Five Things to Do with Unwanted or Outgrown Clothes

As seasons change, often so do styles and body sizes (at least for sure when you’re living with kids).  So, at our house, we are often shocked when suddenly people are able to grab a whole pile’s worth of clothes out of their closet of things that just don’t work for them anymore.

In fact, right before school started this fall, we found ourselves pulling almost all of Molly’s clothes out of her closet.  It was borderline ridiculous.  I went from one day of thinking that she had a bunch of clothes to the next day of noticing that none of the fall and winter things worked from last year.

On the up side, while it does mean getting new clothes, you have options for what to do with unwanted or outgrown clothes.

Hand-me-downs

This doesn’t have to be limited to people in your own house.  While it’s perfect for us that we have two sons, Molly is our only girl.  But, since we have a niece that’s just a few years younger, we save all of Molly’s clothes for her.

Still, it’s doesn’t even have to be other family members.  We were thrilled one fall when someone from church asked if we happened to need a winter coat for Molly, since her daughter is older than Molly.  That was a great blessing, since coats are not cheap.

Hand-me-downs via Social Media

This probably could have been included in my last heading, but I gave it its own instead.  Places like Facebook are a great way to give hand-me-downs to people that you might normally never consider asking.  When we once had two large garbage bags full of Jack’s outgrown clothes, I asked if anyone local wanted two bags of boys clothes of those sizes.  A local friend was thrilled for them!

Now, it doesn’t only have to go that direction though.  I recently had a friend who posted on Facebook looking for a certain size boy’s winter coat.  She had gone to the store and was shocked at the price, so she thought she’d ask on Facebook instead first.  Within just a couple of hours, she had offers of at least six coats of the correct size that people had just laying around their houses.

Donate The Clothes

One of our favorite ways, especially since it’s quick, is to donate unwanted and outgrown clothes.  The options by you might vary, but most locations have things like Goodwill, church run missions, and more.  Pick your favorite and donate there.

Sell Them

There are a variety of ways to sell clothes.  I sold a lot on Ebay when my kids were small, but haven’t really tackled that in a long time.  I also did a few consignment sales when they were just a little older.  For now, I generally prefer to just do hand-me-downs or donating.

However, here are some ideas of ways to sell clothes:

• Ebay
• Garage Sale
• Online Garage Sale-types of Sites/Groups
• Limited Time Consignment Sales
• Consignment Shops or Resale Shops
• Posting Items to Friends on Facebook

Upcycle into Another Project

You probably can’t do this will all of the outgrown or unwanted clothing, but it might be fun to pick a few things to make into other things.  Just a bit of Googling or checking out Pinterest will leave you with tons of ideas.  For instance, a large old shirt might be turned into a girl’s dress.  Another favorite is to cut up favorite old shirts and make them into a quilt.  Or, like we did, a sweater can be turned into a stuffed monster.

What about you?  Are there other things that you do with unwanted or outgrown clothes?

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