We were done having kids and our youngest was four months old when I decided all the newborn stuff needed to go! I had recently read a few books that inspired my “clean house” approach including The Danish Way of Parenting and The Simple Joy of Tidying Up. Both books encourage giving away things to make space as both adults and kids thrive in clean spaces. With all the baby swings, boxes of “too small” clothing, and tubs of toys I decided to let go of some stuff.
A few friends of mine had been consigning at the Pass It On Sale and they described how easy it was to sell their stuff. I decided to try and ended up selling $439.00 of stuff! I didn’t have to list anything on Craigslist, Offer Up, Poshmark, etc. I just went through the How to Prep Your Items page and read through Pass It On’s how to’s to make sure things were ok to sell and prepped correctly.
Some things that really helped me make good sales:
- I read all the preparation pages on the website.
- I checked on the Facebook consignors forum to see if anyone had additional helpful tips.
- My friend Tori told me “if in doubt think about what you would pay for it.”
- I checked prices on amazon.com then discounted it by at least 60%, though Pass It On has an awesome guide for pricing.
- I didn’t price things based on sentimentality. If I felt sentimental I just kept it for a little while longer.
Here's all my clothing sorted by gender and size, ready for inspection! Unfortunately, I put all my hangers on backwards the first time. Oops!
Once I had it all sale ready I took it to the sale location and had it inspected. I was pretty nervous... BUT I shouldn’t have been. The inspector was another mom and she helped me understand all the little nuances of making sure things are ready. She found some stains I missed and taught me the best way to remove them. She also helped me better attach tags to multi-piece items so that things wouldn’t get lost. It was so encouraging that I left feeling good about being a part of the sale.
The sale technically runs from Thursday to Sunday with Sunday being a half priced shopping day. One of the perks of consigning and/or volunteering is that you get to shop on Wednesday before it gets super busy. My husband and I budgeted on projected earnings from the sale and that was my money to spend on Wednesday when I got to shop before the crowds. We bought our kids winter wardrobes and Christmas presents. I ended up spending $268 for an enormous amount of clothing, shoes, toys, books, sleep sacks, and other kid stuff.
This is my son exploring a new toy we gave him the morning after the sale!
Each morning when I woke up I checked on my earnings! It was fun to watch what sold first. It gave me a good idea about what is popular and what isn’t. Most of my higher priced unique items sold right away like a Portland themed mobile and like-new Columbia jackets. The items that lingered were items I had priced too high and newborn sized clothing items. It was an awesome learning experience and I have big plans to sell 90% of my items this next sale by being more strategic with pricing.
There is an option to pick up the items that don’t sell. I chose that option. The items were neatly boxed. A few weeks later I got a check in the mail and voila! I had consigned for my very first sale! And I will do it again for sure.