Organizing vs throwing away

[alison]

We live in a townhouse with very little storage space. Since we're holding onto baby and toddler things just in case we have a second baby, we're drowning in stuff (toys, clothes, baby accoutrements). What's ok to throw out (bottles, sippy cups that dd never got the hang of using), what will I want to purchase new, what do you wish you'd held onto and didn't have to buy all over again.

Do I give away the toys that dd just never played with, so that I can claim the space that they're taking up? My mil bought a play kitchen for dd, but it and all the tiny fake food pieces drive me bonkers! Our house is SMALL! Play kitchens take up too much space. Dh would kill me if I got rid of it, but dd never had nor has interest in it... And I feel like our place is turning into us living in dd's house vs her living in our house (stuff-wise).

[PrincessFiona]

Alison, we put the toy kitchen in Zoe's closet. She could open the closet to play house....maybe that would help until she outgrows it?

[MrsK]

If you feel funny about tossing baby stuff, then sell it or donate it. When you have another baby, if you find that you really really need an exersaucer, I assure you that you will be able to find another one inexpensively. We have a local yard sale facebook group. I've been amazed to see things like the exact same exersaucer that is sitting in my basement sell for $20 when I know that my husband's aunts spent over $100 when they gifted it to us at our baby shower. When K1 was born, we borrowed a pack-n-play, bumbo, moby wrap, and bouncy seat. When K2 came along, we had returned the borrowed items but were able to replace the p-n-p and bouncy seat for $40 and found the bumbo with a tray for $20 at a consignment shop. That said, I still have the pack-n-play, bumbo, exersauser, and bouncy seat in my basement in hopes that we'll have another child soon. I really should take my own advise and let them go before we move. But I do get it. Letting the stuff go feels like giving up on the hope of having another baby. It's really more of a psychological than rational roadblock.

As for clothes, even though I had two boys, they were born in different seasons so there were not a lot of useful hand-me-downs. Also, when I went through K1's outgrown clothes, I found that they weren't as cute or in as good condition as I remembered. Now, if it's useful AND I love it, I'll move K1's outgrown clothes to K2's side of the closet. Otherwise, it goes right to consignment.

Regarding toys. . . they float into children's hands like fairy dust and they multiply when you are not looking. Before birthdays and holidays, I start going through my kids' toys. Things that they don't play with (usually those toys that are in the best condition) or toys that are just plain noisy/irritating, are placed on a high shelf. If they don't ask for to play with the "up high" toys in a week or so, they are out of here. I sell them on the fb yard sale page (especially fruitful near Christmas), consign them, donate them, or even bring them to my kids' various playgroups. That way, they can still play with that annoying whatever but I don't have it in my house. I've never regretted selling or donating a toy. (However, there are still some toys that I cannot bear to part with because *I* love them so much even if my kids don't play with them.)

[alison]

We don't have enough closet space for the kitchen. We have a tiny city townhouse. . The only storage space we have is our closet in the master br, which we call a walk-in, but is probably the size of Zoe's closet or a regular br closet. . Dd has a tiny closet. And that is all we have as far as storage is concerned, other than kitchen cabinets. We have a little bit of space in our garage against the walls, but can't go bigger than medium U-Haul boxes. No main floor storage for coats or anything! City living.

I'm ready to part with a lot of the stuff. You can't become attached to things when you have a small house.

[MrsK]

I'm ready to part with a lot of the stuff. You can't become attached to things when you have a small house.

Then I say, do it! If you have a local yard sale FB group and it's a closed group, get invited to join it. Or consign or donate the stuff. At least then you'll make a little money or have a tax write off for it.

[alison]

I'm gonna do it! At first I considered getting a small storage unit, but I could re-buy the stuff we put in storage and still come out ahead. The months where you need a saucer are fleeting as you said. We didnt find out gender when I was pregnant with dd, so most of her clothes are gender neutral for the first 3 months. I'll hang onto clothing, although my recollection is that she spent most of the time in just a diaper and side-snaps!

[ladymoreta]

Sounds like a good plan! The only reason I'm still hanging on to my kids' clothes and stuff is that I'm waiting for the fall JBF sale. I already got rid of most of the infant toys DD has outgrown, and it felt great! I kept the bouncy chair for now because a friend here has an infant, but she's really close to crawling, so she won't need it when they come to visit anymore.

So yeah... If anyone here has a spring boy or a winter girl and need clothes, hit me up!

[Vishenka69]

Even though we have a house, we don't have that much storage space either. I'm all about giving baby stuff away as soon as I can. We were lucky that we were able to borrow many bigger items (bassinet, swing,etc) from friends and then happily give it all back. You'd be surprised how many people are itching to clear up their basements and gift all these things to you.

Oh and I've got winter boy stuff if anyone wants.

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[diggitydot]

Our house has a shit ton of storage space and I still just get rid of crap that I know we won't use again. And by shit ton, I mean we have a laundry room with tons of storage, tons of kitchen cabinets that work well, pantry, a gigantic storage area under the stairs, and a huge mechanical/storage room with shelves on every wall. But no linen closets. Yeah, it's weird.