selling all the things

A few months ago, I decided to start selling all the baby stuff.  Holding on to it all was really hard for me, and I figured now that I had accepted that we most likely weren't having any more babies, it was best to part with most everything. I had already sold the bigger ticket items, like the strollers, wagon, bassinet, exersaucer, activity table, water table, etc, but then it was time to go through all the clothes! And boy, did we have a TON of stuff!  I started listing things on Next Door, as well as Facebook Marketplace, which was very time consuming.  After listing and selling a bunch of the 12-24 month stuff (after seeing a post on Next Door about someone needing that size), I decided to reach out to ward friends. Originally, I worried if that was tacky to ask friends to pay me for clothes, but since I was selling really nice stuff for cheap, I almost felt like it was rude NOT to offer and instead sell to random strangers, haha.  After debating back and forth, then almost feeling prompted to do it, I finally put a message on our playgroup GroupMe, and three friends expressed interest right away.  This is the day Kiley came over...

I had everything organized into bin by size so she could easily look through everything.  Seems kind of crazy to have so many clothes for one little girl, but that's the fun in having a little girl, right??  I was selling most everything for $2 a piece, but nice dresses and shoes I sold for $5.  Kiley bought a ton of stuff for her two girls, and then a few days later my friend Ashley came and also bought a bunch for her daughter McKensie. Then last, but not least, Rachel came and bought stuff for her daughter, Parry.  Even though I felt a little awkward at first, I am so glad I followed that prompting to reach out to friends because Ashley commented that none of McKensie's clothes were fitting and she knew she needed to start looking for things second-hand. All of Brooke's stuff was in great condition, and it has been SO fun to see these little girls at church wearing Brooke's old clothes. 

It has almost helped in my healing process as well because I feel so happy seeing Brooke's clothes bless other little girls as well.  That might sound so silly, but it has meant a lot to me.  I don't have pictures of all the bigger stuff (selling to friends who could just come look through the boxes saved me SO much time), but here are the pics of the stuff I sold online...

Sold some more random baby items...

Then it was time to move on to Colby's clothes...

When I had posted about Brooke's clothes, a few moms had commented that they were interested in Colby's clothes, so I reached out to them and invited them over :) One girl (Jazmin) was pregnant and although they told people they weren't finding out the gender, she confessed that she had found out it was another boy. She already has two boys, but I guess their clothes were thrashed so she bought a TON of Colby's stuff. Ashley came back over as well and bought stuff for her little boy, Sam.  Our kids were born within a few weeks of each other (two years apart), so sizes and seasons were perfect for them!  And again, it's been fun to see the boys at church in Colby's clothes. Even Kevin noticed, haha.  One day we were sitting in church when Ashley and her family walked in. Both of her kids were in our kids' clothes, and Kevin turned to me and said, "Was that Colby's outfit?" YEP!! Even down to the sneakers :)

Here are some of the pics before I sold to friends...

Listed a few more odds and ends...

changing pad cover and crib sheets

Baby bandanas...

Oh, and before I took what was left to a consignment store, I invited another friend over that was pregnant with a little boy.  This is her second marriage and she already has a 13 year old son, but obviously she needed all new stuff :)  She bought quite a bit as well, so I really didn't have much to take to consignment. Which was good, because they pay hardly anything for items!

Overall, I made nearly $2,800 on all of these items! It was definitely time consuming, but I felt so happy to make some money that we can use towards the stuff our kids need now. It was kind of comical, though, because Kevin had made a comment to me before all of this started, that "Even if we get pregnant by some miracle, we can just spend $1,000 and get everything we need."  He clearly underestimated what we have spent on our kids, as evidenced by the fact that we sold things for significantly less than what we paid and still made nearly three thousand dollars, haha. 

It felt good to make space in their closets, although I did keep one plastic tote full of my favorite little outfits for each of them :)  Oh, and the kids each have a tote full of newborn clothes, which are the perfect size for their baby dolls.