Thursday, June 19, 2008

Recycling: The Hand Me Down Way

I was looking through all of the pictures on my computer tonight, deciding what to write about for my Friday post. Completely by accident, I found a funny phenomenon. I have A LOT of pictures of both boys in the same outfit, some two years apart, some only one.

I know we all have terrible hand-me-down stories. My brother has some fun ones about clothes handed down from an older cousin. My sister was SEVEN years older than me, and was a child of the 70's. I still have nightmares about a pair of bright yellow polyester bell bottoms that would be in style now, but were not in the mid 80's when my mom tried to get me to wear them.

I do not want to plague my kids with terrible horror stories some day. They will be spared in part because they are very close to wearing the same size right now, even though they are 27 months apart. Aaron will be taller than Noah soon and they can actually wear the same size underwear and shorts now. I had to go through and put initials in all of the shorts and jeans for ease of laundry delivery because it was taking forever to look at every label for size.

So, I thought it would indeed be fun to show some of the MANY MANY MANY photos I have of recycled clothing in our household.


Noah, Summer 2004


















Aaron, Summer 2007




















Noah doing crafts already 2006












Aaron the Ham 2007






















Noah 2006















Aaron 2007















Noah 2005
(Sorry about the blur)


















Aaron 2007


















Even Pajamas


Noah 2005


















Aaron 2007















And Winter Coats


Noah 2005












Aaron 2007

















This last one is my favorite set...these boys are just SO handsome!




Noah 2006














Aaron 2008



















And just to show that it started right from the start...

Noah 2002














Aaron 2004












Please don't think that Aaron only gets hand me downs. My step mom has always teased from day 1 that Noah looks "neat no matter what" . These kids are FAR from deprived when it comes to clothing. Noah is much harder on clothes now than he used to be and I am finding less and less stuff that seems to be fit to pass to Aaron. If Aaron keeps growing like this, it will be his stuff passing on to his BIG brother before long.


Do you pass on clothes? Do you have any horror memories of pass ons from when you were young. I am sure we would ALL love to hear...

8 comments:

Dad of Divas said...

I know that this will definitely be the case for Dova-PJ...it already is happening for her with the hand-me-downs from Diva-J...goes with the territory I guess with being a second born. Hope you are feeling better!

Deb said...

You know that I'm all about the hand-me-downs! :) Although I'm finding that not as much of the clothing is making it down to Becca, both because it's getting worn out after the first two girls, and also that styles have changed enough since Abby was little that I'm not liking the clothes as well in some cases.

We've been lucky recently to be the recipients of 'recycled' clothes from neighbors and friends as well - it's really helped a lot to keep our clothing costs down. :)

Courtney said...

All the stuff up to 2T got passed down to Callee. After that there are only a few outfits because Taylor is so hard on clothes. Why not pass them down if they are in good shape? Especially the baby clothes that they just lay in or the church clothes that they don't wear often enough to ruin? Callee does get her own also though.

Soul Pockets said...

I love hand me downs! My daughters are 6 years apart and my sons are 7 years apart. I try to keep clothes that I know will never go out of style. All for the reason to hand them down! Your kids are cuties.

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

Like you, as my kids get older, the clothes are worn harder and often aren't passed down. In fact, I think I'm at the end of my hand me down clothes and it will be mostly new clothes for all in the future.

Because I am small in stature, I always had friends trying to give me hand me downs. I hated it. I didn't want their old ugly clothes. I didn't so much mind the hand me downs from my sister but not from my friends. I had such an aversion to it that when my SIL tries to give my girls hand me downs (my daughter is older by 8 months) I get irritated. I usually just take it and give it straight to charity. The other day she sent a bunch of toys. The wooden puzzles had pieces missing or were chewed up by the dog. The stuff was filthy and I don't need her toys. I have too many as it is for the kids. Out of a huge box I kept one little travel size magnadoodle. I threw a lot away and the rest is in my garage sale. I just love cleaning up her crap.

Can you tell you struck a cord with me. Sorry about that. :)

Anonymous said...

Your boys look so much alike, especially in the same clothes :) Darn adorable those guys.

I am not a fan with hand-me-downs. Even if they are still 'good as new'. I think my younger boys have worn one or two jackets of the older one but that's it

Totallyscrappy said...

I absolutely love to see my boys in clothes that their brothers have worn. It kind of brings back memories, I guess. Some of the boys' things were hand-me-downs and we would talk about so-and-so when we put on the item.

Colleen @AMadisonMom said...

Just yesterday I washed a bin of Zoe's newborn/3m clothes for the new baby. She's not here yet... but the hand-me-downs are waiting. I saved one bin of each size as Zoe grew out. I even have just bought a bin to sort out which 2t clothes are in good enough shape to save. I think there are 7 bins just waiting for their turn back in the rotation. lol

I also know that this new little one will not be lacking in the brand new clothes department. My mother has already told me about an trip to Carter's that she's not telling my dad about.

I will also tell you that I've bought Zoe clothes on ebay. So even our first born had some "used" clothing. She also has worn some of her cousin's clothing that was just too cute to pass up.

Oh... and the maternity clothing I'm wearing has been passed around more times than I can count. I have some of my own from my first pregnancy... but it has since been worn by both sister-in-laws and a friend and then passed back.