An Extra Day For Organizing

I'm not one for celebrating Leap Day.  This once every four years day usually catches me off guard so I'm never prepared to try to do something fun for it.  I tried to convince Ellie yesterday that you have to leap everywhere you go today, but she didn't buy it.

I decided to spend today organizing Ellie's bedroom.  I had wanted to tackle all three of the girls' rooms but I hadn't realized just how scary Ellie's room had become.  I went into her room when Katie went down for her first nap [the one that preempted my trip to Target for a Starbucks fix--sadly it never happened] with the intentions of changing her sheets, organizing her sock and underwear drawer and pulling out the shirts that are now too short on her.  Instead, I stepped in several choking hazards and realized that I needed to purge a lot of stuff from her room.

I managed to weed out a lot of broken toys and small items that are now trash because they had been carelessly left where are crawling baby could easily access them.  Katie isn't crawling yet, but I want the floors to be free of small colorful items that will attract her attention now.   It's been roughly six months that I've been on the girls about making sure they don't leave small pieces out on the floors and they're not getting the message.  My answer to that is a trash bag.

Ellie's closet and dresser only have items that fit her now.  Even though I removed about a quarter of the stuff she had, she still has way too much stuff.  I have to seriously sit down and figure out what I should save for Katie.  I don't think I can keep all of these clothes.  Clothes in the 5-7 size range are a real problem for me.  Madeline wore 5/6 and 6/7 clothes for three years during a time when I had a bit of a  Gymboree and Gap addiction.  Then factor in the clothes I've brought for Ellie over the past two years and I have a clothing problem.  I'm wondering what other moms of same gendered kids do about hand-me-downs when they have a big age gap.  Holding on to all of Madeline's clothes for three to four years while we waited for Ellie to grow into them was overwhelming.  I don't know that I can store nearly ten years worth of clothing.