How to reuse unwanted children's clothes

Children's gloves and hats

If you have sewing skills, you can adapt, renovate, or simply personalize your little ones' clothes and accessories. With their now-small sweaters, for example, you can create some gloves or hats. With T-shirts and shirts, you could sew fabric letters to decorate their rooms. Create patches, backpacks, and much more.

Blankets and pillows

Another option for recycling children's clothes is to cut the old ones into small pieces and use them for DIY sewing projects, like blankets, pillows or bags. You could also create patchwork or appliques for new clothes.

Box liners

Use old clothing fabrics to make box linings (perhaps for children's toys) or baskets (useful for decorating your home or for picnics). Or even as cushion padding.

Dolls' clothes

Baby clothes can be “transformed” into doll clothes, dolls, or stuffed animals. Considering the prices of these items, the savings are significant, plus recycling makes the arrival of a new outfit more fun.

Cloth diapers

More and more parents are choosing to use the cloth diapersWhy not take the opportunity to make them with your family's old (or, in some cases, never-worn) clothes? Kill two birds with one stone.

Tea towels for the home

Damaged, torn or worn out clothes can be used as tea towels for cleaning the house. They're perfect for cleaning glass, surfaces, or drying hands.

Home decoration

Children's clothes often feature truly cute designs and embellishments. You could use them to decorate your home. For example, use pieces of pajamas as prints for pictures, or t-shirts to make pillows for the nursery.

Draft excluders

Finally, as a last idea for recycling children's clothes, we suggest you opt for the creation of a DIY draft excludersNow that we are approaching the cold seasons, it will be really useful to place it near doors and windows.

Baby clothes swap sites

Another option, besides donating and reusing, to avoid wasting children's clothes is to exchange them. This can even be done simply online, through specialized sites like these:

• Swapick.comSimply add the items you want to trade to your "I Own List" and search for the ones you want on the site, adding them to your "I Want List." The site will suggest all the items you could get in exchange for yours.
• Coseinutili.itAs reported on the website, on Coseinutili.it you can barter and exchange various items (including clothing) asynchronously in exchange for credits. These credits can then be used to purchase whatever you want.
• Vinted.itIt's one of the most popular apps for purchasing used items and clothing. But, perhaps not everyone knows, you can select the option swap if you want to take advantage of this opportunity.
• YouKoialaIt's a Spanish website that allows parents to choose quality clothing for their children, use it, and then return it. They then receive new clothing as the child grows. All this for "up to 80% less than you would for similarly high-quality clothing."

Swap party to exchange children's clothes

If you have friends or family members who have children the same age (or even younger) as yours, consider sharing your children's unwanted clothes with them. Perhaps organize a swap party, it will be a highly appreciated gesture.