Baby Gear Storage - Need Ideas!

[KimH]

Now that DS is over 10 months old, we are no longer using a lot of baby gear. This includes the infant car seat and base, swing, bathtub, bouncy seats, etc... I want to keep these items for the future, but am having a problem storing them.

I have taken these items apart and stored (and washed) the cloth seats, etc.. with his outgrown baby clothes. The problem is how to store the gear itself. Due to space limitations, it all has to go in the garage. Even unassembled, a lot of this stuff is big and bulky, though not necessarily heavy.

I am looking for a way to store this gear. Unfortunately, we had not saved any of the original boxes, so that is not an option. I have considered getting Rubbermaid containers or something similar, but I don't know if even the 50 gallon is big enough, plus I am not sure how sturdy those containers are.

How has everyone been storing this baby gear? Any ideas are appreciated!

Thanks!

[JulieL]

For the car seat you could buy a car seat cover from Babies R Us or the Right Start. It's vinal and is used for storing on an airplane. But it cost about $30, a lot just to store it. You could go to Target and call early in the morning, around 5 or 6 a.m., and ask for the stock manager. Tell them you need large card board boxes and they will bring them to the front of the building for you. Wal-mart also would do this. I did this when I was moving and it worked out great! The down side about card board is if you have the boxes on the floor you always have to keep water damage in mind, flooding, washer overflows and such. Or you could just throw them in a large black trash bag, maybe two, one on top one on the bottom. Or of course you could buy rubbermaid. Unfortunately theres no great answer that I know of.

[amp]

FWIW, we threw out several boxes early on that I wish we'd saved, so now we are keeping them in the basement for future storage use.

For the things we have to store w/o boxes...

Clothing is stored in clear plactic tubs with the size and season on the box for easy reference.

Toys are stored in a clear plastic tub, as are things like burp cloths, drool bibs, pacifiers, small size bottles, etc that we aren't using. As the quantity grows, we get another tub.

Snugride carseat is stored inside a garbage bag.

Graco Travel swing is stored in 2 garbage bags. One wasn't big enough, so we put one over it from the bottom up and then one over the top to cover the rest.

Can you tell we like garbage bags to store stuff?!

[Marisa6826]

We used the clear recycling garbage bags. That way I could see what's in there!

-m

[Marisa6826]

Also - look at the Container Store. One of my fave places for ideas.

www.containerstore.com

-m

[suribear]

I wouldn't spend money on special storage containers for the big stuff. garbage bags work fine :) I kept all the clothes and toys inside closets in those huge rubbermaid type containers. The rest went into the garage.

Kris

[kransden]

Too late for this year, but every Jan. Home Depot etc. has rubbermaid(rm) containers on sale really cheap. DH and I have had some rm containters for almost 15 years and have never had a problem with them. I can't say that for the off brands. So if the garbage bag route doesn't appeal to you, feel safe buying rubbermaid.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

[AngelaS]

I stored the excersaucer and infant carseat in garbage bags too and put a garbage bag over the seat of the swing. Clothes, toys and stuff like that goes in rubbermaid bins. :D