Mommy's Thrift = Adelaide's Avant Garde New Style

The time has come for opening up some storage space and maximizing our money.  In Adelaide's "room," a term I use loosely since we just put her crib against the wall in the now disorganized office/music room/storage room, the closet has been storing the eight-and-counting boxes of all of Levi's clothes since his birth.  Who knows if we're finished having kids or not, but what if, one day, we have another?  And what if it's a boy?  We'll be set!  But what if we don't?  Or what if it's a girl?  Too many variables.  Time to get rid of the boxes.

I lugged them out and down to the living room.  For a good friend who has a baby boy, I started washing load after load of 6-9 month and 12 month clothes.  Her pile began to grow next to its box on the floor.  To make some cash at Once Upon a Child, I started washing load after load of everything smaller.  This pile slowly grew on the couch.  Anything with a stain that wouldn't budge went into one of two piles on the other couch for either the trash or Goodwill, depending on the stain.  Some of them were hardly noticeable.  Treasures with which I couldn't part went into their own pile on the back of the first couch.  Ever notice how messes tend to get worse before they get better when you're trying to get organized? 

I'll take a quick jog down this rabbit trail and marvel that, of the fifty-hundred-and-thirty amazingly cute, pristinely cleaned, and in-mint-condition clothes I proudly bestowed upon the bored-looking, tattooed young lady at Once Upon a Child, they only took about eight items and paid me ten bucks.  I was thrilled with the cash, but I couldn't pursue my earnest desire to understand the still full box I was reluctantly hauling back to my car, because Adelaide had reached her limit and was screaming at me.

Let's go back for a hike through the hills in my living room.  Mounds of varying height gave the room that distinct, freshly laundered aroma.  You know each pile's purpose, save one, and this is the one that surprised me.  I had created a pile for Adelaide.  Adelaide is our baby girl.  I had recently penciled a small list of items Adelaide will likely need as she grows through the coming cold months, and as I went through Levi's baby clothes, I began connecting the dots and finding things that I felt sure Adelaide could pull off.  Meanwhile, I was checking off my list.  That is Mom Thrift at its finest!  Making your daughter wear her brother's hand-me-downs is, I realize, probably shocking to some and probably something many others have done, but it wasn't until that moment that it dawned on me.  There's something about getting more use out of an adorable and perfectly good outfit that left me highly satisfied. 

Don't worry.  I'm not putting her in camo-dump-truck outfits with the phrase "Mommy's Boy" on them.  But the truth is, I'm pretty thrilled to have some options for my sweet girl that aren't hot pink.  Dressing girls is as fun as they say, but I found that dressing a little boy is just as fun.  Dressing a girl in her brother's clothes has added a whole new element to the game!  The possibilities have busted wide open, and it's stirring up my creativity once again.  I'll mix-and-match with some girly things, and she'll be ever as sweet and feminine, I promise.  ;)

Space made, money made, and discoveries made.  Not bad for a day's work.

OK, maybe it's not so avant garde, but Adelaide
wears Levi's hedgehog shirt pretty well, don't you think?