Ways to Recycle the Items Your Baby Outgrows
With three little ones at home, It is easy to accumulate necessities in bulk. It is also hard to stay organized because more items mean less space, and in turn, means more clutter. Some things will need to go to the trash, but many items your child once used can be transformed into something more beneficial. Personally, I have found that recycling these products has saved money and provided several meaningful purposes in my household.
For starters, I have over thirty bottles in my house. My first reaction was to throw all of the bottles away and then I discoved a way for these bottles to serve as entertainment to my children. Because of my children’s love for sound and music, I decided to take ten of the bottles and fill them with objects such as beans, pennies, sugar, buttons, and bells. I put super-glue inside of the lid and screwed the top on firmly to prevent spillage and accidents. I must say that these “musical” shakers keep my children occupied for long periods of time. Although we love our fisher price toys, this served as a cheap way to provide the same amount of entainment. Bottles can also serve the pupose to store juices. My children drink sippy cups which are not leak proof and seem impossible to pack in a diaper bag without flooding their necessities. I use the bottles to pack their drinks in and simply transfer them to their cups. This saves money by not having to buy individual juice boxes, but instead allows me to buy juice in the bottles. Sadly this may be considered as “cheap”, but with three infants every penny counts.
Anyone who has an infant, most likely owns a bath kennel for their child. Although these are usually just a piece of plastic in a cradle form, they usually are rather expensive. This is one item I hated to throw out because my children only used the seat for a brief period of time. Because of the deepness and strength of the product, it serves now as a great storage container for my childrens toys and socks. It is also “short” enough to fit under their cribs. By storing these under the cribs, they are not visual to others and saves space in your household. In turn, it de-clutters areas that would normally be filled with un-used toys.
Besides bottles, I had excessive amounts of receiving blankets. It seemed that everyone who contributed gifts for the birth of my children also contributed three blankets each. In total I had about 60 blankets. In my own experiences, however, the need for receiving blankets decreased around six months of age. They were great for swaddling my children, but were no longer needed when my children became attached to one specific “blankie” (blanket). I hated to throw these wonderful pieces of material away, knowing the intitial costs and minimal use of them. Although I wanted to store them in the attic for really no apparrent reason, I found that they work great as cleaning rags. Instead of having to constantly wash and soil the dish towels, I cut several rags from these blankets and then dispose of them in the garbage after use. This means less laundry for mom and less money used to replace your “good” towels.
When everything comes in three’s in my household, it is overwhelming to see the amount of clothes gone to waste. Many outfits puchased for my children were barely worn because of the fast growth spurts between 0-2 years old. My initial thought was to throw away the clothing that was no longer needed, however, I realized that there was money to be made from the money I once spent. I started out selling a few items on Ebay. Although I made a little bit of a profit, the shipping costs and ebay fees put a damper on my sales. I also discovered that because of the endless auctions for children’s clothing on Ebay, items were not selling at high prices. I decided to donate some of the clothing to a woman’s shelter to help “and give back” to the community and then held a yard sale for the remaining items. I did my yard sell during the community days in my neighborhood knowing that the town would be polluted with visitors. I was able to make double the profit on the clothing than if I would have continued to sell them on Ebay. As an added extra, I filled crockpots with cheese and sold nachos at my yard sale. They were a cheap item to purchase, required minimal work, and sold for triple the cost.
Some other ideas I have come up with are simple, but work. I often save empty baby soap bottles, and fill them with water. They make a nice toy for the tub and also serve as great squirt guns in the summer. Old but good conditioned toys, specifically popular name brand ones, are stored in the attic. Thinking ahead, these may be hot items in the future and make a nice profit for my children’s college funds. Take a look on Ebay and you will realize that you once had many of the toys, possibly twenty or more years ago, that are now going for the big bucks to collectors. Lastly, things that I cannot find a use for can be useful to other people who are less fortunate. I often post ads to local listing sights, such as craigslist. I offer these items for free “with pickup”. This helps someone in need and helps me de-clutter my house.
Not only have I saved money, made money, and helped others by finding other uses for my childrens items, I also feel that every penny I spent on products has been put to good use. Although money is not the most important thing in life, it is needed to help my family survive. With smart tactics, creativity, and thinking outside of the box, anyone can make use of an item or make money from their old necessities!
