Three Lives in One

It was one of those days today. Definitely a Monday. I was up too late last night, trying to get everything together for clothing closet time today. It's always my intent to get open before 9am on Monday to get things straightened up before putting out my sign.
Because I got to bed late, I gave myself an extra half hour to get some extra sleep. I got up feeling sluggish, but determined. I started my housework by changing my sheets and took the dog out, then got on the dishes. I noticed the dog ate and then sheepishly slunk out of the kitchen. That's when I realized that the 25lb bag of sugar that I use for the baking for Biscuits & Blessings had tipped over and poured out in a beautiful mountain of crystalized white. It had adorable little cat paw prints leading away from it, leaving tracks across the floor. I took a lot more time than I had to sweep up all the sugar for a month of baking into a trash bag.
That put me behind for the morning and I spent the rest of the morning in a frantic rush to get everything done at the apartment before getting the garage open. I was 15 minutes late getting open, but I'm ready to have a good week, if a broke one (a bag of sugar is a lot when you live on what I make), but I will get it done.

My superpower is living on an impossible income and still making things happen.

This is the last week before school starts for a lot of the kids in my neighborhood. I am determined to have plenty of choices for families to pick up for their kids.

I can juggle home, clothing closet, and baking for low income families and still find the time to stay healthy and happy.

Another busy week in the Clothing Closet!

This was a busy, but productive, week in the clothing closet. On Monday, after putting all the bags of clothes out the week before, I thought I was well set for school clothes shopping. Boy was I wrong! I had a few large families come in and pick up a bunch of items and my shelves were looking rather bare, so I posted on facebook and asked for school aged kid's clothes and I was very grateful to have a lot of response to my request. By today I was ready for more families to come by and had a few people there to pick up school clothes along with the large selection of adult clothes I also have on hand. I met some wonderful people this week and enjoyed my time out in the closet. Here are some cute things I had out there today: 

I also got the chance to get a little knitting done while I was out there. I made a hat (yes, even in 80 degree heat) for the Fall and started another one. 

I'm hoping that getting started on the knitting now will ensure that I have enough warm things made by the time the weather changes. 

Peg's Clothing Closet blog is up and running!

My clothing closet has actually been going since April, but I've been doing most of my communicating on facebook. I was running it a couple years ago and stopped when I was having some health issues, but I felt the need to get it going again and have had it running all summer. 

I love doing it, but I do have to take breaks every so often as it takes a lot of energy to run. The most difficult part is the lifting and lugging around heavy bags and boxes of clothes. After being open for three days each week, I have to take the rest of the week off to recuperate and give my back and joints time to calm down. I also have issues with having enough energy and found that I absolutely have to make sure I exercise enough and get enough sleep during the week in order to not run down. 

This week I've had several nice items that I've put out and had taken so far. 

These have both been asked for, but if they don't get picked up, I will re-post them on facebook and give people the option to ask for or come by for them. Some more items that I've posted and given away this week:

For anyone who is new to my blog, The clothing closet is located at 11016 Waller Rd. E in Tacoma Wa. It's in the Summit Apartments in garage #39. I am open from 9am to 4pm, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday each week. There are no limits on how many items you can take for your family or how many times you can stop in. Everything is free, even the handmade items that occasionally put out on display. 

If you would like to donate to the clothing closet, I take all sizes of clothing, housewares, linens, and small appliances as long as they work. Also clean and unbroken toys. Please wash any clothing and bedding before donating them. 

I do take clothing that is damaged (I mend, recycle, or reuse them). 

Please put your donations in bags or boxes that are not too heavy for a 60 year old disabled woman to move around. haha! If I have to re-bag them to get them into the closet that takes away from my sewing, knitting and folding time.  

Today was an amazing day. I had a steady stream of people stop in and everyone found something that they loved. They were all very willing to let me bend their ear while they shopped and I got to show off my knitting to a little girl who was most amazed! I look forward to going back tomorrow and filling some bins that were donated with fabric and yarn that I need to store.