Life
Help! Decluttering, Sorting & Selling Outgrown Baby & Toddler Clothing
I am at my wits end (again) as the girls have amassed an unbelievable amount of clothes in the space of three years. I’m going to be writing some posts about decluttering the madness that is all the outgrown clothing and I’m keen to find out from BG readers how you’ve organised and dispersed of your stuff.
In an ideal world, I’d like to sell some, give some to charity, and some will no doubt go to my little sister. I should point out, before I took the picture, I’d already sorted and given some stuff to my sister, sent some to the charity shop, and sold some on eBay….
I can’t take anymore and the spare room come office come playroom come dumping ground, needs to be cleared out for decorating. Help!!!!! I’d seriously welcome your tips on organising, selling, and whatever else you do do with your clothes!
Ssssshhhh…Somewhere in that pile of stuff is the camera, hence the iPhone photo… If you’re decluttering stuff like toys, check out my recent post on the decluttering toys project.
Related Posts
Tagged decluttering childrens clothes tips, organising children's clothing, organising outgrown children's clothing, selling children's clothes
TracyMay 17, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I cleared out a load of kids clothes this weekend actually. We had a few of those charity bags through the door and managed to give away a good bulk of the pile.
Just waiting for a few more to come through the door now.
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:14 pmAuthor
I find they forget to come and get the bags in our area! Thankfully there are four charity shops within minutes walk, but great suggestion – thanks
CarolineMay 17, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Have you looked into your local nct sale? Alternatively you could put some on freecycle for your local area or on scavenger.org
You could also organise a swap-meet. You could have everyone who takes items give a minimum donation per item for a charity. I’m planning on using some of my daughters old bits as part of a quilt (when I get round to it…) or (depending on size) I’m sure I could take some off your hands
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:15 pmAuthor
Thank you! I’m on the case with the NCT sale & will investigate the swap-meet idea and of course I shall keep you posted on any spares
EveMay 17, 2010 at 8:34 pm
It’s so difficult isn’t it. I have bags of stuff waiting for something to be done with them.
eBay is good for branded stuff, but the ironing/photographing/listing/wrapping and posting takes time, and obviously they take a cut.
I’ve seen some people do a ‘secret sale’ where they photograph things and send the link to their friends/contacts who can buy stuff at a fixed price. Slightly less work than eBaying whilst still making some money, and obviously removes the risk that something will sell for 99p.
If you want to give it away could you approach your local women’s refuge to see if they’re in need of good quality children’s clothes? Does your nursery need any spare clothes (ours takes outgrown stuff for potty trainers and other accidents!) Freegle is good, or you could offer bundles for a fixed price on Gumtree.
I have a little girl now so like Caroline said could definitely take some stuff off your hands
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:19 pmAuthor
I agree – it’s the tedious preparation that gets me. The secret sale sounds attractive as the calibre of sale at eBay is diminishing. I know a couple of people who have done them so will find out what they do. I’d never even heard of Freegle – my goodness you’re all a wealth of information! I shall also keep you posted on what’s available
TahiraMay 17, 2010 at 9:17 pm
My local hospital was looking for good quality babygros, vests and blankets for babies who were in hospital to wear. See if your local hospital is interested.
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:20 pmAuthor
Thanks for another unusual suggestion!
AbbyMay 17, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Here are my ideas!
-give to family/friends & tell them that anything they don’t want they can give to charity or pass on
-charity shop
-ebay in bundles separated by size/season which is the best way if you ahve loads to get rid of
-freecycle
-carboot sale
-NCT nearly new
-see if there is a 50:50 secondhand clothing shop that will sell them for you
-see if there is a an Ebay trading assistant in your area that will do it for you
-give a friend who likes Ebaying the task for a percentage of the profit
- put on a rail outside your house with “take me for free” sign on it!
I would advise that when you have cleared this lot you then do it on a monthly or seasonal basis so it doesn’t build up into a mega task! (Not that I take my own advice, but you know in an ideal world!)
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:17 pmAuthor
Trust you to be in the know! At the moment I have everything sorted by ‘type’ – ie dresses, tops, sets etc but will organise by size and season now. I will *never* let it build up like this again. Ooh I may try a carboot sale actually – I’ll probably spend more than I make…. Excellent list of suggestions – I can probably squeeze a few posts out the comments!
ArielleMay 17, 2010 at 9:33 pm
There is a shop called eenymeeny in tufnell park that buys clothes in good
condition to sell on. It is a great shop you should check it out
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:20 pmAuthor
Perfect excuse for taking a jaunt over that side – thanks for the tip off!
ClaireMay 17, 2010 at 9:45 pm
It’s obvious what to di isnt it???? Give it all to me!!!!
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:21 pmAuthor
Behave! I’ve promised the boyf I will sell some of it to demonstrate I am not a frivolous spender. But I shall pack you up some goodies
BrendaMay 17, 2010 at 9:53 pm
A friend of mine recently decided she wanted to keep some of her kids baby clothes as a memento of their babyhood and cut them into squares and sewed them together to make a keepsake blankie which saves on the storage space yet keeps those precious memeories with them.
Also another thing we did was alter Gaby’s baby clothes and use them as dressing up clothes for her dolls.
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:21 pmAuthor
Love this idea although it’ll be something else to add to the long list of sewing projects………..
EllieMay 17, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I have one little girl with too many clothes, and a baby boy, with too many clothes. As my daughter grew out of things I put them all in the attic, in preparation for baby 2. I have now taken all the boxes out the attic (I think!), and sorted the clothes into unisex, unisex but need dyeing before it looks clean enough for another child to wear, girly but would do a boy if dyed, girly but too dirty for the charity shop, and girly. Most of the girly stuff went straight to the charity shop, with just a very small box saved to pass on to the next family member who has a baby, I dyed all the stained stuff or girly stuff that could be rendered ungirly in great colours – red, black, purple, dark green, bahama blue. I had a lot of fun but admit it did take me a while to process all the dyeing. If you don’t want to pass on stained clothes or dye them, put them in fabric recycling.
Finally, the important bit as someone else said is to keep on top of it. As my son outgrows his clothes I rejoice, and put them into a bag for the charity shop. As he gets bigger and as his sister outgrows her clothes now I give them to nursery, or charity, or friends, straightaway. After all, the cupboards are already groaning with things they haven’t worn yet…
Good luck with it all.
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:24 pmAuthor
Ooh it hadn’t even occurred to me about dying the stuff as I’d been at a loss with some of the stained bits. Good thinking Batgirl! Not sure I have the patience for it though but will give it a try. I totally have to get on top of it as it’s TOTALLY out of hand and driving me bonkers and the two of them are growing out of stuff at an unbelievable rate, and they keep getting new stuff. Thanks for the tips!
SRTMay 17, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Hi check this out – http://www.ecofashionrocks.com/index.php
they buy clothes off you and give you a cut..
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:24 pmAuthor
I’m printing off a form for this today and will test with a package of stuff!
KatMay 18, 2010 at 10:44 am
Some superb ideas! Loving the memory quilt, a friend of ours did this for all of her children and step children and gave it to them when they were 18.
Ecofashionrocks is another good idea, lots of people loved it when we wrote about it recently.
You could outsource the project. There is a woman near here who hires herself out for errends and sorting etc – got to be quicker as no memories attached to each and every item!
Personally I would sort it into age piles first and then tackle each pile sorting into donation/selling/hand me downs/keep. Once the first big sort is done you are more able to see the wood for the trees so to speak and makes the decisions easier.
Good luck!
NatalieMay 18, 2010 at 2:26 pmAuthor
They are brill ideas aren’t they? I’m going to sort, iron, bag etc and basically have a shop set up at this rate! Defas trying the Eco Fashion Rocks to offload some bulk.
Ellie MuxlowMay 18, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I thought that was a photograph of my spare room at first!!! I feel your pain! I’ve been on the ebay path since beginning of Jan and I am pig sick of it now!! Such a chore! Good luck with it xxxxx
claireMay 20, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Please beware of the plastic charity bags posted through letter-boxes.
Although these are ‘legit’ the collectors are often beaten to it by some unsavoury people often in a plain unsignwritten vans.
My Mum recently had words with a Man and he got aggressive and sped off when she asked for his ID. She then waited for the official Marie Curie van to turn up moments later.
By all accounts this is becoming a real problem and the people steeling from charity are then selling on ebay or bootsales – lovely eh!!
I would suggest dropping it off at a local charity shop or wait for the next new arrival…
eenymeenyJuly 2, 2010 at 9:21 am
Hi. I own a childrens clothing exchange called eenymeeny in Tufnell Park. http://www.eenymeenykids.co.uk. Bring us your sellable clothes and we may buy them off you. Some customers have done just that and walked away with £100′s of pounds. They must be in good condition though! Spread the word.