I love Boutique For A Week’s kids consignment sale.  It is an opportunity for me to make some much needed cash for the holidays.  A lot of times, the money I make from the Boutique sale, I use for Thanksgiving holiday ‘extras’ and Christmas gifts.  I can usually make about $500-$700 at each sale!  How you say?  I’m so glad you asked.

 
In anticipation for the Sale, I will shop garage sales and find amazing items for next to nothing … less than $1.  I then bring my items home, check the retail price and make sure everything is in working condition for toys, and no stains, rips or buttons missing for clothing. 

 
When I am ready to price and tag my items, I have them all ready to go and will price the item for $3-$5, depending on the items brand.  If I price it right, I will usually double or even triple my initial investment of $1 or less.  By pricing my items at a reasonable dollar amount, I am pretty much guaranteed that it will sell.

Now, onto shopping for those Christmas presents for my friends and family.

 The thought of going through all the items that I could consign at the next kid’s consignment sale is daunting, to say the least.  However, I have found that this little exercise in staying on top of stuff around the house, and not allowing clutter to grow, is a great incentive for me to take time out of my busy schedule and earn some much needed cash.

Being a consignor for local kids and baby consignment sale is essential for me if I want to earn a few extra bucks and get the kids newer toys or new outfits.  I know that there will be hundreds, if not thousands of moms, just like me, who are all out for the same thing … getting a great deal and meeting the needs of my growing family.

Taking time to gather, tag and price my items to sell is a practice I’ve engaged in for about 3 years now.  I know that I have and will probably earn close to $700 if I price my items right.  Most kid’s consignment sales will only allow clothing and toys in nearly new condition.  I have seen that the competition is great, so I want my toys and clothing items to be the first great deal another mom gets to take home for her family.  

I also love the idea that at the end of the sale, any items I have left can be donated to a worthy charity in our community.  So, the benefits of consigning are:

• Earn extra cash
• Donate to the Community
• De-Clutter my house
• Get the kids ‘new to them’ clothes, toys, books, DVD’s and more

What’s not to like about that?

It is like all things in life, you get out of it what you put into it … or so the saying goes.  I’ve found that giving to others offers so much more in return than what I give.  Sometimes, like volunteering for a local kid’s and babies consignment sale, I get so much more in return when I volunteer.

A couple of the benefits of volunteering are:

• I get to choose from the very best selection of the items brought to the sale.  That means, NO ONE gets to shop before volunteers do!  I have found that in different seasons of my life, kid’s consignment sales have various options that allow me to help, both before, during and after a sale.
• If I’m able to, volunteering for more than one 4 hour shift will help me earn even more on the selling price of my items … a full 5% more or more, which really adds up.
• I’m able to get out of the house and do something I enjoy that’s totally different from what I’m used to … talking to adults, watching my items fly off the racks and even make new friends.

So, all in all, I guess the I would rephrase the saying to read ‘you get out of it way more than what you put into it”  

It seems that our children are growing out of clothes, toys, books, DVD’s at an alarming rate. It can be a very daunting task trying to figure out what to hang on to and what to sell at a kid’s Consignment Sale. In the past few sales, it has been a temptation to wait until the week before to tag and price all my items. Unfortunately, when I wait until the last week I realize there are lots of things I could have consigned that never make it to the sale, and I’m left trying to figure out if they’ll be appropriate for the next sale.A little planning ahead can not only earn you extra cash, but can save your peace of mind as well.

Here are my Top 5 ways to make sure I stay organized and on top of the clutter that will become cash at the next sale:

1. Have a day on your monthly calendar, mine is the 5th, that you de-clutter your closets and kids toys, DVD’s and books. If they’re not wearing it, playing with it, watching it or reading it, it goes in the bin!

2. Have a “Sale” bin to store things as you come across them.

3. As your kids outgrow things, wash them and hang them on a hanger in a separate closet or area that is for your Sale items.

4. Get your items to sell in one place – hangers, zip ties, safety pins, pricing gun, plastic tubs for non clothing items, etc

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5. Once the bin or closet starts to get full – take some time to enter the items into your tagging system – software provided on your Sale’s website. I usually do not have time to enter the items, print the tags and attach the tags all at one time so I usually do one step at a time.

• Step 1 – Enter items into system.
• Step 2 – Print tags, cut and hole punch them (I usually do this while watching a movie or relaxing with my hubby) If you use a ‘tagging gun,’ shown here … then you won’t need to hole punch your price tags.
• Step 3 – Attach tags.
• Step 4 – Put items in bins and store somewhere until the sale – Completely ready to go!

If you’ve not had time to do this, and still want to consign, many kid’s consignment sales have ‘valet’ tagging, which usually means the Sale will do all the tagging for you for a reduced percentage of your sold items. Now go out there and tackle that pile of clothes and toys and make some extra cash!