Ways to be a minimalist with kids' stuff

When my husband and I found out we were having twins, he told me he immediately started seeing dollar signs before his eyes. It's true that having two kids at once certainly costs more (especially with my emergency C-section and then their six-week NICU stay), but I was determined NOT to fill up our home with baby stuff we didn't need and couldn't afford. 

Every pregnancy and child is different, and you may decide some items are must-haves, but here are a few ways I've been able to scale back:

Borrow some gear or wait to buy it

Don't believe all the advice you get from family, friends and even perfect strangers about what you need for your baby. YOU are the parent, and you get to decide what to buy and bring into your home. The following is a list of gear/supplies we did not buy for our babies (but remember, this may not work for you):

• Bumbos: These overpriced pieces of plastic may be helpful for some parents, but I thought they were ugly and expensive and never wanted one. A friend brought over their old one for us to try, which was nice, but Henry and Norah didn't really like sitting in it. I also read that some pediatricians say it doesn't help your baby develop the abdominal muscles needed to sit on their own. However, I have some friends who love the Bumbo. If you can, borrow one from a friend or get one secondhand to try it out before investing a ton of money.
• High chairs: Blasphemy, you say? Here's the thing: High chairs take up a ton of space, and most of them are really ugly and a pain to clean. Your baby also grows out of a high chair pretty quickly, and then you have to buy a booster seat or something else for him to sit in. We were also living in a condo with a pretty small kitchen, and two high chairs would have eaten up most of the room. Someone bought us these inexpensive seats from Walmart for a baby shower, and they were awesome. They strap to a kitchen chair or even a folding chair, if that's all you have, and are super easy to clean up. They also fit your kids for a really long time. Henry and Norah sat in these until they were almost three and we decided they could sit up to the table.
• Swings: I know some people swear by swings, and I've seen many a happy baby falling asleep in a swing, but I don't like the giant amount of floor space they take up. We were gifted a rock 'n' play at a shower, and that was life-changing. It lets your baby recline and gently rock, but it doesn't take up tons of space and folds pretty flat when you're not using it. I wish I could buy every mom one of these.
• Bouncers: We had one of these for about two weeks, because I bought it secondhand hoping it would help Henry's croup if he was more elevated while sleeping. I don't think it really did, and to me it was another gadget that we didn't really need. I gave it to another mom.
• Diaper Genies: Dirty diapers are gross, and no one wants to smell them or deal with them, but I thought this gadget was way overpriced and unnecessary. Instead, we would put all the dirty diapers in a small garbage can with a lid and then take the bag out to the dumpster when it was full. When Henry and Norah got bigger and the diapers were bigger, we'd keep the plastic bag  by the door and throw it out whenever we needed to go outside. As a new mom, it was also a chance for me to get some fresh air even just running out to the dumpster (and later, when we bought our house, to the trash can).
• Walkers: The jury is out on this one. We borrowed an old one from Andrew's mom, and Henry and Norah really loved playing in it, but I hated how much room it took up and all the plastic you had to wipe down when they threw up or it got dirty. I don't think you need this or the plastic toys with wheels that kids push around, but kids do seem to love them.
• Big baby tubs: You use baby tubs for such a small window of time before your baby can sit up on their own, and the big, bulky plastic tubs take up room you probably don't have in your bathroom. We loved our Puj flyte tub because it was easy to fold and clean and didn't take up a ton of room. It also sat easily in the kitchen sink. Once Henry and Norah were bigger, we bought an inexpensive inflatable duck bath you could deflate and store flat. At about 10 months old, they were fine sitting in the tub on their own.
• Bassinets: I know some moms want their babies right next to their beds as newborns so they can feed them without having to walk into another room, and a bassinet is great for that. However, your baby will only fit in it for a small amount of time, and then you're stuck with another piece of gear you have to store. I suggest buying a pack 'n' play and having your baby sleep in that in your room instead. Your baby can use the pack 'n' play for a long time, and you can easily fold it and take with you while you travel.
• Toddler beds: Toddler beds are overpriced and not worth buying, in my opinion, because you'll have to move your child to a bigger bed way too soon. You also have to buy specific toddler sheets and mattresses that then don't fit a twin bed OR a crib. We bought cribs from IKEA with one removable side instead so we could keep the crib mattresses and the crib sheets. Once they were three and too big for the cribs, we bought two twin beds and mattresses that they can hopefully sleep in for years.

If possible, wait to buy some things until after you have your kids and know what they need and what you can't live without. Borrow gear like walkers and swings if you can, and look for secondhand options. If your baby doesn't end up using something, sell or give it away to free up more room in your home.

Use closet space and clear drawers to store clothes

I have always loved cute little dressers for kids' rooms and dreamed at one point of buying a beat-up dresser and having Andrew refinish it and paint it in a fun color (Andrew is definitely the handy one; I'm not much for DIY projects). Then we had twins, and with no space to fit more than two cribs, a changing table, a rocker, and a small storage unit for toys and books, we needed a different solution.

I bought clear stacking drawers (can't find the exact ones, but you get the idea) and stacked three each in Henry and Norah's closets. Pajamas go in the top drawer, shirts go in the middle drawer, and pants go in the bottom drawer. I have separate small cloth bins to keep their underwear and socks in, and they each have another small, clear bin for shoes. Obviously, from this picture, we need to work on folding. :)

There are several reasons I have been really happy with storing clothes/shoes like this:

• Your kids can see through the bins and quickly learn where to put their folded clothes when you do the laundry.
• You can tell just by glancing at the bins whether they're stuffed full and you need to go through some clothes.
• The drawers are cheaper than buying a solid wood dresser.
• The drawers stay in the closet, so they free up valuable space in the bedroom for other furniture or room to play.

Once Henry and Norah grow out of clothes, I take them out of the drawers and throw away or donate anything that's stained or ripped and can't be worn again. I store the rest of them in bigger clear bins in the basement until I can sell them at an upcoming sale (more on that later).

Make it easy for your kids to put things away

If you are tired of cleaning up your kids' clothes and toys, consider whether you've made it simple to put things away and taught them where things go. Is the dresser too tall or too heavy, making it hard for them to put clothes away? Do you have hooks or low hangers? 

We used to have a small rack in our coat closet hung at kid-level so Henry and Norah could hang their coats and backpacks right when they got home from preschool, but the velcro strips weren't strong enough to hold it and it kept crashing down. I'm trying to figure out a new way to hang it without damaging the door.

Once you make it easier for kids to put things away, it's also easier to figure out what you have too much of and what your kids really don't use or play with.

Use clear bins in different sizes to store toys

My sister and I absolutely loved playing with Barbies while we were growing up, and I have kept a lot of the Barbies and the furniture I had as a kid. Henry and Norah now love playing with it, which means there are constantly tiny shoes, brushes, and other accessories all over the floor. I was storing all of it in one big clear bin until I realized that my kids would dump everything out just to get a pair of shoes or a certain Barbie.

One of the best hacks I ever found on Pinterest had tips on storing Barbie clothes and accessories in different sliding drawers. This seriously changed my life. I got rid of a ton of Barbie furniture and Barbies that were 30 years old and had broken heads, and then I bought a cheap three-drawer unit at Target or Walmart. I put Barbie food and dishes in the top drawer, shoes and accessories in the middle drawer, and clothes in the bottom drawer. I then bought two other small clear bins with lids and put all the Barbies in one and the few pieces of furniture in the other one.

Every family has different toys, so it's hard to give storage recommendations to everyone, but I've been really happy with the IKEA Trofast storage system. We have three of the vertical units with the translucent bins in different sizes, all lined up next to each other. Lincoln logs go in one drawer, all the dress-up clothes go in another, and Matchbox cars go in another. 

Basically, I think it's easier to have a bunch of bins rather than having one toy box to throw everything in. This makes cleanup fast, but your kids will then dump out an entire toy box looking for just one certain toy. You can label them, but since my kids can't read yet, it doesn't make sense for me. I also frequently go through the bins and donate anything my kids haven't played with for a while and then move toys into smaller bins if needed, so I would constantly be relabeling.

Eventually, I would love to have built-ins in our basement to store toys and games in, but that is not in the budget right now. I encourage you to work within the budget you have. We already had most of these bins storing different things throughout our home, and then I got rid of other things and repurposed them for toy storage. Once they're out of the toy phase, a lot of these toys will be donated or sold to someone else who can use them.

Sell or donate your kids' clothes

This is one of the easiest ways to cut down on clutter and save yourself a ton of storage space, and yet I know so many people who are hesitant to do this. I get your hesitation, but below are some reasons I recommend doing this now:

• There is no guarantee that you will have more children. We probably all know someone who had a child (or children) and then wasn’t able to have more children when she wanted to. I know way too many people in this situation, and it’s heartbreaking. Storing boxes and boxes of your kids’ clothes can only make you feel worse when you can’t have more children.
  
• You don’t know when your next child will be born. If you’re lucky enough to have children during the month or season when you planned to have them, congratulations! Unfortunately, most people aren’t that lucky. Even if you do have more children, you don’t know whether your baby will be born in the summer or the dead of winter — which means that one baby’s rompers and shorts may be way too big or small for the next baby born in a different season.
  
• You can’t predict your child’s gender. Unless you bought only gender-neutral clothes for your child (which is not realistic), some of the clothes you’re storing will not work for your next baby.
  
• You have no idea how quickly your children will grow. I have twins, and even as babies they were often in different sizes. Henry ended up needing 6- to 12-month onesies when Norah was still wearing 3- to 6-month clothes. There’s no way to know what sizes your baby will wear or how fast they’ll grow out of certain outfits.
  
• Children’s clothing styles change without warning. Right now, everyone puts their babies in leggings and skinny jeans. Not that long ago, little girls were running around in flare-leg jeans. And when I was little, I wore overalls ALL THE TIME, and I rarely see kids in overalls now. You may not think you’ll care and just put your kids in the clothes anyway, but trust me. You’ll open up a box of your kids’ clothes and wonder why you ever bought a certain outfit.
  
• You can earn money back now. Kids’ clothes may be cheaper when they’re tiny, but you still spend a fortune on clothes at that age because they grow so quickly and stain everything with poop or vomit. Selling your kids’ clothes right after they grow out of them helps you recoup some of the cost and ensures that they don’t go out of style before you dig them out of the box.
  
• You can help people in need. While I sell most of my twins’ clothes at sales for different charitable organizations (like the Salt Lake Mothers of Twins group or the Hilltop Methodist church), I also donate a few things to the homeless shelter or thrift stores. I would much rather give clothes and toys to people who can use them now than have them sit in my basement to go through later.

By the way, I’m not suggesting you get rid of ALL your kids’ clothes. I kept the pajamas Henry and Norah came home from the NICU in and several of my favorite outfits (especially Christmas and Easter clothes). I also think it’s a great idea to hold on to onesies and pants that work for both genders if you’re having more children. Figure out what works for your family, but consider selling or donating clothes that you may never use again.