We live in an area that typically sees two or three good snowstorms a year. Children and snow are pretty much inseparable, so despite the extra work it takes to get them all dressed in their snow clothes and get them out the door and then back in the door, I do it because I love to see the pure joy on their rosy-cheeked faces!
A few years ago, I devised a plan to make the snowy day festivities a little more Mommy-friendly. Today, I want to share this plan with you and also find out how you handle the snow clothes in your house.
Every year, I pull out all the snow clothes we own. This means all the snowsuits, bibs, pants and coats, along with the waterproof boots and gloves and the stocking caps end up in a great big pile on the floor. By the way, almost all the snow clothes we own have been handed down to us (so very grateful for a sister who took her son snow skiing as a child!)
I then make individual piles for each child. Each child gets a set of waterproof clothing, gloves, boots, and sometimes a coat and hat depending on what kind of snowsuit they have.
Once I have everyone outfitted, we try things on to make sure they fit and make a list of anything we are missing…often it’s gloves that are missing (I have a waterproof glove issue about like I have a lost sock issue). Because I almost always forget to put together the snow clothes BEFORE a snow storm, if we are missing anything, I usually find a way to improvise and send them out anyway. 😉
When they come back in, I have them take everything off right inside the door while standing on what we call “junk towels.” These are towels we keep on hand for dirty jobs and spills. I usually let them pile everything except boots, and I come back later and lay things out a bit better.
We also have a tradition of hot chocolate after snow play. I boil a tea kettle of water and line up the cups and they all sit around the table and warm up with their cocoa.
Once the clothes have dried, they go in a huge plastic tub labeled Snow Clothes with the year. I just change the label every year. I keep this tub easily accessible and all the other non-fitting snow clothes go into storage.
Every time it snows, out comes the Snow Clothes Tub! No more hassle and headache!
Looking for ideas for incorporating Snowy Day Fun into your homeschool? Check out my post at FreeHomeschoolDeals.com!
Suanna says
Living in Texas we don’t get much snow, but when we do get snow. I like to set up a drying rack to hang wet things on. Before I had a drying rack I would hang as much as I could in the laundry room or from the shower bar in the bathroom. I grew up in the North and this is what we did with our wet things as a child. Sometime we would hang them close to the stove, if we knew we would need them again shortly. As for winter clothes I pretty much do the same thing that you do.
Jillian says
Every year I dread the snow because of the work that it creates. I live in Long Island, NY and last year we only got a few inches for the whole season! It was wonderful!! 😀 I like your idea of having everything in one big tub. But my biggest headache is washing all of those wet snow pants, gloves and even their jeans that get wet at the bottom. I have no place to let them dry on their own. I always joke that my kids better find me a really nice nursing home when I’m old for all the work they caused me. ; )
Angela V says
Here in Ontario Canada snow clothes rarely have a chance to dry before being used again. Kids love snow, but with a 2yr old, a 1yr old and an infant it takes longer to get ready to go out than we can stay out in the cold. I love snow too, but almost wish I lived in a place where it was a novelty so that it would be less of a job to go outside for 3-4 months of the year.
Angela Squires says
I like this idea! My current “during the season” system is to keep the snow boots in the garage, hang the coats and pants in the coat closet, and keep the hats and gloves in a Thirty-one tote in the coat closet. This way the coats, hats, and gloves are accessible on the non-snow days, too. During the off season, all the winter gear is stored in tubs in hopes some of it will work again the following year.
Janet Watts says
I also have one bin for snow clothes and one bin for snow boots. I got so frustrated trying to figure out what size snow boots we had at any given time, that I devised a very rudimentary system for keeping track of what we had and what we didn’t have. On the top of my big bin, I place blue tape squares with the size of each pair of boots that are inside the bin. I also put the same blue tape square on the toe of one of the boots, so that you can tell what size it is with just a glance. If the boot is being worn by someone, I take the blue tape off the boot and stick it below the label that is on the bin lid. I can tell by looking at the bin lid which size shoes are in use and which are not. Separately, I make a list of the boot sizes that I do not have. That way I have a list of sizes to look for second-hand throughout the year. This system has worked pretty well for me.
Bekki says
We store our things in a bin when not in use. I have a long coat rack in the laundry room that all the wet things hang up on. As for drying gloves, it seems that they never get completely done in the dryer so my husband took some 2 1/2″ PVC pipe and cut it into “glove stands”. Every child takes their gloves and puts then on a piece of PVC then sets them on the heat register. By the next morning the gloves are toasty warm inside and I didn’t have to run the dryer!
Emily says
Here in New Brunswick, Canada, there is a LOT of snow, so snow clothes come out in the fall and stay hung up in the hallway for easy access until spring. I have a big basket of hats, scarves, mittens and gloves in the hallway. Yes, sometimes it takes some digging to find a matching pair, but I haven’t worked out a better system yet. Maybe when the kids are older/there are more of them (currently expecting #3!) they will each get their own basket. Snowpants and coats are hung up on hooks – and worn on an almost daily basis – and snow boots are the footwear of choice unless we are heading to church or town. It can be very hard with littles to motivate myself to get them all dressed up and take them outside, especially when in my third trimester! We spend almost all summer outdoors, so I justify it in my head. It all balances out 🙂
Lori says
Here’s how we dealt with snow clothes when my daughters were are home. Whenever the snow began to melt, we gave the clothes away. You see, we live in South Carolina, where it only snows once every 5 years. There’s no reason to keep snow clothes, because nothing will fit by the time the next “blizzard” comes around. As an adult, though, I must confess that I don’t give my snow clothes away. I just keep them tucked waaaaaaaay back in the closet behind everything else 🙂 Having a little fun with y’all as it was 78 degrees here today 🙂 Not even your post could make me cold today!
Beth says
We have a coat closet and an over the door pocket style shoe holder works great for holding hats/gloves/scarfs/masks ect. The pockets are mesh so I let many items dry right in the pockets. There are 5 pockets across so each person is assigned one row giving them five slots. A great space saver!! Collapsible wooden drying rack for everything else.
Aimee says
For us in Wisconsin, coats and snowpants are worn daily. And each child has a chore/play coat plus a church coat. So with 9 children, we have a LOT of coats out all winter long! Our entryway is a long hallway with hooks on both sides (lots of hooks!), and each person has their own hook or 2. Everything is hung up. My husband put up a few nails by the wood stove in the basement for things that are extrememly wet and need to be dried quickly. For hats, mittens, and scarves, I bought Rubbermaid/Sterlite drawers–the ones that are 3 drawers high. They have them in wide and narrow–I have both. You can label the drawers mittens, hats, scarves, or give each child their own drawer. If things are wet, I let them pile them on the floor heat register until they dry, then they go back in the drawers. Boots go on wooden shelves in the hallway that my husband made. When spring comes, I wash all the coats and snowpants and store them in huge Rubbermaid tubs. Boots go in cardboard boxes in the storage room. I take inventory as I put them away, and whatever sizes are needed for next year, I look for at rummage sales all summer. The mitten boxes I just leave in my hallway all the time.