minuway's Profile

Been there, done that. :) The best thing to do I think is to not completely turn down hand me down offers until you have a better idea of what you need. Many of those items you mentioned are wonderful for a particular stage of babyhood - I love my moses basket for newborns, but then soon a exersaucer is the "she'll let me put her down for a sec here" location. I have all this stuff because I'm not done having kids, but I loan it out almost constantly so its not cluttering up my garage. All of it was stuff that in turn I had borrowed when my first or second child was small and realized really worked with my parenting style. Most stuff I was able to buy second hand or get as a gift. The real gear basics are somewhere to sleep (even if you co sleep you'll want at least a pack n play as a backup, just trust me on this), a car seat, and some kind of sling/carrier/stroller. Feeding depends on what you're doing of course, and clothes seriously can just be footed sleepers and bodysuits. Its great to wait to see what you need, but you probably will want some of those things eventually, so I wouldn't say NO emphatically, but, "can I let you know?" I'll stop now that I've written a book. Congrats on your little one! :)

I can vouch for all of those suggestions - we have 3 kids 5 and under, but our house stays pretty tidy. I would never ask an adult to take their shoes off, but most people see the pile of shoes by the door and take them off. Breaking down and just sweeping / wiping the floor after every meal helps things under the table from getting overwhelming. Also we limit the clothes our little ones have - the fewer items in their drawers the fewer end up on the floor. We also teach them as early as possible to pick up their things and help with little tasks around the house.