Your Guide to Buying Gently-Used Clothing And Toys For Babies and Kids in Mississauga

With the winter season quickly approaching, I wanted to compile a resource for buying gently-used baby and kid items in Mississauga, Ontario.

Babies and kids go through clothes and toys quickly; I figure why not purchase used items and save some money for Christmas gifts, am I right? Aside from social media connections, check out these worthwhile Mississauga resources:

Value Village
Referred to as "The Village" by my mommy friend, their Halloween section (with new costumes!) has the best prices from what I've seen locally. Clothes are usually decent quality, but what I also appreciate the most is the way items are organized by size and/or age.

Talize
I find the used clothing here a little dated, but depending on what you're looking for, they're slightly better quality compared to Value Village.


Kid to Kid Mississauga
Out of all the gently-used clothing places I've been to, this has THE best quality in used shoes. Prices are impressive, too! Bonus: if you sell your used items to the store, they'll give you cash or a store credit worth 20% more. (My advice? Take the store credit if you've still got kids. Think of it as "trading.")

Mom-to-Mom sales
Check out your community centre or parks and recreation guide for upcoming events; vendors consist of different local parents selling used clothes and toys. Sometimes these sales consist of an admission fee, but usually they go towards a great cause.

OutGROW OutPLAY sale events
Events happen twice a year; register as a consignor and OutGROW and OutPLAY will sell your old clothes (plus toys and baby equipment) for you. Or, hey, just shop around. Also, when you volunteer your time at an event, you can get up to 80% off your purchase.

Did I miss any other Mississauga stores or events? Let me know if I did; just leave your comments below, thanks!

I survived Mom to Mom, except one thing happened ...

As you already know, I'm an advocate for buying gently-used items. So last week, I was ecstatic when the Mom-to-Mom sale happened at the Frank McKechnie Community Centre in Mississauga!

Look to the right - see that pile of clothes? I got those, plus the clothes you can't see underneath, and new sandals for ...

$28.50!

I paid 50 cents to a dollar per item.

However, I got so excited, stupidity kicked my ass. Here's why: I didn't properly look over the clothes! When I got home, I noticed one shirt had a small stain on it (I was able to remove it, thank goodness!). Then it turned out the zipper came off of a hoodie I bought - d'oh!

Learn from my mistake, ladies and gents: Always double, triple, quadruple check gently-used items - after all, there's no return policy!

Have you ever made gently-used shopping mistake? What happened?

Another gently-used-clothing shopping source

Have you checked out Perfect Threads yet? It's an online store that buys, sells and donates clothes from sizes NB to size 14. I haven't bought anything from Perfect Threads yet, but I wanted I'd share my thoughts so far.

I'll be honest: I was initially skeptical at how the store defines the term "gently used". I don't always trust other people's standards; someone selling pants with food and poop stains could easily call those pants "gently used," if you know what I mean! BUT on Perfect Threads, you get to view an impressive close-up of each item they sell. If you click here, you can see how Perfect Threads adheres to a strict star rating system. So if I need to purchase items from this online store, I do have confidence in everything being in good "gently-used" shape.

Have you shopped here? If you have, let me know how your experience was.