Our (Mostly) Secondhand, Low-Waste Nursery

If you aren’t signed up to the newsletter (go sign up at the bottom of the page!) or someone who knows us in real life, you might’ve missed the news that Ryan and I just welcomed our first baby in October 2023. I thought I might share some of our nursery details for both the curious and those looking to incorporate more sustainable living into your journey towards parenthood. This is a kind of companion post to this one that I wrote in 2019 about some simple changes I’ve made towards a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle, but this time geared towards preparing/caring for a newborn! One of the core principles with which we want to raise our daughter is a love and respect for nature and that starts with her nursery/first weeks.

One of the things I’ll emphasize throughout this post is how much money you will save by going the more sustainable route (hint: it’s A LOT), but it is by no means the only positive outcome. By being a conscious consumer, you’re creating less waste, making a more stress-free environment for both you and baby, choosing materials and ingredients that are best for baby’s health and development, and more. Babies don’t actually need that much stuff and while we’re by no means minimalists, one of the first sustainable choices we made was to forgo a lot of the extraneous baby things that our consumerist society tells you that you need (even though you really don’t).

You’ll also notice from how we’ve designed the nursery that we’re incorporating (but not following 100% in everything) a Montessori-style of parenting. To learn more about this, I highly recommend The Montessori Baby by Simone Davies and Junnifa Uzodike (which we were actually gifted secondhand at one of our showers!). The Montessori method essentially stresses that we can teach our children independence, respect, and understanding by approaching them using principles of consent and freedom from an early age. In Montessori-style nurseries, this starts with developmentally appropriate toys (more on that later) and furniture with which they can actually interact (appropriate for their height, for instance). The nursery should be a kind of yes-zone where (once they’re old enough to move around) they can independently occupy themselves without fear of injury.

Baby Showers: Give Secondhand Options!

This isn’t technically part of our baby’s nursery, but I figured I’d start here in how we approached building and decorating the nursery and preparing for our little one. One of the best things we did for our bank account and the amount of clutter/stuff we accumulated for our baby was to try our best to wait to buy her much of anything until after our baby showers. We were really lucky with how generous our friends, family, and coworkers were, and because we put mostly essentials/practical gifts on the registry, we ended up receiving a lot of what we needed from them.

I would also really recommend putting secondhand options on your registry. Babies grow so quickly that secondhand is often practically brand new, and buying secondhand means that you’re saving something from the landfill and stopping the relentless consumerism inherent in fast fashion and fads. You can link to other buying options on registry sites like Babylist, so I put used copies of books from Amazon there or found an eBay option to link. I also created a completely secondhand registry on Encore, where I could ask people to either pass on their own gently used baby items (from storage from their own previous children or people they knew who were looking to declutter) or pick out clothes and other items secondhand. We encouraged guests to visit secondhand stores like Kid to Kid, Re-Kid, Once Upon a Child, and Goodwill. Lastly, our friends hosted a shower for us where they asked guests to bring a book instead of a card and encouraged them to buy the books used!

Furniture

Sprout Montessori Floor Bed - $200 on Facebook Marketplace ($300 New)

The floor bed is part of the Montessori-style concept of independence, as it isn’t a restrictive sleeping area like a crib, which prevents them from “escaping” and forces them to rely on you for making the decision for them to sleep or wake up. The floor bed instead allows them to wake up, decide they want to go read or play with a toy to regulate themselves, then return to sleep or ask for a parent. While many Montessori parents use the floor bed from the newborn stage, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children sleep in the same room (but a separate sleeping area) for the first six months, and we don’t have room for a floor bed in our room. Instead, we used a bassinet until three or four months (when she could roll over), a pack n’ play until she could crawl (theoretically this would allow her to crawl back into bed), and finally transition to the floor bed. We have a very sleep-adverse Velcro baby, so we still haven’t made it to independent napping, but many people start there with the floor-bed transition.

The other benefit of the floor bed is that we’ll avoid having to transition from a bassinet to crib to toddler bed, with all the sticky situations in between (like climbing out of the crib!). Instead, she’ll be able to use this bed until she’s around 3-4 years old, when most children move to a twin-size mattress. The crib-sized mattress for this bed was one of the things we did not thrift, as that felt unsafe to us from a cleanliness standpoint (but it was gifted to us from our registry).

Leather Chair and Ottoman - Repurposed, Originally Thrifted From The Domestic

We originally bought this leather chair and ottoman from a local thrift store for maybe around $150. It was meant to live in our living room, but because of a massive dog bed and unexpectedly being passed along an extra couch, it wound up in my office. I immediately knew I should repurpose it for the nursery when I found out I was pregnant, as it would make a perfect place to sit and read with her or breastfeed. It’s quite low to the ground, so now that she’s able to climb, she can get onto it independently.

Side Table - Repurposed, Originally Thrifted from Habitat Restore

The side table was originally thrifted from the Habitat Restore as a two-piece set for maybe about $70 total. It was supposed to be in the living room, but again, it ended up in my office. Now, it makes the perfect little table for a lamp to read by.

Dresser - Repurposed, Passed Down from Family

This Lexington Furniture Store dresser was another repurposed item that we’d been holding onto since we moved to this house, hoping it would come in handy. It was passed down to us when another family member moved, and I actually originally hated how it looked (it was a dark cherry wood with these clunky metal drop-ring drawer pulls), which gave me reservations about using it in the nursery. However, we gave it a fresh coat of paint, and I bought some used Anthropologie knobs off Mercari (~$30, compared to ~$90 new), and voila! it actually fits the nursery quite well. Inside, I’ve also repurposed cardboard boxes we received with all our various baby items over the months to serve as dividers/bins for our cloth diapers and clothes.

Stokke Tripp Trapp High Chair - $75 on Facebook Marketplace ($300 New)

This high chair is in hot demand for crunchy and Montessori parents alike. While Montessori guidelines generally encourage the use of a baby-sized table when children start eating solids, this high chair still allows for independence (it has a step that children can use to get up to the seat) and encourages children to be part of the eating experience at the table with the rest of the family. It’s also more sustainable than the average high chair, as it’s made of natural wood, will last for multiple children, and grows with your child, as the infant insert can be removed and the height of the seat is adjustable. Because of its solid construction, this high chair is expensive, and like the floor bed, even thrifted, it sells for upwards of $175-200. However, like a lot of the items we “thrifted” for the nursery, finding it at a good price required patience, persistence, and flexibility. Daily, I would check Facebook Marketplace for specific items I knew we wanted, so I didn’t miss new postings. This was actually posted in a town a little over an hour away from us, but I reached out to see if the seller would be willing to meet us halfway. It worked out, and we got a basically brand-new Tripp Trapp (this was her baby’s backup high chair!) for a fraction of the cost.

Montessori Wooden Bookshelf - $20 on Facebook Marketplace ($150 New)

The Montessori bookshelf is one that is open-concept (without cabinets) and low to the ground to keep developmentally appropriate toys and books accessible to your baby as soon as they start crawling. These days, I find that most inexpensive bookshelves are made of that faux-wood paneling over cheap MDF, and they fall apart quickly. Thrifting older items is a great way to find solidly constructed pieces for less than you would pay even for their cheap counterparts new. This shelf aligned with what we were looking for (something like this), and after a couple of coats of leftover paint from the nursery walls, it’s absolutely perfect!

Amazon Wooden Shelves - Gifted

These little natural wood floating shelves were gifted to us at one of our showers, and it’s where we’ve displayed some of the more sentimental picture books that I’ve passed on to her from my childhood (and didn’t want torn up during the baby phase!), as well as a doll for when she’s older and the baby monitor. These higher shelves are a good way to keep her room a yes-zone for independent play!

Mirror - Repurposed, passed down from family

The final furniture piece in here is this mirror, which is something that has been sitting in my family’s attic for a very long time—so long, it might have even come from my or one of my siblings’ nurseries! It struck me as the perfect baby/toddler-sized full-length mirror to hang by the door, so she can admire her outfit. Hanging this mirror low to the ground was another choice we made to ensure this room feels designed for a tiny body!

ART

Watercolor Mural Stickers - Purchased on Etsy

One of the first things I knew I wanted in the nursery was a statement wall with some kind of nature-themed mural. I’m a relatively artistic person, so I considered painting a mural myself, but between teaching, being a PhD student, and the time-crunch of finishing multiple dissertation chapters early to prepare for my makeshift maternity leave, I didn’t think I’d have the time. Instead, I found these amazing watercolor mural stickers, which give the impression of being hand-painted without the work (and they’re easily removable/re-stickable!).

Seashell Frames - Repurposed, Originally Handmade

Since we went with an ocean-themed statement wall, we decided to move these framed seashells that we’d arbitrarily hung in the guest bathroom to the nursery, where they fit the vibe. Growing up, I used to spend every summer at the beach in Charleston, SC, and was a bit of an avid seashell collector. As an adult who was tired of moving a bunch of random knickknacks from place to place, this crafting project was the result of my desire to keep some of that shell collection in a more purposeful way where I could actually enjoy it. All it took were some shadowbox frames and hot glue!

Activities/Toys

Lovevery Play Gym - $40 on Facebook Marketplace ($140 New)

This is another crunchy/Montessori parent product, but one that I found worth it because of how much versatility it has. Infants can be very overstimulated by being introduced to developmentally inappropriate sensory objects (bright colors, sounds, textures), so I love that this playmat has different areas you can unfold only as they reach that developmental stage. It also comes with different toys, like a rattle and teether, that can be removed during the newborn stage. The other draw is that this play gym actually converts to a little play tent as they grow, meaning you’ll get more use out of it for longer. Flora loved this play mat during the newborn phase, especially the high contrast art cards and the high contrast soft ball that we hung from the top.

Like the Tripp Trapp, this product has a very high resale value, and despite joining a Lovevery BST (Buy, Sell, Trade) group on Facebook, I hardly ever saw one being resold secondhand for less than $80. Luckily, this one for $40 popped up on Marketplace one day, so I snatched it up! I do regret not holding out for someone to post one for sale locally (I saw a $50 one in Lexington on Marketplace the other day), just to have avoided shipping costs/emissions.

Wee Gallery Art Cards - $10 on eBay, Unopened ($16 New)

We’ve also got some of these on display on her bookshelf. These were unopened, still in their shrink-wrap, for a discount on eBay!

Acrylic Mirror Panels - $10 on Amazon

One of the other things you can do to promote development in your baby is use mirrors to allow them to discover their own bodies. These acrylic mirror panels won’t shatter like a real mirror, so they’re safer to use in a baby’s play area. Flora loved practicing side-lying and looking at herself in the mirror in the first several months!

Gear Essentials

Cybex Cloud Q Infant Car Seat - Gifted

One of the main baby gear essentials that you cannot buy secondhand is a car seat. The reason is that car seats have an expiration date, and they cannot be used again after being in a crash (a car accident will compromise the safety components of the seat). Unless you can say with 100% certainty that the car seat is not expired and has never been involved in an accident (meaning you probably know the source of the seat personally), it’s unfortunately one of those purchases that you should always make new. We chose this brand/model for its high safety ratings and the fact that it’s fully reclinable, meaning it’s safe for baby to sleep in when not in the car (so we can use it with our stroller for longer daily walks). While convertible car seats last much longer (they’re designed to “convert” from rear-facing to forward-facing and sometimes even to a booster seat), they aren’t portable/used in travel systems, and we would need to remember to move the seat from car to car depending on when Ryan is working (more on that problem below). Ultimately, the infant car seat/travel system fit our family’s needs better.

The car seat/stroller combo was great for family walks away from the house. However, I will say one thing I didn’t consider with the car seat travel system is that they shouldn’t wear bulky coats/bunting with car seat straps—this made it more difficult to use the car seat as her daily stroller since she was an October baby. Once she hit the weight limit in this car seat, we did purchase an open box (unused) Graco Extend-2-Fit on GoodBuyGear, another one of my favorite baby resell sites.

Cybex Balios S Lux Stroller - $225 on Rebelstork, Open Box ($550 New)

When deciding on our car seat/stroller, we opted for a travel system that integrates the two to theoretically make our lives easier by not needing to remove Flora from her car seat to move to the stroller. It also has all-terrain wheels, as we like to walk a lot, both in our neighborhood and on trails in the park. The most sustainable/cost-effective option I found for this stroller was a website called Rebelstork, which essentially sources used and open-box baby items and resells them in a marketplace setting. This stroller was open box, meaning it was either a floor model in a store, a box that had been opened and then returned (without major flaws), or new-in-box. I suppose you’re taking a little bit of a risk not knowing which option you’ll get, but you do have a 24-hr window to verify the item and return it if it doesn’t meet your expectations/needs. We were really lucky that this ended up being a brand-new model, still in all its plastic wrapping—just for half the cost!

Extra Car seat Base for Cybex Cloud Q - $90 on GoodBuyGear, Open Box ($160 New)

While this isn’t necessarily an essential for everyone, we know ourselves, and because Ryan works 12 hr shifts at a hospital an hour and a half away, if we forget something in his car that I need, I’m out of luck. This has happened many times with the wagon we used to walk Argos (our tripod Great Pyrenees who passed away earlier this year), and it was always incredibly frustrating. So we decided an extra car seat base that’s always in my car was one of our essentials. I found this car seat base that matched the production year of our car seat new-in-box for a massive discount on GoodBuyGear.

Diapering

Bumbo Wipeable Changing Pad - $30 on Facebook Marketplace ($90 New)

Every time I see one of those pretty-patterned covers on a changing mat, I just picture it getting covered in pee and poop and needing to be washed 80 billion times a week, and after having dogs and cats, I don’t trust any fabric that claims to be wipeable. Maybe that’s why the concept of a foam wipeable changing pad appealed to me so much—but why on earth are they SO much more expensive than the covered cloth ones (by at least $60)? After a long time searching, I was super happy to find this one secondhand, as I just couldn’t justify paying $100 on a changing pad.

Flora peed and pooped on her mat/herself/us while being changed enough times that I can 100% say this wipeable changing pad was worth it. The ease of wiping it down with a normal diaper wipe when an accident happens is just unparalleled.

Collapsible Drying Rack - $10 on Facebook Marketplace ($45 New)

One of the main ways you can increase the longevity of your cloth diapers (especially covers) and decrease the environmental impact of cloth diapering is by either exclusively line-drying or at least partially line-drying. I’ve also found that baby clothes can benefit from line-drying, as they almost all need to be done on the “gentle” setting, which (maybe it’s just our dryer) never actually gets them fully dry the first time; the long-sleeved onesies with the roll-over mittens especially like to stay damp even after drying. So a drying rack is an essential to cut down on energy waste!

Cloth Diapers

While cloth diapering doesn’t have a zero percent environmental impact and isn’t necessarily going to save you thousands of dollars, it has been shown to be more sustainable and cheaper if done correctly. Thirty billion disposable diapers end up in North American landfills every year, wood pulp from these diapers amounts to nearly a quarter million trees, and there are 90,000 tons of polypropylene plastic made from petroleum in them. Additionally, fecal matter from these diapers leaches from landfills into groundwater. Cloth diapers, however, can also be problematic due to the environmental cost of cotton production and energy use from laundering. The best ways you can make your cloth diapering choice more environmentally friendly than disposables is to buy secondhand, reuse diapers for multiple children (if you intend to have more than one), and to line-dry.

If you’re like me, one of your concerns might also be sensitive skin. I have chronic eczema that is triggered by any artificial fragrance and certain chemicals, and it seems Flora has inherited my sensitive skin too. Disposable diapers often have added fragrances and chemicals, so we used the Honest Company (which is also a more sustainable disposable option) while the umbilical cord area needed to stay dry the first weeks. For cloth diapers, we decided to go with the fitted inner and cover system, as it is basically blowout-proof and requires less diapers total (I highly recommend this short introductory video to the different types of cloth diapers if you’re interested!). What works for us is cloth diapering during the day and disposables at night, as you usually need to change cloth diapers more often, since babies feel the wetness and will become uncomfortable faster (which also leads to faster potty training as they age—Flora was been poop potty-trained since about seven or eight months old and is working on pee). Remember, sustainability doesn’t mean perfection!

Newborn (5-10 lbs) Diapers: Green Mountain Diapers, Puppi, Thirsties, and Babee Greens - 13 Newborn Workhorses, 2 covers, 2 wool covers - $151 on Facebook Marketplace ($255 New)

Newborn diapers and wool covers are where I made a mistake. I was sucked into an overprepared/anxiety-driven panic about my daughter possibly being smaller than 7 pounds, leading me to buy GMD workhorses, and I thought wool would be a great natural fiber cover. She ended up being over 8 pounds at birth, so she fit into the Esembly diapers we’re using as our main system right away (and I actually didn’t like the fit of the GMD workhorse inners). Lanolizing (waterproofing) the wool covers was too much of a hassle for me to even pull them out. But this is the other great thing about cloth diapering: you can resell them for much of the original value if you don’t need them anymore or don’t like them. I listed the GMD workhorses on the GMD Buy/Sell/Trade group I’m part of on Facebook and within an hour, I’d sold them for the same amount I paid when I bought them on the same group!

7-17 lbs (Approx. until 7 Months Old) Diapers: Esembly, Kotori Works, Puppi, and GMD, 22 fitted inner diapers, 11 covers, 2 wool/fleece covers, 2 all wool covers, 18 fleece liners, and one pail liner - $245 on Facebook Marketplace ($590 New)

This is our main diapering system, which is primarily Esembly. The fleece liners are to prevent wetness from staying against the skin, as the urine can pass through the fleece to be absorbed by the cotton inner, keeping the fleece dry. We’ve been doing cloth with Esembly since she was a newborn (we moved up to size 2 around 6 months old), and it is wonderful! With this size stash, we washed every 2 days.

And one last note on buying secondhand here: all of these diapers, aside from maybe two or three instances of “shadow-staining,” look brand-new. Breast-milk poop is actually water-soluble and washes out easily, and you can prevent or treat staining simply by leaving your diapers out in the sun to dry.

Cloth wipes (GMD) and peri bottle

Baby wipes are another source of waste that feels fairly preventable to me, and it’s also where you see a lot of unnecessary added fragrances/chemicals in baby products. Cloth wipes can be used either with just water or a solution of water/baby shampoo. I’ve actually repurposed the two peri bottles the hospital gave me postpartum to wet our wipes with, since I bought the Frida Mom upside-down peri bottle to use for myself instead.

Clothes

The last thing to note in our nursery is, of course, baby clothes! As mentioned above, we did request secondhand baby clothes at our showers, and we only bought secondhand clothes for her ourselves (aside from a Harry Potter Halloween outfit Ryan bought her at the Harry Potter exhibit in Atlanta and a souvenir onesie from our babymoon in Hawaii). We tried our best not to go overboard and buy only what we needed to fill the gaps in what she received from showers and random gifts. While Goodwill will force you to sort through a lot of junk in the children’s bins, you can find great (even unused!) pieces and can’t beat the price at $1 each. Kid to Kid also has a section of onesies that are only $1 each, so perfect for stocking up on basic essentials.

I’d also recommend not going overboard on the clothes-buying front, especially in newborn sizes. I’m a small person (only 5’2’’ and slim), and my husband is fairly tall (5’11’’) but not overly so. I would be the last person to predict that our baby would be above-average in weight, or that she would be outgrowing her newborn footies at three weeks old. But it makes me glad we didn’t have one billion newborn clothes to be depressed that she never got to wear. Also, newborns basically live in pajamas. Not only that, but they don’t go outside and they aren’t really having blow outs yet, so they don’t go through many outfit changes unless they like to spit up a lot. We’ve gotten away with a small stash of footies—think five or six—that she lived in for the first several weeks.