What do you do with those expensive baby items, when your little one's grown out of them and you're certain you don't want any more children? It's important to know what is safe to buy/sell second-hand, but in these environmentally conscious times it would be criminal to bin it, so the obvious answer is to ensure that someone else can make use of your unwanted gear.
Selling on
Being green needn't mean you can't recoup some of the money you spent in the first place: selling on is a great option, especially if you've got something that's highly desirable but has hardly been used. The internet has revolutionised this type of trade - and I don't just mean eBay.
One site that specialises in buying and selling baby gear is www.nappyvalley.co.uk - and founder Joanna Pearce has just won the Creativity Award at the Future Friendly Awards. Astounded by the costs and short life-span of baby items, she wanted to create a simple and friendly website to allow parents to easily trade second-hand items within their local community. “We launched in south west London, an area densely populated with young families and often nicknamed 'Nappy Valley',” says Joanna. “But we now have mums (and dads) spreading the word about the site all over the UK. There is no stigma around buying second-hand goods anymore. Everyone loves saving money and even better if they are being kind to the environment too!”
As well as uniting used gear with new owners, this website also aims to help you trade locally by using the postcode calculator so that buyers don't have to travel miles to pick up their bargains, thus saving energy.
Placing ads is easy, and there's plenty of advice on avoiding fraudsters for those new to internet trading.
If you've got stuff that may not be worth a great deal, but is still in saleable condition, your local mother-and-baby group will probably run regular nearly new sales. Alternatively you could head for the local car boot sale.
Giving away
If you're feeling generous and don't have any friends or relatives you can give things to, Freecycle it! You offer your stuff via your local group, if someone wants it, they'll come and get it. No money is allowed to change hands, and it's local, so again there are few 'baby gear miles'.
And, of course, if you're not yet in the position of needing to get rid of stuff, all of the above are great ways to kit out your new arrival for way less than full price…
www.nappyvalley.co.uk
www.uk.freecycle.org
