There are some obvious benefits of gifting hand-me-downs.
It frees up space in the home and helps the recipient save money. It also keeps items from ending up in landfills, fulfilling our ’90s childhood mantra to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
But I recently encountered an unexpected bonus benefit — the incredible joy I feel when I see another kid wearing my kid’s stuff.
Yes, really.
So much palpable happiness.
The first time we gifted hand-me-downs, I didn’t know what to anticipate.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I committed to reducing our unnecessary storage of stuff. We sent a couple of large totes of baby and toddler clothes to a good friend of his from work whose wife was expecting their first baby. They kept what they liked, and we donated the rest.
Yes, I immediately felt happy to be helping another family save money. I felt like we were doing the right thing, which always feels good. We also freed up some space in our house, which was also good. And I thought the feel-goods would end there.
But they didn’t. There were more feel-goods, and they were powerful.
A couple of months ago, I was scrolling on social media and almost lost my breath at a casually posted photo.
In the picture was their kid in our son’s old onesie. It had a little hedgehog wearing glasses on it. My husband and I bought that onesie on the way home from the appointment when we found out our first baby’s gender.
I was looking at a photo of their family making memories, their son in that hedgehog onesie. Suddenly, I felt a warmth growing in my chest. I had an ear-to-ear grin on my face.
It just made me so stinkin’ happy.
After seeing that first photo, I imagined all our son’s little outfits getting new life. All of those items kind of living on, making new memories, getting dirty from fun and food, all with a new little human in them.
When we gifted hand-me-downs to another family, I was carried back to precious times when my babies were little.
Recently, I invited a friend of mine expecting a girl to come over and rifle through stacks of infant clothes from our second child. She left with a few bags full of things she liked. Like the first time, this felt nice, and I thought that was that.
But it wasn’t.
During a social media scroll, I saw her new baby wearing my daughter’s purple floral pajamas. I was transported back to when my little girl wore those jammies during my maternity leave.
I thought back to when I was gifted hand-me-downs.
When I was pregnant with our first, a very generous woman, whom I think I had only met once, gave us three giant bags full of clothes her boys no longer needed. She posted on social media, asking if anyone was interested. Then she just let us have them, for free. She barely knew us, and her kindness was resolute.
Many of our son’s firsts occurred in those clothes. His first time swimming was in an adorable infant swimming suit she had gifted us. It was a set of matching trunks and a rash guard shirt with whales. I still remember us getting in that tiny pool. And that first time in the backyard pool inspired a family-favorite pastime.
And guess what? We just passed on that same swimsuit to the family whose child wore the hedgehog onesie. That whale swimsuit will live on, being there when a third family makes memories.
Gifting hand-me-downs is more than I imagined it could be.
I have learned it isn’t just about saving money or reducing waste, but about memories.
Experiencing joy at the new memories being made and remembering the special times we’ve had as a family.
