There is the only thing I have found that beats ½ off Wednesdays at the Salvation Army: thredUp. At Salvation Army, I never know what – if  anything – I’ll find until I get there. With this new website, I can get the kids’ clothes the same way I’d like to shop for everything else… online.

What is thredUP?

ThredUP is an online swapping community that allows users to purchase gently used baby and children’s clothing for a small fee. Once you’ve created an account, you can purchase a box of clothes. Once you purchase the box, you then send a box of your own to someone else. To use the service, you’ll pay a $5 fee to thredUp and $10.95 shipping fee on all boxes you choose.

Pick a Box that’s Right for Your Kids

With this site, you can browse thousands of boxes of clothing available on thredUP. As most parents know, organizing children’s clothes and toys can be extremely challenging, especially if you have children who wear different sizes. ThredUP makes the process easy by organizing their boxes in similar sizes and styles.

You can search by item, gender, brand, size or season.

Children’s clothing is available for all ages, from baby and toddler to pre-teen, and there are toys for everyone. The boxes themselves contain more than 15 articles, which translates to an average cost of about $1 per item. You can stop using the site whenever without any extra fees or costs.

List a Box that’s Right for Someone Else’s Kids

Once you receive your box, simply create your own box and list it back on the site. You receive “thredUP credit” for every box you send to someone else – credit that can be put toward purchasing clothing or toys for your kids on the site. Make sure to separate the clothing by type, such as tops, bottoms, skirts and shorts, as well as by brand – but keep outfits and two-piece sets together. Once you have your clothing organized, fill the USPS boxes thredUp ships you and use the thredUP “Build a Box” template to describe the items. Then, list your box and wait for someone to purchase it and pick it up. ThredUP makes shipping easy by letting you print out a prepaid shipping label you can attach to a USPS box the site provides.

Special Promotions

The website also adds an element of excitement by listing “golden tickets” you can buy for deep discounts and “golden boxes” that contain new, big brand clothing for the same price as any other box. Snatch those deals fast when you see them!

How does thredUp sound to you? Do you have other strategies for avoiding the nuisance and expenditure of buying new kids clothes every year (or so)? Lets us know in the comments section below.

Jessica Bosari is a PerkStreet Customer Columnist, as well as the Site Manager and Editor for billeater a blog with money-saving tips to lower your bills. When she’s not gathering money-saving tips, Jessica is feeding her geeky side with sci-fi movies, tech gadgets, useful apps and productivity tricks, just to keep things interesting. Read more of Jessica’s great financial advice on Perkstreet’s blog, or view her other money-saving tips at billeater.com.

Photo: thredup.com