So you’ve decided that jacket isn’t very useful. Or those jeans, terribly flattering. Or your kids have outgrown those toys and your spouse hates that lamp.
How do you, as a consignment shop owner, a resale proprietor, or a thrift shop manager, recycle your own stuff? Do you take it in to your own shop or do you use another? And which and why?
If a family member across the continent mentions the clear-out-clutter kick she’s on, what do you advise her to do with gently-used, previously-loved items?
Me, since I buy almost everything used, I often take things to the Goodwill or Habitat ReStore in my neighborhood. Third-hand stuff’s not always very consignable, is it?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Our shop consigns furniture and home decor & have sold our own things many times. I also consign my children’s toys and clothes with a shop nearby…. When I stopped working in the office many years ago, I consigned my working wardrobe with a plus sized women’s boutique, so I guess I’m a good consignor. I also donate when I can’t consign and I donate everything! They even use stained clothing to sell in bundles of rags. Anything metal I put by the curb and the scrap metal trucks come looking for it. We reduce & recycle as much as we can.
I’m all for supporting other stores, but until I stopped selling children’s clothing I would bring our things to the store and sell it here. Unfortunately my kids stuff is rarely in good enough condition to resell. I do bring mine and my husband’s things to my store to sell on my own private account, and my friends and family will give me things they want to get rid of. I even have a friend who mails boxes of clothes from halfway across the country for me to sell and I paypal her the money every month. She’s tried local stores, but none of the ones she can get to offer a high enough percentage or have very good turnover.
If up to our standards … I consign at my own shoppe. If not I bring in and put in our donate bags for the three different non profits that pick up at my store. Either way they can go to another new closet
My store sells women’s and children’s items. I bring those items I think I can sell into my own store. If it’s not up to the standards of my store, or of a different catagory, I bring them to Goodwill or Salvation Army.
If a family member or friend who lives far away from me talks about clearing out their clutter, I will look up on the Narts site shops in their area and suggest they go there. I even do that with customers who are moving.
Funny thing you ask….yesterday I spent the majority of my day washing, pressing and hanging all the items I never wear to take in to my store…what a lot of work! It’s great to see this from the consignors perspective! A lot of time I just 86 it to the thrift, as I buy secondhand, too.
We own a children’s & maternity resale store and we have two young ones, a 2 year old and 3 1/2 year old. We always joke to our more talkative customers and all our friends.. “We can’t bring ANYTHING that our kids own to OUR store, it’s too “loved” by the time they are done with it”.
That being said, we normally bring our things too Goodwill. I feel bad doing that at times since they too normally don’t sell “well-loved” items.
I think we normally put them on “freecycle” or craigslist for free if they are too bad. We are honest when posting about the condition.
And yes, sometimes they go to the landfill…
I consign my gently used items at other shops, unless it is something that will work in my Furniture Consignment shop. Only seems right to recycle and resell.