minimalist

I have never been much of a fashionista. I kind of have my own sense of style: classic, boring, affordable (ha ha). And then I had kids and started to venture out a bit with colors and trends and accessories when shopping for them because experimentation is much more affordable when you are buying stuff in a size 2T than in women's sizes. :)

So then, one day, I got addicted to photography. In all the learning of shooting manual, running a business, posing, lighting, marketing, editing, interacting, etc, etc, etc...I learned all about dressing for a shoot. And suddenly shopping got fun...too fun! The kids drawers suddenly started brimming with cute finds from here and there...lots of colors, fun accessories, coordinated items for all the kids, layers, matching hair bows....I went way off the deep end. My kids were dressed to the hilt every single day of their lives (poor things) with an expectation that at any given moment I may whip out that camera and take a picture that would eventually be blown up on a huge canvas for everyone to see. I hope that doesn't read as I was trying to represent something that wasn't real, I just wanted them to be dressed for pictures all the time because the moments that speak to me most are happening all the time and chances are good that those moments would be the ones I wanted on the wall.

Fast forward to last spring/summer, I did a pretty darn good job at getting rid of anything we didn't need before we moved and I feel like we use everything we have in our household now (sometimes I kick myself for getting rid of more than I should have, but that is a totally separate topic). But, the kids drawers are just.too.full. If I had one child, this would be less of an issue, but I have 4 children, and it is just too much! I keep up pretty well with laundry and do a few loads a day and fold them immediately as they come out of the dryer, but I have piles of folded clothes that never quite make it into the kids rooms because their drawers are so full I don't have anywhere to put them. Chloe and Brynn share a dresser, so that could be part of the problem, BUT most of their clothes are on hangers in their closet anyway and their jammies and dance clothes and girly accessories aren't in their drawers either.

Anyway...enter pinterest and some fabulous organizing project that caught my eye and I am determined to become a "kids clothing minimalist". What this doesn't mean is that I am going to dress my kids in clothes straight out of the REI magazine (and I do not mean that in a good way) as seems to be a common trend here in Oregon. Instead, I am going to splurge on stuff that makes me/them happy and limit their wardrobes to a few items in each category. The organizing project lady suggested the rule of 3 (3 jeans, 3 skirts, 3 short-sleeved shirts, 3 long sleeved shirts, etc.) but that is just a little too extreme for me, so we are using the rule of 4-8 depending on what it is. (less jeans, more shirts...variety is good, right).

 Even this is a struggle for me, but I am determined to do it. Less clothing options means less laundry to put away, less clean clothes that the kids take out of their drawer and leave lying around making me think it is laundry, less options for the girls to fight with me about each morning, less to replace when they move up to the next size, less temptation to shop for new adorable stuff when I open the mail, you know...just less all around!

Has anyone done this? I will let you know if it works, but I am excited at the prospect of being a minimalist.