HOW TO: SECONDHAND infant shower

Christine Koh is the creator as well as editor of Boston Mamas as well as a excellent friend. I asked her to share her experiences coordinating (umm, I mean “being the guest of honor at”) a second-hand infant shower. Voila:

After wading with what seemed to be the waters of secondary infertility for a number of years, my second pregnancy came as rather the surprise. as well as of program I discovered I was expecting not long after lastly coming to terms with being a three-person household as well as contributing most of my infant stuff.

When my sweetheart Heidi offered to throw me a shower, I asked whether she would be willing to coordinate a secondhand infant shower since I already had mom good friends asking me to take infant gear of their hands, as well as since it seemed like the perfect concept for this eco-obsessed mama.

Here’s exactly how Heidi as well as I made it happen:

1. get jiggy with Excel. since it had been so long since I was in the infant zone (my older child Laurel was almost 6 years old when I discovered out I was expecting with Violet), I looked at one of those giant (absurd) “must have” infant gear/items registry listings as well as culled the essentials. I produced a spreadsheet listing the fundamentals as well as noted what I already had.

2. provide needs as well as guest listing (including email addresses) to hostess. I sent Heidi my listings as well as she crafted an evite as well as shared my needs listing as well as asked guests to tag in for specific hand me downs. If people did not have hand me downs or want to bring them, she welcomed them to just come as well as hang out, or bring gift cards or diapers.

3. Mingle as well as be merry! I believe showers are all about the people — refreshments can be as simple or elegant as people desire. Heidi ended up having brunch catered as well as it was super elegant as well as tasty (you can see extra photos from the shower here). She was likewise kind sufficient to inspect in advance as to whether I was experiencing any type of food aversions. She’s thoughtful like that.

4. open gifts as well as freak out appropriately. I’m kind of kidding about this however kind of not. We did the traditional gift opening as well as there was lots of freaking out over adorable bit infant things.

5. get assist getting things home. This is something that ended up working out fine for me on the fly however I suggest planning in advance. I got a great deal of large, bulky products that would not in shape in our bit cars and truck as well as Heidi lives about half an hour away from me (so, several trips back as well as forth would be a bit time consuming). We ended up having a number of good friends offer to tons up their cars and trucks as well as decrease by my house, which worked quickly since many of the guests online in close proximity to me. If your guests are more spread out as well as the shower is not at your home, it would be a great concept to inspect in with close-by good friends to assist get gifts back to your home.

And that’s it! the most difficult planning includes going with your listing as well as having the hostess keep on top of emails to prevent duplicate hand me downs. as well as I discovered that the great thing about a secondhand shower is that it not only assists good friends who want to clean out their basements of infant gear, however likewise can result in the passing down of some products that would be expense prohibitive to gift brand new.

I was truly overwhelmed by the generosity ”“ among the secondhand products I got were a cars and truck seat/stroller system, crib mattress, jogging stroller, high chair, as well as giant crates full of infant clothes as well as toys (literally, 4 of them). There likewise were new infant clothes as well as toys as well as medical spa gift certificates. I was so touched, as well as above all, it was so absolutely lovely to celebrate Violet’s approaching arrival with such a amazing gathering of mom friends.

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In addition to whatever else mentioned above, Christine is likewise the designer behind swank Peacock as well as composes a personal blog at Pop Discourse. She tweets about everything at @bostonmamas. say thanks to you huge time, Christine!

When Whitney as well as I “coordinated” a secondhand shower, it went a bit in a different way since none of my pals seemed to want to provide utilized presents. See our lovely eco-geeky infant shower story as well as pictures.

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