"But Mom, I don't have anything to wear . . . "
Originally, we were going to start this "lesson" with food but given the fact that every morning we have this argument, we rearranged the theme for the week.
This is why they feel they have no clothes. All of these clothes were clean, stuffed into desk drawers, under the bed and basically every crevice of their room. I tore through their area, piling up all of the clothing they claimed didn't exist.
Then, I boxed and bagged up every single piece of clothing other than 7 pieces for each of them. I chose which items they had in their drawer and everything else disappeared.
*I did allow unlimited underwear and socks. But I explained that we are fortunate for this as many do not have these means of personal hygiene.
In the beginning of this experiment, my oldest daughter thought it sounded fun (more likely she knew she had less clothes to put away). Our younger daughter Maddie looked at me like I had just stripped her of her most prize possessions. No more fancy cowgirl shirts and hats. The fit began as a common scowl and turned into an all out meltdown. Because I took away her clothes, I was going to take away everything. "You are probably getting rid of the horses too!"
By the end of the week, the girls barely even noticed the missing clothes. They just opened their drawer and grabbed whatever was in there. Clothing was for comfort and warmth only. It simplified their week!
Yesterday, we made a big deal about going through all of the clothes I had put away. One by one we rated whether they were necessary or if we could donate them. The girls were engaged in the process and honest about whether they could do without. I was impressed with their attitudes. Maddie even said "WOW! We have a lot of clothes!"
Exactly.
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