- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Nurseries and Baby Gear
EmeraldSea
member
Baby Specialty Items vs. Household Item
EmeraldSea
member
I'm curious to know from STM+ if they have found that it is worth buying baby specialty items or if you found that a generic household item does the same thing.
As an example - a bottle drying rack. Is it really worth buying something made exclusively meant to dry bottles when you could get a plain old kitchen drying rack and accomplish the same task?
Are there any "unitaskers" that you found were unnecessary? Or did you find something you already own does the job just fine? And on the other end, is there something where an alternative just won't do?
I totally get that babies often yield a great deal of "stuff". I'd like to eliminate unnecessary purchase if I can help it by using something we may already have or get more use out of when the babe grows up!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Baby Specialty Items vs. Household Item
Are you planning on bottle feeding? If not that you don't need all the bottle feeding gumpf.
I think the easiest way of not ending up with lots of unnecessary purchases is to not make too many before baby arrives. If you are breast feeding baby all you need to start is:
Place for baby to sleep
car seat
way of transporting baby (snap n go, stroller, baby carrier)
clothes
diapers
wipes
To start with that's all the baby needs.
One of the things that gets the most use in our house are facecloths from Ikea (you could get them from the dollar store, we don't have anything like that here). We use them to clean up after DD, wash her face, we use them as wipes instead of using disposables (We CD).
Once you have the important stuff and baby's there you can always go out and get things that you wish you had, one girl on my BMB with DD set a rule that she had to say "Oh I wish I had a *****" three times before she got something, I think that's a great way of cutting down on "stuff".
Thanks! I am planning to BF but probably will be back to work within the first few months so DH/caretaker will need bottles so that is something I think we will get a few of to start.
We live 3,000 miles away from our family and most of our friends so I'm not anticipating a shower but I also know (based on how our families operate) is that many aunts will want to give gifts. In all honestly, I prefer gift cards for your exact point of buying the essentials and then buying things as needed after the baby comes. But, we also know that many people like to give "things" instead of "gift cards".
After seeing a lot of baby registries of friends and family members over the last few weeks, I just wonder about some of the things I see people registering for and wonder - is it necessary?
Also, I love your picture! we have a Boxer too!
Well, some things do make your life easier, but there is also a lot of money to be made by offering redundant products as baby essentials.
In your example, I do find a dedicated bottle rack useful because I keep all the baby items separate from our dishes and there's a place for the multitude of small pieces and accessories and the taller supports to hold up the bottles.
Also useful are those dishwasher baskets to contain the small stuff that would otherwise fall through the racks.
But, I've done without things like baby food processors (use a bullet or small blender), special baby food freezer trays, diaper pails, sound machines (use iPod on a sound dock) and bottle sanitizers.
It all comes down to availability of space, the price of convenience and how much extra clutter you are willing to put up with.