Hand me downs

 In our family, like in many big families I imagine, hand me downs are a regular ocurrence.Having said that I know families with two kids that do it and a family of nine who wouldn't be caught dead in hand me downs. But I dont mind hand me downs and unless we are going to a wedding, party or funeral I dont buy new clothes. I can't say no to a Sale however. 

I have a dot system to help with sorting the washing and the hand me downs. It is quite simple and when I discovered the idea (from a mum with more kids than I) I knew it would help sort out whose clothes were whose when it came to the folding piles.

It works like this,for each kid (in this case just four bigger girls) put a dot on the tag inside the clothes. One dot for the oldest, two for the next oldest and so on. As each kid out grows their clothes and IF they are worth keeping you just add another dot and 'hand it down' to the next one.
Alexis- Miss Thinker is the same size tops as Miss Indipendent and technically a bigger size in bottoms so she and her sister end up fighting over particular items based on the 'but they fit me arguement' the dot sytems comes in very handy then.

Usually after two kids most are at 'yard' clothes stage. Alannah or Miss Independant is at this point in the hand me down line where she sometimes looks like something the cat has dragged in. (Being very skinny doesn't help matters either). She gets new clothes more frequently though they dont seem to last long...I dont know what she does to the shirts I end up buying her but they are stretched and stained by the following week.

My 'network' of friends and I, after spending madly at the end of season/year sales in the kiddy department and keeping the better clothes from previous kids, end up with too many clothes and we all seem to clear out our wardrobes around the same times each year and almost throw the bags of unwanted 'crap getting in ourway' -and as a by-product, that wonderfull invigoratiating feeling that only a good spring clean can bring at each other.

Of course after going through the bags we find little gems that we love (or the kids do more to the point) and the  Nikko comes out again. (The dots in my case, name inside the neck or along the inside of the bottom hem are used by others.) It can be quite confusing if you ever end up getting the odd item back for round two.

There is one friend who I love getting the 'for goodness sake come and get these bags of crap' phone call from. Half the time her bags and I say bags of clothes still have the tags on! (On those occassionans I am so glad she is a shopaholic.)

The hand me down system works well, saves us time and one hell of a lot of money and the arrival of the stuff can sometimes be like christmas, especially when it is closer to christmas ;p.

 New clothes however are only better BECAUSE of the 'shopping' it involves and the fun of rummaging through the racks and oooing and ahhhhing over clothes you have no intention of actually buying... I mean why pay $40 for something you can get at the sales for $8.96 (as long as the hundreds of other mums shopping don't discover it's beauty and pay full price. ) Besides, you never know. It could end up in the next hand me down swap!!