It’s Time to Pack Shoeboxes!

Christmas in July has come and gone and my living room is filing up with Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes! Samaritan’s Purse makes it fun and easy to give a hand-picked gift to children around the world. You can read all about the program here.

Today I thought I’d start my annual shoeboxes posts with what has worked well for me this year. Again this year I am loving my clothes organization idea from last year. It just works!

When I buy clothing I sort an entire outfit –shorts/shirt, skirt/top or dress with underpants into the bag.  If I run out of underpants I can add a note with the size needed for when I go shopping. I keep a running list in my phone of items needed. Then when I have time to pack a box, I just grab a bag to get started.

I am also loving my theme box storage. When I pack my annual Spiderman box, done to remember my son’s long-ago childhood obsession with Spidey, I just go to this organizer and pull out all the Spidey-stuff. It works! Believe it or not,  in the photo below, the mess on both sides is actually  a good thing–the hanging bags hold washcloths and soap boxes and to the right is an old bookcase that holds bins of stuffies and flip-flops. But the main attraction in the photo is the IKEA hanging organizer into which I stuff the themey-stuff!

This years theme boxes include:

• Spiderman (annual)
• Fireman for a toddler boy
• Cats for toddler girl and bigger girl
• Penguins for several boxes/ages
• “My daughter’s box” with things she loved at that age
• Horses for a 5 to 9 girl
• Dinosaurs for both a toddler boy and a boy 5 to 8 years old

 

 

My other shoebox stuff organizer is this Ikea bookcase with baskets to hold categories of stuff–girls outfits, toddler toys, boys underwear, etc. I borrowed a storage hamper from my tall bathroom/laundry closet shelf to corral the soccer balls.

 

If you are not a year-around shoebox shopper, have you started your shopping yet? Do you have any special tips or plans you can share? Leave a comment or a link to your own post.