Like many people, I've completely (well, almost completely) Marie Kondo'd my house. [1] Though I didn't follow her directions to a T, I succesfully decluttered the spaces that mattered: my closet, my kitchen, and our baby's room. It was embarrassing to see the amount of things we'd accumulated in the short period of time our daughter has been alive. In those early months, she grew out of clothing and gear [2] quickly. It was easy to move things into storage and forget about them.
But I addressed these items head-on when I committed to the KonMari method [3], and quickly understood that moving things from the baby's room into the garage wasn't the answer. It was an answer, sure, but I was essentially moving the problem from one room to the next. These items would have to be donated or sold.
We'd already given away tons of things to expecting friends, neighbours, and coworkers, and after learning about a baby resale store in my neighbourhood from a Facebook moms' group, I paused. Marie Kondo had already brought me some joy, could she also bring me some Jacksons?
I went for it and to my surprise, I made a little bit of money! Here's what I learned:
Call ahead and get details.
Much like selling your own clothing to secondhand stores, baby stores have seasons and needs. I called ahead to find out what sizes they needed, what brands they liked, and more. I learned a ton. Firstly, this store made appointments, so I couldn't just walk in to sell clothing the way I would with my own items. I also learned that they have a maximum on the volume of clothing I could bring in. This helped me avoid wasting any time. The soonest they could see me was in three weeks, so I grabbed the appointment.
Don't just grab everything you own.
Similar to selling my own clothes, just because I spent a lot on something, or I think something is cute, doesn't mean the store wants it. I applied the info they told me about sizing and brands and went through everything in my pile. I styled outfits together to help make them more visually appealing to the store's buyers.
Wipe down the gear.
I spent about 30 seconds wiping down the bouncer and jumper I'd stored in my garage to make sure they were ready to sell.
Remember why you're there.
Once I arrived and dropped off my things for them to sort, it was so easy to get pulled into shopping. The store was organised so well. But the whole point of this experience was for me to declutter, not just clean up and replace. So I wouldn't allow myself to get attached to anything.
Cash or trade.
This was the hard part. When they handed me the receipt and I saw the value of my items had I tried to sell them myself, I sighed. Then I looked at the next box: Trade-in credit. I was compelled to take it simply because of the value associated, but I reminded myself why I was there.
I took the cash.
Making money wasn't my motive for doing this. I wanted to see if I could not only spark joy from throwing things out, but I always wanted to identify a quick way to get rid of a lot of stuff. I didn't want to haggle with people on Craigslist and wait around for them to come take a look at my items. Selling at a resale store couldn't have been faster. And now I have $72 to go buy some storage containers.