Selling at My First Kids Consignment Sale and How I Prepared For It

Selling at my first kids consignment sale and how I prepared for it

I tried something new again! And as always, it was so worth it. I just love trying new things!! It gives you a confidence boost and forces you to step out of your comfort zone.

I had heard so many people talk about the JBF kids consignment sale and the WeeUsables Consignment Sale. In an effort to declutter our house, I decided it was time to get rid of our baby stuff and try out this consignment sale thing. I had never even been to a consignment sale, but I decided this was something I could do and just might love!

Besides, what did I have to lose? It could be embarrassing to come home with no sold items, but that would just be hard on my pride. I could lose a lot of time preparing the items, but I would learn hard work and discipline. I wouldn’t really lose any money by trying it, since there was NO FEE to consign.

So I went for it!

My Secret to Preparing Clothing

I read a blog post on consignment sales and learned the awesome tip to throw my baby clothes in the dryer with some tennis balls in a sock, and a wet piece of clothing. All the wrinkles came out miraculously! (I ironed only a few items, and after experiencing the sale, I really don’t think I would need to iron at all!

After working at the registers, I saw that people paid the same price for stuff that was slightly faded or wrinkled, as the stuff I spent a lot of time on making look really good!

I don’t regret the hard work and discipline it taught me and would probably do it again, just to train myself in hard work.

A Must-Have Item I Never Knew About Before

I learned that having a fabric defuzzer is an absolute must! If you don’t own one of these fabric defuzzers, watch for one at a yardsale, or just go here right now and buy one. They are AMAZING! And they range from only $5-12.

I would think the cheaper ones would work just as fine as the more expensive ones. (I borrowed mine from my MIL, who I think probably got it at a yardsale.) You simply turn it on, lightly go over the neck collar and arm cuffs (or in some cases most of the pajama body part too!), and the little balls get eaten up. Absolutely incredible!!

All my infant onesie pajamas looked new after I did this one simple step. (I charged up to $4.50 for pajama sleepers, and they all sold during the presale! See what I priced my other items at in posts coming up on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.)

I Hung Everything As I Sorted

As I prepared all the items a few weeks before the sale, I started hanging everything on children’s hangers (that I got by asking friends on Facebook). You can also ask retail stores if they have extras (I heard Walmart will give them to you from under their registers). If you’re going to buy them, check out a Re-Uzit shop or thrift store for the best prices.

I am blessed with a very spacious basement laundry room, and the hanging space to be able to do this. The previous owners of the house hung clothes lines with eye hooks along the ceiling in rows, which is perfect for hanging and sorting kids clothes! I have also seen people install shower curtain rods in their laundry room to use for sorting. JBF Kids Consignment Sale Clothes Sorting and Hanging

I Entered Items with my Phone

I then went through and used my phone to enter the items into tags. I used SIRI on my phone and spoke the item descriptions into the text fields. This was a HUGE time saver for me!

I’m sure everyone is different, but I preferred this method to using the “bulk” enter method on the JBF tagging system on my computer.

I did decide to buy a Tagging Gun

Because I was hoping this was something I would like to do and would do it again, I did decide to buy a tagging gun. I will share more about my reasons for buying a tagging gun, and how little I paid for it in my post on How I Tagged My Consignment Sale Clothing and Miscellaneous Items.