Fierce yard-sales by mothers of multiples

By Frances Scott

If the US military ever wants to improve logistics and/or supply transport, they need to visit a yard sale put on by moms of multiples.

I used to belong to this group called TMOTT (Triangle Mothers of Twins and Triplets), and our sales were FIERCE! By the way, I consider myself a “triplet mom.” My twins were barely two when I delivered our third baby, so that should count, right? Notice that I include that fact in about every blog? (You’re darned right, I want credit!)

Anyway, never did I see a better “well-oiled machine,” than at the semi-annual sale that TMOTT moms put on. It was the sale during which we would all bring our children’s stuff (which our kids had outgrown or lost interest in) and sold it for about half of its original price. Wait. First, did I should mention the MONTHS of collecting, washing, ironing, cleaning, repairing, tagging, organizing, and stacking that we had to do before the sale? But let me tell you, there is no greater motivator for doing all this work than the bill you rack up, buying one season’s worth of clothes/supplies for your twins/triplets/quads. Once the baby shower gifts had all been worn and out-grown, and it was time to buy the first round of kid-clothes for which I actually had to pay MYSELF, I shopped at a “retail store” exactly... ONCE. I think each child got five tops, five bottoms, a bag of socks, a bathing suit and one pair of vel-cro tennis shoes. I don’t remember the bill’s total, but it was staggering enough for me to remember it as about $400.00. And I thought I had been so “good;” not buying the cute stuff, and opting only for the $4.99 generic outfit pieces.

When I hit my first TMOTT consignment sale, the magic accountant-dust that my husband had been sprinkling over me as I slept for the previous four years finally kicked in. “A ‘Janie and Jack’ jumper for only $12?” I screamed. “Strasburg dresses for $25?” I had so much fun finding so much formerly expensive stuff for cheap prices, and then selling my own stuff to make the money to buy the next season's batch.

But after all these years, my favorite purchase is still the $1 pair of fireman tennis shoes that I’d grabbed at the last minute at one sale, that ended up lasting our family through more than three kids! They were admittedly the more roughed-up of all the shoes normally “allowed” to be on the racks. TMOTT has what we moms of multiples came to joke as the “Crap rack,” where your stuff got tossed before the sale, if you’d tried to sell something that was stained, dirty or less than perfect. “Frances Scott? Please report to the crap rack.” “BUSTED!” some of the other moms would jokingly say to me, as I sheepishly slunk-off to pick up my stuff.

There’s a Mothers of Multiples sale this Saturday (http://www.momchd. com), and I’m going to go. My babies are much bigger now, but I’ve kind of grown to love the atmosphere at consignment sales organized by kick-tail moms like these. I think I’ll go and pick up a few larger-sized pairs of play-sneakers and hopefully I'll also be able to gather a few new, super-organized friends who can teach me, finally, how to get the stains out of my kids’ clothes.

P.S. We never got my daughter into the Strasburg dresses. By the time I found the bag of the stuff I'd bought (mixed in with the piles in our trunk of luggage from past weekend trips to see our parents), she had outgrown them. We would have stained them anyway...

Comments

[Molly]

Ah, the memories! Of course these sales are how we met, and I often think I should invest in the "sale only" membership offered by TMOTT. My babies are all so big now and few things last long enough to even be considered for resale, but the cheap restocking of seasonal wardrobes is enough to make me want to risk those dastardly long lines to get in the sale! My kids still use the nearly new wooden bunk beds we purchased for only $200. Not to mention the strollers and bikes and shoes and mountains upon mountains of jeans! Books and toys, too. Now I sound like an advertisement, but for parents with small wallets and limited time schedules, these sales are literal lifesavers. I love the fact that all the leftover stuff gets donated to various shelters and aid organizations, too!

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