How To: Child & Maternity Clothing Swaps

Clothing swaps are becoming a big hit these days. They're definitely a frugal way to upcycle your children's old clothing & buy new for the coming season. I thought I'd share the details of how things work with two popular sites -- ThredUp and OutGrowingIn.

OutGrowingIn is a site that helps you swap kids & maternity clothes that have been outgrown or not being used. It's free to join, and might be a good way to do some spring cleaning in your childrens' closets! Here's how it works:

1. Go HERE to register.
2. The site is free, but if you enter code FREEYEAR while you're signing up, you'll get a year's worth of premium services & perks for free.
3. OutGrowingIn will send you some prepaid shipping boxes.
4. List your box of clothing (they help you specify sizes, genders, etc), pack it in the box and wait for someone to purchase.
5. When someone purchases your box, you are emailed a pre-paid shipping label. Stick it on the box and drop it at the post office.
6. Once you've listed a box, you get to choose a box (see, it's a swap!) and just pay $3 + shipping, which comes out to $14.95 or $15.95 (depending on premium or regular membership).

You end up getting about 15-ish children's items per box, so it's less than $1 per item. Not bad!

ThredUp is another clothing swap site just for children's clothing, and they actually had a great deal through DealPulp a few weeks ago. Here's how this one works:

1. Go HERE to register an account. (Your first box is free for a limited time!)
2. You can pick a box and pay $5 + shipping = $15.95
3. ThredUp will send you mailing boxes.
4. List your box of clothes (they will help you specify sizes & gender). And don't forget to check out their FAQ if you have troubles - they even have some helpful videos that show you how to pack a box.

Here again, you'll end up getting between 12 and 15 items per box, depending on the season, which comes out to around $1 a piece!