How many items are/were on your registry?

[Anonymous]

I thought that I was trying to go the minimalist route but have been working on my registries - one at Target, one at Amazon, and a small one at Babies R Us.

So far across three registries, I am already at like 225 items. It is mostly cloth diapers, onesies, things for breastfeeding and the "essentials" but still seems like a lot of stuff. I am not even finished with my categories and the list in my pregnancy planner. I want people to have variety when purchasing but man....soooooo....how many items are/were on your registry?

[Anonymous]

If I saw a friend with 225 items I would laugh and think she was off her rocker. You will use less than half those items more than 5 times. Cut it down sister.

Spoken from a true consumer/excessive shopper.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Yeah, that's too much.

1st baby we probably had about 30 items and still didn't receive everything on the list. People will give you what they want (clothes, clothes, clothes, a million piggy banks, and the same three board books over and over again). Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Don't register for onsies or any clothes. People will give you clothes as gifts and enjoy picking out the outfits.

[Anonymous]

If it's 225 items with lots of things registered in each of the 3 sites, that's not so bad. If it's 225 unique items, then you may want to consider cutting down.

One place to start cutting down is with the stuff you won't need for 6+ months. i.e. anything having to do with feeding the kid real food -- spoons, bowls, storage containers, bibs, sippy cups, etc.

The other thing I see people get at showers that they don't need for a really long time are babyproofing supplies. You don't need to babyproof your house until your kid is mobile -- like really mobile. That won't happen until they are over 6 months and possibly not till they are 9 months. Depending on how adventurous your kid is, you may not need to do any serious baby proofing.

It'll also be a little while before you'd need toys like an exersaucer, doorway jumper, and other items that require the baby to be able to sit up. Most of this stuff is really easy to come by second hand (you can't use these things for more than 6-9 months) and they will take up a ton of space in your house waiting for your kid to grow into them. A lot of them are also the sort of things that your kid will either love or hate -- so it's better to borrow one first to figure out if your kid will like it.

Also, I wouldn't bother registering for clothes. People want to pick out stuff they think is cute and will ignore what you have registered for (especially if you are having a girl).

[Anonymous]

You are a nut, OP. It's way too much stuff. But it may be how your people roll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and the same three board books over and over again

I think we received 4 copies of goodnight moon. And I HATE that book. Almost died of laughter when I saw that someone else put it on her registry -- little does she know what she has coming......

Definitely don't register for books (or 0-6 months toys) -- people like to pick those out themselves.....

[Anonymous]

Not the OP, but THANK YOU SO MUCH PP 16:02! I'm about to start making my registry and I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I literally am taking notes of your advice.

[Anonymous]

I would also suggest not registering for bottles. I had three different kids, none of which my DD would ever take, so we had to continually try out different kinds before finding "the right one".

[Anonymous]

i think we have 30 on one registry and make 10-15 on the other. i might add a few more things but not 225!

[Anonymous]

Op and pp contact a friend or relative that has had a child recently and bring them with you to cut this list by 175 items

[Anonymous]

We had between 65-80 items on the list (we periodically revisited and adjusted, taking some items off and adding others). However, we had twins and in some cases, we were planning for extras of things (like crib linens, sheet savers, bath towels, clothing). For a singleton, I think having about 40-50 items should be plenty. The only reason to go with more is if you want to make sure there is a variety of items at multiple price points so that people can get items within their target spending amount (e.g. you don't want only 5 items in the under $20 amount or they'll go quickly and folks who are on fixed incomes have fewer items to choose from, or may have none if all items are purchased early).

[Anonymous]

We had 35 items. No clothes, because we figured people would want to pick their own stuff out. And that 35 items included stuff like a box of diapers we never got as gifts and just bought ourselves. We received all our "big" registry items like the car seat, stroller and pack n play, plus lots of other helpful stuff like swaddler blankets. We got a lot of other stuff through hand-me-downs and on craigslist (figuring there was no need for new stuff the kid would outgrow really quickly).

We also encouraged anyone who asked what we wanted to send us children's books. Those have been really fun to open.

[Anonymous]

We had around 75 and received the vast majority of it. The stuff that didn't get bought was all "boring" -- diaper pail and what have you. BUT, I was glad I put it on my registry because you get a completion discount -- so if I was going to buy it anyway, might as well get 10% off.

[Anonymous]

Anything over a few dozen and you are officially (and obnoxiously) self-absorbed. It's a baby, not a freakin' Nobel Peace Project.