Putting away baby clothes the first time was easy.
I was so excited as my son grew out of the phase of clothes he was in. Put away those 3–6-month clothes, let’s move on to the next size of cuteness! New outfits he’s never worn before! New adventures to go in while wearing these outfits! A bigger size for a bigger baby, and the increasingly more confident mother who was holding him.
I also knew in my heart that I was storing clothes in my basement for another baby one day—another baby to wear these outfits, another baby to have first-time adventures with. That thought alone made it easier to switch with the seasons. These clothes would be well-loved again one day.
The clothes piled up in their storage bins. The day I felt comfortable enough in my second pregnancy to bring them up from the basement to be washed up and piled in the new nursery was a really happy day for me. I was so excited to open each container and hug those onesies to my chest. Could I even believe my son was ever that small?
Once my second son started growing out of the clothes, I put many of them back in the same storage bins. Not for another baby for our family – two was what my heart and body has always desired. But I couldn’t get rid of them as easily as I thought I would be able to. A few I was able to part with – outfits that didn’t hold memories or were unimpressive in other ways (I’m looking at you, button-up pajamas). But I stared at many pieces of clothing for a long, long time and could not put them in the “donate” pile. So I folded them back up, and they returned to the basement.
When my sister took me out to lunch this past summer and surprised me by telling me that she was pregnant, my heart burst out of my body. My sister is my best friend, and I am so lucky to have a very close relationship with her. With her having a baby, I will finally get to be an aunt, a title I’ve never had before. My boys will have their first immediate cousin. My sister and brother-in-law are going to rock at being parents. There were so many emotions over that lunch, and I hope I always remember every one.
But when I came back home that day, so snug in my happiness for my sister and her husband, and also for us, it hit me. The storage bins of clothes. This is what they had been saved for. They’d been saved for her baby.
It has been a joy revisiting each outfit as I take them out of their storage bins and into bags for my sister. My little nephew will likely get a bunch of new outfits just for him, but my heart is happy to know at least a few of my favorite baby clothes may get new adventures in them again.
The fire’s in California has necessitate an organization called ” Mom’s helping Mom’s “.
Created to donate newborn clothes and supplies for those that have lost everything due to these fire’s.