You can imagine how many articles of clothing we have with five children. Laundry is a huge job around our house and it’s an all week effort to keep it under control and organized. We are blessed to have friends and family that pass down their gently worn clothes and shoes to us. We haven’t had to spend too much on clothing because of this. Once our children outgrow their clothes they are passed down to the younger siblings.
We have reached the point where our two youngest are outgrowing their clothing so it is time to give them away. Normally we bag up the clothes and take them to the nearest thrift store or give them away to other families that have children but in this case I decided to try something different. I figured why not sell the clothing and use our profit to buy the kids some needed garments (undershirts, socks and shoes).
I heard about this consignment sale called Just Between Friends (jbfsale.com) a few years ago. We’ve been shopping there every year since then. They do the sale twice a year, one for the Spring/Summer season and one for the Fall/Winter season. The prices are sooooo incredibly affordable, the clothes are new or gently used and you will find so many name brands! You can look it up online and see if there is one in your city/state. It has become quite a big event and you can buy and sell more than just clothing, children’s shoes, toys and equipment are available and accepted too.
When you consign at this sale you’ll keep 65% of what you earn and pay a $10.00 consignor fee. Your check will be sent via email two weeks after the sale. If you volunteer and help at the sale you will keep 70% of what you earn. One of the main parts I like about this is after the sale, you can choose to either pick up the items that don’t sell or just have them donate those items to charity for you. They send them off to local families in need. We chose the latter option.
You’ll need some basic supplies in order to tag and prep your items for the sale...
Supplies:
Since this was my first time consigning, I received a series of emails to help me get ready. The first email was ’Time to Hunt & Gather’. I went through all the clothing and picked out everything I wanted to sell. After washing them I put them in a bag labeled Spring/Summer consignment. The next email was ’The Price has to be RIGHT’. I received a pricing guide with certain brands and items to help me choose the right price...the average price that people would normally pay. I stuck to this guide pretty closely to be competitive. Then came the email titled ’Ready, set, PREP’. This is where the tagging began...
You enter all of the tag information on their online template then print them out. I made a mistake along the way and had to change some tags. I didn’t realize that the minimum price for clothing was $3.00. I was pricing some of them for $1.00 and $2.00. I had to combine some things together by putting them in outfits (shirts with jeans/shorts etc.) in order to raise the price.
Once all the tags were correct and set I gathered the clothing to iron them. Clothing sells better when they look and smell new...
My husband helped me out tremendously as he did some of the ironing while I hung the clothing on a hanger and pinned and tagged them. All clothing must be pinned to the hanger and the tag pinned to the right side. You must make sure the hanger is in the direction that resembles a question mark when hanging your clothing. This ensures easy shopping at the consignment sale. Here is an example of how the clothes looked once prepping was completed...
I used zip ties for multiple piece toys and equipment. You’ll want to be sure All of your pieces stay together because if they get separated they won’t sell. I made sure everything was either pinned or tied together.
Here is a look at all of the clothing we prepped for the sale...
It’s like we had our own mini store lol! You as a consignor are responsible for dropping off your items and placing them in the right section at the sale. Before you do that you’ll want to make sure all clothing is organized by type (boy or girl) and size.
Once I got all of that sorted I put yarn around each group for easier drop off. I eventually had to switch to rubber bands because the yarn kept sliding off. Hey, yarn was the first thing I had available. It’s the story of a crafter’s life 😄...
Then off we went to place our items at the sale. After check in they gave us a rolling rack, ours filled up the whole rack! 😁
You had to place all of your clothing items in the proper area. Once you found the appropriate size, you had to search for your consignment letter. You’ll find this letter in front of your consignment number on your tags. My letter was G so I had to put all of my clothing behind the paper plate labeled A-G. Here I am looking for my letter in the girls 18 month section...
It took us about an hour to place all of our items on the floor. I also had some maternity, nursing and baby gear to sell.
I recommend consignment to you if you have an abundance of children’s clothing and items that you want to get rid of. It’s a good feeling knowing you are clearing out your closets, putting money back in your family’s pocket and giving the rest away to those in need.
Please plan ahead and Do Not procrastinate like I did. I had to rush and ended up finishing my items in crunch time because I waited too long to prep the clothing. It would be less stressful if you do this in increments and a little at a time a few months ahead of the sale. They actually give you that much time but I didn’t use it wisely. I do plan on consigning twice a year and I am already preparing our Fall/Winter collection.
I estimated that we would break $200 but we ended up breaking a little over $100 which is still good in my book...
Over 90 pieces of our clothing were given away to charity :)
@rigaronib!