Why I Love Thrifting
Why I Love to Thrift and Use Hand-Me-Downs
Thrifting has become extremely popular these days. When you have your first baby you can’t wait to go buy all the cute little outfits, blankets and everything to make your baby styling. When we had our first, I know we spent a lot on new clothes, shoes, hats, coats and cute little pajamas.
Why not? Your baby is only little once, why not dress them in all the stylish clothes you can find. You can’t help but to buy that cute jean overall you found in Target. Oh, there’s a hat to match it why yes, I’ll get that too. Look at all those cute flannels I’ll take one in every color please. How can you pass on that pink frilly flower dress with the headband to go along. Theres one in purple, she’s going to look so cute in that at Easter time.
Before you know it, you have a closet that’s filled to the max with clothes and a drawer filled with hats and headbands.
But wait,
When you go to finally put that cute little dinosaur polo on your little guy you realize it doesn’t fit anymore. You start looking at all the clothes that still have tags on them, they don’t fit anymore.
Now you have a closet full of brand-new clothes that you’ll never get to wear on them because one, you went crazy on buying new things and two they just grow too fast to be able to wear all of it.
We’ve all been there.
Our first baby was a boy and then our second we had a beautiful little girl. Reusing clothes wasn’t really an option here so I ended up doing the same thing. I would find cute little outfits that I loved and just have to have and yes again, she ended up not wearing a ton of it.
Only to end up bagging everything up and donating it or trying to sell it.
Our third baby comes along. Having them 7 years apart we obviously had to start new with everything. New tops, bottoms, pajamas, onzies, coats, all of it.
Again, baby boy is growing like a weed and before we knew it, he was in 2ts already.
How do they grow so fast!
Not expecting to even have a 4th baby I slowly start donating things and selling things but then we get pregnant again!
Thinking about having to buy all the things again my mind is going bonkers. It’s so expensive getting everything you need for a new baby.
As soon as we found out we were expecting our last baby, I started saving all the clothes I could. From every season hoping I could make them work. I had pants, shirts, and pajamas starting with 2ts and up.
Not knowing what we were having yet I still decided to keep it all just in case. Come to find out we were having one more little boy so hurray!! I got to reuse all the clothes that were still good.
I still had to buy all the newborn and baby clothes so I could still get the adorable outfits I found I just didn’t go overboard and buy the whole isle. Knowing I wasn’t going to have to buy clothes unless I absolutely needed to, was refreshing and eased my mind just a little.
Hand-me-downs and thrifting was never a big thing. Oh you got your brothers old clothes, why can’t your parents just buy you new things?
Being a parent now, I will thrift and use Facebook Marketplace before I go to any store.
Why?
You’re going to spend twice as much money buying something new that they’re going to wear only a handful of times. On top of that, kids are messy! I’m not one to spend a ton of money on something that’s going to get food, dirt strains, and who knows what else on them.
I don’t know about you, but I also can’t find anything I like in stores anymore. Not just for the littles but for myself either. I’m not keeping up with the times or wearing the newest trends. I like what I like!
I’ve found a ton of name brand things for the kids like Carters, OshKosh, Childrens Place, Old Navy that are almost brand new in the thrift stores.
Brands like Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, Born Primitive, Gym Shark, my daughter has even found brands like Ralph Lauren and the new Brandy Mellville. For probably an eighth of what I would have paid. You can also find unique items that you wouldn’t find in the stores.
What makes it even better is they have discount days! Taking advantage of those days saves you even more.
You can still end up with a closet and drawer full of clothes but thrifting and buying used costs you a fraction of what you’d spend in the store.
Are You Thrifting Yet??
If you haven’t been to a thrift store yet, you need to go!
Check your local thrift stores. Find out if they have discounts days and utilize them. Take a look on Facebook marketplace and see what you can find. There are other apps too like Poshmark or Mercari if you’re looking for yourself.
If you have kids close in age, resuse them! There’s still a lot of life left in them. Unless they’re covered in stains or have holes in them, there’s no reason your next baby shouldn’t be able to wear them.
Don’t think that just because you’re buying used makes you any less of a mom because you’re still buying your kids what they need, just doing it a little smarter and cheaper.
Don’t be ashamed to be a thrifter. I turned my daughter into a one and she would rather go to the thrift store vs going to an actual store anymore.
