How to Prepare Clothes for Consignment

Consignment shops sell secondhand clothes and other goods at affordable prices to shoppers who are on the hunt for a bargain. In return, shopkeepers split the profits with sellers who have placed their goods on consignment. If you are hoping to make some extra money with unwanted clothes, there are certain steps you should take to increase your chances of making a profit by preparing clothes for consignment.

Make Sure You Have Enough Clothes to Sell

If you hope to successfully sell your clothes at a consignment shop, you will need to abide by the shop's guidelines. In one consignment shop I visited, I was told that 10 items of clothing were taken at any given time and that they all had to be of acceptable quality before the shop would agree to consign them.

Check Clothes for Quality

Clothes should be carefully checked for quality before they are bagged and taken to the consignment shop. They should not be threadbare, torn, stained or missing a button. Try to think as a shopper, rather than a seller. If you were to come across your line of clothes in a consignment shop, would you be willing to buy them in the condition that they are in? If the answer is no, then leave the clothes at home, and either recycle or mend them.

Launder and Iron Clothes

Clothes should be freshly laundered and ironed before they are taken to the consignment shop. The last thing shoppers will want is to do is sift through musty-smelling, wrinkled clothing to find what they are looking for. If you are unlikely to stop and buy dirty, wrinkled clothes, others will be too. So keep that in mind and take the extra time to prepare clothes. They stand a greater chance of selling if they are clean and neatly pressed.

Selling clothes at a consignment shop can help you to earn a little extra cash on clothes you no longer need or wear. Prepare clothes by making sure you have enough items to sell, as some consignment shops will not work with you if you only have a small amount of clothes. Check clothes for quality and discard anything that is threadbare, stained or torn. Finally, launder and iron clothes.