USED BABY CLOTHES
We start at six months, because that's roughly when it starts.
None of that is wear. It's timing. A baby is in a size for a matter of weeks, and plenty of what's in the drawer never gets its turn.
Every item is looked at by hand before it goes into the closet. We check seams, snaps, zippers and elastic. We look for pilling, thinning at the knees, stretched necklines, stains that survived a wash. Anything with a loose button or a drawstring near the neck doesn't go in at all.
Plenty doesn't make it. That's the part most people don't expect, and it's the reason the rest of it is worth having. When a bag comes back to us, we tell you what was accepted and what wasn't, item by item, with the reason.
Search what to do with outgrown baby clothes and you'll find the same list every time. Make a quilt. Make a memory bear. Save the special ones in a keepsake box. Host a yard sale. Consign the nice pieces. Drop the rest at a donation bin.
Those are good ideas and some of them are lovely. We're not going to talk you out of the keepsake box. But they all work on one or two pieces, and none of them touches the other forty. The quilt takes a weekend you don't have. The consignment sale takes tagging, hauling and waiting, and the check that comes back rarely feels like it covered the afternoon. The donation bin is the one everybody defaults to, and nobody can tell you what happens after it.
This is for the rest of it. The bag in the hallway closet that's been there since spring.
Brands like Janie & Jack, Gap, OshKosh B'gosh, Polo Ralph Lauren, Hanna Andersson, Tea Collection and Petit Bateau, in 6-9M, 9-12M, 12-18M and 18-24M. Some of it still has tags on.
What's here changes as bags come in and items go out, so this is a sample rather than a list. Browse the closet to see what's actually available today.
Fill a bag with what no longer fits, send it back with the prepaid label that came with it, and earn credits for everything that meets the standard. Then spend them on the next size. Shipping is covered both ways.
Every item is inspected by hand before it goes in the closet. We're looking for what you'd check yourself: no stains, no holes, no pilling, no stretched necklines or cuffs, snaps and zips that still work, prints that haven't cracked.
Some things we don't take at all. Socks and underwear, anything with a stain that's set, anything where the elastic has gone. If it wouldn't pass in our own house, it doesn't go in the closet.
Clothes are the easy end of secondhand. The real hazards are mechanical and visible: snaps and zips that no longer close, buttons and appliques that have worked loose, and drawstrings at the neck or hood. Drawstrings aren't a matter of opinion, either. The CPSC has recorded 26 deaths from drawstring entanglement, and since 2011 a neck or hood drawstring on children's outerwear has been a federal safety violation. We check all three on every item.
There's one exception worth knowing about, and it's sleepwear. Flame-resistant sleepwear only keeps working if it's been washed correctly, and you can't tell by looking whether it has been.
What doesn't belong in a swap at all is gear that ages out of safety: car seats, cribs, crib mattresses. Those get recalled and they degrade, and there's no way to know a car seat's history. Clothes aren't like that.
Everything is laundered before it's listed, so what arrives is ready to wear. That said, most parents run a load anyway before anything goes on a newborn, and we'd do the same.
You don't need hot water or anything special. A normal cycle with whatever detergent you already use is enough, and the dryer does most of the work on anything you're worried about. If you want to be careful, wash the first batch on its own.
Baby runs 6-9 months, 9-12, 12-18 and 18-24. From there it carries on through 2T, 3T, 4 and up to 7, so you don't have to leave when your baby stops being one.
One thing worth knowing if you're shopping secondhand generally: sizes aren't consistent between brands, so go by weight and height rather than by the age on the tag. A 12 month from one label can be a 9 month from another.
Before six months, a baby is mostly wearing things other people bought, and nothing has been outgrown yet. Then one morning the sleeper doesn't fit, and the drawer that was too full is suddenly the wrong size.
There are plenty of options: resale sites, local consignment stores, marketplace apps, Buy Nothing groups. Most of them are shops. You browse, you buy, you're done.
KidSwaps is a swap. Every plan comes with a bag, prepaid in both directions. What you send in earns credits, and credits are what you spend on anything in the closet. If you'd rather shop first, you can add credits when you sign up and send your bag whenever you're ready.
If they meet the same standard we hold everything else to, send them. Fill the bag, use the label that's already on it, and what's accepted becomes credits you can spend.
What we can't take is donated rather than returned, so send what you'd be glad to see go. We always tell you which items didn't make it and why.
There are four plans depending on whether you want clothes, toys, or both, and round trip shipping is included in all of them.
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