Nina's Soap

Oldest girls new clothes totes before I started.

At the end of the school year, my kids brought home some school supplies. I quickly went through the note books. The ones that they didn’t used, I put them in a drawer. I might send them back to school. The ones they used part of them I stored them as well. I would give them these when they run out pages in their current note books at home. I put the rest of the supplies in a drawer and didn’t sort through them during the summer. I instructed the kids not to take anything out without my consent so they didn’t. I have two girls in elementary school right now. One month away from the beginning of the new school year, I pulled the supplies out. I put the markers together and the colored pencils together. I pulled and put together the crayons. I kept the pink eraser, the scissors, and the pencil case. One of them has her head set in good shape. I kept it. The other one should be replaced. I made a list of things I have from their supplies they can reuse. And I put them away. I kept some supplies from last year. I pulled them out and wrote down what they are. A pink eraser, a scissor, two different types of markers. The school requested a certain number last year and I purchased multiple boxes to come up with the number that was requested. But I have more that so I opened the boxes and pulled the number that was requested and kept the rest. I put the rest in one box and tapped it. My kids received a big box of school supplies two or three years ago and I pulled few items from it in the past for their supplies. My husband opened that box and to see what was left in it and compared it to the school supplies list.  Anything from the box that is not in the list would be added to our office supplies. I am in the process of deep decluttering our house and would organize after that. So I would organize our office supplies when I get to that. I have a lot of supplies to organize. Some years ago, a lot of office supplies were trashed and I asked the permission to take them home. I was approved and I hauled home a lot of office supplies. Much more stayed in the trash though. I couldn’t get them all. At first I just bagged them and left them in the basement. When I decluttered the basement in 2017, I sorted through them, boxed and stored the supplies in the basement for my office use. Another time an office was renovated for a new employee probably an executive. I received an email asking anyone that wanted something to stop by to get what he likes before the rest is trashed. I went and gathered a lot of supplies. I didn’t have a lot of time on hand and I didn’t even know what to expect. I gathered a lot though before more people showed up. If I have brought more bags, I would have gathered more than I have hauled. But I am glad I took what I was able too. Unfortunately, I purchased few office supplies for my home office before these two incidents happened but still it would save me money in the future not to purchase these items for my office for a while. I have used some of the supplies to file my kids’ documents at home already. So it was good I put my pride aside and hauled these supplies home. I have many boxes of them. I would organize them later and probably write about the process. For now during my decluttering of other parts of the house, I collected and putt away some containers that I can upcycle to organize the house and the supplies without purchasing anything if possible.

We just got the school supplies list. While my husband compared the list to what we have on hand and wrote down what we need to purchase, I went through the kids new clothes totes. Each kid has a tote where I keep their one size up clothes. I went through them and put what they need for school in their school totes and noted what I need to purchase. I donated a lot of outfits. I kept many 100% cotton outfits to cut into wipes to wipe hands in the bathroom. I put 5 tops and 5 shorts in each of the girls’ school containers.

5 shorts on the left for fall and spring, 5 tops in the middle, and 4 pants at right would be worn in winter.

My oldest one outgrew her pants and shorts. I kept 2 for next year for her younger sister and donated the rest. My oldest one has 2 thighs and two shirts one size up that I kept in a tote.  To their school totes I added 3 new underwear for my youngest daughter and 5 new socks for my oldest daughter. They would go to school until fall in shorts. After fall, I would pull their shorts and keep in the tote for new clothes. They would wear pants during winter. In spring, I would pull the pants out of their school totes and replace them with the shorts they used in fall. I reduced their new clothes to the point that I put both girls’ next year outfits in one tote instead of two that I started with.

Oldest girls new clothes totes before I started.

Youngest girl’s new clothes totes before I started.

At the end Both girls new clothes for next year are in one tote. The youngest girl’s pants she will hear in winter are added.

I just divided the tote in two compartments with a small tote lid. I made a list of things they need. My oldest one outgrew her underwear. I moved them to my youngest daughter. We went to Walmart and purchased the school supplies and their clothes on the day clothes and shoes were not taxed.

We purchased the girls one school shoes each. We purchased 7 pants to my oldest daughter. Two were purchased from boys section on sale for $4.50 each. 3 pants from girls section were on sale for $7 each. 2 pants from girls section was not on sale and cost $7.88 each. I don’t like low cut jeans for her so her dad has found waist level jeans in the boy section. Belts came from the boys sections as well. There were on sale for $5 each and sturdier than the ones in the girls section.

My youngest daughter has 5 pants but didn’t have new socks. So we purchased her socks. Her pants are little bigger, therefore, we purchased both of them belts. We purchased my oldest one a new water bottle and to my youngest daughter a new lunch bag. Between the school supplies, the items on their teachers wish list but not required and the girls’ personal items, we spent $141. The money came from what I saved from our food budget from the month of August and prior months. I have $60 left in food budget. Few days later we purchased a new lunch bag for my oldest daughter and new underwear. At home I put each kids’ school supplies in their closet. A week later, clothes were on sales at Walmart. We purchased two tops one size up for each girl for next year. One shirt cost $3, two of them cost $2 each and one cost $1. My oldest one has two shirts in the tote for new clothes. So she has a total of 4 new tops for next year. My youngest daughter has 2 new shorts in that tote. Now she has 2 new tops as well. I am cautious about what I buy so that I don’t have too many clothes and donate them later. I chose cold colors for them that way I could do laundry without sorting colors. I didn’t want to purchase all their next year outfits now. There would be sales throughout the year. In spring, I would be able to purchase shirt with long sleeve for them to have a well-balanced school wardrobe. I made a list of what they have on our G drive. That way when clothes are on sale, we could easily open the G drive on my husband cell phone to see if we need to purchase anything for them. I went through my son totes a well. He didn’t need clothes or shoes.

I cleaned the kids’ closet shelves. I did that at the end of July. I started late that night. I moved everything I needed to take out of the shelves. I left 3 boxes of shoes. I moved them around and dust the shelves. The top shelves has bags my girls were given in summer for summer bags. I kept them and they would use them for their school bag. My husband went through them to see if there is any supply in them that was on the school supply list. I have a diaper bag there that I would sort through later. It has our medical insurance cards in it. I would sort through the bag and get rid of old receipts.

School Reports

I have different expandable folders that contains few folders. I keep the school reports in two of them and the kids’ investments statements in two expandable fodders. So I have a total of 4 expandable folders. These folders came from the dump diving adventure I described above. I took the folders to my living room and went through them. I have each kid’s name of the expandable folder and whether is school or investment written on it. I sorted through the school folders first. I removed the reports that were not end year school report and reflect all the 3 trimesters’ scores. I put the papers I took out on one side. I put back in the expandable for each kids two folders. One for school report and the second one for art work I would like to save for them.

Investment Statements

In the investment expandable folders, I had end year statements. I usually let the kids open their letter and show them what they need to look for on the statement and I ask them to toss the paper in the box where we keep those papers that contain sensitive information. We don’t shred them anymore. I don’t have the time although the kids would enjoy that. I keep the papers and use them to start my barbecue fire in summer or I mulch the garden with them to smother weeds like creeping Charlie. I removed prior year statements and piled them on another side. I kept the most current year 2018 statements. I filed each investment in a folder and put all the folders that belong to each kid in her expandable folder. The papers from school piled went in a box where kids grab papers to use the back. I don’t buy printing paper for their study at home. During school time they bring a lot of papers home and after I review them I make two piles. One pile to trash and the second pile has papers with their back unused. The second pile goes in the box for scrap papers. That is how I save money at home on paper. We the adults used these papers too. The papers from the investments folders went to the barbecue paper box. I put the expandable folders back in their closet.

From the shelves in addition of the expandable folders, I took a bag that has two new dresses the kids were given but didn’t wear and added to the pile of donation in the basement.

I took out of the shelves a bag that contains hair ties. I took two tablet casings, and two e reader’ cards. I have not sorted through them yet. I put the empty casings in a cabinet where I stored two others. The tablets stopped working and I disposed of them but removed the casings first. I would sort through the ties and add few to their toys containers for them to play with their dolls and I would keep few and dispose of the rest. The e reader cards were added to the e-reader case and I tossed the cards boxes.

Now the kids’ closets shelves are clean.

Earlier at the end of the school year I sorted through the clothes on the hangers and in the containers. I donated their homes clothes or trashed them. I moved their school clothes to their home clothes containers. I reduced their church dresses and gave them new dress for this summer. I hung these in their closet.

We have next grade school supply list now and when school supplies go in clearance, we might make few purchases for next year like markers, pencils, colored pencils. During clearance, I would purchase some plastic sheets as well. I would file the kids’ documents I have in the expandable folders in binders and write the kids name on the binders. Then I would organize them vertically in their closet. I already have binders from my trash diving experience. I have found some plastic sheets after sorting through binders in a container that had some of my documents in it. I sorted through that container the same night before I decluttered the kids’ closet’s shelves.

After sorting through new clothes. the clear totes are the girls’ school totes. The pink tote on the right has their new clothes. The pink tote on the left has my home clothes.

I declutter my house one area at a time. When a situation present itself, I profit from the moment to declutter the area. Back to school was the right time to declutter my kids’ clothes closet and their clothes totes. That is the right situation for me to declutter my linen closet as well. The girls use two shelves for their books. I intend to free another shelve in the linen closet for their brother to have a shelf for his book as well. I already started it and would continue to declutter the girls’ shelves and get ready by their first day at school.