My daughter is now three years old, so even though I co-write The Green Baby Guide with Joy, sometimes the baby years seem like they were a part of the distant past.  In our upcoming book, we talk a lot about reducing the amount of gear you buy for your newborn–after all, so much of it gets used for  just a few weeks or months.  Then I looked around my daughter’s room for relics from the past.  Three years out, is there any baby gear we’re still using?  Yes!

Cloth diapers.  Audrey potty trained at 2.5 years, but we still put her in prefolds with a cover at night.  She rarely wakes up wet, but we haven’t yet  made the leap to diaperless nights.  The prefolds are the same exact ones we’ve been using since her second week of life.  She’s fit in the same covers for at least a year and a half.

Blankets/quilts.  Many people complain about the glut of baby blankets they receive as gifts.  Audrey uses the bigger ones on her toddler-sized bed and the smaller ones for her dolls.  The quilt my cousin made her still hangs on her wall as a colorful decoration.

Board books.  Audrey has graduated on to more sophisticated reading material, but that hasn’t diminished her love for her “baby” board books.  She still picks them up, thumbs through them, and “reads” them to herself.

Some toys.  Toys we’ve had since Audrey’s birth still sit in her toy box: blocks, some stuffed animals, and wooden puzzles were fun for her when she was little, and she’s adjusted the way she plays with them as she’s gotten older.

Moses basket.  Audrey slept in a Moses basket for the first six months.  Once she moved into a crib, we started using it to store her soft toys.

So when you start stocking that nursery, think about the longevity of the things you buy.  It worked for me!  For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, head on over to We are THAT Family.

What baby gear did you get a lot of mileage out of as your little one grew?  Let us know!