Under the Pile... of baby clothes

One of the things I knew I would one day have to face is the sorting and giving away of baby clothes. My children are now ages 8 and 5 and I have kept and stored and labeled all of their clothes from birth to now. So much has been given to us and we have purchased a bit of it too. I loved combing through garage sales when they were little and finding great deals on cute clothes for them to run around in.

I shoved tote after tote in the attic of our home. When we moved, they all came with us (much to the displeasure of my husband). I told him (and myself) that one day my sisters would have children and I would pass the clothes on then.

That day has come. My one sister is adopting a little girl, so all my girl clothes can go to her. Another sister is expecting a baby boy in the Spring. My 8 year old son won't be needing that cute 0-3 month old sleeper ever again. Time to give it all up.

...

It is harder than I thought.

I want to tell them to take care of these things.

I wonder if they know how precious they are to me.

I wonder if they realize all the emotions and memories that are bound up in these little things. The sweet little sweaters, the booties, the hats. I found little shoes that I remember trying to tie onto my sons feet as he kicked and kicked. He giggled the whole time, he loved making it hard on mommy to get those shoes on his feet.

Of course they won't know. They don't realize. But these things are just clothes after all. I know that one of my issues is assigning emotional value to things. This is a prime example, I guess. I need to keep moving and just do it.

It's easier for me to give things away that mean a lot to me, when I know that I mean a lot to the other person. When I question if they value me or not, then it's hard to give things I value to them.

I have so much that I'm feeling right now. I wanted to just put it all off, walk away from the piles and drown my sorrows in a cup of chai.

But I have hauled down every single tote from the attic and I am not bringing it back up. I'm determined to move forward... one onesie, one sleeper, one bootie at a time.