Saturday, June 16, 2007

It's your turn -- an open thread

I'm opening up this blog today for my readers. All three of you. Just kidding.

Here's my question for you. I know many of you are moms and have children. Many of you are mothers of multiples, too.

What did you do with the outgrown baby/children's clothes? What's your philosophy for storing them, and purging them? We have so much -- many of which are matching or coordinated sets.

Do you like to donate the clothes or try to make some extra cash through eBay or consignment? Do you do a little of everything?

I'm in the process of sorting and my office is now a mess as a result. I tried selling them cheaply to other twin moms, but am not having any luck as they prefer new clothes.

So, please share your most creative tips and advice.

9 comments:

Mary P Jones (MPJ) said...

I saved 0-12 month old clothes for my brother and sister-in-law, who are having a baby this fall! :) The first year is when they grow and change (and spit up!) the most, so it helps to have lots of extra onesies. And lots of the clothes from that time period were gifts from family, so it seems appropriate. They can donate them when done.

The 12 month+ clothes I donate as they outgrow them. I like giving them to a local women's and children's shelter. (That is where we donated our infant car seat and other baby items.) I know the clothes are going to good use and the recipients seem so grateful. Selling them is such a hassle, and I don't get that joyous good feeling from the extra cash that I do from giving to someone in need.

Brianna said...

with our 1st child, we saved all the clothes b/c we knew we were having a 2nd child. we had a lot of neutrals for the frist 6 months b/c we weren't able to find out the gender (she had her legs crossed). now that we just had our 2nd child (a boy) we are using all the neutrals from our daughter and i gave all the girl items to my best friend, who just had her 2nd child - a girl. and since her 1st child was a boy, we got all those clothes. it's a big circle of life. if you know someone who could use them, then give them to that person. if you plan on having more children in the near future then save them. if none of the above, donate :)

Crimson Wife said...

We lend them out to friends & family who have younger kids. My parents got tons of hand-me-downs for my brothers growing up from my aunts and it really helped them out. So many of my kids' clothes were gifts anyways & I'd feel weird about selling those for money, KWIM?

Shawn said...

Aw, my readers are generous! I love that. Most of our clothes have been gifts as well.

Has anyone tried consigment?

S said...

I saved my firstborn's clothes for his younger brother. When Jack finished with them, they went either to Goodwill or to our long-time babysitter, who just had a baby boy of her own and who is desperate to stay home with him but who has a very low income.

PJ Hoover said...

My boy clothes went to my exterminator. He had just had a brand new baby boy and I was looking to get rid of 6 garbage bags full of boy clothes.
Anyone who gets roaches out of my house deserves this!
My sister consigns all my little girl clothes once her daughter is done with them. She made enough to buy a (nice) carseat.

Anonymous said...

I gave away many of my son's clothes, either to family and friends or to the Goodwill (which was a tax write off too). There are clothes that hold a senitimental purpose that I kept and look at over the years with fond memories.

Momma Bean said...

We are blessed with an extremely generous family and I have a ridiculous amount of too small clothes of the girls, some of which were never worn. The tubs of clothes have taken over my basement. My husband has to move buckets of clothes to walk on the treadmill and trips over discarded toys to get to his weight bench. I have them organized by size and I have set aside some favorites to pass on to the girls when they are older. Others, I have given to friends who had girls and still more has been donated to charity. I'm contemplating holding a one-day garage sale and using the proceeds for fall/winter clothes, but the work involved with a garage sale has me a bit hesitant. We plan on having one more child, so if I do have any left over from the garage sale, I'll likely keep most of it for the next baby and donate the rest.

Anonymous said...

I have b/g twins that are 4 years old + one more. ( a girl) I'm a coordinator of the local mothers of multiples garage sale. We hold it twice yearly. Only 30 people are allowed to sell, and there's 300+ people in the group. It's a huge undertaking, but we get more than 'garage' sale prices, as everything's consignment quality and most everything's name brand. Everyone marks their stuff with a number and price, and the money goes straight back to the person who sold it.
I kept all my girl clothes for the baby, and sell everything else that's too small, or give it to one of my mom friends in playgroup. Of course, there's a few favorite outfits you have to keep though!