Socks!

When my kids were little we seemed to have socks everywhere!

When they were still wearing socks with cuffs (that roll down at the ankle) we would mark each sock with a line about 1/4" long using a Sharpie marker. 1 mark meant it belonged to the oldest kid, 2 marks, 2nd oldest and as the kids handed down the socks we just added a line to show who it belonged to now. Every now and then we'd go over fading marks. But this really made sock sorting go MUCH easier.

Anything from the dryer without a match went in to the Sock Bucket (a wash tub or whatever container we were using at the time). Occasionally we would need a "time out" activity and someone would sort for a certain amount of time or until they had a specified number of matches.  If the bucket started to get full and nobody had been on sock matching duty, we'd dump them in the middle of the floor and have races to see who could get the most matches in 5 minutes.

Again, when the kids were little and I was more concerned about their socks matching their outfit, I even put baskets into their closet and sorted the clean socks by color. Labeling the buckets gave the pre-readers some practice at seeing the color written in context with that color socks inside the basket.

Organization - Kid cothes and shoes

It is often more cost effective to buy kids' clothes when they're on sale rather than waiting until they are needed. But if they don't fit someone right now, what do you do with it? I found it easiest to set up a storage system by size so that when one size was outgrown it could be passed down or passed on to someone else and then the next wardrobe was already ready to unpack without going through several other sizes at the same time. Big boxes can be stacked in closets and little ones can be put up high on shelves that are not used very often.

I buy at resale shops, yard sales, discount stores and occasionally big box stores (but almost always on clearance). Buying used or really cheap means I also do not feel too bad if some items don't get worn before they are outgrown. They are still in a condition that I could pass them on to a friend or donate to a charity.

For clothes:
I used Rubbermaid totes and labeled the size of the clothes inside. These stack neatly, are fairly watertight and heat tolerant (don't store things in the attic or outside that might melt or elastic that could become brittle).

For shoes:
Label the box with what size is inside. I always tried to have a pair of black dress shoes, white dress shoes, tennis shoes and sandals/flip flops in each box. No scrambling at last minute when someone's shoes do not fit and they need a bigger size (usually in the morning when we are getting dressed for church or to go on a field trip).