My Favorite Places to Buy Baby Clothes

Buying clothes for babies is not cheap. Even if you get started like we did with a lot of clothes being gifted to you by friends and family, you’ll reach a point where you have to buy more clothes for your little one as they rapidly outgrow the ones you started with.

Our little one has actually been growing somewhat slowly, so she’s been “behind” nearly a full size, which gave us a bit of a reprieve from clothes purchases for her. I’m not going to lie, that was pretty nice. Once she actually started outgrowing clothes, it finally dawned on me just how much money we would be regularly shelling out to keep up with her. Yikes!

Thankfully, fully-priced clothes are not the only option. Certainly, there are times when I like to buy new clothes for her (and myself), but there are also reasons to choose used.

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Why choose used

It’s cheaper, first and foremost. I don’t know anyone who isn’t excited about the possibility of saving money these days, and buying secondhand clothes is a simple way to do that. It stretches your budget and allows you to get more bang for your buck. You’re not limited to old-school styles and frumpy fits, either. You can find some great quality pieces if you look in the right places and give it some patience.

Buying used clothes also lengthens the lifespan of clothes already in circulation instead of sending them to landfills. Fast fashion is a problem, and choosing to buy used clothes is a simple way we can help alleviate it. Kids (and especially babies) outgrow clothes so fast, and because they’re so messy, they often have multiple outfit changes in a day. That adds up to a lot of clothing that would be wasted if we don’t find a way to pass it along and reuse it.

Reframing our thinking

One thing I had to consider when buying used (or pre-loved ;) clothes is that my expectations couldn’t be as high. I can’t expect them to come to me without any stains or a little wear and tear. After all, kids are notoriously hard on clothes, and they are so messy! If my goal had been to have pristine clothes, my only option would really be to buy them brand-new, and that costs a pretty penny. But because I don’t expect my daughter to never spit up, drool, pee, or poop on her clothes, I have to extend that same consideration to other people and their kids.

Of course, we all reserve the right to get clothes from others (no matter how we acquired them, more on that below) and not use them. Unless I truly didn’t have enough clothes in a particular size, I didn’t feel the need to put my daughter into clothes that were too worn or stained (at least if we were going out of the house). When buying clothes online, you can dictate what kind of condition you want them to be in, but you also pay more for newer clothes, so it’s kind of a trade-off. I personally would rather stretch my dollars and deal with some light staining, but it’s important for you to weigh your own options and decide what matters most to you.

Another thing I had to consider was just buying less clothing altogether. I can be an outfit repeater, and I’m pretty certain nobody would notice. We often also opt to just skip pants for our daughter if she’s warm enough in a onesie inside the house. And for the first several months of her life, unless I wanted to put “real clothes” on her for an outing or a photo, she lived in footie pajamas. Yes, babies need enough clothes for spills and stains-induced changes, and they rapidly outgrow their clothes, but they don’t need a huge wardrobe.

1. Size check

One other thing that can help save money that isn’t a specific place to purchase clothes is to consider the size options of clothes. Some clothes fit a size range (0-3, 3-6, etc), while some have a single size listed (3 mo, 6 mo, etc). The “whole” sizes (single month labels) fit between the ranged sizes in my experience, so it would go something like this in order of smallest to largest: newborn, 0-3, 3, 3-6, 6, 6-9, 9, 9-12, 12, 12-18, 18, 18-24, 2T.

That’s helpful to know because there are sometimes ways to rig the system. If you think your child will possibly need a larger size soon, maybe consider just sizing up from the beginning. Unless it would be so big that they can’t wear it (like buying shoes way too big that prevent them from being able to walk at all). It can be tricky to guess what size clothes kids will be in too far in advance, but I like to err on the side of caution and go a little bigger if I’m questioning it. When my daughter was 3 months old, she was still in some newborn clothes, but in a pinch, I could put a 3-6 or 6 month sweater on her because it doesn’t really matter if that’s too big. Her swimsuits were a little big this summer, too, but I’d rather have them too big than too small, and since we live in the upper Midwest, we only use them for a few months of the year, and I didn’t want to have to buy several (I bought one 3-6 month, and my mother-in-law gifted her a 6 month, both of which fit her, if a little loosely, all summer long).

2. ThredUP

I’ve been buying my own clothes from ThredUP for years, and I’ve loved the experience! I was so excited to recently discover that they also sell kids clothes!

You can select the sizes you’re looking for (and even save them to your account so you don’t have to reset the filters all the time), browse categories, save searches, save items to your favorites list, rack up points, and redeem rewards— all with secondhand items that are already less than the amount they retailed for originally! They also have items that are new with tags, so you’re saving money just because of overproduction or because someone else bought an item, never wore it, and decided to pass it along.

This is also a nice option because there is much more to choose from than looking at a thrift store in person or the two online options I talk about next. Even when I set my filters to one particular size (9 months when I was looking), set the condition filter to “used - very good,” and material selection to cotton, I had thousands of results!

ThredUP also has a good return option if things don’t fit, which can be tricky with some in-person thrift stores and online options, if it’s even an option at all. So that’s certainly something to consider.

3. Facebook Marketplace

I’ve gotten so many wonderful things from Facebook Marketplace, like most of the furniture for my daughter’s nursery (which I wrote about here). But did you know you can also get kids clothing? You can search by sizes (and save them, just like you can with ThredUP), search for specific clothing items, narrow your range, search by delivery type/pickup method, and more. I love comparing these prices to brand-new options to see just how much I can save— it’s like a game!

Of course, with this option and the one below, you do have to be more patient. I find it helpful to look for things well in advance of when I think I’ll need them. I looked for nursery furniture when I was 4-5 months pregnant to give myself plenty of time to find it, and I do the same with baby items and baby clothes. I sometimes look for the size my daughter is currently in, but more often, I’m looking a size up so I don’t feel rushed.

I recently got a Halloween costume for my daughter for $5 from Marketplace, and I can’t wait to put it on her!

4. Buy Nothing Group

If you’re not part of your local Buy Nothing Group on Facebook, I highly recommend checking it out! I can’t sing the praises of mine enough. I’ve gotten so many things in just the last year, and I’ve also been able to pass along things that I no longer use to neighbors I know actually want them (instead of just boxing up tons of items for donations to a charity, which we also do, but I love the personal connection here).

Just to illustrate my point, here is a partial list of items I’ve received since having our baby in January:

1. approximately 3 dozen pairs of socks

2. 4 Zipadee zip swaddles (from two different people)

3. a raincoat

4. Christmas jammies

5. board books (there were 6 of them)

I often see posts in our group with a large quantity of clothes or toys being given away with a note that people can take it all, keep what they want, and pass along the rest. This is so helpful for not only the people clearing it out (it’s all gone at once), but also for everyone who benefits from getting it!

5. Hand-me-downs

Of course, not everyone is privileged enough to have friends or family members who gift them with hand-me-down clothes. We have a couple of family members who have been kind enough to give us bins of clothes for our daughter, and it was a lifesaver! I don’t want to think about how much more money I would have spent already if I had to buy all of those clothes myself. If you don’t have people in your life who can pass clothes onto you, it might be worth seeking out in your neighborhood, church, or online to see if there’s a way to set that up.

I hope this helps you if you’re looking to save money on kids clothes. It can be expensive, but there are a few easy ways to find quality secondhand clothes for them that can help lower the cost. If you have any other tricks, I’d love to hear them in the comments!