Goal Attained

Today is a big day as I reached the 500 boxes donated!  Thank you to all the donors and people that have helped me get to this point.  This number comes at a special time, as this is also the 10 yr anniversary of the national Loved Twice organization.  Lisa Klein was kind enough to let me become a part of her dream four years ago and I am truly honored to be involved.

Still here...

As you can tell this isn't a blog where I will post daily.  Instead I will post with highlights, events, ideas and updates.  Yesterday I spent the afternoon sorting and making piles for the Fall boxes.  It had been a while since I had dedicated time to this and I was reminded of the joy it brings me.  I also packed my 500th box!!

Idea . . . .

Many of my donations come from leftovers at consignment sales.  The clothing from these sales is attached to hangers, so  I now have two tubs of kids hangers.  I tried to give them away but only had a few takers.  Tonight though I got the idea to bundle them up, attach my information and tomorrow I am venturing out to a local kids clothing boutique.  My hope is that I can convince the store to give every customer that makes a purchase a bundle of hangers.  The customer will then have my information and what items I collect.  The hope is that they contact me with a clothing donation. Let's see if this works...

Movers & Shakers

I was honored to be one of the people chosen in the inaugural class of Movers and Shakers for Cary Magazine. Last night they hosted a nice social reception and we received these beautiful awards.

Milestones

Today I made my 70th delivery and am only 13 boxes away from 500!  This process can be overwhelming, I get no financial compensation for my time and effort, and I never know the the impact, if any, I am making.  So these numbers are special to me and sometimes what keep me going. When I question what I am doing, I go pack a box and it no longer becomes about me. A packed box is a baby helped and that is what it is all about!!

Packing a Box

Today I decided to finish packing up my summer baby boxes.  Here are the steps I take after the clothing has been sorted into seasons.

1. I divide the clothing into piles by size.

2. I can usually tell how many boxes I can pack based on the amount of clothing- in this case 5. So I lay out that number of blankets and then start with the 12 month pile and sort it out. I do this for each size.  I try to make sure each box has the same amount of items..

3. I then pack the boxes. Each box has at least one handmade blanket-I have found two local knitting groups that donate blankets.  I try to have several items in each size but since I never know what items will be donated there are times I have more in certain sizes. I top the boxes off with toys, books, socks, hats or other items I have on hand.

Summer boxes ready for delivery!

First Financial Donation

Earlier this week I received my first financial donation from a dear family friend.  I decided to use some of the money to buy a few items of which I am running low, so that the summer boxes  I am packing can be complete.

I have not had to buy baby clothes in five years!  As I always try to do, I stuck to the clearance sections and found some good deals. But in the process I realized the tough decisions that many people have to face.  What if you had only $100 and you needed to buy food, diapers, and clothing for your new baby?

As more donations hopefully start to come in I will be starting a bank account and be using some funds for supplies, but mostly saving in hopes to eventually get enough to pay rent on a space so I can make this bigger and better.  I want to be able to help more families not have to worry about the clothing part of the question.

Memories

I am sharing a video I made during my son's first year...he will be 9 in September!  Many donors comment that they are glad to be passing on the clothing to someone that truly needs it because of the memories each outfit holds.

Laundry Tricks

I ask that donations be clean and stain free, yet I get many items with those wonderful yellow stains. So I thought I would list several ways to try to get them out:

1.Soaking the clothing in hot water and OxiClean seems to be one of the most popular methods.

2. 1 part Dawn dish detergent, 2 part hydrogen peroxide- combine and spray onto stain, let sit for a few minutes. Lightly scrub with baking soda and rinse in warm water.

3. Vinegar and water- soak, soak, soak and rinse.

4.  Washing the items normally and letting dry in the sun.

Do you have any secret tricks that work?

How can I help?

Anytime I am in the media, I get a handful of e-mails asking how to help.  Since I run everything out of my house, I can't just invite people over to see the process so that makes getting volunteers involved difficult.

My first request is that they hold a clothing drive, after all without clothes there would be no Loved Twice.  This also helps weed out the people that aren't serious about helping.  I also keep a list of people that contacted me in case I ever do have outside opportunities for volunteers.  In the past I have held sorting parties outside of the house....but lugging hundreds of pounds of baby clothes up and down two flights of stairs isn't exactly time effective.

So while I don't want to discourage people from offering to help, I have to get a little creative in my tactics.  In the future if I get local businesses to be drop-off locations, volunteers could help drive around and collect those items.  My hope is that those that choose to help walk away feeling like they too made a difference!

Recent Coverage

This summer I am honored to be in two local magazines for my work with Loved Twice.  Check out the articles:

Walter Magazine

















Cary Magazine

Goals

When I started this journey in 2011, I wasn't sure where it would lead.  There have been times I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of clothing in my house that I have thought about walking away. Since moving all the clothing up to our third floor, I have been able to get organized which has helped a ton.  While working part-time and then full-time, I set my goal to be 500 boxes and then I would decided if I wanted to continue or not.  I am now 24 boxes from that goal, but have added new ones to the list.

I would love to make this my career, turn it into something bigger, help more people and have volunteer opportunities.  In order to do that though $$ is required.  There are several options including grants (which can be hard to get), foundations (which can be very specific as to who gets the money), donations (I have never been good at asking people for money), or winning the lottery (but first I have to play!).

I get stressed out when I think about the money part of this dream, so instead lets focus on my general vision assuming I had the money.


1. Find a warehouse/office space- this would allow me to get everything out of my house and give me a place for donation drop-off and volunteers to come help.

More space = more donations = more babies helped!

2. Find organizations in the community that would be willing to be drop-off locations. Child-care centers, pediatrician offices etc.

A few weeks ago I was able to visit Baby2Baby's (http://baby2baby.org/) headquarters in LA.
Their set up is exactly how I had envisioned my future space!


They also had these awesome bins for donation collections in various sizes.

So yes these are the details I dream about....

This is why I do it...

Today I received an e-mail from a social worker requesting a Baby Boy box.  A family just had a baby Friday and are currently living in a homeless shelter.  She has been able to gather items together for the older children, but they had nothing for the baby.  I already had some summer boxes packed so I added a few extra items and the box it now ready.

It is hearing these types of circumstances that remind me how blessed I am and make me want to continue packing boxes.  I will never meet this little guy, but I do know he will be looking awfully cute and staying warm.

Organized Chaos

Since starting the process in 2011, I have collected over 5,500 pounds of clothing and donated 476 boxes to local hospitals.  Here are some pictures of what the process looks like:

This pile was collected from a consignment sale

The sorting process

Boxes packed and ready for delivery

Delivery to a local hospital

It all started with a magazine...

In 2011 my family and I had been in NC for a year and I was a stay at home mom.  One day I was reading a magazine and saw an article on the non-profit Loved Twice (www.lovedtwice.org) it's purpose tugged at my heart.  After contacting the founder and getting permission to start a chapter here in NC the fun began.

I started by doing a clothing drive, which lead to more clothing drives, collecting boxes and soon being in over my head!  At one point the baby clothes were taking over a guest room, half the garage and the dining room.