Weird title right?! As most of you have heard I have been working NON-stop on Just Between Friends consignment sale stuff! This is my first time ever venturing out into the wonderful world of  "large consignment". But I decided it was time to part with a few bins of clothes! When I say a few I mean I tagged (more explanation to follow!) 240 items before the sale! With 3 kiddos and the youngest being a midget (meant with the most love a mom could possibly have!) I am sick of hoarding years of clothing into my already overflowing mess we call a garage! AS it is we have just enough wee wittle space for my swagger wagon to pull in and have my hooligans jump out without harm!

I was asked by about a million (OK so I exaggerate it was a billion!) people "Why not save for Mushy?". Well...lets see here. I save the 4t clothing for when she will FINALLY fit into them it would be like oh...5 years from now! She is TINY! And honestly I am hoping to make enough money from the sale to turn around and buy NEW clothes for the kiddos! In fact Target (that store KILLS me!) has gobs of super cute adorable stuff right now! As it is I did keep most of the newborn-12 month clothing from both the boy and girl bins as we do plan on having 1 more added to the entourage! (NO this is not a birth announcement and I am NOT pregnant right now!).

I am not going to lie to you. This was one of the more annoying things I have done! I really had no clue what I was getting myself into and I am SO glad that my stuff is there. Tagged. Ready to be sold and moved into someone else's home! There are videos on the website for "how to's" but I could not get them to work! SO I winged it! I am good at that sometimes! One of my best friends has done this once before me and is an avid shopper of consignment sales. She was a real trooper when I started out the conversations with "we-ell...I was wondering..." I probably owe her a Starbucks after this!

A few things I found helpful:

1. Invest in a tagging gun. I bought mine on Ebay and the cost shipped to my home was $6.49. It was the best investment I could have made for this sale! Plus I can now use it for my Bliss Baby Designs stuff so its a win win! I will show you a picture in this post on HOW to have your "plastic dealies" (I am no expert!) into the gun itself...I went to Old Navy and had a customer of mine (yes I said of mine! She is an avid Bliss Baby shopper!) show me HOW to load the dag nabbited thing! I probably inserted not so good language in there as I am a farm bred girl after all BUT I will keep this post pg13! And yes, my kids were asleep!
2. Buy a roll of boxing tape. I used this to tape tags onto my items like toys or plastic bags. I used it to seal plastic bags so people wouldn't open them up and remove items.
3. Have a sharpie handy. OK seriously I wish I would have learned this piece of advice in the VERY beginning! When you get hangers from places like Babies R Us, Old Navy or even Carters use a sharpie...black...to scribble over the sizes on the hangers! I was popping those suckers off and my hands were raw and numb for 2 days. Then Sarah says "I just use a sharpie...its easier." WOMAN are you for real? Where was she two days prior?!
4. Hangers. You will need LOTS of them! Make nice with retail stores and ask when a good day is for you to come pick them up. I also was desperate for more one day and went to Value Village and purchased all the bags of kids hangers I could find! I walked out paying $2.97 for 42 hangers! A friend of mine was like "Great idea! I should have thought of that!" Yes, from time to time I can be good for something!
5. Plastic goody bags. I liked the ones from Michael's better than the 2nd bag I bought at Target. If you use your 40% off coupon at Michael's it will actually be cheaper for more bags! I used this to pair up shoes, re-package onesies (I packaged them in 3's...so 9 month, 6 month etc...but there were 3 in a bag rolled like when you would buy them at the store so you could see the design). I used them for smaller toys etc. Came in really handy and I used the boxing tape to seal the packages and attach the labels
6. Ziplock bags. Go to the dollar store. Don't do what I did and use your spendy ones from your kitchen! I used them for packaging multiple pairs of PJ's...folded neatly with pictures facing out. I then used a hanger (the kind that you find attached to pants at the store) and hung it from there using packing tape to attach to the hanger so wouldn't come loose.
7. Coffee & Wine. Trust me. Have both handy!

Now one thing I wish I would have realized before I signed up to volunteer...you only earn an extra 5% when you volunteer. Which is GREAT. But...its 4 hours! And I can't stop thinking about the orders I need to catch up on, the blog posts I want to write and the time I could be spending with my hubby playing footsie on the couch! I am still contemplating backing out of this part! Now if you LIKE to shop the pre-sale then do it! Because you will get in prime time! But, and please do not judge me. I get REALLY overwhelmed when I am amongst racks of clothing that I have to search through. It really didn't hit me till I was dropping my items off last night that this is TRULY how I feel! Its almost like a mini panic attack happens for me! My heart beats faster, I start to glisten (I do not sweat I glisten!) upon my forehead, my breathing is heavy. Now walking around the outsides at the table stuff I can handle and its fun. SO MANY AMAZING items at this sale! But the clothes...I would rather go to the store where I can see ahead of me a rack of the same exact thing that all I have to do is find the hanger with the correct size on it! But I do have more than a few friends that stock up on their kids clothing this way and they swear its the best way to do it!


Now the thing that was hard for me is knowing HOW to price your items! All items have to be in great condition. No stains, no holes = no entry. A few of my items I know I DID look over but under the fluorescent lighting a few stains were found (honestly I think they were fabric softener...but oh well!). There is a sheet on their site that gives you an "idea" of what to price things at. Each item has to be priced at $3 or higher. So if you have 2 items you would put as $1.50 attach them together so it makes them $3. I had a few random things that I put together in hopes to just get rid of them! I am a chatty one (you didn't know that about me did you?!) and so on my tags I would write things like **LOOKS ADORABLE ON!** or **NEVER USED...unless you count the teddy bear**.

To get to the area where you make your tags you go to the top of the website and under CONSIGN scroll down to MAKE TAGS. From there you will need to make an account and will have had to already registered with JBF for your consigner #. Once you have made you account then you log in and click CREATE TAGS. Follow the directions and at the bottom click SAVE. When you are ready to print your tags you then click the box next to each tag you want to print. Scroll up to the top and under PRINT TAGS I did mine 6 to a page. You will need to print on card stock. I bought mine again at Michael's as it was cheaper. For 240 tags I still have majority of the package left! Use your paper cutter and cut out your tags. I was able to do 2 sheets at a time as long as I pushed down hard!


When hanging your clothes...separate them out from BOYS, GIRLS, BABY. Put them in stacks by sizes (like 2t, 24 month, 12 month etc) Work on a stack at a time for creating tags. It was MUCH easier this way. And then I clicked print for the tags after each "section" and tagged my items from there! 


Here is a properly loaded tag gun! I hadn't a CLUE how to insert the dealy bobbers but now I do! And so now YOU do too! Poke the end into your tag (the paper you previously cut!) and then go into an area of the clothing you cannot do harm too. Push through looking at the other side making sure the needle is fully through. Pull the trigger and VOILA! You tagged an article of clothing! Now do be sure to watch what you are doing because...

Heavy, thick, Portland traffic (that is supposed to be a joke...cause I took a picture of the clouds...and everyone says Oregon always rains...get it? OK, I won't quit my day job!)

I am dying to know how I did! You can check online in the area where you created your tags! BUT they refresh it later in the evening! SO in the a.m. I look forward to seeing what is gone and what I will be rooting on to sell before Sunday afternoon!!

Have a blessed day! Have any questions just let me know! I will help you the best I can!