Avoid A Carpet Made Of Clothing

Little girls love to change clothes several times a day. The discarded clothing will be thrown on the floor, including the shirt she just looked at and decided she didn't want to wear. The clothes she wore for fifteen minutes will be thrown on the floor too, mixed in with the clothes she had on all day at school or out in the yard that are dirty and food-stained. Not only will the aforementioned clothing be strewn over the carpet from dresser to closet to door, also mixed in will be the clothes that fell out as she dragged things from her dresser for consideration.

Boys don't do this.

Boys DO throw all clothes on the floor however, including the clothes they were supposed to put away.

I've found a way to avoid this for the most part. The littles (3 yo boy, 5 yo girl) do not have access to their clothes! All their clothes are in my room, sorted properly, in their own places. In the hallway is a small set of shelves - THIS is where they get their daily outfits. On these shelves I put one outfit for my grandson, and two or three for my granddaughter. This includes underwear, socks, pants/skirt, and blouse or shirt. Any clothing found on the floor is easy to identify even by the children; they know where to put it when they're sent back to do so. My granddaughter knows whether or not she wore it that day or knocked it off while gathering up the items from the other outfit. The time of day makes it clear too; in the morning, any clothes on the floor are the clean ones she dropped, in the evening we can tell by what she wore that day or what is missing from an outfit on the shelf.

This is a pain at times but NEVER as much of a pain as reported by mothers who let their children have access to all their clothes. They often don't remember what color carpet is in the kids' rooms or even if they have carpet at all!

Messing With Babies' Heads

Little children can be a lot of fun - ask a three year old to look at his mouth and see if it's clean. Don't mention a mirror, just watch as he rolls his eyes all around trying to see his face.

Ask him "what's that on your back?" and enjoy watching him spin in circles trying to see just like a little kitten chasing its tail.

Glove Season

Just a tip - unless you live in Southern California or Florida, stock up on those cheap little stretch gloves that are sold two or three pairs for a dollar. Whenever you have a spare bit of change, grab a few. You can choose one color per child and have a box of these gloves, when they lose one of their good, thick gloves, at least there's a pair of these. You don't have to worry about left or right, just turn it to fit the correct hand.

It's entirely possible to buy ALL of them in one color so it doesn't matter which child needs a glove, they can just grab one from the box. Either way works but you will want different colors for different sizes. Tiny ones in one color for the very small kids, a different color for the older larger kids. You want to be able to quickly grab a matching pair since they won't tell you until the last minute that they lost their gloves.

You'll want to keep a generic jacket and a pair or two of these gloves in the car too. You know that one of kids will end up losing, ruining, or forgetting a jacket or gloves when you go somewhere. Plus it's always wise to have an extra in case of emergency (car breaks down, etc.).