I learned the hard way that clothes hoarding really isn't the greatest idea.
We took an 18-day trip to Hawaii, just came back a few weeks ago. Fantastic trip! I started buying and hoarding nice clothes for all of us. Well, when I went to pack, NONE of the clothes I had bought dd9 fit.

she had a growth spurt in a few months! Even the shoes didn't fit! Fortunately I saved the receipts and was able to get refunds on most everything. For DS9, well, he outgrew some of the items but not as dramatic a growth spurt.
For DM (dear Mom--that's me!), well, I went on a diet and lost 10 pounds.

None of my nice new clothes fit.

Needless to say, the weekend before our trip was a hassle of returning and buying clothes. For dh, well, he packs for himself. However, he didn't even pack the nice, new stuff I bought for him, mainly because I had it "hoarded" away and forget to give it to him!
Then, to top it off, when we arrived in Hawaii (Kauai) the airline lost half our luggage!

Fortunately I packed some for everyone in each suitcase so we had some things to tide us over. First day on Kauai, we find ourselves in
WalMart (they're everywhere) buying more clothes! Then, the day before we left, the airline found our luggage. We then had "wardrobe overload". No way we could take all that stuff with us. I left a lot of items behind, with a note for the cleaning staff to help themselves, not take them to Lost & Found. We also discovered the USPS flat rate shipping boxes--the boxes themselves are free from the post office. Its a flat rate of $8.10 regardless of weight anywhere in the US (nice to be so far away from home and still in our country!). Well, I decided if something was worth more than $8.10 I sent it home. So I ended up sending home the nice, new stuff (many with tags still intact!), and kept the old stuff. We had so much stuff, at least it solved the laundry problem. I just threw away old socks, underwear, kids clothes, once dirty.
Well, here we are, back home, with nice, new clothes we STILL haven't worn, and kids are starting to outgrow them! Also, I seem to have forgotten where I put dh's "hawaii hoard"

Geeeeez! Next trip, just pack old clothes. Who are we trying to impress?

Let them think the airline lost our luggage!
