Baby Clothes Don’t Have to Take You to the Cleaners. Oklahoma Self-Storage Can Help!

Everyone knows that adding a new bundle of joy to the family can also bring with it a bundle of new expenses. Once you’re back from the delivery room and you’re looking at the hospital bills and tallying up the money you’re going to be spending on diapers, you probably don’t even want to think too much about the fact that you’ll be buying baby clothes every few months for the foreseeable future.

Babies grow fast, after all, and anyone who has ever had one can tell you that they outgrow clothes like they’re going out of style. In fact, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average American home spends between $700 and $1,000 just on baby clothes in the first year. Keep in mind that’s just clothes—that number doesn’t even take into account car seats, strollers, cribs, and all the other accoutrements that a growing baby needs.

Running through baby clothes and supplies can seem not only pricey, but also wasteful. It’s a shame to buy something knowing that the baby is probably going to outgrow it almost before you can remove the tags. Fortunately, this is a problem that faces all new parents, so there are plenty of options that can help keep baby clothes and accessories from breaking the bank, and also help you pay it forward for other new or expecting parents down the road.

Just like the vintage thrift store where you found that coat you love, there are consignment shops in most cities that specialize in gently-used clothing and supplies for babies. There are also a variety of organizations designed to let new and expecting parents trade and swap for clothes and other necessities. Once your baby has outgrown that jumper, you can pass it on to someone who is still expecting. Local swaps are organized in most communities, and of course the Internet has gotten in on the action, with a variety of swap sites set up allowing parents all over the country to swap clothes, accessories, and advice.

When Good Morning America ran a special on how to save a little cash when outfitting your newest addition, they found that parents could make as much as $170 to $520 reselling their gently-used baby clothes and accessories. But sometimes being able to pass on something your baby has outgrown to another baby who needs it is more of a reward than getting a few bucks back.

Besides the cost associated with all those baby clothes, carriers, strollers, and other odds and ends, there’s also all the space they take up. Whether you’re planning to save your baby supplies for the next addition to your family, to pass them along to another family member, or to resell or swap them, they can certainly take up a lot of space in the meantime. It can be all-too easy to part with them just to free up some space in your house. But a better solution can be using an Oklahoma self-storage unit to store your baby clothes and supplies—either until the next little one is old enough to need them, or until they’re ready to find their way to a good home.