Garage Sale Pre-Shopping

My friend Stef, her mother and her sister are having a Garage Sale today, tomorrow and Saturday.  Stef has two children, a boy (3 1/2) and a girl (2 1/2) - they're less than a year apart by weeks; Irish Twins.  Her sister, Erica, has a daughter who is about 6.

Stef has kept every single piece of clothing her children have ever worn.  Since she and her husband, Chris, are not having any more children, she decided that she'd sell her kids out grown and un-used stuff.  Back in April there was a huge garage sale type of sale called The Trendy Tot's Sale held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton.  I believe a portion of the proceeds went to charity but I'm not 100% on that.  However, that sale would not allow brands such as Target, Walmart, and K Mart to be sold.  (I'm not sure exactly why, but the argument was that children's clothing from these retailers is not quality clothing so they sale organizers didn't want those brands sold.)  Stef and her sister were able to sell a lot of their stuff at this Trendy Tot's Sale, but they also have a lot of clothing left over - hence the garage sale.

When I found out on Monday that we're having a boy, Stef told me to come by her Mom's place Wednesday after work and I could have whatever I wanted.  By the time I was done I felt as though I've ripped her off!  They already had nearly everything out on racks in the garage and they were all labeled with sizes, prices, etc.  I kept pulling stuff out and then putting it back on the rack.  Stef's mom, Fran, saw me do this several times and asked me if something was wrong.  I told her that I felt that I should give Stef a chance to make some money on this stuff before just taking it (they had flat out refused money from me).  Fran just laughed at me and said "If you like it - take it."  Stef also said nearly the same thing.  She said that most of the clothes she's gotten for each of her kids have been gifts from others so she's not really "out" any money by not selling it to me.  I think that's mostly BS to make me feel better.

When I was finished looking through the clothes, Fran directed me to a table that had sleepers, crib sheets, receiving blankets, socks, etc.  She then started pulling stuff out and handing it to me!

"Oh!  You need this crib sheet."
and
"Take these receiving blankets - they're so cute with sports balls all over them!"
and
"Jack just LOVED these Spiderman slippers.   Take these."

She even ended up giving me an extra mattress for a pack n play.  She and Stef both said that the mattress that comes with the pack n play is really thin, so it was nice to have an extra mattress for it.

I ended up coming home with two large Kohl's bags and two medium sized bags as well as the mattress!  I have forgotten how absolutely tiny a newborn baby is.  Even a baby a couple months old is tiny.  I was showing M a sleeper that's size 3 months.  He said "That's too small.  It won't fit him."  I looked at it, remembering how tiny they start out, and told him "Just wait.  He'll be swimming in it."

** For anyone in the Chicagoland area - There will be another Trendy Tot's sale sometime in September also to be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds.  I missed the one in April but plan on going in September and hopefully getting anything I may still need for the baby.  This sale has everything you could possibly need/want for Infants, Toddlers, and Children, and the clothing sizes go up into the Juniors.  When I get the information about the exact dates I will post the information here.