Mission: Organization

When I last posted yesterday afternoon, I was on my way to look through one plastic crate for the boys' summer clothes. My project, including a few breaks, ended at 9:30pm last night.
I first went through the crate to make sure there was nothing that the boys should be wearing right now. I found a couple pairs of jeans that Landen missed the boat on, but figured Nathan might like having some brand new jeans next year for a change. (He actually loves his brother's hand me downs, for which I am very thankful!) I also found a few things Landen could wear to school now along with some summer clothes and put the larger sizes back in the crate. Teresa and I headed downstairs with a pile of summer clothes to put in the boys' dresser.
When I opened the dresser drawers, I realized that some of the things in Landen's drawers were getting too small and Nathan's drawers were horribly disorganized. First thing, Nathan became the proud owner of his brother's 4th of July 2008 Old Navy tshirt. He put it on right away and called it his "pepperoni" shirt. You know, like the song--"Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony. Stuck a feather in his hat and called it PEPPERONI"? It took me forever to realize what song he was requesting on the swings when he kept asking for the "Pepperoni Song"! Of course, it was "Yankee Doodle"!
With hand-me-downs behind me, I realized that Nathan's "new" clothes would not fit in his drawer with the old. Since that drawer had both dress clothes and play clothes in it, I decided to hang up all of the boys' "Sunday" pants and shirts in their closet. I noticed as I hung up the first few pairs of Nathans's khakis that the closet pole was leaning a bit. A few seconds later, the pole, everything hanging on it, the shelf above and the bedding on it came crashing down. My handiwork had failed! I had gotten so tired of waiting for David to finish the closet last summer that I went to Menards, bought what I needed, and did it myself. He was impressed and I was, too. It turns out I missed the studs on two of the brackets (even with a stud finder) and used screws that were too short.
With the drill & screws at school (play set construction week), there was nothing we could do about it last night. I cleared out the trim boards we had been storing in there and put a plastic shelf unit on the floor to hold their clothes until we can hang them once again.
After teaching a piano lesson, making and eating supper, and putting 2 of the 3 kids to bed, I headed to the store room to put Nathan's too-small clothes in a plastic tote. While I was in there, I realized that I had a few totes of boys' clothes that my friend Rachel could take home for her baby boy when she visits in a few weeks. So, I pulled those out. Then I realized they all said "12-24 months" with a mixture of each inside. With all of my kids in bed by then and David working outside, I decided I could do a better job than that for her. I went through every outfit, organized them according to size, and kept anything unisex that Teresa could wear.
When I finally finished that project, I was ready for bed, but feeling very good about all I had accomplished. I have definitely expanded my knowledge of the boys' clothing inventory sizes 12 months through 6/7 in this house!
I hope we can get the closet put back together tonight. What will my next spring project be? Stay tuned . . . .