Join | Log in

Business

Alena Assaad

I Sold My Twins’ Outgrown Clothes. Then I Ordered 200 Pounds More.

Piles of secondhand clothes on a living room rug beside cardboard boxes. The title reads “From Baby Clothes to 200 Pounds: My Clothing Resale Experiment.”

I’ve saved baby clothes from one boy to the next for years. Sleepers, blankets, pajamas. If it was still good, it went back in the box.


Then my twins started outgrowing their newborn clothes. They’re probably my last babies, and for the first time I looked at that pile and thought, Who exactly am I saving all this for?

I considered selling everything together, but one mom might need a few sleepers and another might only be looking for newborn hats. So I put the pieces up individually on Vinted to see what would happen.

A dollar here. Two dollars there. Three somewhere else.

Eventually, those little sales added up to almost $200.

And you know what I bought with it?

Diapers.

Then I started looking around the house

Once I saw how those small sales added up, I started noticing things I’d been holding on to out of habit. Books my boys had passed over. Clothes I rarely wore. The baskets I’d used back when I sold sourdough.


Was I really going to start selling bread again with two babies at home? I could barely picture getting through a thrift store without someone asking me to keep the stroller moving.

Eventually, I ran out of obvious things to list and started looking through my husband’s closet. 😂 That’s where I found a bag of clothes I’d picked up on earlier thrift trips. I’d bought them thinking I could resell them someday. Then life got busy and the bag stayed in the closet.

I took pictures, listed the clothes, and they sold. On some pieces I made back what I’d spent and a little extra. After closing my previous business, I’d missed having something of my own to experiment with. This felt like something I could do in small pockets of time.

My first box of secondhand clothes

I thought about going to Goodwill for more inventory. The twins, however, prefer their stroller in motion. Try checking a shirt for stains while two babies explain exactly how they feel about you stopping.


So I looked for a way to buy secondhand clothes in bulk and have them delivered. I found a 50-pound mixed bale, signed up for the seller’s emails, and used the 15% discount on my first order.

Inside my first bale
$255 paid, down from $300
50 pounds of secondhand clothes
About 60–70 pieces, or roughly $3.64–$4.25 per piece before selling expenses

I started a spreadsheet to track what came in, what sold, and how much money came back. I usually listed two or three pieces at a time. That was a pace I could actually keep up with.


After about ten sales, the proceeds were equal to roughly 90% of what I’d paid for the bale. I still had around 50–60 pieces left. I was encouraged, and I still had selling expenses, hours of work, and a pile of unsold clothes to account for before I could say whether I’d made a profit.

What fits into half an hour?

On a typical day, I can photograph, check, describe, and list two or three pieces in about 30 minutes. Sometimes that happens during a nap. Sometimes I squeeze it in between other things around the house.


Sorting the clothes, finding somewhere to put them, answering messages, and packing orders take time of their own. Still, I like being able to put the work down when the babies need me and come back to it later. Some days, that’s the only kind of work that fits.

And then four more boxes showed up

I spent about $1,500 on four more boxes, around 200 pounds altogether. This time I chose boxes with more recognizable brands and styles I thought might sell better. I’ve sorted through them, and I’m happy with what I found. Now I get to see what buyers actually want.


I’m curious how long it’ll take to sell enough to cover what I spent, how much time I’ll put in, and whether I’ll still enjoy photographing shirts when I’m a few months into the pile. I like having something to figure out between feedings and diaper changes. I’m still deciding how much space I want it to take up in my life. Literally, at this point.

What I’d do if I were starting today

I’d start exactly where I did, with a few things I already owned. Selling the twins’ clothes taught me how to take photos, price a piece, and pack an order before I spent money on inventory. It also gave me a chance to see if I enjoyed doing it.


I’ll keep tracking what sells, what sits, and what I actually earn. In the meantime, I still smile when I think about how this started. I was trying to get a few newborn sleepers out of my house. Somehow, four boxes of clothes came in.

Next

Pinned to the Blog

Homemaking
You Don’t Need More Time. You Need Less to Manage.

How my journey to minimalism and intentional living started....

Personal Growth
Starting Over in Life: Why Changing Direction Doesn't Mean You Failed

Don't look for yourself, build yourself.