How to Recycle Hand-Me-Downs

If you have a family or extended family with lots of little ones running around, there's no need to buy new clothes each time one of your kids starts outgrowing theirs. With a little helpful labeling, clothing can pass through several families more than once, and get their share of usage before getting tattered enough to be retired. This is especially helpful in those quick growing years between birth and two years old, when most kids outgrown their clothes long before the clothes look used at all. Triple the lifetime of any clothing purchase and share with your family and friends. You can have the clothes back once they've made the rounds, and save the best for keepsakes for your kids when they're older. You both will enjoy looking back and remembering how tiny they were in their little baby outfits. Here are some baby clothes recycling ideas.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• permanent marker

How to Recycle Hand-Me-Downs

1. Suggest to your sisters and brothers with young kids (or friends in the same predicament) that you'd like to pass hand-me-downs amongst each other to save money buying new clothes, and to keep the clothes in use.

2. If your family is up for it, choose a set of initials for marking your family's kid clothing. Each family should only use one parent's set of initials to keep it simple. Or you could choose a simple symbol, like a sun or moon.

3. Keep an old diaper box in your closet and put the clothes into the box as the baby begins to outgrow each piece.

4. When the box is full, go through the box and mark each piece with your initials or symbol.

5. Give the box to your relative or friend who wants to be in the recycling group, and has the baby that is slightly younger than yours.

6. They will use the clothes for awhile, along with whatever other clothes they get from other friends and family members. When they outgrow the clothes, they just check the label, sorting the clothes back to the right household, and returning your clothes for your next baby, or forwarding it on to the next baby in the family or group.

7. Eventually the clothes make all the rounds, and then come back to you. You then sort through and decide which are meaningful enough to keep for your child in the future, and which can go to Goodwill.

Tips & Warnings

• Before beginning your recycling the first time, you might want to separate out only the most precious items to save for your child in mint condition. First pair of shoes, or a special outfit, for example.