What to Do With Old Baby Clothes: 10 Sustainable and Practical Ideas
Baby clothes can hold a surprising number of memories. Tiny onesies, first outfits, favourite pyjamas — it can be difficult to decide what to do with them once your child has outgrown them.
Many families end up with boxes or bags of baby clothes stored away for years, unsure whether to keep them, sell them, donate them or somehow put them to another use.
The good news is that there's no single right answer — and you don't have to do the same thing with everything.
Some clothes may still have resale value. Others are perfect for passing on to another family. A few special pieces might be worth keeping forever, while worn or damaged garments can sometimes be repurposed, upcycled or recycled.
If you're wondering what to do with old baby clothes, here are 10 practical, sentimental and sustainable ideas for giving them their next chapter.
Quick Answer
If your baby clothes are still in good wearable condition, you can sell them, pass them on, donate them or save them for another child.
Special pieces can be kept as memories or turned into keepsakes, while clothing that's too worn to wear again can sometimes be used for craft projects, upcycled into something new or sent to an appropriate textile recycling service.
Before deciding, it can help to sort everything into three groups:
- Good condition: sell, hand down, donate or save
- Sentimental: keep or turn into a keepsake
- No longer wearable: repurpose, upcycle or recycle
1. Sell Clothes That Still Have Resale Value
If your baby clothes are still in good condition, selling them can help recover some of what you originally spent while allowing another family to use them.
You can sell individual garments through marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace or eBay, create bundles of clothing in the same size, use local parenting groups, or use a children's clothing resale service.
Higher-value brands and particularly desirable garments may be worth selling individually. For inexpensive everyday clothing, bundles can sometimes make more sense because photographing, listing, communicating with buyers and fulfilling a $5 sale can take almost as much time as selling something worth considerably more.
If you'd like to compare the different options, see our guide to the best places to sell secondhand baby and children's clothes in Australia.
Don't want to sell everything yourself?
A children's clothing resale service is another option if you'd like to receive something for good-quality outgrown clothing without photographing and selling every garment yourself.
For example, the Daisy Chain Clothing Outgrown Kit allows you to send suitable outgrown baby and children's clothing to us in a prepaid satchel. We assess the clothing and calculate a cash and higher-value Daisy Chain Clothing credit payout. You don't need to wait for each individual garment to sell.
The trade-off is that successfully selling desirable pieces yourself may produce a higher return, while a resale service is designed to save you the time and work involved.
2. Pass Them On to Friends or Family
One of the simplest options is to give baby clothes to friends or relatives who have younger children.
Babies grow so quickly that many items are only worn a handful of times. Passing them directly to another family allows those clothes to continue being used without any need for listings, postage or selling.
It's particularly convenient when you know someone with a child approaching the size yours has just outgrown.
If you have a lot to pass on, consider sorting the clothing into labelled bags by size or season. It makes the hand-me-down considerably more useful to the next family.
3. Donate Good-Quality Clothes
If receiving money for your outgrown clothing isn't important, donating good-quality baby clothes can be a simple way to give them another opportunity to be worn.
Charity shops, community organisations and other local services may accept clean, wearable baby and children's clothing. Acceptance criteria vary, so check what your chosen organisation currently needs before dropping off a large quantity.
The important distinction is wearable. Clothing with significant stains, holes, broken fastenings or excessive wear generally isn't suitable for another child and shouldn't simply be passed on to a charity for them to dispose of.
For a more detailed comparison of selling, donating, swapping, passing on and recycling, see our guide to what to do with outgrown baby and kids' clothes in Australia.
4. Keep a Few Special Pieces
Not every item needs to go.
A coming-home outfit, a favourite jumper, a special birthday dress or the pyjamas your child seemed to live in can carry memories that are worth far more than the garment's resale value.
Rather than keeping boxes of everything, consider choosing a small number of pieces that genuinely mean something to you.
A carefully selected handful of clothes is easier to store and may ultimately feel more meaningful than keeping an entire wardrobe simply because deciding what to part with feels difficult.
5. Turn Them Into Keepsakes
If a piece is too sentimental to give away but unlikely to be worn again, the fabric itself can become the keepsake.
Old baby clothes can be transformed into:
- Memory quilts made from favourite fabrics
- Fabric toys or soft animals
- Framed pieces of a favourite print
- Small pouches or accessories
- Cushion covers
- Fabric-covered photo albums or memory books
This can work particularly well when several garments have emotional significance but you don't want to store all of them indefinitely.
6. Upcycle Fabric That's Too Worn to Wear
Some baby clothes simply reach the end of their wearable life. They may be stained, faded, stretched or damaged beyond the point where another child could reasonably use them.
But that doesn't necessarily mean the fabric has no value.
At Daisy Chain Clothing, some clothing and fabric that isn't suitable for resale can be given another purpose through our Next Chapter collection. Fabric from preloved children's clothing is transformed into handmade items such as bookmarks and other small accessories.
It's a useful reminder that the end of a garment doesn't always have to mean the end of the material.
7. Use Them for Craft Projects
Old baby clothes can also be useful materials for home craft projects.
Depending on the fabric and its condition, ideas include:
- Patchwork blankets or quilts
- Fabric bunting for a bedroom or party
- Soft toys or stuffed animals
- Appliqué projects
- Fabric patches
- Doll clothes
- Sewing practice for beginners
Older children can even help choose fabrics from their old clothes for simple projects, turning the process of clearing out a wardrobe into something creative.
8. Save Them for Future Children
If you're planning to have another child — or simply aren't ready to decide yet — storing good-quality baby clothing can make perfect sense.
The key is to store it in a way that means you'll actually be able to use it later.
Wash and dry everything thoroughly first, then sort garments by size and, where useful, season. Clearly labelled storage containers make it much easier to find what you need when the time comes.
It's also worth being selective. Keeping good-quality basics, favourite pieces and more expensive garments may save considerable money later; storing every worn singlet simply because it might one day be useful can quickly become a storage problem of its own.
9. Create a Memory Box
A memory box is perhaps the simplest option for clothes you want to preserve exactly as they are.
Parents might choose to include:
- A first or coming-home outfit
- A hospital hat
- A favourite onesie or pair of pyjamas
- A special occasion outfit
- A tiny pair of socks
- One piece that instantly reminds you of that stage of childhood
You can add photographs, hospital bands, cards or other small mementos from the same period.
Again, being selective helps. A small box containing a few genuinely meaningful things is often easier to appreciate — and much easier to store — than several tubs of clothing you never look at.
10. Recycle Worn Fabrics Responsibly
If clothing is too damaged to wear, donate, repurpose or upcycle, textile recycling may be the final option.
What textile recycling services accept varies considerably, so check the requirements of the program available in your area before sending or dropping off clothing.
Recycling should generally come after reuse. If a garment can still reasonably be worn by another child, selling, donating or handing it down keeps the garment itself in use rather than immediately processing it as waste material.
For clothing that really has reached the end of its wearable life, we've put together a separate guide to recycling worn, stained and damaged baby and kids' clothes in Australia.
Which Baby Clothes Should You Keep, Sell, Donate or Recycle?
If you're facing several bags of clothing and don't know where to start, a simple sorting system can make the decision much easier.
| Type of Clothing | Options to Consider |
|---|---|
| Good condition and potentially valuable | Sell individually or use a resale service |
| Good condition but lower value | Bundle, hand down, donate or use a resale service |
| Good condition and needed by someone you know | Pass it on |
| Sentimental | Keep, create a memory box or make a keepsake |
| Worn but usable as fabric | Craft or upcycle |
| No longer wearable or reusable | Check appropriate textile recycling options |
And remember: you don't need to choose one option for the entire wardrobe.
The best solution might be to sell a few valuable pieces, pass a bag to a friend, donate good everyday clothing, keep two sentimental outfits and recycle what's genuinely reached the end of its life.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do with old baby clothes in Australia?
If they're still in good condition, you can sell them, pass them on to friends or family, donate them, or save them for a future child. Sentimental pieces can be kept or made into keepsakes, while clothing that's no longer wearable can sometimes be repurposed, upcycled or recycled.
Can I get money for old baby clothes?
Yes. Depending on their condition and value, you can sell baby clothes yourself through marketplaces or local groups, sell them in bundles, or use a children's clothing resale service.
If you're deciding how to sell them, see our comparison of the best places to sell secondhand baby and children's clothes in Australia.
Can I send old baby clothes to Daisy Chain Clothing?
Yes, provided they meet our acceptance criteria. The Daisy Chain Clothing Outgrown Kit lets you send suitable baby and children's clothing to us in a prepaid satchel.
We assess the garments and calculate a cash and higher-value Daisy Chain Clothing credit payout. You don't have to wait for the individual garments to sell.
What can I make from old baby clothes?
Old baby clothes can be turned into memory quilts, fabric toys, bunting, pouches, framed fabric, appliqué, doll clothes and other craft projects. Some parents also use particularly sentimental fabrics to create keepsakes rather than storing the original garments.
How do I store baby clothes for future children?
Wash and dry clothing thoroughly before storage, then sort it into clearly labelled containers by size and, where useful, season. Being selective about what you keep can prevent storage from becoming unmanageable.
What do I do with baby clothes that are too worn to donate?
Don't donate clothing that isn't realistically wearable by another child. Depending on the fabric and its condition, you may be able to use it for crafts, cleaning cloths, upcycling or an appropriate textile recycling program.
See our full guide to recycling worn and damaged kids' clothing for more information.
Giving Old Baby Clothes Their Next Chapter
Baby clothes may only fit for a few months, but their useful life can be much longer.
A garment your baby has outgrown might become another child's favourite outfit, help pay for the next size up, become part of a memory quilt, spend another few years waiting for a younger sibling, or eventually find a completely different purpose as fabric.
The important distinction is between clothing that still has life left as clothing and fabric that has genuinely reached the end of its wearable life.
Where possible, keeping a wearable garment in circulation is a wonderfully simple first step. When that's no longer practical, repurposing and recycling give you other options.
And if your pile is mostly good-quality clothing and you'd like to receive something for it, start with our guide to the best places to sell secondhand baby and children's clothes in Australia.