When Inspiration Strikes... hold on tight!

I had been looking at my totes of children's clothing while my kids played in our newly created basement play space (think the basement you were always too scared to play in as a child more so than a beautifully finished, perfectly coordinated play haven).  When I was reading my blog reader and this post came across my screen.

Le Sigh.

This sparked me.

I gathered up all the stuff I've been packing in to the top of the kids closets with the clearances, sales and yard sales I'd been hitting lately.  I hit the basement and started opening bins up.  But, what a task.  What I started with (admittedly, just after I started opening totes):

Then my husband got involved and we started talking about shelving for the bins.  One trip to Lowe's later left us with some plastic shelving that wasn't tall enough to accomodate the bins I already was using.  So, another trip and we're well on our way.  We ended up using the plastic kits that let you determine height/width and just screw in the boards to the joins.  We loved this. It went much, much quicker than we'd anticipated and my husband only spilled minimal amounts of blood in the process.

The process:

I am thrilled with the outcome!  I sorted out some things as I went as either stained, won't use again, etc.  And I have a pile that I'll be loading on to ebay very soon, other stuff will hit our local resale shop or Goodwill drop off. 

But what I also love is that this "should" help me in my (slightly irksome) habit of overbuying for my kids when it comes to clothing.  Not only can I print the list of what I have to keep with me, but I can also use it as a deterrant for making new purchases (Well, if I buy this, I'll have to update my bin list.)  I just need the discipline to stick with this when I pack away for summer.  I still need to inventory our current wardrobes & the shoe box but it's a huge step in the right direction!