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.
My mom has filled Samaritan’s Purse boxes for years!
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I love doing it!
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