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Getting the Most out of Kid’s Consignments

by Filed Under: Closets, Organize, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Tips For Understanding Kids Consignments

Getting organized and deciding what and how to consign your children’s toys and clothes may feel overwhelming. But by following a few simple step and guidelines you can actually have fun and earn some extra cash! Here are some easy tips from Tiny Tadpoles to help you with your kids consignments.

First Step:  Save Time!

Go to a few children’s resale/consignment stores in your area. See what they sell. Look at sizes, brands, etc.  Ask what items they are currently accepting. Ask to subscribe to their email list. Most stores have a website &/or social media sites they update with items they need.  If it’s someplace you shop frequently, there is a good chance they will want to re-consign or purchase from you.

kids consignmentsSecond Step:  Get Organized!

Go through your children’s closets, drawers, toy boxes, and bookshelves.  Make 3 piles: 1. items that you want to keep (clothes still fit, toys are still being played with etc) 2. Items that you want to pass to friends or relatives, donate to a charity, yard sale, or toss.  3.  Items that you want to be considered for consignment.  Sometimes first timers aren’t sure what to put in this pile.

Here are helpful hints on what to consider consigning: only select items that you would want to buy yourself.  Consider what Season the store is currently taking. Preferred and designer brands are usually selected. Make sure these items are clean. Items that have been stored need to be freshly laundered. Button and snap everything. No excessive wrinkles. Make sure all toys are working and have all original parts.  Keep things current, toys and clothes over 5 years old aren’t usually selected.

kids consignmentsThird Step:  Start Consigning!

Bring your selections to the kid’s consignment store of your choice.  Most of them offer cash with an additional percentage to spend at the store. This is key when you have small children who grow so fast! Feel good about yourself. Your gently used item will be sold again at an affordable price and put a smile on another child’s (and mom or dad’s) face.

Most small consignment stores are locally owned by families in your community.

Bonus!! You’re keeping extra packaging and waste out of the landfill.

Kids ConsignmentsYes, consigning is a little more work than tossing everything in a bag for donation but by taking a little time to Understand Kids Consignments, it’s worth it!

The benefits of consigning include organizing your child’s room, making money, supporting local businesses, and reducing your carbon footprint etc!

Kelly Hartong

Owner

Tiny Tadpoles Children’s Resale Boutique

Kids Consignments

 

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Flip out of that Back-to-School funk!

by Filed Under: Closets, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

Does back to school have you in a funk?

For much of the country school is already back in swing. Maybe your feeling the back to school Overwhelm too! Last week I shared some tips (here) for back to school scheduling and this week I’m tackling systems for homework stations, wardrobe organizing and taming lunch/snack time stress. One suggestion all around is to involve your kids in at least part of each of these projects. You might prefer to just do it yourself and not have the hassle of the kids opinions and distractions but honestly when I work with kids they love to be involved and they tend to do a much better job of maintaining.  Most kids love order and organization!

Homework Stations

They don’t have to be fancy or complicated but carving out a specific area where you kids know they go to do their homework is an important part of their school routine. Every child and household is different so your system might differ but the main components needed are pretty simple.

What’s most important is a distraction free zone with a surface, quality task lighting and a comfortable chair. Depending on kids ages this might be in a family room, off the kitchen, at the dining room table or in their bedroom.  It’s great if you can incorporate permanent and convenient storage for common supplies-calculator, ruler, pencils, pens, erasers, notepaper, art supplies, books and anything else specific to your kids classes. Maybe a rolling cart and some bins are a good solution if your kids homework space doubles as a family area. Kids will often find a lot of excuses to keep them from doing homework, beat them to the punch and make them feel comfortable and supported for this important daily task that will help them build life long skills!

Kids Wardrobe and closet systems

kIDS cAPSule wardrobeHave you heard of a Capsule Wardrobe?

I hadn’t until I ran across this article.  I love this idea and I’ve naturally done this to some degree on my own (gravitate towards colors I love etc).  The full article is worth a read but I’ll give you a quick 5 step summary:

1.  Clean all the clothes and gather in one place.

2.  Sort and eliminate any that are not in good shape, don’t fit or are impractical.

3.  Look at the overall colors, style your kids gravitate towards and start gathering them into categories eliminating duplicates and oddballs that don’t fit with the scheme.

4.  Put clothes away, hanging and folding. You might want to try the Kon-Marie method of folding (Tee-shirt video here) or use a folding board.  Arranged by category (shirts, pants, shorts etc) and color to make it easier to mix and match outfits.

To make this work you may have to fill in some pieces if you find wardrobe gaps. Now you have the makings for a funky, fun and easy mix and match wardrobe system! This could be a great way to simplify your kids wardrobe and from there, the closet’s and clothes storage might be a little easier!

Easy lunch and snack time

Cat Bento Box Instructions

This is a category that I could go into for many posts and I’m sure I’ll come back to this subject because food prep and meals are something my clients often struggle with. Here are a few ideas for easy make ahead lunches and snacks And PLEASE don’t feel bad if you don’t have time to make kitty bento boxes every day!

Start with a well made, insulated and cute lunch box that’s easy to clean!

Back to School Overwhelm[Cute lunch boxes via honest.com]

Stock up on snack friendly foods (pre-packaged if you must or make ahead portions) and create snack stations in the fridge and pantry. Contain items that are snack friendly in bins, baskets or boxes and label them so everyone knows these are mom/dad approved. These should be age appropriately placed (lower shelves for smaller kids) and available with supervision and permission. Older kids can help themselves.

Back to School Overwhelm

[tons of lunch and snack ideas via realsimple.com]

Make lunches ahead and stock up on easy to prepare lunch foods. There are a million or more ideas on Pinterest and entire websites dedicated to kids meal prep. So many great ideas that I’m really just passing them along here!

Back to School OverwhelmHope you are no longer feeling like you want to pull your hair out or flip at the idea of back to school. If you can’t get it ALL done before school starts, remember it’s a process you can ease into. Pick the one or two areas that drive you the most nuts and tackle them first. Once you’ve got a handle on them add on other systems and remember to keep your kids involved and most importantly, have fun with them!

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Trend Tuesday::Organizing the closets

by Filed Under: Closets, Home, Inspiration & Education, Organize

I’ve noticed a couple trends for design and organization of clothing closets lately that I think are fun, functional, stylish and maybe a little over the top for some of you.  Just for fun let’s take a peek into some of these closets that are more like Boudoirs of the old days than any closet I have the space for!  Below I’ll hilight the trends and takeaways I think are helpful from each of these examples.

Babble

Monochromatic::Using colors that are “signature” such as this palette of purple, grey and neutral makes the whole look less distracting and easier on the eye.  Great idea for incorporating clothing into an “open closet” wall of a room.

Good Housekeeping

Above and below::Jewelry displayed in the closet.  Actually, whether it’s in the closet or on a wall in your room this trend is a lovely way to better see what you have to wear and decorate some empty wall space!

MerrickSArt

Lonny Closet

Above and Below::Fun, funky and stylish furniture in the closet.  I love how both of these pieces are being used for functional storage but also bring a real sense of style and sophistication to these spaces.  The closet becomes stylistically a part of the larger spaces.

Lonny Closet1

Below:: Most of us probably don’t have this many jeans and yes this photo and trend were probably taken from a shop display but I think using S-Hooks in all sort of unconventional ways is a brilliant idea for the closet!

s hooks

Give some of these fun closet trends a try in your own space and let me know if you find any other fun ideas!  If you want to see more Inspiring Organization check out my Pinterest Board here where you will also find links to all the photo’s above (hover over images for credits).

 

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Makeover Monday::A Closet Case

by Filed Under: Closets, Organize, Organizing Projects Leave a Comment

Back in October I volunteered at the Carolina Green Fair  Good Footprint clothing swap booth.  Since this was my first exhibit participation in Charleston I wanted to do something fun to give back to the community so I offered a free 3 hour “Closet Makeover”!  After the fair I selected the winner and was excited to discover it was local business owner and contributing writer for West Of newspaper, Katie Wells.  Katie writes a short opinion column weekly that I always love reading.  I knew that her columns lately had focused on some changes she was making both internally and externally and I got in touch to schedule her appointment at which point she also said she would like to write about this experience!  Of course I was super excited about the possibility of some press coverage but I knew the pressure was on to make sure this was a fun and helpful experience!

Katie is also on the  Board of the Green Fair, is very busy with her own business and always giving back to the Charleston community so I felt super good about her winning this makeover!  Katie had just moved her home office out of the guest bedroom and was in the process of looking for other ways to get more organized and separate her work and home life.  We both felt it was serendipity that she won this prize!

We met one morning in mid November and after a short assessment we dove right in!  I won’t give away all my secrets here but in Katie’s case we worked from the top and bottom and finished with all her hanging clothes and some slight re-arranging in her bedroom.  As we worked we sorted out things she didn’t want to keep and put away and relocated some seasonal items.

I’d like to note here that I never tell clients what to get rid of BUT if someone asks for my opinion I will give it and Katie asked if she could model a few pieces of clothing and I let her know what I thought was flattering, good quality etc.  Wardrobe styling is a service I offer!

We added the finishing touches by doing a little re-design and re-arranging in her bedroom and guestroom, nothing major just some simple changes that opened up the space and made things less cluttered.  Katie and I talked about her investing in some good quality hangers (I like flocked, wood and multi clip skirt/pant hangers) because she has a beautiful wardrobe full of lovely clothes!  I followed up with her giving her some recommendations for hangers, hooks and other useful closet organizing products.

Even without purchasing anything new we transformed her closet into an organized and neat space that makes it easy for her to select her outfits and see all of her clothes!  Katie wrote a short piece this past week about the experience, you might like to read about it from her perspective over at West Of…

If you’d like to see more closet organizing ideas and products please check out my Pinterest board for inspiration!

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Makeover Monday::His & Hers Walk in Closet

by Filed Under: Closets, Home, Organize, Organizing Projects 1 Comment

This was a case of a beautifully designed closet that just wasn’t functioning so well.  Without calling in anyone to redesign the closet or purchasing anything new we made do with what they had and re-organized some things so that more of what was needed fit into the closet in a neat and tidy way.

Her Side (Before left: After right)

About 4 hours later (mostly working by myself on this project) I had this closet finished.  On her side I sorted tops, bottoms and long dresses and jackets by clothing type and color.  I re-located less used special occasion items to a second guest room closet, created drawers designated for specific items such as hats, jewelry, belts and lingerie.  This freed up space for the client to use other bedroom furniture drawers for items that should not be hung such as sweaters, other knits and casual/frequently used items.

His Side (Before left: After right)

On his side I sorted full suits by season putting the warmer season suits to the front since we are shifting towards summer (at least here in the south).  This client also has quite a collection of bow ties and suspenders which I hung on a multi section hangers (often used for scarves or pants).  Again I sorted shirts and pants/shorts by type and color leaving suspenders attached to several pairs of pants in this case.

We got rid of almost everything on the floor and many of the decorative boxes and items cluttering up the shelves.  We used the shelves for shoes (both in and out of boxes and drawer bins), bags, hats (on the top shelves) and photo albums.  She liked keeping these albums in the closet but if she needed more shelving space she could remove them to another area in the future.  The closet is a nice space to keep photo albums if you have the room and you can always pull out a few at a time to have on display in a more public room of the house.

Tip: Store items that are not needed often in the back of deep corner shelves in containers that are easily pulled out.  For example shoe; a shoe shining kit. Label the edge of shelves so you know what’s hiding in the back of each.

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