This summer we completed only a few projects from the to-do list, but one of them that made the cut was the cleaning of the closets. In the past, I was vigilant about selling my kids’ outgrown clothes on eBay or on forums where fashion-minded moms like myself were willing to pay top dollar for better brands. When my second child came along it became harder to keep up with the everflowing bins of outgrown clothing. I also wasn’t as meticulous about keeping the clothes in perfect resale condition, so I wasn’t comfortable selling them on eBay and depending upon buyers to read the descriptions for the fine print. I’ve given friends and family several hundreds of dollars in hand-me-downs but there was still an abundance of unworn clothing in my kids’ closets. This summer I decided to do something about it. Thanks to a bit of time and effort spent in going through these items, I was able to make a few extra dollars this month with consignment sales.

Unfortunately the fall consignment sales usually hit the calendar right around the time that school starts back. That’s probably the busiest time of the year for our family. Not only do I need to get my classroom ready, but I’m also getting my two children prepared for the new school year. Hanging and tagging used clothing is the last thing on my priority list. This year I utilized the express tagging service with our local consignment sale and it was TOTALLY worth the reduced commission on the sold items. Normally I would earn 65% of the sale; this time I will earn 45% of the sale. I think it was completely worth it!

To help you compare the cost versus the benefits, consider that I stayed up after midnight several nights in a row to prepare my consignment items in the past. On one night, I cleaned the closets and organized the clothes. I also spent time stain-treating anything that made it past my eagle eye before it was stored. Next, I set aside another night to enter all of my items online then print, cut, and safety-pin the tags to the clothing. In the meantime, it was also necessary to purchase about 100 clothes hangers because I never seemed to have enough on hand to get me through. Finally, the clothes had to be secured on the hangers. At some point on yet another day I had to make it to the drop-off point to deliver my items. Can you see how much time that took? I didn’t even mention the times I had to fight my kids to stay off the clothes, or convince my son that he really couldn’t squeeze his feet into last year’s shoes.

This year, I still had to go through the closets. That’s a given. Instead of all the hassle of getting items ready, I just packed them in bags. Keeping count of the items was helpful so that I could tell The Tagger how many items to expect. I was required to pay $10 cash for every 60 items so that supplies (printer ink, paper, safety pins, hangers) could be purchased.  I ended up having 180 individual items, so I paid $30 cash upfront. The Tagger and I agreed upon a meeting time and place for the exchange of all the bags. That was the extent of my work!! See the appeal of the tagging service?

Was it worth it? Let’s decide. I ended up taking 180 items to be tagged. The Tagger paired many of my items into outfits and 2-piece sets, so the total amount of items on my inventory was about 140 items.  She also called me after she started tagging to ask if she could outright purchase some of my items, so I got the full selling price instead of losing the consigning fee.  That was great for both of us!   The sale started on Wednesday evening. This was my sold items report as of  Saturday:

My commission will be 45% of that price. As you can see, nearly all of my items are sold.   Some of those items were purchased for close to the same amount of the selling price. For example, I purchased the Nike jacket/pants set at TJ Maxx for around $15 and it sold for $12 after my son got a year’s worth of wear out of it. Pretty great! Whatever doesn’t sell will be donated. For now, though, it’s encouraging to know that just a little bit of effort can help me to fund this year’s fall clothing. If you have a local consignment sale, consider replacing your cluttered closet with cash!

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for this post. The opinions shared here are 100% mine.