What to Do with Pink and Brown Baby Furniture

I would reuse all that you have - cheaper in the long run - i had a girl the first time around and when my son came i reused all of the items I had for her - even her jammies - YES my son wore pink pajamas... WHO CARES REALLY?

i used all the same things for both my boy and girl. however, mine was navy blue plaid. honestly, i probably wouldn't use pink for a boy...well, not the stroller or the carseat. everything else, i wouldn't care

Price - take a market survey to find the going rate. Search craigslist and ebay for similar items to see what they are going for. Or price them at 3/4 full value but be willing to negotiate. If they don't sell within 10 days or so, go down 10%. and try again.

I would trade. Or put an ad in craigslist to sell the whole set and with the money search the ads and buy someone elses set. You can also go to child consignment shops like Once Upon a Child and sell your stuff on consignment and buy someone elses. They have pristine used baby stuff.

I honestly wouldn't care since there was brown too. Equipment is expensive and as long as it's still in code, I'd use it. I did like Red's idea of putting some other colors on it though to make it more neutral.

That being said, DO NOT sell your carseat. Dispose of it properly. Do not ever sell a used seat or buy a used seat. It is dangerous. You, being the original owner, should be signed up to be notified of recalls etc. But whomever you sell it too won't be so they wouldn't be notified. And if you buy a used seat, you have no way of knowing it's history such as if it were involved in an accident or recalls (not every parent sends in those little slips registering with the company like they're supposed to and they just don't pay attention to the manufactures sites). Even an accident as minor as a fender bender warrants buying a new seat just because it was under stress and may have weakened it meaning it might fail if it went through a major accident. Car seats also go out of code quite often and you have no way of knowing that unless you have either done your research very well or you know a licensed carseat technician and even then I would only ask them if the seat was brand new and still in box. If it had been used, forget it.

Can you tell I hang around too many car seat technicians? Their manuals are HUGE and they take their business seriously. I know you hate for something you paid so much money for go to waste, but when the safety of a child is involved, the safety is more important. I wouldn't even keep it for your son, just because by the time he's born it will probably be out of code anyway. None of our local baby consignment stores, thrift stores, etc. sell used car seats. Our local free exchange won't post them either.

Go on craigslist and sell it. Or have a garage sale and use the money to buy the new stuff for the girl. If it was just brown I w ould keep it, but your boy deserves to have some new boyish things like your daughter had new girly things. If the crib is able to be used, I think it should be, keep it. Keep the stuff that you can reuse and buy new stuff. Have a baby shower for the new gender and enjoy your little one.

sounds like you've already made up your mind. You are willing to do pink/ brown with certain items, but not so with others.

Don't do the trade if you feel like you are getting the short end of the stick. It will be a craw in your side.

Your baby won't care either way.

This is pretty time consuming... but I had a very crafty friend who had this issue. She was having a boy, and everything she owned was pink and brown too. So she got some blue paints, and blue thread, and 'fixed' everything to be gender neutral. For stuff that could't be sewn, she painted little designs over the pink. (there was still pink, but it was just as blue.) It looked very nice~She did things like little stencil designs of animals, letters, etc. For stuff like the stroller, swing, or car seat, she did essentially the same thing, but she sewed the designs instead of painted. They actually looked SUPER cute when she was done with them!!! Of course, she was extremely crafty. I don't think I would have been able to pull it off...

Go online to the company websites and see if you can buy replacement covers for things like the car seat and swing. For the pack n play, you can probably just sew new material over the old pattern.

I would just keep it all. For the car seat I would get one of those covers made for it. My SIL had a boyish car seat and had a very girly car seat cover made for it. It was really cute. So maybe for the car seat you could do that, for the rest, I would just use what you have.

Is any of the pink fabric that is removable that you could buy a replacement in a boyish color? That would be my only thought if you wanted to keep and reuse some of it. If it is paint and someone has the time and ability you could always repaint the pink another color.

If you can take the covers off, perhaps you can find some dark blue dye and dye them so they become PURPLE and brown.

For the plastic stuff, don't know if you can paint it. If it's just going to be in your house, I wouldn't worry. If it's stuff you travel with and you don't want to deal with the "no, it's a boy" conversation, craigslist might be the way to go. Good luck!

I would absolutely reuse them, for a few reasons. First of all, your son will.not.know. He won't care or know the difference, so I don't understand why it would be weird to put him in a pink swing. Also, you may only use the infant seat briefly (in fact, you could skip it altogether and go straight to a convertible if you wanted), so it seems silly to spend another $150-200 on a seat that might only get a couple months' of use just because it's girly.

You will save a bundle by reusing. Also, baby gear is mostly plastic, and I ABSOLUTELY try to reuse plastics as much as possible -- they are made from oil and never decompose. I pretty much only by used plastic toys and the like for that reason.

Can you sell it and buy "boy" stuff?
Can you afford to/do you need to keep it and buy new stuff?

When we had our first daughter, we had so little money that I had to use all the things our friends, who all had sons, donated. So she grew up in blue overalls, etc. People often mistook her for a boy, which didn't bother me in the least. But if it bothers you, you'll have to find another solution.

To me, it was very interesting to really feel how many gender stereotypes we have for our babies. Dressed in boy's clothes, she got called "little slugger" and "he'll play football one day with those shoulders!" while dressed in pink we heard "What a little princess" and "How sweet, she'll surely be a ballet dancer one day."

You will probably not be able to get replacement value on craigslist. Just reuse it, who cares? My friends dressed their baby boy in pink footy hand-me-down pajamas... Why buy new, he doesn't care? Especially for the things you list that he will only be in for a year or so.