Sorting Trouser Mountain

Today I tackled my youngest Son's trouser mountain. I took them all out and sorted them;

• 3 pairs of denim jeans
• 3 pairs of navy joggers
• 2 pairs of black joggers
• 3 pairs of navy slacks
• 1 pair of khaki slacks
  
• 3 pairs of corduroy trousers (stone/khaki/brown)

Total: 15 pairs of trousers!!

As I explained yesterday, my Son had several pairs handed down from his older brother as well as having his best pairs sent to home pile if they get too faded for best. I had no idea he had accumulated so many pairs until he was having trouble keeping his trouser pile tidy, no wonder! Poor thing, he's only 5 years old.

I felt a bit at a loss where to start, so I looked at each pair critically looking for holes, stains or shabby worn through knees which would very soon become a hole and didn't look very nice anymore. That was all the cords gone as cords show wear more than jeans. There were a few with small holes, I always throw them out when the hole become large. Next, I called my Son in and tried on most of the pairs that were left as they looked a bit short legged compared to the jeans which I knew fitted well. By the time I finished this we had discarded most of the pile, there were just 2 pairs of jeans left and that was it! I couldn't believe that we went from 15 pairs to 2 pairs in such a short time.

Next I went through his older 7 year old brothers trousers, he didn't have a mountain but he did have 7 pairs in total. I tried them all on him and we ended up with 2 pairs going to his younger brother and 2 pairs going to recycling, which left him with 3 pairs of jeans.

While I was in the mood I thought I had better go through their t-shirts and jumpers too. I have done this fairly recently so only managed to remove one t-shirt from each of the boys, one had stains and the other had new holes despite being mended repeatedly, plus a stripey jacket which was too short on the arms and had a small hole. The saddest thing was taking away our youngest Son's favourite Thomas Tank Engine knitted sweater as it too was now short on the arms and body. I thought of selling this one as it is still in good condition and is high quality, I originally bought it new from Marks & Spencer. It has now joined the selling pile waiting for me to deal with it later.

Recycling now has gained 8 pairs of trousers, a jacket and 2 t-shirts while there are 7 pairs of trousers waiting to be gift aid/donated at our local charity shop. I am pleased with my work but would like to buy another pair of jeans for my 7 year old so that he has 4 pairs for home and also buy another pair for best for my youngest Son, then he can add his old best pair to his home ones and have 5 pairs for home - from personal experience I find that younger ones need more as they tend to be messier and also forget to put their clothes out to wash!