Dressing Your Kids Well On A Budget

The following is a guest post by Christy, one of the organizers of the Ever After Resale Consignment Event.

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My name is Christy. My hobby is dressing my five young children in cute, quality, name brand clothing. Confession over, now on to tell you how I support my habit!

When my first daughter was born my husband accused me of playing with a human doll. I loved dressing her up but out family budget did not allow for me to spend large amounts of money on her wardrobe. So, off to garage sales I went. I thoroughly enjoyed picking up cute clothing for her at just a couple of dollars per outfit. I quickly noticed that many of the clothing items I was attracted to had labels on them like Gymboree, Hanna Andersson, etc. One day I decided to search eBay for Gymboree clothing and I was surprised at the price that used items were selling for. I began selling my daughter’s outgrown clothing on eBay and getting back from them more than I had paid! I took that money and used it to buy clothing for her in the next size up.

Since that time I have been able to clothe all five of my children in name brand clothing and not spend a penny other than the money that I have gooton from the sale of their clothing the season before. As our family grew I had less time for selling on eBay. It takes a lot of time to take pictures, write out descriptions and ship things out to buyers. This is what motivated me, along with my friend Kari Gale, to start Ever After Resale. It is a name brand only, twice-yearly consignment sale in Tigard. Our shoppers love having a sale they can come to where every item is from a quality name brand and in excellent condition. Our sellers love having a convenient outlet for reselling their children’s outgrown things.

Here are some of the tips I have learned along the way about successfully re-selling upscale children’s clothing:

Shop clearance sales at the end of the season to save for the next year. Gymboree has excellent slaes quarterly when they mark down all tops to a certain price, dresses and pants to a certain price, etc. The Hanna Andersson store and outlet also have great end of season sales. I joined a forum for children’s clothing where I find out when stores will be having sales. I like to go into the store the day before the sale and put the things on hold. A great forum for this is www.gymbofriends.com.

Take excellent care of the clothing so that it can be resold. I like to wash all of my kid’s clothes in cold and hang them to dry. I also like to “overshop” so that each outfit is worn only a few times and stays in excellent condition. This sounds more expensive but in reality I find that because I normally get back as much as what I paid for an item when I resell, it pays to keep them in good condition.

Shop at garage sales, consignment stores and of course my favorite, Ever After Resale. I am always on the lookout for quality, name brand clothing for great prices.

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Be sure to stop by the Ever After Resale event this Saturday, April 4th, 9 am – 4 pm at the City of Tigard’s Public Works Building. Even better, enter to win the pre-sale pass giveaway and shop Friday evening for well-priced, upscale kid’s clothing and accessories! Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment here.

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