June 2, 2014

Today, my project du jour was to quickly go through all of the kids' clothes I had packed away (ok, stuffed into garbage bags and threw in the closet) quickly, and only keep those items that meant something to me or brought out an emotional/sentimental/physical response. 

I'm proud of myself. I only kept 1 full (medium sized) bin and another only a third full, to save room for additional clothes I find worth saving. I sorted a box of shoes and clothes to pass on to our niece who is younger than our girls. And six garbage bags full of clothes from newborn to 4T to give away. Six bags! And this is after I had already gone through these clothes probably a year ago and couldn't bare to part with them. Yeesh!

I went through quickly and easily enough, but I had those moments where it was hard to look at the little onesies. My kids were that small?  

I showed them individual pieces. "Genna, you wore this the day we came home from the hospital."  "Gabby, look at how tiny you were! And this thing was big on you!"  They smiled or "oohed."  But they didn't see my heartbreak each time I folded a dress or tiny hat and stored it away, never to be worn again.  How did it go so fast?

Some things I kept, only thinking that maybe one day they will have their own daughters and think how cool it will be to put them in one of their outfits.  Or maybe just because I still can't part with it all. 

Gabby asked why I was keeping them. "Why are you keeping those shoes if we can't wear them?"  

"They were your first pair of shoes, ever. You learned to walk in these.  I want to keep some things so I can look at them later when you're all grown up and I can remember you."

"But you can just look at us.  We'll always be here." 

Heart clinching moment number two of the afternoon. 

Next up is clearing out the toys from the play room. And not just boxing them and stacking them in the closet. Really deciding what goes. That seems just as hard as the clothes. 

The puzzles Gabby mastered at 12 months (total brag but who cares, my kid's a friggin' genius).  The baby toys that I can't seem to get rid of. Why can't I do that?  What is it about the toys my girls had from 0-12 months that holds some kind of bond?  

I guess I miss that age more than anything. Most of the clothes I kept were little ones, too. 

Wish me luck, friends, because the next few days of sorting that is gonna rock my world.