Our friends and family have been so generous to give us lots of gifts for the baby. We truly appreciate their kindness and love for our baby.
We have received lots of baby clothes. The problem is, I don't want most of them.
I particularly dislike baby clothes with embroidered cartoons, sayings like "Daddy's Princess", big hearts and butterflies, etc. It's not that I want my kid to be wearing designer labels or anything, I just prefer the more simple and modern baby clothes.
Anyway, we have received a ton of frilly, girly, (bordering on tacky in my opinion) baby clothes, and I don't know what to do with them. I would feel like such an ungrateful brat if I gave them away, but on the other hand, I really don't want them, and I can't stand clutter. I want to donate them to Goodwill, but DH is making me feeling really bad about it.
I am sure I'm not the only one in this situation. What are you doing with unwanted gifts?
Re: What do you do with unwanted gifts?
If you can exchange them, do that. If not, then give them away or even save them for an opportunity to re-gift. We got approximately 3000 blankets when DS1 was born. I thought there was no way we'd ever use them all. Guess what? Now, he has SIX special blankets and there are times that he won't sleep without every single one.
I did keep the girl's clothing my grandparents gave me (for a BOY) because I know why they chose it and if we ever have a girl, I want her to wear it... or be able to give it to my sister if she ever has a little girl. Although, honestly, my son wore it a time or two when we were low on sleepwear...
Do an online search of the brand to find out where it was purchased and exchange it if possible. If not, re-gift, just make sure you know who gave it to you so you don't hurt any feelings. If you don't like either of those options I would take it to a used baby clothing store for cash.
Our daycare provider likes to have 3 or so extra outfits just in case they have an accident, blow-out, or really just get messy for some reason. I always used the clothes that I disliked for those since my kids almost never were in that situation and the outfits would sit there until we were asked for larger as they grew. My mother in law sent us like 30 pairs of overalls (which I hate) and that is where some of those went.
We returned what we could, gave some to Salvation Army and had a yard sale with the rest.
I have a hard time re-gifting things I don't like so that wasn't an option for me.
More Green For Less Green
You can ship them to me . My baby needs clothes, jk...
If you can't return them, you can donate or pass onto someone else that is expecting. You might find that you use them from time to time anyway. The baby may change outfits several times a day - so it doesn't hurt to have extra, even if they aren't your style.
I was able to find a Pregnancy Helpline in our town that took a ton of our unused but open baby stuff. They also took UNexpired carseats that Goodwill wouldn't take because I didn't have the original paper work for them. I felt good about giving our stuff to a local organization that wasn't as well known as Goodwill and probably doesn't get as many donations, but still needs this stuff. I would look it up online in your area.
I'm struggling with this myself. We've received a TON of clothes for this baby (our third girl) , and NO diapers, wipes, baby wash - things I could really use. It's definitely nice to have a few cute summer outfits for this baby, since our other two were winter babies, but now I have enough clothes for three babies when added to what I already had.
On one hand, I want to exchange the clothes for store credit, since I'm sure I'll need something for her at some point. But I'm on bed rest with two kids under two and I don't have any desire to go to the various stores to do so. Plus I know I'm having a c/s (this Thursday! yay!) so I won't be able to drive for a bit and won't have energy for some time to come while dealing with three under three, and the things without gift receipts will totally lose any value if I wait much longer.
So, it seems so much easier to just list the clothes on freecycle or craigslist so that I don't have to leave the house to get them out of our already overly cluttered house. But I feel bad giving them away since people who love us and our baby picked them out for her. Which makes me want to keep them, even if the kid never wears them or wears them only once. Sigh.
I wouldn't keep the stuff from your ILs. Have your H tell them thanks for the generosity but you don't have the room or dont need all that stuff, and whose house do they want it taken back to. And if no one agrees to store it by x date, you have to get rid of it some other way.
I agree. Don't store items you don't want. Kindly tell them that these items aren't needed and ask what they want done with them.
I'm expecting my first child, a girl, and I've been relying heavily on thrift stores, yard sales, and friends with children to gather all the things I need. I don't have a lot of money, but I am so thankful that there are people out there who are willing to help me. I'm sorry your DH is making you feel guilty, but if you don't NEED the clothes, then sooner or later you'll need to be rid of them. Have a yard sale or, like you've mentioned, donate them to Goodwill. I know I'm not the only low-income mother-to-be who would appreciate your generosity!
My DH and I have agreed that the thought still counts and we will write the thank you cards and not mention anything but will then do one of two things with anything we don't want/got doubles.
1. Things with gift receipts will go back, lets face it the less we have to buy with our own money the better
2. I will make up a box for operation baby shower, an organization that throws baby showers for partners of deployed soldiers. The org was featured on Rachel Ray a while back and I love the idea... deployment is hard on everyone and supporting a new mom feels like the right thing to do.
Keep a few of the least offensive and then give the rest to a local shelter. Most towns have a shelter for women and children in bad situations- a lot of the time the families show up with little else than what they could pack in one bag. You would really make a huge difference to one family.