Kids Clothing Inventory

Your neighbor drops off a whole bag of clothes for your kids, but they don't fit quite yet, so you sort them, and put them in boxes in the closet for a few months.  Later, you find a great deal on some clothes and you want to stock up in bigger sizes for the kiddos.  But, you can't remember for the life of you whether or not you already have jeans in a certain size, or pajamas, or a coat.  Suddenly, the deal doesn't seem so great because you don't want to buy something you already have.  Yes, you could buy it and then exchange it later, but what a pain!  If I've dragged my two kiddos out of the house already, there is no way I'm going to waste my time!

Enter my solution for the problem.  I knew I needed a list of what clothing items I have for each size and gender and a way to access it whenever I am out shopping.  I had already started an excel document on my computer to keep track of the clothes I had, but I didn't have a way to keep track of it on the go.  Now, if I had a smart phone, this would be really easy, but alas, that's a no go right now, so this was my solution.

I whipped up two separate trackers.  One for girls clothes, one for boys (and just in the sizes that are coming up in the next 2-3 years.  My excel spreadsheet has everything from newborn-about 7 years old, but I needed something concise so I don't have to carry a lot around).  This took about 5 minutes to whip up, so when I need one with new sizes, I'll simply make up a new sheet.  I wanted to always have access to the information, so I made it a size that would fit in my wallet without creating a lot of bulk.

                                    Exhibit A: The wallet that I have with me 24/7.

 Because I always pay for things with my debit card, I don't carry a lot of change.  Enter the change pocket that is WAY underused right now.  I cut them to fit perfectly inside so that I could still zip the pocket and they won't be in the way unless I need them.

This makes perfect sense to me.  I simply keep tally marks under each size and clothing category so I know how many of each thing I have.  When I'm at the store, I simply glance at my sheet and I know what items I should stock up on.  When I get home, I have to take my reciept out of my wallet and enter it on the computer anyway, so I simply update my excel sheet and my wallet inventory while I'm at it.  It takes about  4 seconds and saves me tons of work in the long run.

I love getting ideas from other people that make my life a little easier.  I hope this will help some of you!