Save Money by Making a Children's Clothing Inventory
If you read my previous post about girl's fashions you probably gathered that I am bit obsessed with children's fashions. I love dressing our kiddos, especially Emma, but it is super fun to dress our handsome little man too.
As much as I love dressing them and finding cute clothes the thing that makes me way giddy is finding deals on clothes for them! That is why I love shopping at resale events! Have you ever been to these? They are amazing and they are popping up all over the country. If you are interested in finding one there is an amazing website called Consignment Mommies that has a directory of resales around the country.
The resale that is near and dear to my heart is getting ready to launch March 12!
At our sale I am selling items this year and I will also be shopping. The sale is a Spring and Summer sale only so I am only shopping and selling things for those two seasons.
Since our sale is coming up I am currently getting items ready to tag to sell. I realize that everyone does this differently but I thought I would share with you what I do to get our items ready to sell and to prepare myself for some serious shopping!
A couple of months before the sale I make a list of every type of clothing and shoes the kids have. As you can see I am clearly an old-school, write it down kind of girl. You could always type it out and print it or just keep it on your tablet or phone. But then you don't get to write with a purple pen so seriously, where's the fun in that? :)
This serves as my master list for two different purposes.
The first way I use it is that we go through it and try on clothing by category. Emma is old enough that she knows the way the list works, will look at it and decide what category to try on. If she's feeling it we'll try on a two or three categories just to get through it.
So here's what we do: We're at the stage of the game right now that they try on at least one category every day, we put everything that doesn't fit in a bag, and those things go into our guest room which is where I stage everything that needs to be tagged to sell. Some items get donated or I separate for family members but regardless, the too smalls go to the guest room to clear space.
The things that do still fit get written down on the list so I know what clothes we have for the upcoming spring and summer.
I then cling to this list like Rose to shipwreck. I mean, this sucker goes with me everywhere. So when I am at the resale and I am looking at shoes I can pull out my list and see if Calvin already has a pair of leather flip flops or if he outgrew his. Or with sweats. Or bathing suits. Or whatever.
And I don't take the list with me just for the resale but also to Target or Gymboree or when I am looking on Zulily, or wherever. I can pull it out and see what we need and what we don't. I circle categories I really need and that reminds me to focus my attention on looking for items in those categories.
These are the categories I use for a girls wardrobe (I'm assuming you can't read my chicken scratch in the picture there):
- sandals
- flip-flops
- flats
- Athletic shoes
- Slippers
- skirts
- Jeans
- Athletic pants (think track pants)
- Leggings
- Shorts
- Capris
- Tank Tops
- Short Sleeve
- Light Long sleeve
- Cadigans
- Sweatshirts
- 3/4 sleeve shirts
- Jackets
- Outfits
- Dresses
- Ballet Tights
- Ballet Leos
- Swimsuits
- Swim cover-ups
- Tights
- Camisoles
- Underpants
Of course you can alter this any way you see fit. As I'm writing this I'm remembering that she will be in tennis this year and softball so I will need to add categories for tennis skirts, cleats, etc. As you can see on my picture above, I leave spaces based on what we have more of. She has a ton of outfits, that's the way I prefer to dress her, so I left more room to list those. You can tweak it however you want.
For a boy's wardrobe these are the categories I use:
- Sandals
- Flip-flops
- Slip Ons
- Church Shoes
- Jeans
- Athletic Pants
- Pants
- Shorts
- Tanks
- Short Sleeved Shirts
- Polos
- Oxfords
- Long Sleeved Shirts
- Cardigans
- Jackets
- Sweatshirts
- Outfits
- Ties
- Swimsuits
- Swim Shirts
- Underpants
- Under shirts
So if you are planning on shopping at our resale or any resale, or anywhere for clothing for the upcoming seasons, you should make a list and write down the inventory you already have! It helps you see what you already have, what you need, and how blessed you are by what you have! It also helps you to not overspend because you won't be overbuying in areas where you already have enough.
As an example yesterday I visited a Once Upon a Child and with the list I knew that Emma needed a new pair of sandals so I was able to snag some super cute ones for a song.
Also as you can see I have these written right now on a pretty beat up old notebook which is perfectly fine.
I had this genius idea though! I've been carrying a new journal around since September and I LOVE it! I write everything in it...meeting notes, lists, business goals, etc. So I will be transferring the lists over to the journal since I carry it with me anyway. You can get your own here. I LOVE Molly & Rex products, their illustrations are so sweet. In my journal the pages are all decorated and so inspiring. Love, love, love it.
Happy Inventory Taking!