Two years into parenthood, you look around your house and wonder when it transformed into a shrine to Fisher-Price and Gymboree.

Toys billow out of baskets. Stacks of children's books threaten to slide off shelves. Outgrown clothes sit in old diaper boxes tucked into the back of closets.

If you feel ready now to let go of the memories, you can recoup some of the money you spent on this stash.

As consumers enter a new age of frugality amid a recession, parents are increasingly turning to consignment merchants, resale stores and online marketplaces to realize the revenue potential of their children's castoffs and to save money by buying used merchandise.

"That old joke about cash in your closets – it's true," said Gina Hines, the mother of 3-year-old twin girls.

She suggests that parents check out the twice-yearly sales organized by Just Between Friends. Don't let the name fool you. These events draw so many buyers and sellers that the company books convention centers and fairgrounds to house them.

"People have inhibitions about secondhand clothes and toys," said Hines, who has been a Just Between Friends devotee for about two years. "But kids don't care where it came from."

This sale is one alternative. Saren Stamp recommends another: eBay.

Stamp, who lives in Antelope with her 2-year-old son, Ethan, sells gently used children's items at her Boys Are Trouble Boutique on eBay. She got the idea from her mother, who ran a similar business so she could stay home while Stamp was in high school.

Many other parents prefer to keep their feet planted solidly in the brick-and-mortar world of consignment stores such as Once Upon a Child. This children's resale franchise pays sellers cash for items to the tune of about 30 percent to 70 percent of what the store sells them for.

Nicole Collins, a mother of four, visited the Once Upon a Child store in Citrus Heights during a recent lunch break. Although Collins went there in search of a good deal on a playpen for her 6-month-old daughter, she ended up being more impressed by the prices on baby clothes.

"I'm going to get a couple of things," she said, clutching two pairs of tiny jeans to take home to Elk Grove.

Families today are spending money only on necessities, driving down the amount they are spending on children, said Pepperdine University business professor Ed Fredericks.

Children eat up a big share of the family income. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that an average couple earning between $45,800 and $77,100 a year would spend $204,060 on one child before he or she reached age 18.

Hines, Collins, Stamp and other savvy parents are chipping away at these expenditures.

Hines has already begun preparing the clothes her 3-year-old twin girls had outgrown for the upcoming Just Between Friends sale in August. Held in Sacramento and Roseville, the sales offer consignors 65 percent of the profit on sold items, with 5 percent more for parents who volunteer with the sale.

Hines washes and line-dries the clothes, then hangs them in a spare closet in her West Sacramento home. It takes her six to eight hours to get the clothes and toys ready for the four-day sale, which includes the time it takes to enter the information into an online database, price the items and affix tags.

As Hines recently readied a mound of pristine dresses, sweaters and pants for tagging, twins Grace and Julia played with a kids tool bench and toy drills that Hines had scored at a previous JBF sale.

"I buy an overwhelming majority of their stuff at JBF," said Hines, who said she made $1,500 at the spring-summer JBF sales last month. "Very rarely will I buy stuff new."

That bargain prowess affords Grace and Julia top-of-the-line clothes and toys for a fraction of the retail price. The identical turquoise and pink-flowered Gymboree sundresses her daughters sported last week both were JBF finds. One cost $5, while the other, which came with a matching headband, was $7.50. Brand-new summer dresses from the children's retailer sell for around $35.

Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.