How much stuff do you keep?

[AshleyAnn]

How much baby stuff do you keep between babies? I'm working on DD's outgrown clothing stash.

DH wants to keep all of it. I want to keep a little specifically for her and not use it on later babies, keep some in another container for future babies, and sell/give away whats left.

I put all of it in containers today neatly and just the newborn and 0-3 month size takes 2 large tubs. I have easily 2.5 tubs of her current size in her room and a tub of 9 month size and nearly a tub of 12 month size waiting and I know I'll buy more. If we keep it all there will be well over 12 tubs waiting for us to have another child (consider the blankets, towels, crib bedding, ect will also be saved) I bought nearly all of it used and was given a ton of handmedowns so I'm out very very little if I part company with it. We're an Army family and are going to be moving soon - 12+ tubs of baby stuff plus the bassinet, swing, exersaucer, bouncer, PNP, boppy, crib, and glider seem like a ton of crap to haul from town to town just in case we ever get so lucky to have a baby again and even then we only have a 50% chance it'll be a girl. If its a boy I'll end up with a whole new set of tubs. Part of me wants to part with the generic stuff just so that I can have the fun of buying it all again. I loved shopping for her and think I'd end up buying more no matter how much I already had.

My mother kept it ALL until she had her tubes tied then kept 1 box for each of us. My MIL kept nothing at all. My SIL kept 2 outfits for each child in each size. What do you do?

[vonfirmath]

I am limiting myself to one box per size (the large diaper boxes is mostly what I have been using) I did have 1 tub of newborn stuff. (1/3 of which still had tags! We need another baby to wear it! I will NEVER give 0-3 months size clothes at a baby shower before a baby is born!)

I find as he gets older there is less stuff I want to keep -- its just getting very generic and very worn looking.

[MoJo]

Well, I saved everything, but we haven't moved; I knew I wanted another child; and as it turns out, we're having another girl in June, (she's due a week after DD#1's 2nd birthday) so I expect everything will be reused since baby #2 is same gender and even born in the same season.

#2 is the last, unless God has a different plan, so I will get rid of all but maybe a few special outfits or outfits for dolls once DD#2 outgrows them.

[Melaine]

Not much. I have a couple of boxes in the attic of random stuff I haven't bothered going through, like bibs, onsies, etc. Then I have a few outfits I really loved. That's about it. I don't know if/when we will have more. I hope we have more some day.

[AnnieW625]

I used space bags and had two small ones full of newborn to 3 mos. stuff. I thought that was reasonable. As the clothes got bigger so did the space bags, but since we didn't know the sex of DD either I got a lot of gender neutral basics in 0-9 mos. sizes I kept most of it that wasn't stained and could be used again, which ended up being a fair amount of stuff. I still have a lot of DD's non gender neutral stuff that is getting sold if we end up having a boy.

Now gear wise here's what we still have:
crib
changing table
Snugride 22 (although most likely getting donated to a women's shelter because I just got a larger Graco Safe Seat:))
Evenflo Triumph 5
flannel receiving blankets (although DD has taken them for her stuffed animals so I did let DD pick out some replacements)
crib sheets
sheet protectors
playmat
Pack N Play
Diaper Champ
cloth diapers (used as burp rags; wonderful for that)
swaddling blankets
blankets galore (DD got at least 10 blankets; including knitted ones)
hooded towels (again we got lots of these!)
shoes (1st pair of Robeez, 1st pair of See Kai Runs)

[elephantmeg]

well for the NB-2ish you also have to be the right season too! I knew we were going to try again for a spring baby after we had DS and so I kept everything that I liked. I did not keep the stuff I didn't like/never wore. After my 20 wk u/s when I found out DD was a girl I got rid of everything that wasn't gender neutral except some of the nicer zipper PJ's that I kept as back up. That's what I still do-keep jeans, some PJ's as backup and some shoes (not much of those) and pass off the rest. DD's stuff gets passed off. If I were an army wife I wouldn't keep more than a box of each size and I would think about the things that were gender neutral and season neutral. Oh and I do have 1 small box each of keepsake stuff.

[hillview]

I saved everything (we had kids 2 years apart) except for items that were beyond repair which I tossed. Now I give away all clothes. I only saved the coming home from the hospital outfits.
/hillary

[Ceepa]

I've pared it down to one underbed box per size. And not one of the large boxes. ;) I've found that as DC age I can look more objectively at outgrown clothing and cull. At first everything seems so bittersweet, but after a while you'll be able to hold on to the workhorse pieces for future babes (neutral rompers, Carters Onesies), some special pieces (coming home outfit, first holiday outfit) and sentimental pieces (that adored yellow shirt that was in constant rotation until it was outgrown, the animal tee that DH loved so much that he put it on DC even after it no longer fit!). I still have tubs full, but just this weekend I was able to weed out another box to donate because enough time had passed.

It's difficult but allow yourself the freedom to pass on some of those clothes to another lucky baby. There will always be more adorable clothes to buy as your child grows.

[smiles33]

I kept all the clothes but sold off the baby gear on CL. Given design changes and tech advances, I figured I could always buy a new swing, new high chair, etc. off CL for the second kid. Plus, then I don't have to store the big bulky items.

Now that DD2 is here (and born in the same season as DD1), we're able to have her wear all the same outfits. I'm donating clothes as DD2 outgrows them, though, as I think we're done.

[scrooks]

I've saved everything from both...we are pretty sure we want a 3rd and have the space to store it so I've kept it. Plus DN is 5 months behind DS so as DS outgrows sleepers and stuff I have been sending them down to my sister. Once DN is done with them my sister sends them right back because she has NO storage space. I would say I have 1 box per size for 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month and 18 month and expect to have 2 boxes per age after that.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I kept it all even though I didn't know if we would have more kids. Smartest decision, imo. I didn't have to rebuy everything so I saved a lot of money! I could buy a few new things "just because" but I didn't have to. I was able to justify something cool because I didn't have to waste my money on basics. Even though the boys were born in opposite seasons we have been able to reuse all the clothes because ds2 trends smaller on the growth curves and fits in things off the season ds1 did. If you have space then I see no reason not to keep it. if space is at a premium then prioritize starting with big $$ items first.

eta- with the exception of some clothes (haven't gotten around to them), I have been getting rid of things as soon as we didn't need them any more after ds2. Now, I am feeling an urge to have a 3rd and all my stuff will be gone! Eek! And all of my friends are done having kids so I won't have any resources to pull from since they got rid of their stuff too.

Beth

[Raidra]

We knew we wanted more kids, so we kept all the clothes that were in reasonably good condition. Money is tight and since we had the space in the attic, it wasn't a big deal. I think we had maybe two trash bagsbags per size, one for warm weather and one for cool weather. This baby will be our last, so we really don't have need of the girl clothes from Fiona, but my sister wants us to keep it for when she has a baby. I'll probably go through it all at some point and toss the generic/worn things.

Keeping boy things is getting tougher as my boys get older because they're both the same size, but I need to have enough clothes for both of them so I don't have to do laundry every other day.. which means I have twice as much as I should in each size. Plus the clothes are just bigger, too. Well, at least Niall will have plenty to wear. :)

We kept pretty much all of the regular baby gear like the swing, bouncy seat, etc.

[AshleyAnn]

Ok so I do have more than than most. I think I'll par it down to a box-ish per size. The gear and bedding is all an obvious keep but the clothing is excessive.

[baymom]

I kept more or less everything that was in decent shape. We were hoping to have two kids close in age and it worked out that way, so it wasn't like I had tons of stuff piled up for a very long time. (they are 1 1/2 yrs apart in age)

Still, it helped that our older one is a boy and DH and I preferred more of the gender neutral items for the baby stages, so it was very easy to pass onto DD. Definitely would have been a lot less we could have used if DD were older.

[infomama]

The short answer is I kept everything unless it was stained beyond repair and I am SO glad I did. Wow..the money I saved.

[maestramommy]

Maybe because our babies are close together, but I kept everything. However, since Laurel was born, I've already unloaded as much nb stuff as possible. As soon as an opportunity comes up I'm unloading more. I think the only stuff I'm keeping are special occasion dresses that were given to me by SIL and cousins, in case they want them back. I know SIL wants the baptism dress back. Stuff like that. The only things I'm ambivalent about are my carriers. Once I'm done with babywearing for good, there are a couple of carriers I want to hang on to, but I don't know if the material will last until my kids have kids.

[codex57]

We basically fill up a closet. A few tubs, several bags, etc.

Don't really have anything for sentimental value (other than a book that we wrote key dates, etc). Kept the nicer stuff to pass down. Either for our own future kid or friends/relatives future babies.

DD is now about past the "infant" stage. At least in physical size. One of these weekends, we're gonna have to collect what's left and pass it on to someone.

[citymama]

We saved almost everything - I did give away some clothes and our swing, but saved pretty much all the gear we actually used - infant car seat, mobile, bouncy chair, gymini, changing table attachment (ours attaches to the top of any dresser), pack n play, crib, clothes, books, toys, shoes, blankets, etc. Also nursing/maternity stuff like breast pump, nursing pillow, etc. So glad I did because we're saving a lot of money not having to re-buy this stuff the second time! And we know we like it, and it works for us and our space. There's a lot to be said for that!

I've bought the baby some new clothes, and I hope she gets a few toys and things so she isn't entirely hand-me-down baby.

[brittone2]

I kept most of our stuff. After my oldest was born and outgrew sizes, I tried to separate into gender neutral and "boy" clothing. I put it up in our attic (which is key, if you don't have room to store it, it isn't worth keeping most of the time IMO). I weeded out stained stuff or things i didn't particularly like (for example I don't like fleece baby wear all that much).

When we had our 2nd (girl) I did reuse most of the gear we had, and bought plenty of girly stuff. I reused some gender neutral clothes, etc. They were the same size in both weight and height at birth, and DD was a December baby and my oldest a February baby, so there was pretty decent overlap in the newborn sizes.

After my 2nd we again divided clothing into girl and gender neutral stuff. Weeded out the old things, stained things, etc. Saved a few special outfits in a box (very small box.).

When we found out that we were having another boy, we hung onto our girl stuff a bit longer as we were waiting for BIL/SIL to find out the gender of their baby first. They were also having a boy (and if they had been having a girl they would have happily accepted our hand me downs). At that point we consigned some girl stuff, donated some other girl items.

Baby #3 is using my oldest's clothes now. He was bigger at birth (9lbs vs. 8lbs 4oz) and he'll outgrew some of the 0-3 stuff faster than DS. We are still reusing some gear, replaced some of the other gear (but there is a 6 year gap between my oldest and third child). Baby #3 was born in March, and my oldest in Feb, so again, the seasons are lining up for now. Most of the boy stuff is really not outdated at all IMO...stripes, sports stuff, you know...the usual.

I'm glad we kept our clothing and gear, but things just aligned well for us in terms of seasons, size of kids, etc. even with there being about 3 years between each child. It would have been a lot to hold onto otherwise! DH is in grad school now (finishing up) and was in school when my 2nd child arrived as well, so for us, it was helpful to not have to shell out the extra money. Some people could easily afford to replace most things, etc. and space might be more valuable to them than the cost of replacing items. I think it is really individual. I don't regret keeping things but we got kind of lucky in how the seasons worked out etc. (not planned).