The Dot System

Years ago, when I had just two children, I was visiting with a friend of mine who had 5 children, 4 of them sons all close in age. She was very excited at the job she had done of reorganizing her sons' closet and took me on a tour. In the course of the discussion she mentioned the dot system. As often happens when she and I are chatting, the conversation took many twists and turns before my husband said it was time to leave.

But, before we got in the car, those words came back to me and I had to ask, "What is the dot system?" I am so glad I did. At the time, I had just two children and I was at the end of yet another unsuccessful treatment in which doctors told me it was unlikely that I would ever have more. I didn't see that I would ever need the dot system. But, God knew, I would indeed, one day need this little gem of wisdom.

Ruth answered me with the glint and gleam of a woman who had the answer that would solve all problems of mothers the world over. Forever. The dot system is how we know which clothes belong to which child. After her explanation I had to admit it really was quite ingenious and yet so simple that any weary mother with a sharpie could carry it out to perfection.

The first born child gets one dot on the tag of a shirt. The second born gets two. And so on. So our little Ellie has seven dots on her tags, Samuel six, Aedan five. You get the idea.

A suit starts out with Nathaniel. It has four dots on the trouser and jacket. When he outgrows it we add another dot and pass it down to Aedan. When he outgrows it we add one more dot and pass it down to Samuel.

This is so helpful when passing clothes down from one child to another. But it doesn't stop there. Quite often, I will buy the boys matching outfits. No trouble figuring out who it belongs to. Even Pa can read the tags and know which closet it should go in.

Side note. The dot system may be fool proof but Aedan and Samuel were still wearing each other's knickers moments before we left for church on Sunday morning. Fortunately, my skilled eye could tell that the boy's and Pa had a little mix up, when I noticed Aedan's knickers looked more like shorts and Samuel's appeared to be full length trousers.

A few helpful notes when implementing the dot system. On clothes with stamped tags, we use an inconspicuous place on the seam at the back of the collar for shirts, dresses and sweaters and at the back of the waist for skirts and trousers. On the bottom of the heel for socks. For things that are too dark for a sharpie to show up we use white out.

When we buy new things like underwear, socks, or t-shirts the whole package gets marked right off to prevent any confusion or need for sorting after the first washing.

When pulling boxes out of the attic to unpack Summer or Winter clothes we do this. First off, at the end of each season each child's clothes are put into a Rubbermaid with their name on it. I engage the help of my teenagers to make the checking and unpacking go easier. We work one child at a time assembly line style.

One of us, usually me, monitors the trying on and checks for proper fit and need for repair or alterations. If it is too small it goes into the box of the next younger child for their fitting session.

If it fits the child trying it on, we check it for the correct number of dots. If it needs dots, it gets passed onto the person in charge of the sharpie.

Once it is marked, if it needs changes or mending it goes to the person in charge of sewing. If it is OK, it goes to the laundry or dry cleaning pile. Unfortunately, our only storage is in the attic so everything requires washing to get the storage smell out of it.

Once the child's box is empty, we go to their closets and drawers and fill the box with all the things to be stored away for the next season.

After everything is washed, ironed, hung and tucked in drawers we count and working from a list of what I think they will need for that season I can then draw up my shopping and sewing list.

And that my dear readers is the Dot System with a little bonus.

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