When some of us learned we were becoming parents we gasped at the price of cribs, scoffed at the thought of changing diapers and cooed at the perfect clothes that were given as gifts — once word spread that a new one would be brought into the world. Soon after the child was born, the child began to grow.

The onesies turned into tees and the cozy cotton pants turned into jeans. Sneakers lasted less than one season and stains became as regular as dinner. Buying clothes for growing children can be costly. But as one North Country woman realized, it doesn’t have to be.

Eileen Moriarty spent years surrounded by little people. As a stay-at-home mom she watched children grow inside the walls of vacation bible schools and kindergarten classes. She raised her own. And as a community volunteer, she saw their once perfect-fitting pants become pedal pushers before the leaves began to change. That’s when she began to realize something phenomenal; parents don’t have to spend a lot of money to dress their children season after season. They can still buy decent, up-to-date fashionable clothes…if they look in the right place.

That place was soon to become hers.

“I always felt there was a huge need for more reasonably priced clothing and baby options,” says Moriarty, owner of Just Like New in Adams Center.

The newly renovated building with the big white corner door is filled with clothes of all different sizes, styles and colors. Toys, car seats, games and dolls can be seen below and beside the racks and racks of clothing that fill the cozy store on Route 11. Each rack consists of gently worn clothes and some brand new clothes, depending on where Moriarty got her stock that week. Buyouts from The Gap or Old Navy cross her path from time to time. But for Moriarty to drop a dime, the price has to be worth it.

“I sometimes hit a buyout, but it’s difficult because a lot of times the price isn’t right,” she says. “That’s one thing I’m very careful of. My customers are very cost conscious. And they will only pay so much for an item.”

Moriarty started Just Like New with a mere $1,000. It was an idea that had played inside her head for some time, but the evolution stayed in the back of it, dwarfed by the raising of her two children. But when they were old enough, her husband gave her the push.

“He said, ‘Just go for it! Quit dallying. If you want to do it, just do it!’ It all fell into place suddenly,” says Moriarty.

With the help of friends, she was able to rent one side of a building for her glowing idea. She took her small bankroll in her palm and ventured out, buying clothing racks from Ames, tables from the Salvation Army and children’s clothes from wherever she could get them. As she made money she would buy more racks and shelves. Before she knew it, she was renting out the other half of the store to accommodate the influx of customers from Lewis County and even Onondaga County.

“These people make the trip because they know it’s worth it. If they’re going to buy $50 or $100 worth of stuff, it’s worth a little bit of a ride to come in,” says Moriarty.

After her first year of entrepreneurship Moriarty didn’t quit. Her perseverance was a concept her devoted husband never fathomed.

“He thought I’d dabble at it and get bored and be done because I was a stay-at-home mom up until that point. But I guess I fooled him with that!” Moriarty recalls.

That was 14 years ago. Now Moriarty has a successful business with a regular clientele, and she does very little advertising to achieve it. Not because she’s not creative and not because she doesn’t have the budget. Eileen Moriarty is quite frank when she says it’s an aspect of the business she just doesn’t enjoy.

“Advertising has been one of my toughest things. I tell you right now, I despise it!” she says, laughing. “It’s like one of the least things I like to do. I’d rather do book work than do my advertising!”

She utilizes the Watertown Daily Times and the Salmon River News and that’s it. Once upon a time she sent out postcards to her regular customers to alert them of sales and specials, but when she realized she was spending $800 every few months to mail out the glossy advertisements, she put the brakes on that idea. E-mail became her greatest tool and still is today.

But the best part came when Moriarty realized she had set up shop in a prime location in New York State. Years ago, she found similar shops downstate in small garages along back roads. But she quickly learned that having a second-hand children’s store so close to a military base was a gold mine.

“Military folks love it! When they come to town, this is one of the things they look for,” says Moriarty.

Many military families relocate to the North Country without ever having experienced snow. Moriarty says snow pants and jackets are a hot item as the winter season approaches. And for grandparents that have grandchildren visit, she says it makes financial sense to buy a toddler bed through her store, rather than a furniture store. It’s clean, it’s in excellent condition, and it’s available right away.

After a few years of being in business - now renting both halves of the store - Moriarty wanted to take her operation one step further.

“Once we realized the idea was taking off, the idea of owning my own place was the next phase of the dream,” she says. “The opportunity presented itself and my husband was in the right frame of mind and decided he wanted to invest into a building, so we renovated (it) all summer and got in down where we are now.”

“Now” is at 12968 Route 11, the newly renovated building with the big white corner door. There isn’t much you can’t find inside the walls of Moriarty’s store now. And with so many repeat customers bringing in new stuff regularly, the inventory is constantly changing. When she first started her business, Moriarty says she used to pay cash for anything her customers brought in, but she soon learned there was no cash left to pay the bills. So she had to come up with another way to “pay” for a box of summer shorts or a stroller.

“Every kid keeps growing, and with every season changing, every kid needs more clothes. So I thought giving them store credit would work out well. And it does! When people bring things in, they get store credit to use for their next clothing purchase,” says Moriarty.

It took perseverance, a little bit of cash and a whole lot of clothing racks to make it work, but it happened for Eileen Moriarty. She suggests that any woman looking to start her own business take it one dollar at a time. “Don’t get in over your head financially right away. Some go out and borrow huge amounts of money because it looks like their idea will work on paper. But I think is a bad idea,” she says.