With great effort, I managed to push up the garage-style door to our storage garage. It came with an agonized shriek of metal and wafted a cloud of dust down on me. I sputtered and wiped my face with my sleeve.
“When was the last time you were up here?” my mom asked, peering over my shoulder into the small concrete box. Our barely used duck hunting boat took up most of the space, but there were several rows of storage bins lining the other wall.
“I… don’t remember,” I confessed.
My mom and I went through the bins and rescued anything that was baby-related. My daughter is six and a half, and I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to get pregnant again. Imagine my surprise last June when I started feeling weird and nauseated! Now I was in my second trimester and stuff was getting real.
I was going to have another baby, and I had no idea what baby items I already had and what I still needed
Honestly, I didn’t even know what was still good and/or safe to use. I mean, most of this stuff had been sitting in an unregulated storage unit for six years, freezing in the winter and baking in the summer.
Not only that, developments in baby tech had advanced by six years. What was actually usable?
I wasn’t going to have to buy everything again, was I?
Could I expect a baby shower from somebody if it was my second kid, since there was such a gap in the children’s ages? Immediately, I got on Facebook and joined several groups centered around my location with names like “Town/Area Free Stuff!” and “Buy Nothing Town/Area!” I was pleased to see that people were constantly giving away baby items they no longer needed. Not selling for a reasonable price, just paying it forward to the next mama. Awesome, right?
The same questions remain — how safe are some of these items if they have been used, or are a few years old?
After sorting through my piles of stuff, I came up with a few rules for what was safe to have used or older, and what I needed to buy new (or at least talk someone into throwing me a baby shower).
These handed-down items from generous friends are safe to reuse
Clothes. Clothes, clothes, clothes. You know you’re gonna need ‘em and baby clothes are stupid expensive for what they are (something your baby will outgrow in, like, two seconds). Luckily, people are always getting rid of clothes their children have grown out of. The only hitch is how ridiculously gendered baby clothes are. Oh yes, let us color-code our babies so strangers are fully aware of their genitals! We are waiting this time around to have the baby’s sex be a surprise, so that has limited the clothing I’ve been able to gather. Still, if it’s a girl, we have all of older sister’s things stashed away.
Toys are also good to go as long as there hasn’t been any kind of recall. Plastic ones especially are durable and safe as long as they are washed. Fluffy, plushy stuff sitting in someone’s basement or a storage unit should be washed or discarded.
I also acquired two plastic-coated changing mats that were in great shape, despite their age. All they needed was a quick wipedown and some new covers. My daughter’s mobile was still functional, board books age well, and I had kept her baby nail clippers too.
Be safe, and buy these items new
I hate to say it, but car seats. I know they’re expensive. But their plastic can become brittle over time, and it’s just not worth the risk. Besides, advances in car seat technology up the chances of your child surviving an accident unharmed.
Swings/rockers or anything the baby will be strapped into or sleep in should also be replaced or deeply researched to make sure there is no recall or history of infants being injured by these devices.
Bottles and cups. These plastics get brittle over time, and you don’t want to mess around with that.
The last one, with another stiff price tag, was the crib. We’d been using a crib that had been passed down to us from other family members. “It might be old, but your uncle slept in it, and if it was good enough for him….” Yeah, now I realize that they stopped making cribs with the slide-down side for a reason. I was very lucky that some friends gave us a crib that was purchased only a year before for their grandchild, who grew out of it so fast and barely used it.
If you’re in a predicament like me, don’t be afraid to collect used baby items
However, you’re still going to have to shell out for the stuff where safety is a concern. Better start talking to your girlfriends about another baby shower, and hope folks are generous.
