Fast and Easy "After Christmas sort".

Christmas is over and you have lots of new memories, presents along with bags of trash, boxes and things out of place!
I think this is one of the reasons that we get the bug to get things cleaned up and organized. It can also add to the sadness that can feel after all the excitement and anticipation is over.

Grab a white trash bag (for donate) and black trash bag (trash). As you are taking the clothes to put away in your drawer, take 3 minutes for each drawer and quickly go through and pick out the things you have not worn in over a year, or that is too tight or too big and load into the white bag. If it's torn then put it in the black bag to throw away. If you are seriously going on a diet and realistically think you can fit back into some clothes within the next 6 months, then make a pile for those clothes to go into a bin. Label that bin with a date for 6 months from now and if in 6 months you are not close to getting into them, donate them.
If you have 6 drawers then you have just gone through your dresser in less than 20 minutes.
One way to get through some sorting without taking all day and being too overwhelming.

Who's socks are who's?

How do you keep track of who's socks are who's?
I just read about someone else and how they kept track of their socks. I posted a comment on her blog about how I did it, so I thought it makes sense to share that with you!
With 5 children to sort socks for...its not always easy. I try a couple of things. As the other blogger suggested, I try to buy different kinds of socks for the kids. I do try this to an extent. The problem I have with it is that the next time I go to buy them, I can't find the same ones for each child on sale again, or more likely I forget which ones I get for each child if there are several kinds. So the other system I have for clothes and socks in my house is "The dot system". My girlfriend told me about this years ago and it works great.
The oldest living at home gets 1 dot on his clothes. The next oldest gets 2 dots. Next is 3 and so on. Elise is our only girl, so I just make an "E" on hers and that is because I need to keep straight which clothes go back to her mom's house and which stay with us.
With the dots, when your oldest is able to pass them down to the next child..you just add 1 dot and then its the #2 child's clothes. (I DO believe in hand me downs!)
It's an easy way to quickly identify clothing. Our 2 oldest at home right now are 14 and 15 and close to the same size. We also get them some of the same shirts (school t-shirts etc) and so it makes it simple to keep track.
In the picture you can see 3 dots on Zach's sock and 4 dots on Alex's sock. Drew's shirt has 2 dots on it.
It makes life much easier when it comes to sorting the laundry.