idea to make an inventory in a Word document and save it to my desktop. That way when I buy something, I can easily update it, and it's always handy and close by if I know I'm heading out to a sale, like this week's Old Navy 50% off clearance. For each child in the size coming up, I listed everything like shirts, dresses, pants, etc. and then how many of each I had. At the bottom I wrote in bold the things I need to buy.

And secretly I am so excited because while I thought my older daughter was all set for 4T thanks to generous hand-me-downs (whoops, 26 short-sleeved shirts), I discovered she only has one pair of jeans and one pair of shorts! Let the shopping begin!