Thursday, May 26, 2011

hoarders

There's this stroller that Joe keeps getting after me to put on Craig's List, because all it's doing is taking up space in our house, and neither kid has used it for the purposes of transport in the past year and a half at least.  Atlanta, unlike New York, is not a real stroller-intensive city.  There is occasional use for a stroller, like at the zoo or something, but on the whole, Atlanta is so car-centric that it's not like New York, where everyone has their one-hand-fold umbrella stroller that they carry, kid and all, up and down the subway steps.  Especially now that Mack is older, he really doesn't need a stroller, unless we're doing a lot of walking, which, as I think I just noted, just doesn't happen in Atlanta, unless you're the kind of person who just walks to and from places for no reason at all.  (Yes, yes, I know, "exercise.")



I don't want to sell the stroller.  I resisted selling it before we moved, and now that we actually have moved and the stroller is just becoming more and more obsolete, I'm still resisting selling it, though I really can't come up with a real sound reason why.  It's a good stroller.  We got it when Mack was born.  It's a double stroller, the kind where you can put one bigger kid in the front and one smaller kid in the back.  It's a narrow profile, so it's good for cities or supermarkets.  It's a nice bright green color, so it's highly visible to oncoming traffic and to satellites in outer space.  But it's pretty much strictly ornamental at this point.  No one uses this stroller.  It's just sitting there by the front door, holding a pile of winter jackets.  If we sell the stroller, we could use the money we get in exchange for goods and services.

But I still don't want to sell the stroller.

See, the thing is...we have two kids.  I love my two kids.  I really can't imagine having a third kid, nor, honestly, can we really afford it at this point, time or money-wise.  But.  But.  When I think about selling this stroller, selling this perfectly good double stroller, I keep thinking, "But if we have another baby, we can put the baby in the back and Mack can sit up front!"  Are we trying to have a baby at this moment?  Not even close.  But might we, at some point, decide to have a third kid?  I think I'm more open to that option than Joe is at this point in time, but I think we'd both agree that we won't rule anything out.  But given that, given the possibility, wouldn't getting rid of this stroller, this perfectly good double stroller with an infant attachement in the back, be kind of a waste?

Yes, I know I can sell the stroller so it's not sitting in my front hallway taking up space.  I know that if and when we decide to have another baby (and by no means is this a foregone conclusion) we can just get another stroller.  Think of the stroller technology as it might be in the future!  They might have strollers that hover and steer themselves!  Also, robot nannies!  So I should just sell the old stroller we have, right?  The double stroller into which Cal can't even fit anymore.  Which Mack wouldn't even deign to sit in at this point.  I should sell this perfectly nice stroller, take the money, and use it to buy some school clothes for Mack or a new lunchbox for Cal or something that we really need.

But I still don't really want to sell the stroller.  Make of that what you will.

19 comments:

  1. Deep breath. I totally understand the not wanting to sell the stroller.

    But...how about donating it to someone whose home has been flooded out or hit by a tornado. Or selling it for as much as you can get and sending the money to those folks?

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  2. Anonymous3:21 PM

    I hate selling stuff :(. I'm moving for residency and sold almost all my still-awesome furniture and appliances to fellow medical students and the general hospital community. The small amount of stuff that I have just didn't make a moving truck worth it. I know I'm just going to buy new stuff when I get to my new city, but I wish I could have kept my stuff.

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  3. We have a 9 month old and are moving 2000 miles away in a couple of weeks. My husband and I are not hoarders in general, but we are really not able to get rid of any of the baby stuff!
    Like you, it's a distant possiblility that we will have another baby once we settle down (I'd especially like one, and it would have to be relatively soon as I am not getting any younger!), but like you said, there will be better stuff by then, newer models, different safety regulations even.
    I guess since we are moving to a big house from a condo we feel a subconscious need to fill it with as much stuff as we can? Who knows.
    Nice stroller by the way! I'd never seen one like that!

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  4. Anonymous4:05 PM

    Don't sell it. It's part of a mommy-dream sentiment and you know what? we're allowed to have those.:)

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  5. Yeah, I don't even think it's actually so much the stroller itself as the IDEA of the stroller or the future it implies if we just keep it around for a little while longer. It's like keeping all our options open, or something.

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  6. I totally understand Michelle...We have a basement full of baby things that we don't/won't need and my girls are now 9 and 12. I think selling it is too painful because it means that I will never have another baby and that my girls are growing up, and I can't face that. So keeping it lets me secretly have a fantasy that I might still have another child someday.

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  7. What advice would you give to your best friend in the same situation?

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  8. Anonymous7:37 PM

    you don't have to put a baby in the back. you can put groceries there, laundry, a small pet.
    saw one of these today on the subway. looked cool.

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  9. alsoapedsdoc8:14 PM

    I have that stroller! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that stroller. I have 2 boys, now 4 and 2. And I can't part with it either (but we do live in a very walkable area)

    You know you can get an option for the back to make it a sit n stand.....

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  10. My kids are 8 and 11. I've known for approximately 8 years that I was done having babies. Not a doubt. We (by which I mean I) just got rid of the double stroller this year. There was no logic to it, pure emotion. So hold on to the stroller if you want. Especially since yours is way snazzier than mine.

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  11. Anonymous9:16 PM

    I will totally take it off your hands... no kidding. :-P

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  12. If you need some help in finding further justification (aside from clearing the hallway of your lovely new home) for selling the stroller, consider this:

    The kid in the back seat gets a really raw deal - he is forced to stare at green canvas bright enough to cause permanent blindness. And if the kid sitting in the front has had any beans for lunch, then the poor kid in the back is not only getting his CN III zapped, but also getting his CN I fried.

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  13. dedicated reader12:05 AM

    I still have my child's crib, neatly unassembled, in the garage. (Said child is getting ready to head to summer school next week and is a junior in college.)

    I suggest keeping it for visitors and, you know if you give it away, the next week you will go somewhere and wish you had it.

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  14. My sister and her friends deal with that by the great baby things loan merry-go-round.

    Baby clothes and stuff are passed on to a friend or family member and then passed back when needed.

    Perhaps you could loan it to someone with really little kids. And then it is not cluttering your hall, or got rid of. Because it *could* come back. If necessary.

    And in the meantime you get that little glow of helpfulness.

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  15. Anonymous7:49 AM

    You should really sell/give away/set free into the wild blue yonder the stroller.

    I like the idea of giving it away to someone who might need it. Is there someone at the hospital who you personally know who might need it who you could give it to for free/cheap? Or like above, someone who has lived through a disaster who needs it? It might make giving it away easier.

    Giving away emotional baggage is sure to make you feel better. Joe, too.

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  16. Holly8:48 AM

    Our baby will be a year next week, and I have tried to be very generous with giving away our baby gear already. I am 95% sure we are one-and-done, but even if we do have another, it will be a good 5 years down the road, and if I'm being honest with myself, I am sure that I will want to get all of the latest and great gear at that point in time anyway -- and, our stuff is doing no one any good sitting collecting dust in our basement right now. We will of course keep the crib and the $$$$ stroller, but I've already doled out lots of smaller gear that she has already outgrown, plus all the gender-neutral clothes in teeny-baby size. With the exception of a few special outfits, I will happily pass along her other (lovely, barely worn -- weep-weep) clothes to any friends that have girls in the coming years. Same with my maternity clothes, which I spent a small fortune on because I refused to look schlumpy at work during my pregnancy. I suppose I could parcel this stuff up into lots and sell it on eBay or Craigslist and make actual American dollars as opposed to just a happy, charitable glow in my heart, but that would require photographing them and taking time to post a bunch of ads, etc and that is just not in the offing right now.

    All of this is to say: I say go for it and sell the stroller, and buy the boys something fun that they can enjoy RIGHT NOW.

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  17. I have a nearly-6 year old, and a nearly-4 year old. I have 2 strollers in the garage (1 is like yours, the other a 1-hand fold). I live in the countryside and the kids go to school by car (8min by car, 40+ by foot). I really don't think I will have another child (severe PPDx2). But... but...

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  18. Anonymous7:20 AM

    Surely by the time you have (if you have) another child, Mack will be too old to need a stroller anyway?

    Victoria

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  19. I have the same stroller, and I love it.

    Oldest kid is five, and is definitely too big to be riding in the stroller--not to mention it's almost impossible to push the stroller with both kids in it.

    We have taken permanent steps to ensure that we won't have any more kids.

    And yet I can't get rid of the stroller either. I understand.

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