What would you absolutely keep?

[crunch!910]

I really regret selling our swing. It's such a big purchase and I HATE having to buy a new one again! And our Jumperoo. We kept about 2-3 boxes of clothes. It's been helpful, but I consignment shop anyway and it hasn't saved us that much money!

That said.. even if I regret selling those things, there's no way we could have stored them in this tiny apartment. So I really can't beat myself up over it. Basically, besides some clothes we still had, we bought everything new/consignment again.

[mom2kaydncolt]

I have saved our exersaucer and if the bouncer hadn't been borrowed I would have saved that too. BUT most of that stuff is easily and cheaply replaced at yard sales once pregnant so I wouldn't stress about it. I also keep our pnp's but we use these for a long time so they still get occassional use with my 19 mo old. And our crib has just gone from one kid to the next plus it's kinda a family heirloom so I wouldn't get rid of it anyway.

For clothes after the first two boys I saved full wardrobes, got rid of things I didn't absolutely love but kept a lot in each size. As boy #3 has outgrown I've kept only the few things in each size that I LOVE and that all three boys have worn and passed the rest on. Same with my daughter, as she's outgrown her clothes I've saved the things that I LOVE and gotten rid of everything else. We did not plan to have more children but now we do. But my family and dh's family love to gift our new babies clothes and I kinda like to shop for them too. lol

[danner]

I have never regretted getting rid of a stuffed animal or plastic toy, especially if it was battery operated. There's like this infinite pile of plastic for people to buy from and it's junk. I have found that the toys my daughter played with at 1-2 are still toys that she is interested in at 3, and the toys she didn't care about, she still doesn't care about.

She really truly enjoys wood toys, and she's a little artist so quite a bit of what she does has nothing to do with toys. I keep scraps of cardboard and boxes for her to decorate and play with, then when they are ratty and falling apart I recycle them. Constantly! I get the foamy stickers from Oriental Trading and she creates little story boards with them and her Stockmar crayons.

I'm glad I kept the exersaucer though, big as it was. But I have a HUGE basement where everything could live in the interim. I actually did try to sell it on CL and no bites. If I could have sold it, I would have, since we paid $35 for it.

I think most kids can do very well with a play kitchen, dollhouse and a train table, along with the accroutrements that go with them, within reason.

[DottieHarley]

Thanks mamas I think I am going to limit myself to:
one small suitcase of GN clothes
one rubbermaid tote of "toys she doesn't play with"
diapers without PUL or elastic
and the exersaucer bc DH had a fit about selling it. I think he's hanging onto it for sentimental reasons?

Everything else is going to a consignment sale THIS WEEK. And it feels SO GOOD to get piles of crud out of our house!
Thanks to fab consignment sales in the area, I can sell stuff easily, and re-purchase easily should the need arise. That's the theory and I'm stickin' to it!

[musicmom2x]

Wondering how it went for you? I currently have 3kids and myself crammed into 1 1/2 rooms in my parents' house while hubby is in Canada selling the house. I have a storage unit, but there really is no furniture in there so I have been slowly going through stuff and have a huge pile in my parents basement now of stuff to get rid of. I am hoping to move out of the storage unit entirely. I need to find a way to make some furniture money for when we finally buy a house. Right now we have a desk, a rocking chair and a couple of bookshelves in the way of actual furniture.

[DottieHarley]

Went well, thanks Got everything to the consignment sale (it's a big one-shot long weekend deal, not a shop) and wound up making over $100. Which more than pays for the $80 worth of stuff I picked up at the sale, lol!
But I figure I was "trading" stuff that we weren't using, that was just taking up space, for stuff that we would really use. Ie, I got DD a couple bathing suits for this summer, a fridge magnet toy that she loves, some kiddie cups/utensils since she is "too cool" for sippy cups and being spoon fed, etc.
consignment sales totally are the way to go. I was reminded of this as I shopped, wanting to pull aside the pregnant ladies and whisper "You don't need that. Put it down. Get this instead."

[DottieHarley]

The way our sale works, BTW - you enter stuff online and print out tags. They sell everything and the last day is 50% off. You get 65% of the sell price (or 70% if you volunteer for 8 hours). YOu have the option of picking up unsold items or donating at the end of the sale.
i always donate. I've done smaller fsot things, and CL, and I'll always do diapers on fsot first, but for general baby stuff the consignment sales are so much less time consuming.

[RainandRedemption]

In that situation I would probably look for friends who may want to use the items until we were more serious about TTC. We've lived in small houses and clutter (or boxes) can really make life feel cluttered.
If I couldn't find friends to use/keep for me I would probably sell as much as I could and use it to either pay down the mortgage or saving for moving into a bigger home (if that's a priority-in order to be able to have another)

[amcess721]

We were (and maybe still are) undecided on a #3... and I've given myself permission to get rid of stuff.
Things we got rid of:
bouncer seat (was borrowed)
bumbo (my kids were always too fat for it anyways)
swing (gave it to my sister, we'll borrow it back if they're not using it when we need it)
bumbo (pillow worked the same)
breast pump (gave it to my sister... it was starting to die anyways)
ALL baby/outgrown clothes except like 3 outfits from each kiddo
changing table pad and cover (gave to sister)
bucket carseat (outdated)
huge highchair

Kept: all burp cloths, all cloth diapers, crib (still using), pack and play (not taking up usable space otherwise that would have gone too), changing table was turned into a tv stand, a few pairs of pricey shoes as they've outgrown them, bottles (they're such a money suck that I didn't want to get rid of them yet), maternity clothes (1 tote)

IF we have a #3, we're going to try the minimalist route - borrow what we can and do the bare minimum for clothes.