Children grow out of their clothes at an impressive rate and you're often left wondering what to do with them. Not only do you need to find new clothes for your little one, but how do you take care of the clothes and what to do with them once your child outgrows them?
But it's easier said than done. Being a mother to a nearly three year old it's something that I have become accustomed to every few months. We love her so much, she's pretty amazing but she owns to much stuff. I thought I knew what I was in for, in terms of how much stuff we were going to accumulate when she was born, but my goodness, that doesn't even compare. Over the course of three years, our daughter has accumulated more clothing than both my husband and I have combined. I literally saved everything my daughter grew out of and now our loft consists of many vacuum packs full of tiny baby clothes, and now the time has come to actually go through them and figure out what we will do with those old baby clothes.
Organise and store...
Not sure about another baby just yet? Well you still could organise and store those old baby clothes away, just in case. Before you do it's always a good idea to go through and throw away any clothes that are stained, ripped or beyond repair. After you have gone through them all try and organise all the clothes you are keeping into sizes - New-born, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months etc.. For me the best option was to store all the clothes in vacuum bags because they are a great way to keep your clothes fresh and clean while protecting from all the dust, cobwebs and creepy crawlies. We have nine giant bags full to the brim.
Hand them down...
However if the time has come to say no more babies then it may be an idea to try and hand them down to members of your family or any friends that are expecting a new baby. I think that this is always a lovely gesture and can be really helpful for those who cannot necessarily afford brand new clothing for their baby. If there are no family or friends that are expecting you could also offer them to someone online. On social media there are quite a few pages, groups and the general word of mouth to let others know that you may be able to offer them baby clothes and I am pretty sure that someone will soon snap them up, and be very appreciative.
Sell them...
However, if you want to make some money out of all those tiny clothes your baby grew out of in a week, try and sell them. You could put them on selling pages or groups, eBay or even holding a car boot can help you make money. But bare in mind that you must have the time, patience and courage to meet up with people or wait in line at the local post office, so you may have your piles of clothes for some time. But, even so, it worked out well for us recently. My husband has lost over four stone in a year and as you can imagine doesn't fit into most of his clothes. I asked my husband to go through and donate most to charity, but we did keep a few things of his and ended up making a little profit on eBay.
Donate them...
There are so many local and national charities that will gladly take your old baby clothes. Some charities can distribute the clothing to parents who need them through local hospitals and support agencies to some of the most vulnerable families. You could also take them to local baby banks such as Stripey Stork which is a volunteer run charity that is committed to seeing valuable resourced being re-used in communities. The charity works alongside a number of agencies who ask for donations of baby equipment, clothes, toys and other baby essentials - a baby bank such as this are a great alternative
Be creative...
If you are one of those people that can never seem to part with anything, then the best option for you would be to up recycle them, in a creative way. You can get creative and turn them into a memory quilt, a patchwork piece, a toy all made from your baby's favourite clothing. Baby clothes are so adorable you could alter those small baby onesies into t-shirts, pillows or even doll clothes. I really love the idea of creating a memory bear how great would that be? Creating a unique momentum that your little one can play with. There is so much more information over at Love, Keep, Create about creating a special little keepsake from those first moments.
What do you do with your old baby clothes? If you have anymore ideas please let me know in the comments, I'd love to know.
Some great tips. When we had Oldest we came lots of her clothes and it was a good job we did as she now has a sister!
ReplyDeleteWe've given most of ours away or chucked them if they weren't lovely quality. I really love it now when Samuel wears Ben's old clothes - it's like we rediscover them. But we were given quite a bit for Ben that we didn't use so I try to only pass on the really good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'm selling my old cloth nappy stash at the moment - that's a whole new ball game!
I used some of sylvias clothes to have a forever memory bear made. I think giving to someone is need is great but I always like to save my favourite clothes just incase im ever lucky to have another child
ReplyDeleteLoving your fabulous post and enjoy your weekend..
ReplyDeleteLovely ideas! I need to have a sort through of ours, I never seem to be on top of them, I just get all nostalgic about them! I love the idea of a memory quilt for special baby clothes. xx
ReplyDeleteI've kept a lot of Williams "just in case" haha! - Passed a tonne down to other friends who have had babies too. I saw an appeal on a Facebook Selling Page asking for unwanted baby clothes to be taken to the NICU and Childrens Ward at the local hospital - I know you mentioned that, but I really do think that's such a wonderful thing to do! Great post, I like the idea of a memory quilt :) xx
ReplyDelete