With the upcoming addition of baby number three, I have been wanting to de-clutter and prepare for a third child. What does that mean then? Out with the old? Do you buy new? These are things you need to think about. I looked up how to dispose baby items once they are expired and how you can simply dispose of it.
Call me crazy, but I really love when we find out we are having a baby because I am the one in the relationship wanting to go out and buy all the new things. My wife on the other hand, she wants to just use what we already have. So we make a compromise and buy some new things and use some old. When it comes to expirations and safety though, I don’t budge at all.
So here are some things I have found that they don’t last forever, but are simple to sell or dispose of:
Car Seat – When looking this one up, I saw so many sites that had information on recycling them. Now, if that’s something you’re into by all means go for it. Can I just say though, if your car seat is about to expire or been in an accident you really just need to dispose of it. Personally, I would not want to be help responsible if something were to happen to another person’s child because I was just trying to make a couple bucks getting rid of it.
What do you do it it then? You cut everything up. Personally, I would save this up for a time when I wasn’t so happy and just go to town on it. You will be cutting the belts, take off the cover and cut that up and basically make it unusable. Take the plastic body of the seat and write all over it with Sharpie marker, “DO NOT USE, EXPIRED,” or “DO NOT USE, CRASHED.”
Baby mattress – Did you know that even the mattress for your kids beds have expirations on them? Depending on what type of mattress you get they can last anywhere from three years on up. Really, it depends on the quality you buy and the care you give it. I just think about how many times they get puked, peed and who knows what else happens to them. We made sure to really invest in good baby mattresses and my son has been on the same one for over three years and it’s still fine.
A mattress can be one of those pricy items parents sometimes can’t afford. Are you completely done with it? You can look here for a local recycling center near you. Also, most crib mattresses will also fit into a toddler bed like the one we got. So just know that your child will probably use that same mattress after leaving the crib.
Stroller – Do strollers have an expiration date? Strollers don’t expire like car seats although you may want to double check for recalls. The infant seat and base are way expired, most are 5-6 years from the manufacture date. If you made a good investment and bought a quality stroller, resale value is usually pretty good.
Look on your local Craiglist or neighborhood Facebook yard sale pages to see what people are selling them for and you can get yourself a little extra cash.
Baby Clothes – If you are anything like us, you have bins and bins of baby clothes that who knows if you will have another baby that same sex later on. Plus, what if the kids are born at different times of the year? Winter stuff that first your first one will probably fit your second one in the summer. Plus, it’s easier to just let it go and get new stuff. Best part about this, there are quite a few options to sell your used baby clothes.
We use Instagram and just have themoderndadscloset. This is where we have sold used clothing items that our kids wore that we’re either over and just don’t have room to keep. This has been pretty simple and of course you can just add things to it whenever you want.
I have also tried those B/S/T (buy/sell/trade) sites and it was a complete nightmare. So many rules, the women get super crazy about prices and if you don’t put specifically what you want they will not change a thing on their payment. I had put something for $40, thinking they would also pay shipping. Nope! They only paid the $40 and then they would send me to collections via Paypal because I wouldn’t respond to their messages the second they sent them.
Brick and mortar stores, like Kid-to-Kid, are perfect. You can sell your gently used baby clothes and get money back. Personally, I haven’t found them to be worth it. Unless you have so much and you don’t really care what you get back then go for it. I just think, a couple bucks for a top and they think ten cents. So personally, I am a fan of the Instagram closet accounts.
Are you planning on having more kids? I say save the big stuff because you probably invested some decent money into them. You might as well get some good use out of them. But when it comes to the little things, or you’re going on your fourth or fifth kid, just buy new. They’ll thank you one day for it.
