The Story of Stuff

 Our closet-o-baby stuff (and Pakistani outfits) -- a work in progress

This whole baby thing is an interesting test to ones values. Mo and I really don't believe in bringing extra unnecessary crap into the world. There's just so much stuff that's created to make us believe that we need it, even though we've probably been living for a long time just fine without it -- and in fact probably living more creatively because we had to figure out how to come up with solutions for whatever the latest product is claiming to do -- some supposed 'gap' in our lives. And if we do need it, why not get it second-hand, when, especially with baby stuff, it's going to have such a short usefulness span??


When I went to Target for my friend Julie's shower last October or so, it was my first true venture into baby aisles, knowing that I was going to be facing this as part of my own existence, and it was so overwhelming!! What IS all this stuff?! And why are there so many choices??


Let's take for example just a thing to carry a baby around in. Meriah gave me two slings before I ever even got pregnant. Then Anne gave me an extra Baby Bjorn that she had. But lots of people say you 'have' to have a Moby because it's great for having the baby right next to you and carrying them around while you're doing stuff around the house. And that really, the Ergo is better than the Baby Bjorn. They all have their own purposes, so YOU HAVE TO HAVE THEM ALL!!!! What?! (And yet, here I am, with the Moby on our registry, and looking at used Ergo's -- though we have decided to ask Meriah to TRY her Ergo before we launch out and get one, even if used!)


Who can keep up?! And that's just baby carriers!! It's insane!


Yesterday, we went to a whole class on cloth diapering (which, by the way, was SO incredibly helpful -- best $10 we ever spent -- at Tot Tank, in Alameda, for those who are interested). Part of why I wanted to go is because I was so overwhelmed by the different diaper covers. COVERS!! Who knew it could be so confusing to choose a cover to go over your diapers?! It's madness!! Mission accomplished, though, because it became abundantly obvious which one to get (the Flip, in case you care -- though with traditional cloth diapers, not their inserts), so we got some -- phew! And they're ones that adjust to the size of the baby, so we only need a few and don't have to purchase new sizes each second when the baby grows. Now THAT's innovation and new product introduction I can get behind -- one that encourages less consumption!!


Needless to say, we're working on keeping things reigned in -- utilizing some of the new-fangled thingies that have been created, because, after all, they were created for a reason. But not succumbing to every little thingie -- which can be very tempting.

Because we're insane, we're pretending that this can be a baby room/guest room/study ... not looking so likely, is it?!

And since we've so generously been gifted with so many hand-me-downs (yay! reuse! pass things along!), we have enough overwhelm just trying to figure out what THOSE things do, forget bringing more gadgets into the house to have to master!