Ebay lot sales or look for brands you like. Wiggle Room and Value village are nice but require a few trips. I liked Totswap for clothing, toys and gear are so so.

craigslist

wiggle room in bethesda isn't far from the metro...and the stuff is fantastic!

Totswap.net and value village is worth the metro plus bus ride. Iamunique.com

I second the moms of multiples consignment sales

Unfortunately Dani's Duds rescheduled its sale from July to the first week in September.

Dani's Duds is this weekend

The local chapters of Parents of Multiples (POM) and Mothers of Multiples (MOM) all run sales in both spring and fall. You can visit their web-sites to find the dates of the local chapters. The ones that I know of are:

MCPOM (Montgomery County POM): http://www.mcpom.org/
CAMOM (Columbia Area MOM): http://www.camom.net/index.shtm
AMOM (Annapolis MOM): http://www.annapolismoms.org/Moms_Club/Welcome.html
NVPOM (No Va POM): http://www.nvpom.com/

These 4 chapters make sure not to overlap their sales, so you can go to 4 sales in the Spring and 4 sales in the Fall (if you wanted). Check out each of the web-sites for when and where they'll have their consingment sales. Most of the clubs use the proceeds from the consignment sales to fund most of their club activiities, so they are big and well advertised.

My feeling is that my twins will have to dress and use mostly gently used clothing until they are old enough to tell me otherwise, what they want. Then we'll talk about it.

Every fall and spring the website our kids lists many if not most of the area consignment sales. Some are metro accessible.

I would subscribe to the DCUM email list -- people post on there all the time about selling stuff to others and also about the big consignment sales. I think there may be a FS forum as well.

Also, the vast majority of what we got second hand was actually borrowed from friends/family. A lot of the pricier things you grow out of during the first 12 months (co-sleeper/bassinet, pack n play, swing, bouncy seat, doorway jumper, exersaucer, bucket car seat) are bulky and take up space. We've borrowed many of these things from friends and lent stuff out as well.

I also constantly see this stuff advertised on my neighborhood email list. If you have a neighborhood list, it doesn't hurt to post a WTB ad and see if you get many bites....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you buy your cheaper-than-new baby stuff? Especially if you don't have a car? People keep mentioning these places in the suburbs, and my "I don't want to have to get a ZipCar" face is getting tired! (I live in Virginia on the Orange Line, if anyone knows somewhere conveniently located for that...)

Get a car for one of the major consignment sales in the fall and fill it up.

How does one find out when/where those are?

Anonymous wrote:Where do you buy your cheaper-than-new baby stuff? Especially if you don't have a car? People keep mentioning these places in the suburbs, and my "I don't want to have to get a ZipCar" face is getting tired! (I live in Virginia on the Orange Line, if anyone knows somewhere conveniently located for that...)

it might be worth just looking for great on-line sales / ebay / your local listserve.

by the time you pay for a ZipCar the savings may have gone.

Anonymous wrote:Where do you buy your cheaper-than-new baby stuff? Especially if you don't have a car? People keep mentioning these places in the suburbs, and my "I don't want to have to get a ZipCar" face is getting tired! (I live in Virginia on the Orange Line, if anyone knows somewhere conveniently located for that...)

Get a car for one of the major consignment sales in the fall and fill it up.

I know of a place in Eastern Market in DC called Monkey's Uncle. Haven't actually purchased anything there yet, since we are expecting in November, but we did go in and look around. They have some cute clothes at decent prices! As well as some other odds and ends, including a stroller and a high chair.

Where do you buy your cheaper-than-new baby stuff? Especially if you don't have a car? People keep mentioning these places in the suburbs, and my "I don't want to have to get a ZipCar" face is getting tired! (I live in Virginia on the Orange Line, if anyone knows somewhere conveniently located for that...)