Consignment 101

I love consignment sales! You've heard me go on before about the awesome benefit of hitting up consignment sales - its the easiest, cheapest way to outfit your kid(s) with clothes, toys, and gear.

The next three weekends, there are sales across the area and I can't wait. This morning I stopped by one of the smaller sales this season and made out like a bandit - I was quite shocked. I was on the hunt for fall/winter clothes, wooden puzzles, shoes for C and gender neutral sleepers for the newbie. I ended up getting:

Two pairs of track pants, Dr. Seuss Converse sneakers, four long sleeve shirts, six onesies, three sleepers, one two piece outfit, a hanging closet organizer, a Melissa and Doug wooden puzzle, a Lego Duplo table with a ton of blocks, and a Little Tikes easel.....all for $56. Can't beat that! All of the clothes for C were good quality brands like Osh Kosh, Gap, and The Children's Place and the baby clothes were all Carter's.

You can find consignment sales near you by checking your local Craig's List or the Kids Consignment Sales website - a national listing of sales. There are usually fall and spring sales, so plan accordingly!

Here are some of my favorite tips for shopping consignment sales:

1. Check what forms of payment they take before you go. Some take credit/debit, but smaller ones may only take cash. Be sure to bring enough money!
2. Try not to bring kids with you if possible. I had to bring Charlie this morning and while he was well behaved, it was hard to tote around my loot and push his stroller all while keeping him occupied. 
3. Bring a large bag or laundry basket. Some sales have big bags (like Ikea bags), but some do not. 
4. Write down the sizes/seasons and items you're looking for before you go - especially if you're keeping your eye out for nieces, nephews, or friends. 
5. Find out if you can shop early! First time or pregnant Moms, volunteers, and consignors can often per-register to shop before the general public.
6. With few exceptions, if there are more than 3-4 of any one kind of toy on the table, chances are its an annoying or uninteresting toy that parents were happy to get rid of.
7. Be picky about clothing brands. Don't spent $2 on a Granimals shirt from WalMart when it costs $3 new. $4 for a pair of gently worn Osh Kosh or Levi's jeans? Much more worth it. 
8. If you find a large item you want (stroller, big Little Tykes play set, etc.) pull the tag off and bring it up to pay. You can physically pick up the item later on after you pay. 
9. Consider what can be cleaned and what cannot. Stains in clothing are probably set, but most toys and baby gear can be thrown in the wash or wiped down to look like new. 
10. Check for recalls. Typically, consignment sales and children's resale shops are not permitted to sell recalled items. If you have any concern about an item, however, (especially if it looks old or worn) check recalls on your smart phone or don't buy it. Its not worth the risk.
11. Most sales have a 50% off day on the last day. I usually try to go to sales the first day and the last day to cover my bases for selection and deals.

What's the best steal you've gotten at consignment? What are your favorite consignment shopping tips? Happy shopping!

Tasty Thursday: Crock Pot Mac and Cheese

Who doesn't love macaroni and cheese? Even more than that, who doesn't love one pot dishes that you don't need to tend to? Hooray for crock pot meals!

Ingredients: 

2 cups of dry elbow noodles
2 cups of skim milk
12 oz can of evaporated milk
1 can of Campbell's cheese soup
1 egg
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterrey jack cheese or Swiss (something not cheddar)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


Directions:

Spray crock pot with cooking spray.
Wisk together egg, milks, and cheeses, then add dry pasta. 
Cook on low for about 3 hours keeping an eye on it and stirring once or twice for good measure. 

If it bakes too long, it can get dry. Its definitely a different kind of mac and cheese texture, but so delicious!

Wordless Wednesday: Big News!

C has some news to share with you!

 And how C really feels about the news...

When Toddlers Get Taller

My tiny little guy is getting way too big! I feel like we've been in a constant pattern of moving things around to keep them out of his go go gadget toddler hands. Since moving him to a twin bed in his new room, we've been especially careful about keeping his room super toddler proofed (or at least as well as we possibly can - toddlers are crafty little people).

One thing we realized needed a look were his books and toys. We don't mind having his books and toys out and available in his room. If he gets out of bed, at least he has something to do instead of screaming for us to come get him out. It buys us a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning!

The main storage unit in his room is a 4 x 2 cube unit from Target with a few fabric drawers for blocks and toys. No worries, people - its anchored to the wall. ;-) Originally, we put all of his hardback and jacketed books in the top cubes and board books in the lower cubes within his reach. Well, now at 33 1/2", he can reach his little hands up to the top shelf and get down most of his nicer books. While he hasn't destroyed a book yet (*knocks on wood*) I didn't want to take any chances.

Hardbacks went up on the dresser and paperbacks, board books, and puzzles made their way into the cubes. 

Another reason we wanted to clear up some space on his bookshelf was to bring out some puzzles. Normally, they're stuck in one of the fabric drawers. He's recently taken a huge interest in puzzles, so we wanted to make them more visible. An extra pot lid rack makes for perfect puzzle storage!

It amazes me how big he's getting and how his preference in toys is changing. We've put away all of his baby toys and begun collecting more complicated big kid toys like puzzles, blocks, tools, cars, and musical instruments. I love reorganizing his room!

Cloth Diaper Revamp

We've been happily using our bumGenius cloth diaper with C for over 18 months now, but a few things have thrown a wrench in our perfect system. Between toddler pee and hard water, we are starting to get....the stinkies.

What are the stinkies, you ask? Basically, the diapers smell clean when they come out of the wash, but the second your kid pees on it, an acrid smell of ammonia and death becomes overwhelming. You'd swear it was a dirty diaper when really, its only pee. We began having the same issue with our bath towels (not because of pee, obviously) where they'd smell musty the second they got wet. Again, from the hard water build up keeping dirt and bacteria in the absorbent fabric.

After asking around and reading a ton of articles and message boards I've come up with a plan of action to fix this icky problem. First, strip the diapers really, really, really well.

The covers went into a big bucket of hot water and Dawn soap to soak. After a good soak, they'll be rinsed in the tub and run through a regular wash cycle. Dawn breaks down any residual oils and build up in the diapers just like it cleans grease and oil from dishes. This part is simple, but they're not really the problem anyway.

The microfiber inserts have their own long, complicated routine. First, I boiled the inserts in a huge stock pot on the stove. The good news is that they seemed to really fluff up and release a lot of soap and crap into the water bath. The bad news is that my kitchen kind of smells like warm pee. Oh well.

Next, I threw them all into the washer for a ton of rinses, a wash cycle, and more rinses. We've also begun adding more water to our front loading washer through the detergent drawer. Nothing is getting clean if the microfiber soaks up what little water the machine uses and spends an hour slapping around the drum! Hopefully, this helps get them less smelly! They are currently on their last rinse and then they'll go into the dryer. I'll update later how this works! If it doesn't work, I'm going to be doing a strip cycle with RLR Laundry Treatment to help breakdown whatever the hard water is leaving behind.

On the soap front, we recently switched to Rockin Green Hard Rock, which will help with mineral build up from the water, and Funk Rock, which will help keep ammonia from sticking....once we get rid of the current build up. Wish us luck! I'm sick of having so much pee smell in my life.


Another revamp to our diapers is much less gross. When we started cloth diapering, we chose velcro closures on our diapers since snaps were not yet available on bumGenius diapers. We loved the custom fit of the velcro, but after 18 months of washing and drying the velcros strips were absolutely falling apart. There was no way they were going to last through potty training, no less any further.

I researched simple fixes and even considered buying some new diapers until I heard about Convert My Diapers. Take the velcro strip and tabs off, throw them in the mail, choose your snap colors and for a few dollars a diaper, get back perfectly converted snap diapers!

We converted 15 diapers and had one snap diaper repaired. With shipping both ways, it cost us about $60 to have most of our diaper stash completely rejuvenated. It would have cost us well over $200 to replace them! The diapers came back in about a week and a half and we LOVE the results. The snaps work perfectly and the coordinating colors are so fun! As soon as I get all of our dipes out of the Dawn bath I'll post a picture. All in all, I highly recommend this service.

So, the short story is that we're still happily cloth diapering, even if it does keep us on our toes now and then. ;-)

Wordless Wednesday: Having a Ball

Sometimes, you just need to go play outside.

Apparently, I take the summers off.

While it was completely unintentional, apparently I take the summers off from blogging. Whoops. It has been a whirlwind of a summer and blogging has been on the back burner. Hopefully, as things wind down I'll be able to jump back into things!

Here's a bit of an update...

We've spent a lot of time at the local theme park, which C absolutely loves. 

We went for Grandpa's birthday and had a great day!

He's even begun riding rides by himself!

C has also moved over to a twin bed from his toddler bed. We had the opportunity to move him to another room in the apartment so we took it. Now he has a big boy room! I'll post pictures as soon as its all done. :)

And in general, my boys are as silly as ever.

J's job search wasn't as successful as we'd hoped, but we didn't expect much considering the job market for young teachers in our area. He'll be going back to where he worked last school year as a classroom aid/co-teacher and while its not his ideal, a job is a job. In the meantime, he's enjoying his last two weeks of summer vacation before he goes back to the grind.

C has been learning a ton of new skills including walking up the stairs standing up, climbing, running, and a ton of new words and signs. He's becoming so self sufficient, it breaks my Mommy heart! He has been ridiculously healthy (knock on wood!!) since getting his tubes, which has been music to our ears. He's loving his new daycare and has been going twice a week throughout the summer for some kid social time. C has also developed a healthy obsession with Mickey Mouse, loves his new Matchbox cars, and uses just about anything as a pretend guitar when music plays.

Other than that, its the same old! I'm happy to be back to posting and hope I have time to do so more often!

Upcoming posts:

C's new big boy room
Review of ConvertMyDiapers.com
A few DIY posts