Full Circle Thrifting

I've been taking a whole lot of photos that look like this these days.



Everything in this photo is either thrifted, or was gifted to me secondhand from another momma.

After sitting in storage since my daughter grew out of them, these clothes are now receiving a second life through eBay! I'm not typically a sentimental person, but as I lay out these tiny outfits that my daughter once fit in, I can't help but to feel a tug on my heart.

Was she really this small once? I place one of the hats on my hand, it barely covers it...

Lucky for me, sorting and photographing baby clothing is a chaotic endeavor. There are few things I have more trouble relaxing around than clutter. Except maybe a live chainsaw with no operator...



Shudder.

This is what my table looked like at the beginning of all this. I had approximately 10 boxes of baby clothes, many mixed together size wise.

Here I am separating sizes ranging from newborn to 9 months, eliminating the items with stains.

It only took me 2 days to sort all of the boxes by size, but then came the next task. What was the best way to separate them by lot, so I could maximize sales?

Considering that all of the clothes I did pay for were thrifted, and the rest were hand-me-downs, I decided to shoot for 2$ per item.

One exception to this is the cloth diaper stash.

It may seem weird to many, but it is common to resell high quality diapers here in the US. You of course strip wash them and bleach them beforehand, and the seller likely does it again on purchase.

I've yet to decide how to resell them, but I wanted to highlight the way costs and production emissions are reduced when you participate in this diaper thrifting lifecycle!

As I separate and photograph lots of clothing, I take notes to help me stay organized. It is helpful to list out how many of each type of each item there are (onesies, pants, etc). Then when I am doing the listing on my computer, I simply have to type out my notes for the description.

This is a page from my listing notebook.

You may notice that when lotting things up, I also box them. The weight of each package, as well as the dimensions of the box are written down next to each set of notes.

I then label the boxes with the title of the listing and stack them in a dry room in my basement. This makes it simple to find what has sold when collecting parcels for the post office!

Although I am not exactly making big bucks on eBay, it has gone pretty well so far. After a bit of a hurdle figuring out the best way to ship things, the selling aspect has been smooth sailing ever since! It is nice to make some money back from all of these thrift purchases.



When my daughter was nearly due, I had a wave of desire to buy all of the cute headbands and hats. I remember visiting Once Upon a Child in particular quite often.

Of course, my kids being the strong-willed creatures they are, Thea did not like headbands or hats when she was born one bit! It is a bit sad to think that I never saw her in most of these.

Now they are boxed up, waiting to belong to yet another kiddo. I hope they find better luck and more love from the little one in their new home!

In the above photo is also one of my favorite things I found for Thea- the pink moccasins. They were only 2$ and are made of suede. I loved putting her in those!



This was another find that sticks out in my memory... Thea outgrew sizes so fast, that I rarely got to put her in anything fancy I bought more than once or twice.

I suppose it goes like this for a lot of parents, when you wish they'd slow down, they speed up. The opposite can be true too in my experience, although maybe that is for the best.

This cutie pie thrifted find had the rare experience of being the fit of the day for a handful of important experiences. As I packed it up, I liked to think this dress will do it all again in another kiddo's life. Dang emotions.

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In thrifting and then reselling my kids clothing, I stick to my minimalist principles as well as saving a good deal of cash. Fast fashion not only hurts the planet, it hurts our pockets. As I explore my options as an eBay reseller, I am happier than ever that I have these principles!

All photos are my own.