If you look in my 2-year-old daughter’s closet, you’ll see lots of pink, purple and traditionally “girly” clothes.
Ever since she was born, she has been receiving such styles as gifts, and I admit that I generally haven’t been so good about following my own money-saving advice to go for gender-neutral baby gear, at least when it comes to clothes.
So, now that we’re about to have a baby boy (or at least, we’re 99% going to have a baby boy), I’ll either have to dress my little man in his sister’s old clothes (dyeing the girly clothes blue has crossed my mind and yes, some crafty parents – like Polly Conner of Thriving Home blog – have done this), or I’ll have to amass a new wardrobe of more “boyish” designs.
Luckily, my husband and I recently came up with an idea for how we can easily gain a new wardrobe without spending a dime: We plan to trade baby clothes with friends who already have little boys and are having, or recently had, infant girls.
This strategy — swap gender-specific styles with friends who have the opposite boy-girl birth order than you — is today’s hint.
We aren’t the first ones to come up with this strategy for scoring free baby duds. Many of my friends have employed – and swear by – it, and others have also suggested it, including blogger Outdoor Fuss and moms commenting over at Baby Center.
And hurdles like no pregnant friends living nearby don’t have to stop you from employing similar strategies. For instance, you could find people who live by you to do such a trade with on local parenting swap Facebook groups, or you could attend a local clothing swap event (think Little Swappies).
Another similar strategy is to set up a virtual swap with friends who live in other cities (during a quick search, I came across a site, Swap Etc., that aims to help you do this, or you could just do it informally over email or Facebook). You also may want to check out nationwide clothing swap sites like Double Dutchery.
Finally, another related idea is to trade your old adult styles for a friend’s baby clothes, assuming you can find a friend willing to do such a trade. One way to find such friends is to host a clothing exchange party, where attendees trade all sort of clothes. (The Minimalist Mom has some helpful tips on how to host this kind of party).
Of course, a simple trade with a nearby friend is the least time intensive option, if you can make it happen. Though, you’ll still have to spend some time sorting through your little one’s old clothes to determine what you want to trade — a task that’s still on my to-do list (along with figuring out if there’s a safe way to dye pink baby clothes blue).
What are your money-saving tricks for amassing clothes for younger children that are different genders than your first child? How have you turned boy clothes into girl clothes and vice versa?
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I have a great hint for you – take my son’s hand-me-downs! 😉 Seriously, the boys will be almost exactly a year apart which is awesome for having seasonally-appropriate clothing. One of my friends had a boy almost a year to the day before mine was born, so we got all of hers and saved a ton myself.
Thank you! I will take you up on that:)
Great ideas! I had a girl first and then a boy and I got a bunch of hand me downs from a friend with two older boys. Then I tried to get gender neutrals for some of my daughter’s stuff so he could have it later (water shoes, winter coats, sweatshirts), but now he weighs even more than her even though he is 15 months younger, so trading may come in handy!