how we store toothbrushes to avoid sharing germs.

This seems like a dumb topic to post about, but I will tell you that I have mentally labored over the toothbrush problem for months, so I have zero issues believing that maybe one of you can get some use out of this little tip.

We don't have any vertical storage in our bathroom.  Our mirror doesn't have a cabinet behind it, and other than cavernous cabinet space under the sink, all we have to work with is drawers.  All the kids would toss their toothbrushes into the same drawer, where they'd mingle together, all wet and spitty, until the next toothbrushing session.  This is gross enough.

But add to that the fact that we brush with bar soap at our house, and they were all sharing the same bar of soap.  Last winter, when we could just NOT kick the stomach bug for four straight months, it did occur to me that the bar soap situation wasn't doing us any favors.

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A while ago, I mentioned on the blog that I brush my teeth with soap and baking soda. No morning breath, fewer coffee stains, no weird chemicals in my mouth - win/win/win! This is my new favorite kind to use.

A post shared by Paige Van Voorst (@theminivanvoorsts) on Feb 5, 2018 at 9:53am PST

So this fall, I decided we needed to make some proactive changes to prevent so much intimate contact with one another's germs, just for overall hygiene reasons, and to hopefully prevent illness from running completely unchecked for another winter.

I started by buying each of them a color-coded travel set for their toothbrush and soap.  (I've told you before that my kids all have their own assigned colors for everything, right?  Atticus is blue, Penelope is pink, Finneas is green, Laurelai is purple, Rocco is red, and Callista doesn't yet have an assigned color.  It makes it SO easy to keep everyone's stuff organized to be able to figure out the owner of something at a quick glance.)

Then, I cut a couple of bars of soap down, since the soap we use isn't super cheap so I didn't want to buy five whole bars, and because a single bar of soap lasts FOREVER when only being used for toothpaste.

Then I just put everything in an easily-bleached plastic tub under the sink.

All my fingers and toes are crossed that this will do some massive prevention of cross-contamination this winter!

how to take a road trip with young kids: first aid favorites and car sickness survival.

Many of the first aid items that I take with us on road trips have stayed the same through the years (Tylenol is Tylenol), but many have been updated, or new items have been added to the rotation.  So, even though I already briefly covered some of this in a repost earlier in the week, here's what all we currently use and will take with us later this summer on this year's road trip.

I like to keep everything in clear, zippered pouches in my purse, so it's close on hand in the car.  It makes it easy to find what I need, and I don't have to worry something will leak all over my purse.  (My pouches are similar to these, I think.  I bet pencil bags from the school supply section would work, too!)

In the first pouch, I keep any essential oils I'll be taking.  I don't use oils every day or anything, but I do like to have them on hand for first aid.  My go-to, commonly used oils on a trip are (left to right):

**carrier oil, for safely using oils on kids.  ALWAYS dilute!!
**peppermint, for headaches and nausea.
**healthy hero blend (essentially kids-safe "Thieves," but not YL brand). This bottle is from the Edens Garden kid-safe line of oils, which I LOVE!
**stress relief, because, I mean, road trips with kids.
**tea tree, for cuts and scrapes.
**lavender, for skin issues and calming riled kids.


In my second pouch, I have summer prep stuff:

**spray sunscreen.  I very, very rarely ever use sunscreen on my kids, and when I do, it's only on their 'hot spots' (nose, cheeks, ears, shoulders, feet) in intense sun.  I typically just rely on physical barriers like clothing, and staying inside during the most intense parts of the day, and letting them take in that Vitamin D the rest of the time.  But on vacation, it will be nice to just spray them quick if I need to, if we're out and about.
**hand sanitizer, because Gas Station Bathrooms.  Yes?
**new skin.  Easier than replacing Band-aids every time they get wet or something, and great for covering blisters they get from their shoes.
**all-natural, oil-based lotion.  Great for chapstick or for diluting tea tree oil to put on cuts. (We LOVE this lotion for everything, actually.  We literally buy pounds of it at a time.)
**mineral sunscreen.  Healthier than spray-on, and easier to use on just a few target spots rather than all over.
**bug spray.  This stuff smells SO GOOD (like vanilla), and works SO WELL.


In my third pouch (and a smaller bag I keep in my purse at all times), I keep items that are great for general first aid:

**bacitracin, in case the tea tree isn't cutting it.
**tweezers, for emergency relief from splinters and rogue chin hairs.
**first aid kit, bandaids.  This one is adorable and space-efficient, and it fits SO well in the console!

**arnica gel.  This stuff is so, so wonderful for soothing sore muscles and healing bruises.
**arnica pellets.  These work like homeopathic ibuprofen - I've even used it for pain management after birth.  I'll be taking them along this time for pregnancy-plus-car-ride back pain.
**drawing salve.  This stuff pulls splinters right out of skin like you wouldn't believe.
**green salve, for taking the itch out of bug bites.
**adult Tylenol
**kids' Tylenol


Now, our all-out arsenal for treating carsickness.  Pretty much every single time we head out on a long trip, at least one kid ends up barfing, if not multiple kids.  We have tried All The Things, and these have proven helpful:

**peppermint oil on the wrists and bellies of sick kids.  If they're too young (under 6) to have peppermint oil applied directly to them, I've had luck putting a few drops on a cotton ball and tucking it into their carseat straps or into the air vent above their seat.
**ginger oil is great on a cotton ball as well, though I've never applied it to their skin.
**tummy aid oil.  Another Kid-Safe blend from Edens Garden.  This one is good applied on their wrists or bellies after having been diluted.
**sea bands made a world of difference for Atticus (our sickest car-sickie) last time we traveled!
**Kids' Dramamine.  When all else fails, I have no problem resorting to Dramamine!  It works really well.  I've also never noticed any drowsy behavior in the kids after taking it, which I've heard is a concern.  My kids have always acted normally.
**Altoids contain real peppermint oil and very little sugar, so these are really great for settling tummies of kiddos who can handle the spice.
**chewable ginger tablets.  We've never tried these before, but I have them on hand to try out on this upcoming trip.
**cotton balls, for aromatherapy use of the abovementioned oils.

And, not pictured: Ice cream bucket with lots and lots of plastic bags to use as liners.  Make sure the plastic bags do not have holes in the bottom!  This makes it so easy to tie up the mess and toss it in a trash can, instead of having to rinse anything out in a nasty gas station bathroom.  I also roll up an old towel next to the bucket, for use in cleaning up any 'overspray'-type messes, or for aproning over a really sick kid - worst case scenario, you lift up the ends to catch the mess, and then hobo-bag the corners of the towel and throw the whole thing in the trash.

The very second a kiddo starts complaining of a belly ache, I start busting out the remedies.  There isn't time to 'wait it out!'  Not only do I use the products mentioned above, but I make them look out the window  instead of down at their books or at the DVD screen, and I either open their window or blast the air conditioner on the 'arctic' setting.  If I need to, I hustle to the back to hold the bucket.  Barf can singlehandedly make or break a trip, so I do whatever it takes to stay ahead of it and keep it from getting out of hand.

And that's how we (try to) prepare for unforeseen injuries and inevitable barfing incidents!  What tricks do you have up your sleeve to help with these situations?

how to take a road trip with young kids: planning the itinerary.

Time for the next post in our Road Trip series! Let's talk itinerary.

 It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that 99% of you reading this have smartphones and Siri and other kinds of witchcraft at your disposal, so you may not need my old fashioned tips for planning the best routes and stops.  But as for me and my house, we will just continue to spend $25 a month on our ancient phone plan and use our crotchety old fingers to Googlysearch the cybernet for our trip planning.  Because YOLO.

All that to say, I've never used GPS or other technology on our road trips before, so I'm blissfully unaware of how much harder I'm making this on myself.  Just humor me; take any advice that might be helpful, and just smile and nod along with the rest.

If you are traveling with young kids during daytime hours, plan on stopping every two hours or so.  This year we pushed the average closer to three, but it was the first year we were able to do that.  We don't have any "questionably potty trained" kids at this moment in time, and Rocco eats about every three hours or so, so it just worked for us this year.  I would suggest ALWAYS erring on the side of stopping too frequently rather than not frequently enough. Stop before you feel like you need to, if that makes sense.  ("Kill it before it dies" is always my organizational mission statement, and generally how I try to live my life.) 

I will point out: this frequently means you should have planned in advance where you're going to stop, instead of just getting in the general vicinity of where you're hoping to stop and then crossing your fingers something worthwhile shows up before the kids start melting down.  Plan. It. Out. so that the trip doesn't get on top of you. 

Always, always make every single child go pee at every single stop. They will tell you they don't have to. They will tell you they haven't even had any sips of water since the last stop. Don't give in!! You are the grown up, and by golly, you know enough to know their acorn-sized bladder is already hatching plans to derail the whole trip. Don't fall for it.

For our first stop, I always just plan to find a nice, civilized interstate rest area. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, since we don't stop for long. We take the kids to the bathroom, feed them a snack, let them stretch their legs, and get back on the road.  I usually search the DOT site in advance for rest areas that have amenities of some kind that tell me it's regularly maintained and supervised.

The next stop usually falls around lunchtime, though, and this is where we pull out the big guns.  We stop at a park, do a full-on picnic lunch, and let the kids play to their hearts' content.  (And then, abviously, I make them go pee again. I don't mess around.). I plan in two hours for this stop, and we usually leave feeling revived, well-fed, and ready for naps.  Smartphones are probably great for finding nearby parks while you're on the road, if you haven't already put the legwork into making an advance plan, but I just use Google (again, I can't stress this enough: in advance) to look at city maps of the larger cities we'll be driving through, to find parks that are close to the interstate. Falls Park in Sioux Falls has become our favorite lunchtime spot on our regular route. 

We try to plan at least one fun or unusual stop into the rest of our day.  Sometimes state tourism websites will tell you what there is to see along a specific road. Other times, I use sites like roadsideamerica.com and TripAdvisor.com to find quirky places to check out (keeping in mind the distance between stops).

For dinner, we often stop for hot food somewhere. A hot meal just revives tiny people (and grown ups) like nothing else can.  To find good places to eat, I look ahead at where we'll be around dinnertime, and check TripAdvisor for yummy spots.  Sometimes you can find some great hole-in-the-wall places; other times you end up being like, 'meh.' But you're fed and everyone has had a break from the car (and, obviously, gone pee again), so you're still winning.

I usually spend an afternoon or so planning our whole trip- both there and back.  I like to have the planning done at least a few days in advance.  Then I print out our maps and directions (because, as should be clear by now, I live with abandon about a decade behind the times, so I can't keep any of this info on my phone).  I also print a shorthand schedule, mostly for my own crazy town brain to keep things organized.

I like to overestimate our times so that I feel awesome about making good time.  It's how I feel like I'm winning at life.  Which I will admit is a tiny bit sad.

And that's how I plan our itinerary to keep things running as smoothly as possible, and to try to provide opportunities for the kids to make some fun memories! If anyone has any other itinerary hacks, or even smartphone tips and apps for traveling that you'd like to share with other readers, post them in the comments!

how to take a road trip with young kids: master packing list and favorite first aid items.

After the first or second time we took Atticus anywhere - anywhere - I realized that this whole "being a prepared mom" game was no joke.  You can't just take the baby.  You have to have the car seat, and the diapers, and the wipes, and the changing pad, and an extra change of clothes for both you and the baby, and a pack and play, and a breast pump, and bottles and bottle liners and extra pacifiers and OHMYWORDMAKEITSTOP.  Pretty soon, you learn to just ball up in the fetal position out of pure animalian fear any time you have to go to Walmart.

And then comes The Weekend Away To Grandma's.  The Family Vacation.  The Road Trip.  And you're basically paralyzed from the heavy responsibility of it all and you turn in your mom badge and check into the insane asylum for the rest of your livelong days just to avoid having to pack.

OR!  YOU CAN USE MY HANDY DANDY MASTER PACKING LIST! 

I'm here for you.  Together, we can save your family a lot of grief and a lot of sad frozen dinners while you're away at the looney bin.  I promise you can do this.  Because... it's really, really simple.  Check it out.

PDF of Master Packing List

Let me give you a rundown of what you're looking at.

First, this is a list based on a summer trip, so you'd need to adapt it if you need to pack all-weather attire.  Second, this list calls for packing half the clothes you will need, assuming you will have access to laundry services at least once on your week-long trip. This is especially easy if you're going to visit family or something, but even if you're not, I strongly suggest even hunting down a laundromat if you need to while you're gone.  It cuts your packing in half, and it saves you a ton of headache once you get home and are slapped in the face with the reality of being back to normal life - less to pack, less to wash, less to put away.  Win-win-win.

Okay, with that being said, the above list is for a week(ish)-long trip.  I can get all my stuff AND all the kids' stuff AND the diapers for the trip into one normal-sized suitcase.  Todd packs his stuff in a separate, smaller suitcase, and then we have a small toiletries bag/backpack.  We like to pack light because it makes it easy to get to the cooler on the road since it's not covered in stuff.  Plus, we usually buy something to commemorate our trip, and we like to make sure we'll have room for it on the way home.  (Last year it was a buffalo skull, so we're not messing around when we say 'leave room for new stuff.')

Make sure you print off an age-appropriate list for each child, so you can just check things off as you go.

Each year there are one or two things that get crossed off or added - like this year, I crossed "bottles and feeding accessories" off the list, since Rocco is still breastfeeding, and I added "box fan," since he sleeps SO much better when the din of the other kids is well-muffled.  All that to say, this list is meant to be tweaked and modified however it needs to be, depending on the specific trip and the specific kids and the specific year.  But it's a great jumping-off point.  The heavy lifting has been done.

And here's how we organize some of the smaller, first aid-type items that are handy to have in my purse or right up front in the van with me:

hand sanitizer | first aid kit | kids' dramamine | the world's best bug spray

changing pad | kleenex | toilet paper | diapers | wipes | glasses cleaner | sunscreen
(this is last year's photo - we have since switched to this sunscreen and won't be going back!)

Here are my Purse Packs:

yeah, yeah, yeah, I've already showed you the Dramamine, but that was in the console.  This is in my purse.  Because carsickness is Persona Non Grata in these parts.  And TYLENOL?!?! Billy, don't be a hero.  After paying a million bucks for a bottle at Wall Drug that first year we made the trip because Penelope was screaming her head off and I had a migraine, I got less idealistic.  Pack the Tylenol.

arnica gel | motion eaze oil blend | melagel | Tide pen | more bandaids because: Kids.

Not all of these are 'essential' oils (harhar).  If you're just going for the essentials, pack peppermint (for headaches and nausea), lavender (for skin issues and sunburn), and tea tree (for open owies) - and I have a dropper bottle of carrier oil in there, too - don't forget to dilute oils used on kids!  As for the brand, we use and love Edens Garden.

(As an only-slightly-related sidenote, we all know the wonderful MLM companies that sell oils, and the quality of those is outstanding.  But there are a couple really high quality brands out there if MLMs aren't your thing - Edens Garden, Plant Therapy, Veriditas, Native American Nutritionals, and Mountain Rose Herbs all make very, very high quality oils as well.  Just my two cents.  Not looking to pick a fight, though, so use whatever oils you're most comfortable with, if any.)

And there you have it!  My master packing list for large-family trips, and some of my favorite first aid/health products.  (Update: I'll do a new post with some updated/new products we'll be taking with us this summer, too!)  Anyone have any products they love taking on trips that I didn't mention?

Tomorrow, I'll cover some tips on how to plan a fun itinerary to keep the day interesting.  See you then!

how to take a road trip with young kids: food and snacks. (including gluten- and grain-free!)

One thing that seems to stump me every. single. year. as I get ready to pack for our road trip to South Dakota is what on earth to feed everybody on the way.  Feeding seven people on a daily basis is hard enough, but once you factor in needing to pack foods that won't melt, rot, stain or smell, and that don't pose the risk of choking, and that can be easily passed back and forth without spilling... ugh.  And add to that the fact that I'm very strictly gluten-free, and this year the kids have been mostly grain-free... well, I felt a little overwhelmed when it came time to plan for food.  But it really didn't end up being that complicated!

We pack a box of dry foods in the front of the van, and a cooler of refrigerated stuff in the back.  If you pack light (which I will talk more about tomorrow), you'll have plenty of room for a cooler.

This is all I packed for a family of seven for a week and a half away from home.  (There is a pack and play behind the cooler.)  I'll show you my packing list tomorrow!

For breakfast, we just do something simple like granola or Larabars and water while we drive our first stretch.  It kills time, and it doesn't make a huge mess.  Then I'll frequently let the kids have a snack at our first rest stop a few hours later, which is usually just something small like an applesauce pouch or a fruit leather, with water.

We usually take a much longer break over lunchtime to eat a picnic lunch and play at a park.  That's when we'll pull out the cooler and dole out stuff like deli meat, string cheese, fruits and veggies, a small soda, etc.

For our post-naptime afternoon stop, I may or may not let the kids have a snack, since I don't want them to spoil their appetite for dinner (we don't usually serve any snacks at all at home, so they're used going for longer periods without needing something).  For dinner, we usually stop somewhere quick for hot food, which seems to revive everyone enough to make it through until we get to our destination.

So you see that, other than breakfast, the kids aren't really eating in the car at all.  They're not making a huge mess.  They're not getting grouchy from boredom-eating.  They're still eating (semi-)healthfully.  It's a win-win-win.

Most of this stuff was found at Aldi, and while all of it is strictly gluten-free, it is not all strictly grain-free (some contains corn oil, etc.)  Make sure you check ingredients for yourself!

Here are some of the foods that have worked really well for our kids:

Dry foods:

Dried apple slices

Gluten-free granola and granola bars*

Potato and sweet potato chips

Fruit leather

Applesauce pouches
Beef sticks

Beef jerky
Veggie crisps

Freeze-dried fruit
Larabars
Dried seaweed (um, we only tried this once.  Never again, but maybe your kids will love it.)
Bark Thins chocolate (just for grown ups!)
Almonds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, peanuts
Rice cake snacks*
Pouched tuna or tuna salad


Cooler foods:

Hard boiled eggs
Deli meat or salami

String cheese
Grapes (or other easy-to-eat-without-getting-sticky fruit)
Baby carrots

Lettuce

Cold drinks

*Gluten-free, but not grain-free

I also make sure I have ample chocolate on hand for myself, and sour gummy worms for Todd, because: Road Trip with Tons of Little Kids.  Grown ups need special fuel.

I put the box of dry food somewhere that I can reach it from my seat, and where it won't get trampled by little legs or feet.  You can also see in the picture below that I pack a jug of water - it makes it easy to refill water bottles without needing to use rest stop bathrooms (gross!), and when you're traveling with bottle-fed babies like we have in the past, it makes it a breeze to just mix up a bottle when you need to.  (Or, if your baby is picky about temp, heat up some extra water before you leave and keep it in a Yeti or Thermos.)  Last year, I found an awesome jug of water with an easy-pour spigot, which made things even simpler.

Tomorrow I'll show you the master packing list I always use for packing the van and our suitcases.  It makes it so much easier to make sure I'm packing light (but not too light), and that I'm not forgetting anything.  It's easy to lose track of something when you're trying to organize travel for so many people!  This list makes my life a million times easier, plus I've found a couple products I can't live without on our trips that I'll tell you about.  See you tomorrow!

how to take a road trip with young kids.

It's that time of year again, when everyone is planning summer trips.  We'll be headed on a road trip sometime this summer, so I've been pulling out my trusty master lists to get prepared.  This week, I'll be reposting a series of road trip posts I wrote, in case it helps anyone else prep for their own vacations!

The first year we made our annual trip to South Dakota, Atticus was two and Penelope was 16 months old.  (The other kids were but a glimmer in Todd's eye, so we had tons of leg-room in the van.)  Penelope spent six hours each way screaming her tiny head off, and approximately forty minutes total sleeping.  Considering it was a sixteen-hour drive (one way!), it got really long, really quick.  I was all, NEVAH AGAINNNN!

But the draw of getting to spend so much time with Todd's parents each year kept pulling us back, and we've now made that long drive four or five times.  It has actually gotten easier each time, even though we add a new kid to the crew pretty much every year.  I have gotten much better at preparing for and organizing our trips, and it has made a world of difference, so I thought I'd spend a couple of posts sharing some of the wisdom I've gained from the School of Road Trip Hard Knocks.  Today, let's talk about what to actually have in the van to make it more likely everyone survives the day.

Car bags: I pack a bag of stuff for each kid (and myself!) to keep everyone as occupied as possible over the long-haul.  Usually I let the kids pick one or two toys and books of their own to take, but then I fill the rest of the space in their bags with dollar store items that are kept a surprise until the morning we leave.  Here are some of the items that have been winners for our kids:

*Coloring books and crayons
*Pencils and notebooks
*Stickers

*Window stickers

*Barbies, dolls, action figures
*Where's Waldo? books
*I Spy books

*Board books or chapter books, depending on the age of the reader


Food and drink: On an all-day trip, we usually eat a simple breakfast in the car, a picnic lunch at a park on the way, and dinner from a drive through or restaurant.  We also shake up our normal routine a little and allow for a snack or two throughout the day.  I try to pack food that doesn't smell, rot, stain, or melt if spilled, and I try to limit the carbs, since everyone gets crabby if they're chowing down sugar and starch all day.  Things like beef jerky, hard boiled eggs, fruit and veggies, nuts, deli meat, string cheese, Larabars, and a limited amount of raisins, chips or crackers have worked well for us.  I will do a more in-depth post soon about this, including how to road trip while grain-free.

Latching pencil cases make great road trip plates.  You can load them up with food, and then close them in order to pass them back and forth from the front to the back of the van without spilling stuff everywhere.  Plus, they're easily washed, and they stack pretty flat when not in use.

I only let the kids have water in the car, for two reasons: 1) if it spills, it doesn't stain or smell, and 2) they don't "bored-chug" water.  They really only drink when they're thirsty, so then we're making fewer unexpected pee breaks.  For lunch, I usually pack each of them a small soda.  They almost never get soda the rest of the year except for occasional little sips of mine or Todd's, so they really look forward to having their own, and it's become a special road trip tradition.  I've loved packing those little mini cans of 7-Up, or small bottles of real-sugar New York Seltzer.  Whatever it is, I make sure it's clear so it doesn't stain their clothes if it spills.

Entertainment: we do pack DVDs, but we really try to push them as long as possible before putting one in.  If you start the DVDs too soon into the day, they get super bored and antsy and grumpy.  Since we try to drive in two- to three-hour stretches, we let them spend the first stretch without a movie, which usually goes well.  They spend the time eating breakfast, then digging through the new stuff in their bags.  But then the second stretch is 'movie time,' and we alternate the stretches this way throughout the day.  We don't put a movie in after lunch, since the kids are more likely to fall asleep if they're not watching something.  We make sure to pack full-length movies and episodic stuff.  This year, the kids really liked watching the old 60's episodes of Batman.

Bring a really wide playlist of music everyone in your family likes.  Don't just pack those horrible preschool singsongy tunes.  Our whole family loves Family Force 5, if you're needing some inspiration.  We spent hours listening through their albums on this last trip.

Other necessities: Pack a potty chair and some plastic bags to line it with.  You probably won't need it, but on the off-chance you do, you'll be super grateful you have it.  Even big kids can use it in urgency/emergency situations.  Don't forget toilet paper and flushable wipes!

Kids' Dramamine, a barf bucket (with a bunch of plastic bags for easily-disposed-of liners), and an old towel have also been necessities for us. This year, we also had some success with Altoids for the littler kids, and letting them sniff peppermint essential oil.  I think next year, I'll try adding child-sized Seabands and ginger chews to our arsenal.  (Update:  I'll be doing a new, separate post this year on what our carsickness toolkit looks like now.)  The last things you want in the van are sad, barfy kids and the pervasive, wafting scent of vomit on a long drive.  Ask me how I know.

Scissors, quart-sized ziplocks, paper towels, and plastic grocery sacks can cover a multitude of travel problems.  Pack more of each than you think you'll need.

Surprise Fun Attacks: I like to pack some special things in my personal bag for when some of the stretches get really, really desperate.  Usually, this happens on the way home.  Everyone is tired, and grouchy, and sick of being in the car.  At this point, I'll pull out some funny items I've packed for this very reason.  Some of the things that have been hits with our kids:

*Nose glasses
*Paper crowns (the kids spent over an hour covering these in stickers)
*Stick-on mustaches
*Glow sticks and glow bracelets
*Glittery, holographic or bubble stickers

But most importantly, keep calm yourself.  Pack yourself some coffee and chocolate.  Road trips with kids can be really, really fun, and they're making great memories, but it's also chaotic to organize it all.  See the funny in stuff - just laugh about it as best you can.  Because that's the stuff you'll remember - I remember laughing so hard my stomach hurt, and my face ached, when Finneas was sitting on that potty chair in the Badlands.  Yeah, it meant we had to carry a turd in a plastic bag in our van for a few hours before there was an available trash can, and we had to throw his undies away, and everything kind of smelled like poop.  But daaaang, that photo op was hilarious.  Your kids will feed off of your mood, and you can set the tone for a really fun day - or a really crappy one.  So choose to have a blast!

Tomorrow I'll be posting about great road trip snacks and foods for kids, including the gluten-free and grain-free set.  Thursday, I'll give you a run-down of the master packing list I use to make sure nothing gets forgotten when packing for a large family - but it's easily adapted to smaller families as well!  Stay tuned!

how I store kids' clothes.

So, I walked you through how we buy kids' clothes, but the natural next question arises: what do we do with it once it's home?  Short answer: we try to get it organized into storage as soon as possible.

Long answer: When we head out for our yearly shopping trip, I'm primarily going for the biggest two kids' next sizes.  For instance, Penelope is currently in a size 6, so most of our recent shopping was for clothes in a size 7.  This way, we're prepared ahead of time.  So I make sure to have empty, labeled bins on hand for when we get home.  This picture is hard to see, but it's a photo of my 'Girls 7' and 'Boys 8' boxes, which were basically empty before our shopping trip.  I leave them out so that once I get home, I can just dump stuff right in there, check off the list I keep right in the bin, and then put the bins away until they're needed.

We also purchase some 'straggler needs' items for the other kids as we go, such as replacement 5T shorts for the ones Atticus totally destroyed, and that Finneas will need soon, etc.  If there is a lot of stuff in these other sizes, or if I'm feeling particularly motivated, I'll pull out all the necessary bins and just pop stuff in them at that point, too.  Though I'm often not that motivated, so I frequently just dump them in our 'everything' bin, which I'll get to in a second.

On the off-chance that we bought a few items that were even bigger than the next size up (like that time when Atticus was four, but I found a pair of killer size 7 jeans on clearance at Old Navy for 47 cents!), I keep a single bin labeled, "Too-Big Clothing."  (I realize my use of English when labeling isn't great, but it gets the job done.)  I put all those items in there to be sorted later, once I have individual bins dedicated to those sizes.  (Again, janky photo.  Fluorescent lighting in a windowless room.)

However, sometimes random stuff comes trickling in - say, a few hand me downs from a friend, or just buying a single item in one size - and I don't feel like pulling out the proper bin just to sort one or two things.  (You can see in the top photo that all my storage bins are kind of precariously stacked on top of each other, so it can be kind of a hassle to get one out every single time there's something to put away.)  For those instances, I have an open bin (the 'everything bin') I just dump stuff into all willy-nilly, and once it's full, I'll take an hour or so to sort through it and put stuff where it goes.

I basically do the exact same thing with shoes - I have labeled bins for each gender and size, and one large bin for shoes that, for whatever reason, need to be sorted later.

I also like to keep two other lidless bins close on hand - one for winter items to take to consignment/Goodwill, and one for summer items.  That way, as I'm putting outgrown clothing away and I find something that never really got worn, or that I didn't like seeing the kids in for whatever reason, I just stick it right in there, and it's ready to haul at donation time.

And that's basically how we keep clothing from overrunning our life.  If you want further clarification on our storage bin system, you can check out this past post.  The photos are from the storage area in our last house, so the room I'm currently working with is different, but the overall organizational system has stayed the same.

my not-so-secret weapon for efficient kids' clothes shopping.

I'm not lying when I tell you that I've got shopping for kids' clothing down to a science.  A streamlined, efficient science that doesn't make me want to blow my brains out. 

Here's my secret weapon: a master list of the year's clothing needs for each kid. 

(PDF of the Boys' List)

(PDF of the Girls' List)

Once a year, I assess what we will need for the upcoming year of sizes, and once I'm all organized, we head out for the year's single shopping trip.  That's right, we only go once a year to buy kids' clothes - on Tax Free weekend before school starts in the Fall.  Almost of the warm weather stuff is
still out, and deeply discounted on clearance, and all the cool weather stuff is out and on sale for back-to-school shoppers.  Plus, they don't charge sales tax that day.  It's really the best time we've found to do it all at once.  I do usually have to go back and purchase coats, boots and snowpants at a later date, but often Old Navy and Gap give out Super Cash (or something similar) for use online later when you purchase a certain amount, so I can often just order the remaining items from home with the coupons I earned in the store.

We typically hit Old Navy, Target and the Gap in one trip.  Before we leave, I make sure to tally off anything we already have on hand in the targeted size.  As we hit each store, I continue to tally off the items that have been purchased.  When we've purchased as many of each item as we need, we stop buying.  It keeps us from overspending and being overrun with a bunch of unnecessary stuff down the road.

You may notice that we don't purchase much of each item, all things considered.  This list provides us with enough everyday clothing to last each kid around a week and a half.  Part of my secret is that, because we homeschool and aren't seen in public every day, I'm fine with them wearing the same item of clothing a couple of times before washing (as long as it's not physically dirty or stained).  There's a fine line between efficient and lazy, but I like to think this falls on the side of efficient - less money spent on clothing, less money spent on water and energy, less time and will-to-live spent on doing laundry.  Plus, stuff doesn't wear out as quickly if it's not washed every single time, so I don't have to replace it as often.  Everyone wins.  (One more boon of homeschool life - less laundry!)

A couple further tips for using this list -

1.  Put a fresh print-off of the list in each storage bin as you're putting away outgrown sizes.  That way, if you know the next kid who will wear this size will need a few new pairs of jeans to replace the ones that got trashed by the last kid, you can make note of it then and there, making life so much easier for you when you get that bin out next time and gear up to go shopping again.

2.  If you're more of a 'gradual' purchaser than an 'all-at-once' purchaser, you can still get use out of this.  One year, I just wrote out each kid's list on an index card and kept it in my wallet - that way I knew what I had and what I still needed whenever I'd come across a great deal in the clearance section or something.  I'd just mark it off as I went, and avoided overpurchasing items I already had plenty of at home.


Tomorrow, I'll show you how I store all their out-of-season clothes, and clothing sizes that aren't currently in use, to keep this system from overtaking our lives (and our house).  (Thanks for the post idea, Lissa!)

why we don't typically buy used kids' clothing anymore.

Now, don't get me wrong.  There are so many things about used kids' clothes that I adore.  First and foremost, the price.  Obviously.  But beyond that, there's great stuff out there that has a lot of life left in it, but just needs to be passed along to a new home.  We love accepting hand-me-downs from friends and family (many of whom dress their kids way better than we do, so our kids actually look trendier in their hand-me-downs than in their new clothes).  We also love passing along what we have on hand that is in good shape, but not a great fit for our family for whatever reason.  (Atticus WON'T wear skinny jeans, which I learned the hard way after buying him like six pairs in one size.  So... down the road they went.)

We used to rely exclusively on used kids' clothes.  For the first few years of child-rearing, I would make out the year's list of clothing needs, budget about $75 per oldest kid of each gender, and garage sale throughout the summer for all of it.  It's a beautiful thing, being able to get the entire year's wardrobe for all the kids covered for less than 200 bucks.  It's a beautiful thing to pay a quarter for a shirt from the Gap that still looks brand-new.

But the more kids we had, the more overwhelming garage sale-ing became - driving around for an entire morning, in and out of car seats, trying to keep tabs on everyone while simultaneously trying to find what I was looking for... it was totally exhausting.  Then I'd get home and realize that, because I'd been distracted, half the stuff I'd purchased had stains or holes or something.  It was super demoralizing after all that time and effort.

Another thing I was finding as we had more kids was that garage sale clothes just weren't holding up through all of them.  Clothing that was already 3-5 years old, and had been previously worn by at least a kid or two, doesn't last long being then passed down the line in our family.  (I just switched out sizes for Rocco a couple of weeks ago, and came across garage-saled items that I had purchased for Atticus that are easily 12 or 13 years old at this point, and have been passed through four or five boys!)

And last, spending one afternoon a week looking up garage sales and trying to plan an efficient trip with a high yield, and then spending the next morning driving around to all the good sales, was such a time-suck.  Everything costs something, often either money or time, and as the number of V.V. kids grew, I had less and less time to spare.

What about thrift and consignment stores, you ask?  I tried these sources, but often the quality of stuff at these places is comparable to many garage sales, but the prices are higher.  And honestly, I get wayyy overstimulated in stores like this.  The sheer amount of random, individual pieces all nestled together in a sort of organized, hanging pile, triggers some kind of Bells palsy episode in myself.  Not sure why garage sales didn't do that to me, but stores set up this way give me serious anxiety.  So I actively avoid them.

So a few years ago, we just decided we were going to buy new, for a few reasons:

1. We knew everything was going to end up being passed through a bunch of kids of our own, so it would end up holding up better through that process and not needing to be replaced as frequently down the line.

2.  If we ended up somehow overpurchasing, or something didn't fit right or had some kind of defect, we could return it for a refund.  And if an item ended up being something that didn't work overall with our family, we could consign it much more easily, or pass it on to friends without feeling like we were giving them stuff that was already totally trashed.

3.  This is really dumb, but everything color-coordinates when you buy it at the same time.  Stores tend to put out clothing that all looks really good together in the store - all the colors and patterns work well together.  It's a sales tactic, and it works.  And it all still looks that good once you get everything home.  If I buy Atticus four button-up shirts and three layering sweaters for church, they will all work together, and I can mix them up in endless outfits.  Plus, whatever I put Penelope in for church will likely look good with Atticus' outfit, without being matchy-matchy, since it was also purchased at the same time and at the same store.  It's a small thing, but I really, really like this.

4.  We could easily purchase everything we'd need for the year, basically in one day.  Yeah, seriously.  One day.  Compared to the time I'd been spending before, this has been a total dream.



Tomorrow, I'll tell you more about what time of year we typically go in order to minimize how much we're spending, and I'll share with you my 'master list' for each kid that helps me ensure we're covered for the whole year.

rotating and organizing kids' toys (and books): pt 2.

Yesterday, I gave you a glimpse of our kids' (sad, yet-to-be-decorated) rooms and the toys they keep in there.  Today, I'd like to show you the rest of what we have, how it's organized, and on what occasions it comes out of hiding.

We have two closets in the house that are filled to varying capacities with out-of-rotation toys.  The boys' closet is where we house board games, small bins of different 'kinds' of toys, and my craft supplies.  Here's what toys are currently in there, and out of daily rotation:

(each * indicates a single tub or bin):
*small plastic animals and My Little Ponies
*a few items of dress up to rotate in and out
*trucks and cars
*Barbies and action figures
*toy tool set
*pirate ships (you have to have two of these, or who will a lone ship battle?!)
*wooden castle and accoutrements
*army men, soldiers, knights
*puppets and puppet theater
*train tracks and trains

The bigger items, like the trains, castle and pirate ships, are toys that I'll pull out for a day or so, to give the kids something novel to play with.  They're really great for when friends come to play, since everyone gets really into playing with an unusual toy, so they all stay really occupied and don't fight a ton.  The smaller bins will come out occasionally to either join or replace the more semi-permanent bins the kids already have in their rooms.

Rocco's room also houses toys, but these are more of the 'puzzles and activities' sort that come out to be used at the dining room table, under varying degrees of supervision, depending on the kid.

(Yes, it's a hard closet to photograph, since it has a mirrored bifold door, and yes, if you're trying to count at home, we own three - count 'em, three - pack and plays.  And have a huge stash of diapers, clearly.)

To some, it may seem like a lot, and to others it might not seem like much, but it's a manageable amount for me.  I feel like it's enough to keep the kids' interest without overwhelming them - or me - with outrageous toy chaos.  I simply try to limit the space I'm willing to give anything - a certain number of shelves for books, a certain number of tubs for toys, a certain amount of space in the closet, etc.  Once it outgrows its space, I start chucking stuff.  It's one efficient way I've found to keep our things from outgrowing its welcome and/or ruling over us.

As for kids' books:  I am very, very picky about what kids' books we own, especially board books.  We love Sandra Boynton and Eric Carle, and almost anything else is kind of open to the chop, should I so choose.  For picture books for the younger set, I keep anything with stellar illustrations or stellar writing, and once the dedicated shelves are full, anything else is at risk of the chop.  We have an excellent public library here, so I have felt less and less need to 'own' throughout the years, since we have basically any title we'd ever want available to us.  And I have noticed that, with fewer but better books on our personal shelves, it gives the kids the opportunity to fall deeply in love with a few excellent books instead of just showing mild interest in a lot of mediocre books, if that makes sense.

The lower two shelves of that wider brown bookshelf on the left are where I keep the kids' books: picture books on the lower shelf, chapter books on that divided upper shelf.   Those are all the kids' books we own that the kids have free access to.  We use the library heavily, and there are many classic titles that are kept on upper 'school literature' shelves, so these are their free reads.  Everything else you're seeing is either books for school, or books belonging to me and Todd.

I lean heavily on the Ambleside Online booklists, and the 1000 Good Books list to guide what I keep.  Honey For A Child's Heart is another great resource for finding high quality literature for children of all ages.  I don't religiously follow these, but they really do offer great insight on the authors and titles that will feed the minds of our kids in the long run, and help me discern whether a book is a keeper or a tosser if I have to start weeding things out.

And that is how we keep our kids' stuff organized, limited, and easily accessed when we need it!