Selling old clothes - DD having a fit - HELP!

[MtBikeLover]

I have finally had it with all the stuff in our house. I was going to have a yard sale but having to price everything will take YEARS! I have a total of 8 years worth of clothes (6 for my son and 2 for my daughter). There are probably 10 LARGE totes of clothes. Everything is brand name and in really good shape so I want to try to sell it before I donate it.

I found a mom through Craigslist who is going to come tomorrow so I pulled out all the sizes she is looking for. I put it in a pile in my room and my DD had a huge fit this morning. I explained that it was stuff that didn't fit her anymore and that if we wanted to bring new stuff into the house, we needed to make room for it. I told her that someone else needs these clothes. I told her she could keep some of the money that we got from selling it and buy a toy. i told her she could help me price it. (To that she replied "Well, I am going to make it really expensive so they won't want to buy it" ) I told her she could pick out 3 things that she would like to keep. Nothing has worked.

Please help me! What should I do? I would really like to get her buy-in on selling this stuff, but in the end, if I don't, I am still going to sell it. I am completely out of storage space and it has been sitting in my closet for 1.5 years. None of this stuff even comes close to fitting her anymore. And she hasn't even seen it in over 1.5 years.

Any ideas on how I can help her with this?

[EFmom]

I've got a dd like this. I routinely take stuff out of her dresser when it no longer fits, and put it somewhere where she won't see it. The key is to not let her know what I'm doing because if she doesn't know, she never misses the stuff. I give it away to the same person all the time, so it's not like I need to put it out at a yardsale, so that makes it easier. I'll admit, I'm not looking for her buy-in.

[astrophe27]

It's normal for the age.

I dealt it with it either by

a) telling her that we were lending it to them and they'd give it back when done. (That was the ONLY way we got the crib out of here). She's ok with sharing things... just dislikes giving them up.

b) Do it when she isn't around.

She got a little older, and now she's ok picking things and setting them aside for others. It helps that I now have some moms ahead of me who give US things for DD. So to her it now seems part of the cycle.

She gets things from X and we give things to Y because everyone is growing and then things don't fit them any more.

A.

[mamadebug]

I initially wanted my son to be a part of cleaning things out and passing them on. I think it is an important thing to learn. He was really upset the few times I tried to include him in the process. I think at this age, it is too hard to let go of stuff like this. While I am trying to teach him to share, asking him to give away many of his possessions all at once, even if he hadn't worn it or played with it in a long time, was just too much. He is OK with me boxing up clothes that don't fit or "baby toys" and storing them in the garage. Every once in a while, I go through and sell those things of craigslist or donate them, when he isn't around.

[IsellCandles]

I agree that she should be apart of the process. When her old clothes are bought, point out how happy the other person is because they have it now. Eventually it will take her getting used to, but as she sees that now she has room for more clothes- she'll like it.

[One_Girl]

I clean things out around the change in season and don't talk to dd about what happens to them because she has mostly forgotten about them by the time I donate them to the thrift shop. It might help if you bring your dd to the store and show her some of the stuff she will be able to buy with the money she is going to get from the sale of her clothing. Materialism often wins out at this age.

[lilyka]

honestly if she is having trouble parting with it I would just not involve her. She is clearly not ready for this yet and trying to get her on board is just making it harder for her.

[delicious]

i agree with not letting her in on it. i used to think this was a horrible thing, but really, it's the only way for me to pare down. i will take things when no one notices and store them for a month or so. if no one asks about it, i donate it. they almost never notice anything is gone.

i have talked to them about the importance of not having too much stuff, etc, and my 7yo is just now starting to get that. how her room stays cleaner when she has less, etc. also, she appreciates donating stuff and helping people out. my 5yo is not there yet. so he just doesn't get informed.

[MtBikeLover]

Thanks everyone! Unfortunately, since I didn't know she was going to get this upset (I've sold other things and it didn't bother her), I sorted everything and left the pile in my room so she had already seen it. And the person that is buying it is coming to my house to pick it up so she will be here. If I had known how upset she was going to get, I would have done it all in "secret" and just put it in my car and met the person somewhere.

But....when I got home tonight, she was fine with selling it. She picked out 2 things that she wanted to keep and told me she was ok with selling the rest and that she wanted to be here when they came to buy it. Phew!!

Next time, I am going to do it on the sly though!!