Children do grow up fast and outgrow their clothes and shoes really, really fast. I am now experiencing this with my son who outgrows his stuff very fast. Whenever we buy him clothes and shoes, my husband and I make sure that they're around 3 sizes bigger so he would be able to enjoy using them for longer periods. His pants and shoes are usually the ones that he outgrows faster. So what do we do with all the excess clothing and shoes, we give them away to his younger and smaller cousins or to whoever we know of that has a kid smaller than ours. As fast as our child grows, the more spaces his outgrown stuff use up in his closet. Being a mom who wants everything to be in order, I skim through his things on a regular basis and make sure that whatever is not needed anymore should be put away for others to use. How about you guys, what do you usually do with your children's outgrown clothes and other stuff?
I won't give away clothes for free most of the time, as there are ways that I could make money out of them. I usually put photos up on Facebook to see if anyone would like to buy them from me at a low price, and sometimes people say that yes, they would like to do that. If that fails, there is a clothes recycling shop near where I live that pays around $10 per bin bag of clothes, and this is worth it for me as I am always driving past, so it makes sense to try it if I can!
That's actually a good way of putting away used clothes @GemmaRowlands. I would also love to do that sometime for clothes that are still worth selling for. I just don't know if they accept them in thrift stores here at my place because their items usually come from abroad. My son just has a lot of cousins who could still use his outgrown clothes so I just give some out to them. It would be a good idea to sell some of them though and use the earnings to buy newer clothes again.
I suppose giving away clothes kids have outgrown always is great because even if you don't get something in return immediately, eventually you will. Most people often will do whatever they can to repay kindness with kindness and whatever they give could save you some money. In any case if you aren't planning on having more kids, you'd have to at some time get rid of all those clothes your kids never will wear again so if you give them away you lose nothing.
I usually try to sell their clothes that they have outgrown just because I do not know anyone with kids that are the same age. Most of the people with kids that I know are either quite a bit older or quite a bit younger so they would not fit them. Their school uniforms that they outgrow I will donate to the church school they go to because there are a lot of kids that do not have a lot of money and uniforms can be quite expensive. If there are things that do not sell though, I will donate them to a charity organization like Goodwill or Salvation Army.
My husband's uncle just had his wife give birth. Although I have a son, we still gave a few of his gender-neutral clothes to her. This includes his newborn clothes since they are all white. So those are his shirts, pyjamas, bonnets, mittens and socks. I also gave away his other clothes that do not fit him anymore. Although they're more for a boy, they could still use it as house clothes anyway. I did keep some of his other clothes though since my MIL would kill me if I give away her gifts, lol. Same goes for my husband's sister. Although if it were up to me, I would rather give them all away since they're just rotting and I'm not going to have any baby soon. And I'm hoping that for our second child, we can have a girl. Haha.
I have also given away my little boy's newborn clothes a long time ago. Funny thing is when I give out clothes, I have to divide all of them and put them in individual packages with the names of the recipients in them because most of the recipients live in one area. So if I don't label them, the mothers would be fighting over which child owns which. I'm also rooting for a girl as a second child and I'm really hoping we would have her soon while I still have the strength to give birth. lol
Not so much anymore, but when our kids were growing up it sometimes felt like we had more clothes then we knew what to do with. We were pretty lucky though because my brother happened to work at a place where they see a lot of kids who come from some pretty unfortunate backgrounds so they were able to take the clothes and put them to good use.
We do because by the time the clothes are old they have been worn out a bit too much to be sold but still definitely usable, so we don't attempt to sell them anymore and instead we just give it away. We don't have anyone younger to pass it on to so usually we just donate it to charity, which is what I think is best since I also clear out my closet annually and this way we could just get rid of the clothes altogether and it makes us feel better that the clothes are going to get used by people who need it most.
All the clothes that my oldest outgrows I put them in a bin and label them for my youngest to wear when he's that size. This has saved me so much money. My oldest was pretty gentle on his clothes and even though they are six year apart the fashion hasn't changed enough that my youngest doesn't look out of place wearing clothes are that are 6 years old. As my youngest outgrows his clothes I go through all his clothes and anything that are just too worn for him to wear to school I give away. Clothes that are in good condition I take to a consignment shop to resell.
Lol, it's a good thing you labelled them or else you'd have cat fights in your neighbourhood. My husband's aunt also asked for my son's used clothes but I've already given them to his uncle's baby, like I said. The thing is, she knows that the uncle has had a baby girl. I wonder if she thinks that I'm lying that I gave my son's clothes to them. Haha! Go, go, go! That's all I can say, lol. But they say that boys are more sweet than baby girls. I guess it still depends on your baby's personality though.
I like the idea that what I give away comes back to me in some way. We know of enough people that can use the clothes and the same has been true for us, enough people to pass on their old clothes to help with my growing grandson's when it was really needed.
Raising three sons two years apart didn't leave much to give away or to donate when they were younger. With the grandchildren though I made a lot of donations to Salvation Army as opposed to trying to sell or give away any clothes.
lol I hope your husband's aunt doesn't think of it that way. Speaking of which, I really hate it when some people would make it look like it's my responsibility to give away something to them when all I'm really doing is being nice to them by giving them something that I felt like giving. I mean, there should be no pressure in giving right? One of my husband's cousin is like that, she makes me feel like I have to give her my son's every single outgrown clothing or shoes. She would really make me search my son's closet for unused clothes and when I tell her that they're all still pretty much being used by my son, she would make this kind of face that I don't really like seeing. Oh, anyway, yeah I hope we both get what we really want soon - a baby girl of our own.
Oh yeah! I've had such relatives as well. It's as if it's my responsibility to give something to them. I do try to give them my son's used clothes provided they're old and not used by my son anymore. I try to keep the branded ones in case we do have another boy in the future. But your husband's cousin has quite an attitude. And she's even making you go through your son's closet? The nerve! I mean, it isn't being selfish but you don't have to pressure or force someone to give. It's nicer to receive things out of sheer niceness, not because you forced someone. I wonder why some people have such attitudes... Yup, waiting for that baby girl... Still at least 5 or 10 years more for me. Not right now! Haha!
I know right? She really has the nerve to do that when she should just be thankful for whatever stuff I give her. That's why my fondness in giving away some of my son's old belongings to her has died down. I now prefer giving away the old clothes to my husband's other cousins who never pressure me into giving away anything. They're even more grateful every time they receive something compared to that other cousin of theirs. Talk about attitude problem. lol
We donate them. My oldest grew way too fast, so he was constantly going through clothing.. he was taller than me by ten years old and now I think he's stopped at 6.2, at least for a bit, but I highly doubt he'll need to replace his clothes again unless he wears them out or something. My youngest is going through a spurt at the moment and all the clothes he got at the beginning of the year are already too small for him so we have to go out and replace almost an entire wardrobe lol. I don't like selling used clothes.. that sort of money isn't enough to make or break us so I would rather give the clothing to those who are in need. Plenty of children out there are going without.
@JosieP I think boys do grow up really fast. I could also imagine my son outgrowing me when he turns 10 too. At his age of 6 right now, we almost have the same foot size and he really grows up fast. His school uniforms, which I bought before the beginning of school last year now have to be modified and readjusted as they now look smaller on him. When I had the uniforms made, I made sure that they were at least 2 sizes bigger but my son really catches up fast.
I don't have kids, but my mom used to do the same thing. She would always segregate the clothes that are not being used and she would give those away to the street kids. Like she would just dump them on our front gate early in the morning, and after a while the clothes were gone.
I do give away clothes that the children have out-grown, what is the point of keeping them especially if you do not intend to have anymore children? There are a lot of people in the country and out side the country who are desperately in need of these things and giving them away or selling them can create employment for poorer people through charities and organizations that do that, it not only makes more room in over-filled wardrobes but It is also a lesson for the children to learn to give.
