Some weeks ago, I was packing away the baby's 12-18 mos. clothing which was outgrown and out of season in a 59 qt. plastic tub. My rule of thumb, at least at the younger ages, is one tub per age range: 0-3 mos., 3-6 mos., 6-9 mos., etc. And, of course, at the earlier ages there are extra items like baby blankets, hooded baby towels and buntings filling up the tub.

Starting at about size 4 (age 4), I divide the clothing seasonally, summer and winter, into two tubs because, well, they stop growing out of it so quickly for one thing. And the clothing is larger in size so it's difficult to fit much along with sweaters and corduroy pants.

With the baby's clothing, however, on top of the hand-me-downs from his two older brothers, my friend Michelle who had a boy 2 1/2 years ago, sent me all of her son's old clothes. Needless to say, I can't get the tub to close. It's bulging and I don't want to get rid of anything.

That's what I do if the set of clothes doesn't fit - I sort and donate what I don't want. But, with the next baby, I don't even know what we're having yet and won't know for another 6 weeks. Even still, until we get to that particular size/age, I won't know what sorts of clothing I'll feel like dressing the baby in. I mean, between #2 and #3, I changed my preference for outfit styles considerably because I had less time to fuss about it. One-piece outfits were easier than two-piece because I didn't have to hunt for the matching pieces - either I had it or I didn't. And diaper time was easier with one-piece outfits too, just one set of snaps.

So, anyway, the upshot as I was complaining about how to fit the baby's clothes into the storage container is that my husband placed a moratorium on clothes buying. "I don't want you buying any more clothes for the kids," he said.

"Not even for Kenny? He's too small to wear your hand-me-downs, Jeff?"

He conceded, "Well, I guess for Kenny it's alright." Kenny is his favorite after all. "But not the other two. No more."

I explained, "Well, I only buy a piece or two for them every once in a while so that they get something new too. But the real problem is that Michelle gave me so many of ..."

I don't know whether to take him seriously or not when he says things that sound so unreasonable. Then he said, "Well, then buy another storage container for the extra clothes and stop complaining about it."

Too many clothes is a nice problem to have. I am always grateful when someone - a friend, a neighbor - passes along their son's old clothing to my kids.