To engage in poverty hording ?

[KazenoTaninoNaushika]

We're tidying up the baby's room: all the old baby clothes, every last sock, every toy DC has grown out of, every blanket, muslin, snuggly piece of crap all packed in vacuum bags lest another LO turns up in future. It's a financial thing....we are

We kept most things. I did pass a few things on to others, some of which came back to me and some was knackered by then.

That said, there is also a cost to storing things, something I think people don't always understand. If you have the room then it is no issue at all, but if in extremis you needed to eg get a bigger place, rent storage etc, then financially it might be more sensible to get rid. However mostly with baby things you can fit them into your existing space ok.

Also, if you're in a lot of debt and you can never guarantee you'll have another child, might it be worth selling some things? You're not going to clear a debt by flogging bundles of Asda vests at £3 a time, but if you had more expensive/big ticket items it's possibly worth considering.

Surely most people do this? My son is the eldest grandchild. There are 5 other children all born within 6 years after him. The 6th baby wore stuff that my ds had worn (along with the other 4 in between them!). Right up to late primary school age we were handing clothes along...and getting them back again when needed!

We did this too- both working joint income of over £100k at the time. Knew we wanted a second child and had one after two years. All the saveable decent outfits, hats, babygros which weren't too stained were kept. Some of the nicer outfits were gifts from family members so it was nice for them to see their gifts kept and treasured too.

Second child was different gender so sadly a few dresses weren't much use. I've still got a few of those in a box just in case DD wants to use them!

Would not occur to me not to keep them if planning on another child.

Both my dc's were clothed almost entirely from NCT sales and saved/passed on clothes. Only undies and shoes were new for years.
I was selective and they wore lots of Boden (nice and soft with eczema) and some 'designer' stuff I suppose but mostly just nearly new lovely clothes that another family had enjoyed. We went to quite a 'smart' Nursery and I always got compliments on how they looked.
My wooden rocking chair had rocked 7 children over 3 generations by the time it came to me. That made me really happy.
I have saved the nicest things in the loft :)

My DS has always had hand me downs from friends, which are then handed down to other friends DCs. We all know each other so have a chuckle at the many reincarnations of clothes. I love it.
And I've kept some toys games and books for my future grandchild.

Why wouldn't you if there's a possibility another DC may come along at some point? If another one doesn't arrive you can give it to a relative/friend or sell it??

Honestly I'm really struggling to see why you're giving yourself a hard time OP!!

this is a completely normal and, actually, environmentally responsible thing to do- when ours were small we did this and passed things among a small group of families, only things always new were shoes (school shoes- I actually hosted a welly bank ). We did actually need to be careful with money but would have done it anyway ad I still buy most of my own stuff in charity shops. Like with growing and cooking your own food, I think you get better quality this way. It's true that storage space is a factor that not everyone on a low income can manage- but can I say to OP- vacuum bags !!!! genius idea!!!

this isn't poverty hording. it's called recycling.

Fwiw, I found that this kind of recycling is more a thing among the slightly better off. I have a few friends on very low incomes/benefits and there is much more a trend among them of getting things new for subsequent children.

I thought everyone did this. I did even when I had completed my family and refused to get rid incase doing so tempted fate and a surprise baby put in an appearance. I eventually decided I was safe at around the age of 50 and cleared the attic out.

I didn't, I passed it all on - but then almost everything my DS used as a baby had been through a dozen other babies before him! There was a few bin-bags of baby clothes doing the rounds for years, a few items added and taken away each time.

And I was pretty sure I was going to stop at one by that point, so.

Why on earth wouldn't you? Dh and I were both earning 6 figure salaries when we had DD, but all of her stuff was packed up ready for DS. (and I'd deliberately bought non pink basics so they could be used whatever. Even now they are 14 and 12 dd passes down hoodies and tracksuit bottoms to ds, and her other clothes go to my friend with a 11 year old dd who lives in a £4.5m house.

In fact when pregnant I was part of the mumset pregnancy clothes hand around. Back in the very early days a few of us passed on maternity wear to a poster who was pregnant, and then the whole lot came back to me, and then I passed it onto the next person to be pregnant and the bin bag just kept on getting bigger every time it went round.

And my kids both slept in a moses basket that my little brother and little sister both slept in. My brother is now using it for his ds, and if dsis has children it will go to her. New matresses have been bought, and the handles had to be rebound with nice fabric as the straw was getting a bit tatty, but it's perfectly servicable.

Seriously OP, there is nothing to be ashamed of in not being consumerist and not throwing away perfectly good stuff. Be proud to be thrifty

DC4 is in some stuff that DC1 used! I don't keep everything after each baby as some stuff just doesn't survive and some stuff we've never used (like some particularly choice outfits or things we bought but then realised that we never needed) because I don't like it so I'm unlikely to put the next one in it, so the decent stuff gets given away to friends or the charity shop. Stuff that's too stained gets put in the council clothes recycling bank.

I bought new for each child. I agree it's a class thing. Looking back it was madness as we are a low income household but I had nothing brand new as a child so wanted my children to start life with new rather than old.

Poverty hoarding? No, this is the land of excess and keeping up with the Joneses. The planet is in an awful state through human greed, gluttony and vanity.

You only need to go into people's houses or look on Fakebook Facebook to see that.

And I agree with PP: not handing down clothes, furniture and other perfectly good and reusable items is a strong indicator of class or lack there of.

I currently have half of babies r us/ Mothercare in my attic - including 3 prams .

Some of the newborn stuff is from when my daughter was born nearly 13 years ago and is still in amazing condition after being vacuum bagged and stored ( used some unisex stuff on youngest DS who is 1!)

I'm keeping it all in case I have another but also to be passed onto my sister

I didn't know this was poverty hoarding, I thought it was just what people do.

All of my kids wore their cousins's cast-offs as babies. I borrowed our first moses basket. Even now, I give any good clothes/dresses that my daughters (teens) don't want to my neighbours who have friends with children a bit younger than mine. Their older cousins also pass on clothes.

There was also a bag of maternity clothes doing the rounds in our group back in the day.

Do you really think there is anything out of the ordinary in doing this?

Another high income family (at the time) and we saved all the stuff from DC1 to use for DC2.

I still have a suitcase of clothes in the attic in the event that (heaven forbid) that there are DGC. There's probably a few toys up there too. Most of the big stuff was sold when we knew our family was complete.

Prior to dc we were definitely a high income family. Half the stuff for ds1 was passed on from friends and family, I kept everything for ds2 and most of it is still in the loft in case dh agreed to dc3. He didn't - and I'm only now starting to give it away 9 years later!

Not poverty hoarding - common sense.

We didn't really have anything to save from DC1 to DC2. Apart from her pram, car seat and cot mattress everything else was borrowed or second hand. We gave back what was borrowed. A lot of the passed on clothing didn't really make it. I had some designer clothing which I kept, we attempted to keep the pram and car seat but they rotted as we had to keep them in the shed.
DC3 wasn't going to happen so we got rid of everything, then DH changed his mind. DC3 had everything new. DC4 arrived 16 months after DC3, had to buy another cot as DC3 was still in it and a double pram. Clothes did get passed on though and passed on again to nephews.

We have an income of £80k and are currently packing away everything from DD1, that later went to DD2, in case we have a DC3! If we have a boy it will be dressed in a lot of pink

One thing that stands out from all the posts is space to store so an attic or spare room. I saved all my dds and passed onto brother for my 2 nieces who had in turned passed on to his SIL, was nice to see a pic of her baby 10 years down the line on the same blossom hill elc play mat. But I had a large loft to store in. I can see if you are in small flat or renting do having to move frequently saving stuff is more tricky.

My 7 year old currently wearing all his 14 year old brothers old school shorts, (not the trousers as they were all ripped at the knee from football). I've also just got out all the 7-8 summer clothes which the eldest wore when he was 6, eight years ago. We are a high income family but I'm not wasting good clothes. I've also handed the clothes the 7 year old ha finished with, which the 14 year old wore to his 6 year old cousin who will pass them on to the 4 year old cousin. I've only 1 DD and I pass her clothes on to my best friends DD, I suspect that my BF earns several hundred thousand a year but she's always happy for DD's clothes and her DD loves that she gets clothes from her big girl friend.

We did exactly the same (except for the grotty stained stuff). It's normal I think.

DS rocking up after we had a DD first didn't help save much cash as he grew but for the first six mothe he wore her clothes and still does as far as t-shirts/vests etc go.

Very sensible. I saved my dd1 clothes and everything for about 3/4 years and they were in perfect condition, then I gave them all to charity. 2 months later I found out I was pregnant (and yes, it was another girl).