What NOT to save for 2nd baby?

[MBot]

Our first mini-mustache was born 2 months ago. There are already a few things we are "done" with like newborn clothes.

My 'default setting' is to save everything for baby #2, but it seems like the space to store it is also valuable. And we have local groups on Facebook where it's easy to sell clothes and baby items. We were just given a big bedding set we won't use for him, and I'm going to sell it. I was wondering if it's also worth it to pare down the clothes etc by selling some too, or get rid of them altogether.

Is there anything you would say was not worth keeping for your 2nd or only keeping a few?

[mm1970]

my kids were 6 years apart, we saved nothing.

Clothing it depends on if you have a source.  I had many friends to pass on hand me downs with both #1 and #2, so we still don't save stuff (I'm not saving my 10 year old's stuff for 6 years!)

If you don't have a source, and you are planning a second one soon, keep it.

[Cassie]

I pretty much kept everything until we had all 3 kids but we had space to store it.

[goatmom]

Baby clothes.  Babies are born in different months.  They can be different genders.  Clothes are readily available for cheap. 

[serpentstooth]

I have no idea if they will be useful or not, but I set aside one banker's box of clothing per size, per sex and stuck them in our storage unit. If that doesn't work out, I'll consign/donate/sell/whatever those clothes and come up with some other way of dressing the baby cheaply for future kids.

[MayDay]

Pacifiers got gross by kid #2, but I was glad to have one of each kind to try with the second. Once she picked one, we threw out all the old ones.

I would save basically the bare minimum of clothes you think you will need, so that even with zero hand me downs you could get by.

[emilypsf]

Bottle nipples.  They crack or stretch out so the flow is too fast.  Other than that I saved everything.  It's nice to have lots of newborn clothes even if they are the wrong gender because sometimes doing laundry in the newborn haze is just too much.

[Venturing]

Things that we hadn't actually used with number one - obviously they weren't necessary to have
Things that we ended up with too many of
Things that we discovered we didn't like using (eg we only kept long sleeved onesies if they had domes all the way down the front, any that had to pull over the head went)
Anything that was really dead eg domes had pulled out

I refuse to buy into the idea that babies can only wear certain colours so wouldn't get rid of anything on that basis

[nobody123]

We saved darn near everything other than really stained clothes.  We had to buy some new nipples for the bottles and a couple of new sippy cups because the valves had been destroyed.  We lucked out with two boys so the non-infant clothes could be re-used.  My wife washed and sorted everything by size and stored it in big Rubbermaid totes.  We had the room to store them, so it was no big deal.

Now, as soon as the younger one outgrows something, it gets posted on our neighborhood Facebook swap page and they are usually snapped up within hours.  Stuff that doesn't go in a week gets donated.

We were lucky that the 2nd kid came along and our car seats had not expired yet.  That would be the only thing that I would consider not saving, depending on how much time they had left on them.

[ABC123]

My boys are only 22 months apart.  We kept pretty much everything.  After #2, we thought we were done.  I kept everything for a few more years then got rid of it all.  Surprise, #3 has now decided to come along - this one will be 6 years younger.  So we are now pretty much starting over.  This baby is going to be much more minimalist than his/her big brothers were.

[TheSecondLaw]

I did a pair down at 6 months but a few months later I think I need to do another pass and eliminate more things. I sell or give away anything that still has the tags on it or that wasn't worn this time around. Also anything that we don't love I aspire to get rid of (I'm looking at you boppy pillow, also toys, blankets, etc).

Also following to see what else I can eliminate.

[Matt_D]

Context: dad of 3 (7yo girl, 4yo girl, 4mo boy).

I think it depends on whether you have some space to easily chuck stuff (we have a garage attic). We kept most stuff between the first two, but got rid of a ton of stuff between our 2nd and 3rd, and have had zero issues acquiring what we've needed for free/cheap. Example: we have more clothes for our little dude than he needs, and friends are still offering more!

So if it's easy to hold on to and you liked stuff - keep it. If not - get rid of it, you can replace it.

[zolotiyeruki]

We knew we were going to have a big family, and we didn't have a ton of stuff in the first place, but we did keep just about everything, all the way down to leftover diapers as the kid grew out of them.  Like serpentstooth, we've kept about one 20qt bin of clothes per size per sex up to about 2T or 3T, then two bins in each size (summer and winter) per sex.  They stack nicely, especially in closets.

We've gotten rid of stained and torn clothing, and we don't re-use pacifiers.  But everything we've used we've kept for the next kid.  Stuff we end up not using gets decluttered.

[TabbyCat]

I ask myself "how much did I use this, and how much did other parents use this (would a different baby love the swing even if this baby didn't)" I also try to imagine pulling it out of a box in a few years - am I excited, or wondering what I was thinking. The last one prompted me to send a whole bunch of clothes I didn't love and the bath seat to good will. Most other stuff we're keeping. You could also try listing things on Craigslist with a high asking - if I sells at 70-80% of new price, great, if not you can keep it.

[elaine amj]

I ended up being happy I sold the brand new bassinet from Baby #1 pretty quickly. My kids are only 16 months apart and I was so happy that I had the justification I needed to buy a used wooden cradle (which I preferred) for Baby #2. I ended selling the wooden cradle for the what I paid for it  (or maybe more?) so it was an awesome decision!

Baby stuff and gear is so inexpensive to buy used and so easy to resell immediately after. If you keep stuff for 3-5 years, styles change and resale value plummets. It's actually cheaper to buy used, resell once you are done...and then buy and resell again when you need it a couple of years later.

I used to organize giant baby/kids yard sales and it is amazing how quickly baby gear looks dated and resale values drop. I'd say things look dated after just 2-3 years. The families who saved their stuff for years got next to nothing when they tried to resell. It's all a consumerist con job - but that's our current reality.

[Tawcan]

Our kids are about 2.5 years apart and we basically kept everything knowing that we'll have 2 kids. Looking back we could have probably sold some of the clothes. One thing we're glad that we saved are the cloth diapers.

[Frugster]

[quote author=elaine amj link=topic=52382.msg1031706#msg1031706 date=1459371314
Baby stuff and gear is so inexpensive to buy used and so easy to resell immediately after. If you keep stuff for 3-5 years, styles change and resale value plummets. It's actually cheaper to buy used, resell once you are done...and then buy and resell again when you need it a couple of years later.
[/quote]
+1 to this!

Per Mari Kondo: If it gives you joy, keep it! No joy, pass it along.