Baby Clothes, Please Help!

[BreatheMama]

First of all I have been committed to decluttering, simplifying and getting rid of the chaos in my home.

OK, so we are done having children, we have two girls 4 and 10months, if by chance we hads another great, but we are not planning of having another. Both of my sister in-laws gave birth last week to girls. I have LOTS of newborn-size 5 clothes.

I also have two sisters that are younger and wont be starting families for sometime. That said, the clothing I have is really nice thanks to a very generous Aunt and Mom. The sister in-laws feel entitled to the clothing, although never reciprocate. One of them already has a 2 year-old daughter the other it's her first.

Then I'm tore about consignment and also just donation.

So what do I do: Give it to the sister in-laws
Save some for my sister’s potential future girl babies
Consign/donate
Combo of all

I feel the perfectionism creeping in, keeping it fair, give to everyone, and take care of everyone.

I'm paralyzed and nothing is getting done, my 10month old dd's room is over taken with 3-12 months clothes and the attic is full of the larger ones. Help!

[chely7425]

I would give some nice usable basics to the SILs... especially the one who this is her first. However, I would save the really special pieces for my sisters. My boys have sweaters that were passed down thru me and my siblings then my cousins and now my kids, those pieces I will be saving for when my siblings have children, which most likely won't be for awhile as they are only 17.

[abharrington]

i agree with pp...i would you keep your most favorite outfits, just a few, from each size. keep these for either another suprise baby of your own or for those of your siblings. i would give the rest to the SILs. thats what i'm doing.

[greenluv]

I'd be consigning them so I could buy bigger sizes. Kids clothes are fairly easy to come by when the sizes are small so I doubt the SILs would suffer from you selling the clothes.

[justmeandmybrood]

I would most likely consign most of it to help pay for more clothes for my own babies, saving some of the nicer pieces for my own sisters. We started saving some things for our family members who were not even close to having babies, but after a few years and a few moves, decided to just get rid of most of it - I did not want to be a storage unit any more, lol!

Good luck - never am easy choice, but I would not feel compelled to necessarily keep any of it for anyone (though special pieces might be nice)!

[elsie]

I'm far too lazy to bother to consign. I would just invite them over, show them the big pile and donate whatever is left over.

[Kindermama]

Originally Posted by abharrington

i agree with pp...i would you keep your most favorite outfits, just a few, from each size. keep these for either another suprise baby of your own or for those of your siblings. i would give the rest to the SILs. thats what i'm doing.

ditto! Or you can give them to SIL with the intention of getting them back when they are done!

[justmeandmybrood]

Elsie, all I used to do is throw the clean clothes on hangers and take them to the local children's consignment shop (not a mom-to-mom kind of sale) - consigning this way is SUPER easy

[clutterwarrior]

If there are one or two, even three outfits you love and are attached to...put them aside and if your sister ever has a girl you can offer them to her if you still desire.

Apart from that I would consign the rest of them, unless there are some which are not that good and unlikely to sell and pass those on to the SILs. As they apparently behaving 'entitled' that way they are only getting the ones you really don't want, and yet you are appeasing their sense of entitlement.

[LaughingHyena]

I got rid of most of the basics, they are pretty easy to get again here so I can;t justify the space they would take up.

I did save a few outfits, mostly ones which were gifts from family members or which were knit by my gran. I knew not all these people will still be around (or able to knit) when my sister is ready to have a baby and I think she will appreciate having a few items which they chose.

Since said sister is now pregnant I offered her a lot of the baby stuff with the provision that she lets me know when she is done with it and I'll let her know whether to send it back to me or pass it on again.

[BreatheMama]

Oh thanks for the input, In retrospect I wish I had established that I consign everything and avoided the SIL pressure. I know at least one of them feels like " why would you consign when I want/need them". Anyhow I think I'm going to go with a combo type approach (SIL, save special pieces for my sisters and give/consign some).

In some ways the SIL are a catalyst because I think I would just keep it all for my sisters, whether they want it or not The equipment is another story the SIL have everything and no way I'm keeping all that stuff! I'm thinking yard sale in the fall when 10month dd is completely finished with it all.

The cloth diaper are another story all together, the dilemma continues, save for sisters? consign/Craig’s list? Although wont be an issue for a while, I did already sell/give newborn prefolds and wraps.

OK off to declutter, clean and mother my babes.

[OkiMom]

Personally it drives me NUTS when people feel like they are entitled to something so that would put me up in arms. I remember when a church acquantance found out she was pregnant with a girl and said "Oh I don't have to buy clothes Sister M can give me all her baby clothes!" I was like no way. Anyway, I hadn't told anyone but I was pregnant and even if I wasn't I don't like people like that.
Personally I would consign some, save some for my sibling and maybe give some to the SIL thats her first. Unless I KNEW the other sis-in-law had NEED for the items I wouldn't worry about giving her any. But Im not known for my niceness.

As for cloth diapers, save the special ones (you know the cute ones you got because you fell in love with them) and consign/sell the rest.

[justmeandmybrood]

Sounds like you have come up with a great solution! If I may recommend one thing - rather than yardsale the gear, I would recommend Craigs Listing or consigning them, if your yard sale "market" is anything like the places where we have lived.

Good luck!

[kt~mommy]

i would be inclined to leave the entitled sil's in the dust : i would tell them i needed the $ for bigger sizes, or i was saving the clothes in case we have more. I'd talk to my sisters and if there are things they are definatley not interested in having someday, consign/sell, and if there are things they'd like, give it to them now (if that's an option) or agree to store for them/keep for another baby.

[lucyem]

There was a point I kept clothing for my sister "just in case" she had a baby. She never did. I ended up with a bunch of baby clothing I eventually had to deal with in one way or another. Presently my other sister had a baby and started communicating again. It is wonderful to just pass on things as my boys grow out of them since her son is not that much younger then mine. Wish she had communicated earlier she would have had baby clothing too

Soooo I would say to give a few nice things to your sisters (and/or consign) and give all the rest to your SIL's. Make it clear to SIL's that you would appreciate the baby stuff handed onto your sisters if they have babies. Then you would be free of all the extra baby stuff you no longer need.

[BreatheMama]

Wow, It’s harder than I thought! I noticed a couple other posts about the baby clothes and wanted to commiserate. I have everything pulled out and I'm trying to sort, keep for sisters, give to SIL #1 and #2, Craig’s list and donate. Maybe its just part of the process of letting go... to go through each piece and remember and move on. I don’t know...perhaps Just putting it all in a bag and consign it would ease the pain of purging.