Recycling Toys

I am a big fan of recycling toys. Not only is it cheaper for you but you're not adding to the trash in the landfill. It's a good idea to do it as much as you can while your child is still young enough not to know the difference between new and used! One day they will.


So far we have gotten used:
Kick & Play- $10 garage sale
Walker- $20 craigslist.com
Swing- gift from friend
Stroller- gift from friend
Shopping cart cover- $5 garage sale
Fisher Price Car- $3 garage sale
Leap Frog Baby play center- $5 garage sale
Countless number of books for the whole family- thrift stores, garage sales, half price books (I never pay more then $1 for any of Ethan's books and they are all in very good used condition, no writing or tears.)
And of course cloth diapers! Although I think I'm going to stick to new for the one size so they will last through the next few babies.

Here are my 2 new great finds:

After a quick scrub down with some Lysol and a rinse with the water hose, staying away from any battery operated parts, these look good as new.

Here are a few things to look out for when shopping for used items:
Removable and washable fabric parts. Babies make a mess and it is very important to be able to wash the fabric. As I have found with Ethan they also like to chew on everything and you want to be able to get any other babies germs off before your baby chews on it.

Plastic that can be washed and rinsed without damaging any electronic parts. For the same reason as above.

Electronic parts in working order. If the person selling it really wants to sell it they will make sure it has batteries and works. You want to play around with it to make sure it works.

Books need to be in good condition. No chewed corners, torn pages or crayon marks. I'm a big fan of keeping books in good condition. I hope to teach that to Ethan!

With clothes I make sure they don't have stains on them or they are not torn. Unless it is a really cute outfit and I can fix what ever is wrong.

I have lots of thrift stores here and some are better then others. Some have a great selection of books, some are really big on clothes. I only shop at Goodwill for books because their prices are too high for everything else. Some of the prices are as high as if you bought it new. You just have to be careful and know your retail prices. This comes from years of shopping experience!!

There is only one thing I have found so far that I will not buy used: Car seat! It is very important to know that your car seat is in excellent condition. They say that after 6 years the plastic in the seat starts to break down and doesn't protect as well. Also, if you are not the original owner then you will not find out about any recalls that your car seat might have. Here are a few great web sites I found that have excellent reviews:

http://www.consumersearch.com/car-seats

www.CarSeatData.org On this one you can type in what car you have and see what seats work best. This helped us out because I have a really small backseat and I want Ethan to rear face until 33lbs.

Happy Shopping!