FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD THRIFT FOR YOUR KIDS!
Have you done any secondhand shopping for your family? Here’s five reasons why you should thrift for your kids!
This post was sponsored by Beeja May but all opinions are my own.
There’s no denying one thing: having kids can be expensive. Kids go through clothing so fast – either they outgrow it, they ruin it or they suddenly decide they hate what they own. Especially in those first few years when they’re outgrowing clothing after they’ve barely worn it! Not to mention the toys they get bored of, the gear that comes and goes and the cost of keeping up with all of this adds up fast.
When we found out we were pregnant with our first it was a no-brainer for us to curate a collection of borrowed or thrifted items. We were already avid thrifters who loved scoring a deal and we had many friends and family members with baby items waiting for their next owner. We’ve continued this through all three of our kids and it’s worked well for us.
Here are five reasons why you should thrift for your kids!
It’ll save you money.
The amount of times I have walked into a kids store and audibly gasped at the price tag is embarrassing. I’ve been a fairly frugal person for as long as I can remember. I live for clearance sections and sales racks and that’s one big reason I always choose to thrift what we need.
I struggle with many kids clothing brands as I know they’re fast fashion. Which means, the cost in-store is super high compared to what they paid to manufacture it and it was likely produced by someone who was underpaid and in unsafe working conditions. It makes the cost of clothing harder to swallow.
When buying secondhand it’s easy to score a good deal. I’ve managed to buy pieces of clothing for as low as fifty cents! I’ve bought expensive wooden toys for $1.99! I bought our toddler $40 winter boots for $4.99! The money we save goes towards more fun for the kids in experience gifts.
It’s better for the environment.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: our poor planet is dying and it needs us to change our habits to survive.
Habits can be really hard to break, I get it! I can think of an incredible amount of days where I went window shopping at the mall just to get out of the house and do something when the girls were babies. Unfortunately for our shopping habits, the more we continue to purchase new instead of used the harder it will be in the future.
Shopping at thrift stores and encouraging the switch to secondhand is an important message to give our children. Get them involved by bringing them along to the thrift store and shopping the shelves together.
You can get higher quality items.
One of the main reasons my kids have brands like MEC are thanks to finding them secondhand.
The great thing about brands like MEC, Colombia, Mini Mioche and even Zara Kids are how well they keep their quality. We’re the third family to be using our MEC winter suits and they still look and feel brand new! Buying them secondhand meant getting the quality we needed for our long hours outdoors at a price that was affordable for us, while saving these winter suits from becoming forgotten.
This is also how I’ve curated a larger collection of great quality and durable kids toys like Melissa and Doug, Hape and Ikea!
You can find unique items.
Trends are cool, but building a unique wardrobe is even cooler in my opinion! This might be my favourite reason out of the five reasons you should thrift for your kids.
When you thrift for clothing you get to choose from a large variety. Styles, colours, fabrics, what year they’re from – the limit does not exist in choosing pieces. I love searching through racks to find shirts I remember seeing in stores before, vintage items from the 90s and wooden toys to add to our collection.
You can do it online!
Between online thrift stores, social media and apps like Thredup it’s becoming increasingly easy to shop secondhand items from the comfort of home.
One of our favourite ways to shop secondhand items for the kids is through an awesome shop called Beeja May. I discovered Beeja May almost two years ago now and they very quickly became one of my favourite ways to shop clothing for the kids. Now that we’re months into a pandemic it’s continued to be an effective way to get what we want while avoiding a trip to a store – or, when all the thrift stores were closed!
Beeja May is a Toronto based thrift store who operates completely online. They’re mainly a clothing store and offer clothing, shoes and outdoor accessories from 0-6m all the way up to 13y. Beeja May also has a newly added secondhand book section to add to your library and their zero waste options will make adding sustainable home basics to your cart a no brainer.
We’ve always been incredibly happy with our Beeja May purchases. Their pricing is fair and affordable and the clothing pieces we’ve purchased have been great quality, clean and comfortable. My favourite part of shopping secondhand online is being able to do it from the couch! While I will always love heading to the thrift store there’s nothing that can compare to being able to shop from the couch, in my pyjamas with my preschooler beside me and able to choose what she likes.
Be sure to head over to Beeja May and see if they have any goodies for you and your family! You can check out our latest pant haul for B in this fun video we put together.
FOR MORE ONLINE THRIFT OPTIONS:
CANADIAN THRIFT STORES FOR KIDS YOU CAN SHOP ONLINE
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