It may be a bit early for holiday shopping (perhaps), but right now (at least in our neck of the woods) it’s twin sale time again! I’ve only shopped the sales in our area, and they’ve all been huge events where you can find fantastic deals on used clothing, toys, books, games/puzzles, baby gear, and more. I always shop the fall and spring sales before even stepping foot inside a traditional children’s clothing store.

However, shopping these sales can sometimes feel like I’m running with the brides-to-be in Filene’s Basement. There are often tons and tons of shoppers and sometimes babies and kids in strollers, making it even harder to move around. I won’t lie. I was completely unprepared and overwhelmed when I shopped my first twin sale almost three years ago. I’m not a big shopper to begin with, and almost had an anxiety attack trying to manage the huge stacks of clothing. I don’t think I even made it over to they toys and books. And it wasn’t much easier when I went back for my second sale in the spring.

But by my third sale (the following fall), I realized that I needed more of a game plan to successfully shop during twin sale season. And now, as I approach my sixth sale, I feel that I really have a system that works for me. Here is what my game plan involves:

Make a list: For some reason, the sales are just much easier for me to navigate if I have a list of what I need. It keeps me focused and motivated to find the things we really need. It also keeps me from bringing home things we don’t need.

Find a seller: I was lucky enough to find someone who has boy/girl twins who are roughly a size ahead of mine (even though they’re a month younger than mine!). She lets me shop her items before she tags them, and it’s a win-win for both of us. I don’t have to hunt through huge stacks to look for what I need, and she gets to spend less time tagging her items.

Work the sale and pre-shop: This will be my third sale as a seller. It’s quite a lot of work getting all of my items organized and tagged, and being a seller means I have to work set-up on Friday night AND all day Saturday until the entire venue has been cleared out. But it also means that I get to pre-shop both Friday night AND Saturday morning. The amount of items to look through is still overwhelming, but at least I’m doing it with a relatively few number of other shoppers.

So how about you? Do you shop your local mother of multiples sale? What tips do you have for finding just what you need when shopping large tag sales?