Vacuum-packed clothes

Having a child means being in a state of constant change. You adjust to waking up every 3 hours, then you adjust to them rolling over or sleeping in their own room. You adjust to their changing diaper size and changing clothing size. You adjust to new toys and thankfully, more sleep at some point. You adjust to having a constantly messy house and a newly decorated house as you child proof. You adjust to your child getting new teeth and then using those teeth, at some point, on you or another human being.

Hadley's latest piece of artwork....on our furnace door

I feel like I am constantly cleaning out Hadley's room. I have to organize her closet as she grows out of toys and things like her bouncy seat. And I have to constantly clean out her dresser as she outgrows clothes. Usually it goes like this....

I just organized her drawers for the season and finally took out all those that don't fit anymore. Her drawers look really empty but they're organized. Over the next 4-5 months she gets more clothes (the nice thing about having a birthday in May and then Christmas in December is about every 6 months her grandparents have a reason to fill up her dresser) and her drawers become more full. It's almost to the point where it's hard to open the drawers (ok maybe that's a little exaggerated.) It's hard to keep her drawers in order because we have to dig through everything to find something that fits her or fits the current weather. Then the weather starts to change and I know it's inevitable it's time to clean out her dresser.

At first I was using plastic bins that fit under her crib because really that was the only place we had to store them, unless we put them out in the backyard storage shed. I imagined opening it for our second kid and finding little bugs all over so that wasn't really an option. Now I realize I could have let people borrow the clothes, but frankly, I was offered someone else's clothes for Hadley that they MIGHT need back for their next kid and I imagined the worst scenario. I'd start sifting through all the clothes trying to remember what was theirs and what was ours. After days of finally making the two piles I'd realize the majority of the clothes we borrowed are now permanently stained with blueberry juice and spit up stains.  I'd feel awful and now what do I do? I just thought it'd be more of a hassle for both me and the person who so kindly let us borrow the clothes. You might find this whole thing ridiculous and maybe even a little selfish but if I'm hoping to reuse some of Hadley's clothes for our second kid (provided it's a girl) it would be awkward to ask for the clothes back. If I knew we were done having kids I'd gladly hand over all of her clothes to anyone who wanted them. Anyone else experience this debacle?

Vacuum-packed Clothes

Attempted organization in Hadley's closet

Swing, bouncy chair, and the infant carrier don't fit too well in a closet.

 I quickly realized the plastic bins were not going to work so while at Big Lots I walked past a box of The Space Bag. The ones where you use your vacuum to seal them and they save space. I thought I'd give it a shot. They. Are. Awesome. They work really well and even though they weigh about 50 lbs once they're all sealed up I have packed all of Hadley's clothes from the day she was born into 4 bags. I do check them every now and then to make sure the seal is still good. So far no problems. To all those mothers out there who may feel like they can never keep up with the ever-changing world of a child...neither can I so leave it all behind and one day you can vacuum seal it away because you can't vacuum-pack those chubby cheeks, gummy smiles or silly laughs, those nights where all they want is to be held by you, the cries of 'mama' or 'dada', those times they kindly hand a toy back to a friend who really wanted to play with it and those times they tell you they love you.

Things that cannot be vacuumed-pack...CUTENESS!