In the name of Allah, the most Loving, the Generous
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Babies are so adorable! And all the little baby accessories, gadgets and whatnot can be overwhelmingly cute. They’re also expensive!! Speaking of expensive, have you ever been told that having children is just crazy expensive?! Well, I’ve heard that too..but truth be told, it doesn’t have to be!
Today, I’m digging into a new (to-this-blog) corner of “nourishing our home” which is…minimalism! I mentioned before I tend to stay away from certain hot-button terms (including minimalism). But I couldn’t think of another word to use and it-is-what-it-is.. As I’m using it today, minimalism simply refers to owning what you need, what brings you joy, what fits your particular circumstances. It also implies that you are not consuming things just for the fun of it, you are not hoarding things you don’t need, and you generally like to re-home things that are no longer serving a purpose in your home.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I also want to lay out a couple principles before I get to sharing that list with you!
A. Aside from their parents love and care, babies really don’t need all that much. You really only need a handful of things for your baby to be perfectly happy and thriving! Just because everyone around you might have it, doesn’t mean you need it to. When every family around you is buying a certain item for their baby, it might start seeming like a necessity…but that is NOT the case. For one, sometimes people just buy things because again, it seems like the thing to do. Another thing though, some things are necessities for one family and can be a total waste for another.
B. Even within the parameter of necessities, there are always ways to make most of the baby items fit within a budget. Choosing reusable items instead of disposable (diapers, wipes, etc) is a good option. If you have a community of family and/or friends around you with babies who are slightly older than yours or even right around the same age, don’t be shy to ask about swapping hand-me-downs! There are also shops such as Once Upon a Child and Kid-to-Kid! Not only are these more environmentally friendly, it’s budget friendly too!
C. Last thing, even though you might not need it – that doesn’t mean I’m trying to say you can’t buy it! There are things we’re going to see, as parents, and we know straight up that we really don’t need whatever it might be…but it’s so cute and it’s okay to splurge and get a couple things just because we like it. Live a little (just do so within your means of course)!
Phew, finally we can actually jump into that list!
1. Infant socks (and especially shoes!)
Baby socks are soooo tiny and for that fact, pretty much alone, they are so cute! Not to mention, keeping your little bundle of joy warm is very important but socks aren’t necessarily the best way to go about that. First of all, in almost all cases, it is so much easier to just have your baby in a one-piece outfit for at least the first 3-6 months of their loves. If you need something a little warmer, babies love snuggling up and absorbing some good old-fashioned body heat and if you need a little something more, add a blanket! Plus, if you can choose to avoid all the stress that comes from those tiny socks going missing, who wouldn’t want that? And shoes, before your baby can actually walk… while some of them are pretty irresistible at face value, (and I’m not judging you if this is totally you) they’re super unnecessary.
2. Bouncer/rocker seat
For some families, especially with only slightly older siblings and/or pets, this is one of those things that some families DO need! For us though, and for many others, someone was either holding our little guy or we would let him lay on a blanket on the floor. We were given a boppy pillow that we used occasionally but I’d say we didn’t really need that either. We didn’t want to have extra equipment that we didn’t need taking up space that we really didn’t have. I also feel like babies grow out of those little chairs so quickly. It’s like a month or two before they start getting the strength and figuring out how to wiggle themselves stuck half-in and half-out of their little seats!
3. Pacifiers
From before our son was born, I knew for sure that I didn’t want to get into pacifiers. They’re just such a hard habit to break and so I didn’t want to even introduce it. We did wind up using one for the drive back home when we took our son to get circumcised but after that, we tossed it out and that was it. I’m also trying to gradually reduce our use of plastic items so that helps us with this decision.
4. A crib (or any of the fancy bedding to go with it)
I must admit, I might have been more inclined to get a crib if we actually had space for it. But now, I’m happy we didn’t get one. It’s a large piece of equipment (and very expensive at that) and as you might have noticed if you checked out my shop page, we sleep on the floor in our home and so having a crib would just feel super out of place. We co-slept for a while and then he had his own floor bed right beside ours and now he has his own bed in his own room. We did receive a moses basket that I put on our baby registry. They’re so cute and I love the aesthetics of them and it was super cozy… but it seemed like he was too long for it after like a month..so we won’t be doing that again. A lot of people use a pack-n-play as an alternative. It takes up less space, less expensive and super portable!
5. A Changing table
Guys, we did have several changing pads that we were given as gifts! My mother-in-law made us one that was super cute, someone gifted us a cool little multi-purpose portable one and we also had a small one that came with our diaper bag. I tried my darndest to get into using those changing pads but it was so much easier for me to just use the little muslin blanket I had next to me and change him on that. So…imagine what would happen if I had gotten a changing table! It would be a new clutter station! That’s how it turns out for a lot of people too! Life happens and you can’t always run for one particular spot to change your baby’s diaper each and every time!
6. A wipe warmer
It’s cool in theory. My guy was not a huge fan of cold wipes on his bum after he had been all cozy and warm either. It’s not torture and they’ll be alright! It’s not that cold anyways, just slightly chilled! In my opinion (and it seems like a lot of other moms agree on this) they’re not super practical though. Again, it’s just one of those things you get and you use like 4 times but very quickly realize it’s more of a pain than anything else.
7. A plastic infant bathtub
A family member passed us this cute little foldable, foam tub that we enjoyed using in the first couple months. But really, it is so easy to just put a little towel in the sink and give your baby a bath like that and/or just take them in the shower with you, clean them and pass them to your husband while you finish your shower. As little babies, they really don’t need a bath that often..and then before you know it, they’re big enough to sit in the actual tub anyways.
8. Expensive baby formula
I mentioned in a previous post, my milk supply was very low and we wound up having to supplement with formula. Thankfully, we had a great, natural-minded pediatrician who gave us a recipe for homemade goat-milk formula that we used for our son! It was a few simple ingredients that we could buy from Walmart (or even Amazon). It’s much more cost effective and it also helped me feel a little less guilty, knowing exactly what was going in my baby’s bottle.
9. Flashy, light-up, sing-songy baby toys.
Babies don’t really need a bunch of toys in general. So much of what they need is really through you, the other people around them and simply exploring their environment. Babies aren’t that difficult to entertain and you’ll quickly notice that they tend to be more interested in everyday objects rather than their actual toys. Books are great to have for little one’s. If you want to get a few toys though, just some basic things like balls, some little figurines they can manipulate and that sort of thing. Babies don’t need all the frilly toys.
10. Baby food processor or pre-made baby food.
We were given both as gifts. The food processor was pretty cool but we never used it so we re-gifted it. He did have a few bites of baby food because hubby-bubs really wanted to let him try it… But we went the baby-led weaning route. I strongly suggest you look into it. It’s great for your baby’s development, it’s great for your sanity (once you get comfortable with the difference between gagging and choking!) and it makes your wallet happy as well. Your little one just eats a modified version of whatever you’re eating for the most part. It is helpful in expanding your baby’s pallet and it allows you to eat while your baby eats instead of having to heat your plate up 3 times!
There’s that! I could definitely add a couple more (maybe I’ll make a part 2 of this post) but I think this is a great place to start.
Question for the comments: What is one item that EVERYONE seems to buy for their baby that you didn’t use? AND…what is one item on this list that was a must-have for you and your family?
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