Declutter Kids’ Clothes Without Sending Them to a Landfill: Where to Sell or Donate

Trade In Through Clothing Brands

Some children’s clothing companies let customers return gently worn items for cash, discounts or rewards. One brand lets sellers list previously purchased pieces on its website using a style ID, photos and a condition description. Sellers can receive about 70% of the sale in cash or choose 100% as store credit.

Tea accepts its gently used clothing by mail and gives $5 off a future website purchase for each accepted piece. Another company inspects mailed-in items and issues gift cards for accepted clothes; it also accepts items from other brands, making it an option for larger cleanouts.

Use Online Resale Services

Online secondhand shops offer another route for children’s outgrown clothes. With ThredUp, sellers order a bag, fill it with pre-worn items and mail it in. The company handles inspection, photography, listings and shipping. Items that sell can earn the seller cash or credit, but the article cautions that the return may be small.

Try Local Children’s Shops

Some local shops buy children’s clothing and pay sellers a percentage when items sell. Once Upon a Child has more than 400 locations, where staff evaluate clothes while sellers wait and make an offer.

LaScala said her family visited each season when her daughter was a toddler, trading old clothes for pre-worn ones. She recalled that a second location sometimes accepted items turned down by the first.

Donate Clothes to Support Others

Goodwill accepts pre-worn children’s clothing at donation centers nationwide. The organization says donations help unemployed or underemployed adults build job skills. Goodwill recommends handing items to a staff attendant because some outdoor donation bins may be operated by for-profit entities.

The Salvation Army also accepts clothing of all types at drop-off locations across the country. Tim Raines, a marketing and development director for the organization’s adult rehabilitation centers in the USA Eastern Territory, said this support helps fund centers serving people facing issues including addiction and homelessness.