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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why people buy baby gear rather than rent it?

60 replies

LaurieMarlow · 12/01/2015 21:59

DS is 7 months. He's already grown out of his moses basket, bouncy chair, baby boppy cushion not that he really needed that , plus shedloads of clothes. We hope that DC2 will come along in time, but for various reasons we will probably wait 3/4 years before TTC. In the meantime we live in a typically teeny London flat with virtually no storage. What am I supposed to do with all this stuff?

Which made me question why I bought it all in the first place? Why don't people rent baby gear rather than buy it? As it happens, we rented a bed nest cot from NCT, which worked brilliantly for us. We returned it at 5.5 months when DS grew out of it. But I never considered it for the other big ticket items like pram/high chair/etc.

Are there rental companies out there that I just haven't heard of? Or do people simply prefer to buy, so there's no demand. Obviously I know there's a huge market in used/second hand stuff, but surely renting would be a good alternative option for people.

Any thoughts?

OP posts:
ghostspirit · 12/01/2015 22:02

in some cases renting might work out more than buying. plus some people dont like 2nd hand and i guess if its been rented its 2nd hand?

i buy all second hand part from the pram and cot mattress... this time round i have paid 10.00 for the cot... baby clothes are being given to me for free.. i have not bought rocker/chair yet.

IAmAPaleontologist · 12/01/2015 22:04

I have never heard of renting stuff tbh. We kept everything for subsequent children. How does the mattress situation work with renting a cot/co sleeper? We never had a moses basket when in rented/small flats and houses, kept things to a minimum I suppose.

YonicSleighdriver · 12/01/2015 22:07

Because stuff is cheap and babies are messy. Properly cleaning stuff between rents and fixing it would be very expensive.

eBay is better to buy second hand then sell on.

Only1scoop · 12/01/2015 22:09

I like it all nice and new....

Many items are inexpensive.

JADS · 12/01/2015 22:12

I guess if you are lucky you end up in an informal rental system. I have a sister and 2 friends with older kids who have lent me stuff. When they had their next child, I gave them back their stuff plus added bits eg an extra bumbo, jumperoo.

We generally got a lot of stuff 2nd hand and I love it. We are just about to move ds into a bed that my friends 3 children slept in. I quite like the history Smile

LegsOfSteel · 12/01/2015 22:13

You can rent car seats in NZ. For six months at a time I think. We hired one for a month when we were there once. Great system.
A lot of people don't like second hand stuff though. You can save a fortune if you don't mind it though. There must be a load of waste in baby gear.

madamginger · 12/01/2015 22:15

I hardly bought anything new, I was given a Moses basket, monitor, clothes and other bits off friends who's babies had out grown stuff, my Moses basket has had 6 babies in it!
I've passed nearly everything onto my friends, my sister and freecycle.

Quintanimo · 12/01/2015 22:16

Everything I own ends up trashed. Seriously. My bugaboo has twigs and mud jammed in the wheels, the Stokke cot had scrapes from rapid assembly and being moved - and a vomited-on mattress. Even my newborn clothes have pasta sauce on them where I dribbled my dinner in them. I would totally lose my deposit if I'd rented it - but I don't have to care cos I bought it second hand.

I bought it second hand from careful owners - who bought new and kept it as-new - hence recouping 60% of their purchase price. They get the shiny new thing - and they pay as much as a rental would be.

LadyLuck10 · 12/01/2015 22:17

I only wanted new.

pointythings · 12/01/2015 22:17

I'd be getting things second hand instead - except for car seats, obviously. We got the DDs' cot for £25, got a new mattress. Were given lots of clothes, bought very little in the newborn and 0-3 sizes. We knew we wanted two, so some stuff we bought - Bumbo seat was fabulous, ditto Medela pump that did both sides at the same time - but we got soooo much great stuff in charity shops, including some amazing baby clothes. You just have to be a savvy shopper.

I was given a lot of stuff and I passed it on, spreading the joy and the savings. If everyone did it, the baby fashion industry would go out of business.

CrispyFB · 12/01/2015 22:18

NCT do rent out prams. As we're on our last (DC4) and we needed a buggy that would fit in the tiny "boot" of our Mazda 5 that would take the carseat until she was big enough for our tried and trusted McLaren, we rented a Maxi Cosi Elea which folds up stupidly small. There's no way we would have wanted to buy something like that for just six months so it worked out really well.

We also rented the bednest too as we used to have an Arms Reach co-sleeper but we'd moved since DC3 and no longer had the same space at the side of the bed.

I don't think everyone needs to rent but it was fantastically useful for us to have the option to do so and there are plenty in similar situations.

Quintanimo · 12/01/2015 22:18

( oh - and I polish my karma by giving away freely - and freecycling the rest. Storing baby stuff is a mugs game - because things feel outdated in a few years - and inevitably lose bits in storage. )

Nanny0gg · 12/01/2015 22:20

If you have more than one child it wouldn't be cost-effective. And you want to reuse your own things.

I also like to know, as far as possible, where baby things have been. So hand-me-downs from friends and family are far preferable to something that could have been used by loads of random people.

Artandco · 12/01/2015 22:26

You buy less to start with. We are also in London, flat. We never brought a moses basket, bouncer chair or boppy cushion!

We never brought 90% of friends 'essentials'.
Ie baby cutlery!, I mean we just gave ours a tea spoon when small and then normal cutlery.

Didn't buy bouncer/ jumpers/ baby swings. They laid on floor or laps until big enough to sit. Then sat with cushions. And used swing in actual park.

Baby changing bag? Surely that's just any bag with a changing mat inside. Brought a folding mat for £5 then put in my nice handbags :)

Original poster
LaurieMarlow · 12/01/2015 22:32

Interesting replies, thanks all. JADS is right about the whole informal rental system. Didn't happen for us as we're far away from family and for some reason our friends are all having babies at the same time, so doesn't really work to pass things on. I guess I'll start putting stuff up on free cycle.

Totally agree that storing baby stuff is a mugs game, especially when you've got about half a kitchen cupboard of spare capacity. What I would do for an attic.

OP posts:
WhirlyTwirlySnowflakes · 12/01/2015 22:33

We were bought our pram, cots, high chairs, bouncy chairs and playmat as gifts. I think that's fairly common.

We looked after everything carefully but only the things belonging to our DD could be sold on. Our DS's stuff was all very sicked or pooed on regardless of precautions and if it had been rented I'd have stressed the whole time about it.

peggyundercrackers · 12/01/2015 22:37

Agree with artandco, why buy all these things? You don't really need them, babies will survive without them.

Think most people want their own stuff rather than rent stuff, baby stuff is cheap most of the time.

Topseyt · 12/01/2015 22:39

When I was expecting my eldest (20 years ago now Shock) I felt all pfb and wanted new stuff.

My parents had already offered to buy us any cot and pram we liked. It meant we didn't have to buy too much ourselves. We bought a few new baby grows and received a fair number as gifts. Many subsequent clothes were from charity shops.

Everything was recycled for our next two babies. All the clothes too as all three were girls.

I know what you mean about storage space though. We lived in a small flat in those days too. We moved out when our eldest was a year old though and bought a house so it never became a real issue.

MrsTawdry · 12/01/2015 22:39

I wouldn't have because I was excited to BUY the things. I was so pleased to be having a baby that buying a moses basket etc was a lovely thing. I also wanted to keep some things for the next baby...bit sentimental really but whatever

TheBookofRuth · 12/01/2015 22:40

I loved being able to rent the bed nest, and just have it for when we need it and then give it back. Would totally do that with other stuff if we could.

Glares at child-and-baby-clutter-filled living room

BikeRunSki · 12/01/2015 22:45

I'd have trashed anything rented! Informal passing on is a bit hit and miss - although the original owner of DD (3) 's bed is 20, and 7 children have slept in it in that time. she has a new mattress though!

ChocLover2015 · 12/01/2015 23:27

Baby stuff typically lasts for 2 kids IME. Most people have 2 and most people don't live in a teeny flat

maggiethemagpie · 12/01/2015 23:37

Buying second hand and selling again on ebay cheaper than renting!

brokenhearted55a · 12/01/2015 23:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NoTedInTheBed · 12/01/2015 23:44

Check out beha.com or co.uk (can't remember which) baby equipment hirers association. Online directory of UK baby equipment hirers. It's quite popular for holiday makers, and very common in Australia I believe.