Keep baby things for future or declutter as no space?

[Respectfullydisagree]

Hello all,

My question is, if you have had a baby, how many things as in clothes, toys, larger items do you keep?

I know it all depends on storage space at the end of the day and if you plan to have another child.

Just interested as unless you have a 2nd house there’s no chance in hell you could keep every single item? I wish this was possible to be better off financially not having to repurchase things but also just to make life easier as everything you need would just be there…

If you’ve had a baby what do you do? What’s your system? How do you decide what to keep and what to declutter?

We kept everything from DC1 as knew we definitely would want a DC2 at some point. Just shoved everything in the loft.

With DC2 we are unsure about whether we will have more kids and we have also accumulated a lot more stuff now. Even clothes, because theyre different sexes and were born in different seasons. So we are not keeping everything this time. I mean last time we even kept leftover nappies and that kind of thing.

This time all consumables like that which aren't too expensive to replace are being passed on to a local hospital. All the clothing associated super strongly with one sex from my eldest is going to a friend of mine who has a little one of that sex. (This isn't very much as I'm very laid back about the clothes but there are some things I have chosen not to put DC2 in.) As I figure if we do have more, we will still have way enough clothes left anyway regardless of their sex and people always buy more as gifts. We are also just generally being a bit more ruthless with toys and things and getting rid of stuff that hasn't been well used earlier on. But mostly still keeping things, I'd rather store and get rid of it in a few years than have to rebuy everything if we did have more.

Depends how long a gap you're planning on having.

We only had a two year age gap, so nothing was taking up space for too long. If you're waiting until your eldest is at school before TTC then you don't want loads of stuff taking up space for years to come!

FWIW, we still got given loads of new clothes when DS2 was born. We kept the pram and car seat etc. But I binned the moses basket by the time DS1 was 8 weeks old and got a next to me for DS2.

That’s also something to consider, your second child might not be the same sex as your first so it may be pointless keeping! 🙈

I kept a fair amount of stuff including baby toys, clothes, baby bed, walker etc, although my second isn't the same sex so it wasn't overly helpful. This time round I've donated everything, I'm undecided about more kids but will just buy again when the time comes, so much more stuff around cheap and secondhand now too especially on marketplace etc so that's helpful just incase.

We just used almost all the stuff anyway, a baby hasn't got a clue what colour clothes they've got on after all. Basically all I got rid of was dresses, tights, and frilly tunic top type things. As they're not practical anyway and I didn't want people to think I was making some kind of statement if I put him in a dress. DS otherwise often wears pink and 'girls' clothes. Just because we don't have tons of money and I wasn't going to waste it on clothes of different colours or patterns!Obviously when he's older and can express an opinion I'm sure that will stop but for now he's 1 and couldn't give a monkeys.

Kept everything and it went in the loft, we also had a five year age gap. Cots/cribs were dismantled and clothes put in Ikea storage bags. If you don’t have a loft though then it would be harder.

We kept everything in the attic after DD1. Now we know we aren't having another I am taking great joy in emptying my house of all the baby crap as soon as DD2 outgrows it!

We don’t have a loft/ attic! Very little storage space so it makes things difficult. Think I’ll be keep the big items and donating all clothes possibly toys. Like someone said, can always get them cheap second time round if needed. Feels like such a faff when I wish I could keep it!

We focused on keeping the things we used and are difficult to source 2nd hand cheaply.

Kept it mainly. But had a sort out of stained clothes and gifts that weren’t so useful. Essentially kept everything that was in decent condition that we had found useful for the first one. And I was happy that we did because my DH was made redundant and having almost zero spending for second baby was helpful !

I kept all furniture items like travel system, swing etc etc but sealed and boxed them and into the garage. Clothes I kept only those that were really good condition and looked newish. The others I gave in charity. Most went to charity as toddlers destroy clothing and the quality isn't as it was. A lot I put into vacuum seal bags labelled by age. It came in handy as we just had our second child and of the same gender. Toys I kept only the ones I remember my first really engaging and playing with (he was gifted soooo many and half he barely cared about or weren't reallt age appropriate for him/missing pieces/ broke). That's it really. I declutter all the time as we're tight for space and renting.

We kept everything from DD because we knew we'd want another within a couple of years so it made sense. We're expecting DD2 in the new year and once she's grown out of things I will start to get rid as we don't plan on having any more. We have a loft so it was pretty easy to store everything but if we didn't have that I probably wouldn't have been able to. Vacuum pack storage was great for all the clothes!

We didn't plan on having another baby, so did get rid of everything minus some sentimental bits clothing. We also didn't have space to keep things just incase!

However, 4 years later we ended up having another. We bought wisely 2nd time round. We knew what we liked and what worked for us and I didn't buy any of the unnecessary things I probably did the 1st time round.

I am glad we kept some clothes though. I loved seeing DS2 in them.

If you're planning on another, it seems dumb to get rid of and then buy the items again (not to mention what a waste of money). Can you lend to a friend or relative for them to use too?

We kept almost everything, but we knew we wanted another with a relatively small gap. It ended up being 2.5 years.
We kept the cot, pram, and high chair out, and basically DC1 stopped using them and DC2 started using them pretty quickly so we never put them away.
Baby clothes were in vacuum storage bags labelled with the age. Bouncy chair and car seat were in the loft too until needed again, then once we were done they got packed up and given to a friend. The walker was borrowed so I gave it back to the original owner, then got one for £5 off Facebook when needed for DC2.

DC2 is the opposite sex to DC1 so after DC2 was born any bits we didn’t want to use were packed up for a friend who was expecting a baby.

DC2 is 3 now and we’re not planning more children so the cot has gone to the local baby bank, I’m cleaning up the pram to sell on our local facebook page, the high chair and travel cot can stay for visiting babies. Clothes that are still in good condition get passed on through a Facebook group.

If you're planning another in less than, say, five years it seems a bit daft to get rid of it all just to buy again? And babies don't know what they're wearing, you can put them in the same clothes, no need to buy pink/blue.

I kept everything but we have a big loft! It's saved an absolute fortune. We had the same sex again but even if we hadn't, so much of DD1's clothes were gender neutral anyway. And all the big ticket items we kept: prams, car seats, jumperoo, cots, etc.

MIL kept clothes in her loft for us, all the big items went to a friend who was pregnant and said she'd keep them for us after she'd used them.