How parents are reworking what we buy, what we pass along, and what actually makes everyday life easier.
| I still remember the first time I walked into a Goodwill in Columbus, Ohio. Rows of clothes and shelves packed with possibilities. With a small allowance, I suddenly felt like I could buy far more than I ever had before. |
| I grew up in Mexico, but my mom’s family is from Ohio. Every summer we would go back to visit, and that’s where I was introduced to thrift shops: Goodwill, the Salvation Army, church basements, and small consignment stores tucked into neighborhoods. I loved the hunt. The surprise. The feeling that you might find something no one else had. Those early trips made shopping feel creative rather than transactional, and that instinct stayed with me. |
| Parenting in New York has given that instinct new meaning. |
| Here, kids’ clothes aren’t an occasional errand. They’re a constant. What works for daycare, what fits the weather, what lasts a season, what needs replacing again. In a city where space is limited and time is tight, the old default of buy new, donate later starts to feel less practical and more exhausting. |
| What’s been interesting to watch is how parents are responding, not with grand declarations, but by building better options. |
| When I spoke with the founder of Carousel, Jessica Grenata, based in Brooklyn, what stood out wasn’t just her commitment to sustainability, but how directly her business grew out of real-life friction. After becoming a parent, shopping secondhand for her daughter felt time-consuming and inconsistent. Carousel emerged from that gap, a mission-driven company that offers curated, pre-loved clothing bundles for babies and young kids, designed to make secondhand feel easy, fun, and intentional while keeping kids’ clothes out of landfills. |
| I heard a similar thread when talking with the founders of Little Swaps, Claudia de la Guerra and Mónica Leesha, one based in Manhattan and the other in Connecticut, were tired of how hard it was to move kids’ things along. Overpriced gear, wasteful buying cycles, and the safety concerns of selling online felt mismatched with the realities of parenting. Little Swaps was built to remove that friction: no selling fees, no awkward meetups, no strangers at your door, just a safer, parent-first way to let go of what you’ve loved and pass it on. |
| What connects these stories isn’t just secondhand. It’s intention. A shared belief that kids’ clothes can circulate more thoughtfully. That systems should reduce effort, not add to it. And that practicality doesn’t have to come at the expense of joy, taste, or care. |
| This is the shift I’m paying attention to at The Parent Loop, not because it’s trendy, but because it reflects something deeper about modern parenting in New York. Fewer one-off decisions. Better defaults. Less accumulation. More intention. Systems that finally make room for both ease and delight. |
| Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more of these conversations about how kids’ clothes move through NYC families today, and what it looks like when secondhand is designed for real life. But can still be fun. |
| More soon, Jessie |
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