Creating an Eco Friendly Nursery – Guest Post by FamilyLivingToday

When you are preparing to have a child for the first time, you receive a lot of advice from a myriad of people. Some of that advice is useful for the kind of parent you want to be a parent but unfortunately, a lot of it is not.

If you want to do your part to help the environment as a parent, it can be hard to figure out what exactly works while making your life easier as a parent.

You might find that people your grandparents’ age will give you the best advice as to how to put your nursery together without spending a fortune on brand new stuff that you won’t end up using.

Buy Furniture Secondhand

When purchasing furniture for your nursery, It might be easier to go to one store and buy everything you need. However, you probably don’t need to. There is a tonne of perfectly usable baby furniture in the world. Thrift stores and consignment shops are packed full of lightly used furniture that has been donated by other parents wanting to help the environment too. You can purchase almost all of the furniture you need this way, saving money and keeping things out of the landfill.

However, we would recommend buying a new crib mattress and cushions for a rocking chair in order to reduce the chance of bringing bedbugs into your household.

Buy Secondhand Clothes

Baby clothes are some of the cutest things you will ever see but unfortunately some of the least used too. Babies growing so fast means they might only wear an outfit once or twice before outgrowing it. To cut down on costs and become more eco-friendly, you can find thrift and consignment stores that cater to children in order to buy exactly what you need without buying anything new. Just give them a good wash in hot water and they’ll be just like new!

If you do want to buy new, or family members do, you can ask that they buy baby clothes made out of recycled materials to help them reduce their carbon footprint. You can also re-donate these clothes once your child has outgrown them, so that another parent can get just as much joy out of them as you did.

Plan for Reusable Diapers

Disposable diapers are one of the most expensive things that you will purchase for your nursery. Given the amount needed, they are also the most numerous. Babies poop and pee a lot – like way more than you’d think is physically possible for a creature their size. Newborns can need up to 10 diapers a day, which adds up both in your budget and the landfill.

In order to reduce your baby’s impact on the landfill, you can make a plan to use reusable diapers. These can be made of entirely cloth or they can have an outer shell that is a plastic-fabric blend with a removable, absorbent insert. This will mean you are using a lot more water to do laundry with, but can be a huge help for your budget.

Thanks to Nisha Miller from Family Living Todayfor this guest post.