Baby Registry Checklist for Minimalists and Small Houses

Trying to figure out what you need for a new baby can be tricky, especially if it’s your first! When our first baby was born in 2020, I knew I didn’t want a lot of “stuff”, but at the same time I was scared into collecting about 4x more clothing than I needed (because, as you’ll hear, “babies are messy!”). Four kids in, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of clothes, toys, and baby gear and I’ve found it actually makes taking care of a baby SO much easier. (Kids are enough to manage without having a whole bunch of extra stuff you don’t need!). Whether you’re working with a small space, want to save money, or just want to make your life easier, this minimalist baby registry checklist includes the most important items you need, plus a list of what you don’t really need.

Every single item on this list is something I truly, personally recommend and have used for all four of my babies (except #7, which I wish I knew about sooner!). I’ve included Amazon links for the exact item I have for as many of them as possible so you can find them easily! 

(We’ve also bought a ton of our baby items used or thrifted. Here are some tips for thrifting for kids and babies.)

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15 Essential Baby Items to Add to Your Baby Registry Checklist

If I could make my first baby registry checklist again, these items are exactly what I’d add!

1. Infant car seat 

First thing’s first—you need a car seat! 

There are basically two options for newborns—you can opt for an infant seat with a base or a convertible car seat. While convertible seats allow you to keep the same car seat for many years, this is one case where I would actually just start with an infant seat and buy a convertible seat later if you have the option.

Why?

Infant seats detach so you can carry them around, while leaving the base in the car. With a convertible seat, you have to get the baby out every time you arrive somewhere. I can’t even count the number of times we’ve detached the infant seat to carry a baby around. Probably hundreds per baby? If your baby is sleeping, it’s cold outside, you’re going somewhere where you want to be able to set them down, or you’re going to attach it into a stroller, a removable infant seat is invaluable. 

We have a Chicco KeyFit 30 (with an extra base for our second vehicle), and it’s lasted us through four children. 

2. Bassinet/Playpen

This is one of my favorite minimalist baby things. You do NOT need a bassinet, crib, playpen, and pack n play (at least not right away)! You can do all in one with a bassinet playpen combo.

We have an Arms Reach 2-in-1, which I cannot find anymore, but it’s very similar to this Portable Playard.

I put it right up next to my bed for the first couple of months, then transform it into a regular playpen to use as a crib after the babies start rolling over. You can also break it down easily to bring along while traveling. 

There’s nothing wrong with having a full size crib right away, of course, but if you’re trying to save space, just know that you really don’t need one! I love that the 2-in-1 option means buying and storing one less thing.

3. Baby Carrier

There are only a few big-ticket items you really need, but aside from a car seat and crib, this is probably my most-used baby item. I use it at the grocery store, at church, at home, on walks… basically everywhere. 

Out of the three baby carriers I have and use, my Ergobaby 360 is the top one I would pick if I could only have one. I would absolutely recommend getting the infant insert as well if you want to use it right away. 

Unlike other wraps, the Ergo is super sturdy and high quality so you don’t have to use your hands to support your baby at all. It’s great for any sort of activity where you’ll be walking or moving around and need your hands. And you can put your baby in the front (facing in or out) or back (depending on their age). Honestly such an essential item whether you have one child or many! 

(Plus, it has a weight limit of up to 33 pounds – I’ve even used it on occasion for 3-year-olds when they need some extra love.)

I don’t think I can stress enough how much I recommend investing in an Ergo! 

(Dads can use them, too! ⬇️)

4. Bumbo

Out of all the baby products you can buy—swings, bouncy seats, activity centers, fancy car seats, etc.—there are basically just two I would not want to do without. These are the Ergo and the Bumbo. 

Yes, there are tons of booster seats, and yes, the Bumbo 3-in-1 Multi-Seat (6-36 months model) is the one you want, at least in my opinion! It does it all. It’s sturdy enough to use for everyday eating at home (buckled to a chair), it’s so portable and easy to bring along, and it comes with a tray that snaps in the back when it’s not in use. 

We use this every day and take it everywhere.

The Infant Bumbo is also popular, but honestly I don’t think it’s necessary (not to mention it can be dangerous if set on surfaces and there’s some debate whether it’s good for developing spines). Babies don’t need to sit up to eat until 6 months anyway. 

5. Changing Pad

You do not need an entire diaper changer, but a good changing pad is one minimalist registry item I would rather not do without, especially in the early months. If you don’t have a special changing table, you can just set it on top of a low dresser (which is what we do while the baby’s still in our bedroom). 

But besides using it to change diapers, I use it all over the house in the early days. It’s such an easy, portable little safe place to set newborns, and the raised sides tend to make them feel cozy and safe. I often carry mine around the house to set the baby down if I’m cooking or working on something in a certain room. (My December baby also loved laying on it near the cozy fire!) 

Of course, it’s always good for easy diaper changes, too. (But you can also do these right on the floor, of course!)

Honestly, this is something that you might consider getting two of if you have the space and want to keep one in a bedroom and one to use around the house. Don’t forget changing pad covers, too. I’d say it’s a good idea to have at least 2 or 3 on hand. 

6. Diaper Bag 

A good diaper bag is a must. If you plan to have multiple kids, you may want to get one that has multiple diaper pockets (for different sizes). I would also try to grab one that comes with a travel changing pad. 

7. Sterlite Dresser

By the time I got to the third child, I realized babies (and young kids, honestly), do NOT need a huge dresser. In fact, having enough clothes to fill even a medium-sized dresser is more than you need as long as you plan to do laundry 2-3 times per week. 

With our third child, we just used a 3-drawer plastic dresser (and I loved it so much I repeated for the fourth child!). Not only is it way cheaper than buying another dresser, but it’s easy to move around, doesn’t take up much space, and helps me limit the amount of baby clothes I collect to the amount we actually need. 

I’ve found that a dresser this size gives me enough space to hold all of a baby’s clothes along with some extra sleep sacks and swaddles until they’re at least 2 years old. Having more clothes than fit in this size dresser—for me—is just unnecessary and makes it hard to manage. (See #10 in the next list below for my thoughts on how many baby clothes you actually need.)

8. Muslin Swaddles 

Baby blankets are fun and cute and cozy, but if you want to take a minimalist approach, I would just grab:

• A good fleece sleep sack for sleeping once they start to roll over
• A medium-thick blanket for the car seat (I’ve enjoyed sewing simple flannel blankets for my babies and they work perfectly, but these blankets from Amazon are so cute and would also work great)
• And 3-4 LARGE muslin swaddles

Muslin swaddles are so versatile. We have always preferred these for swaddling infants over muslin swaddles. Plus, they’re perfect for wiping spit up or using as a nursing cover. 

(Here’s a helpful 2-minute video on how to swaddle babies in a blanket.)

You don’t really need any other blankets for sleeping until they’re at least a year old. 

9. Breast Pump (even if you don’t plan to use it)

Expert tip: It’s a good idea to have a breast pump on hand even if you plan to nurse your baby exclusively. 

Why? Two reasons.

1. You never really know how nursing is going to go before a baby is born. Some new moms find it comes very naturally, and others struggle. One of our babies had to be hospitalized for a week and I was so glad I had a pump so I could still give him breastmilk.
2. It’s a good idea to store some breastmilk in the freezer, even if you don’t plan to use it. I like waiting to pump until about 6 weeks postpartum when milk begins to regulate (pumping before this can sometimes cause mastitis and other issues). But after that, consider storing up a few days or more worth of milk for your baby just in case. An easy way to do this is to pump one bag of milk each morning. If you don’t use it, you can give it away! With one of my babies, I got a scary spider bite that started tracking up my arm and had to get on antibiotics quickly. Unfortunately, the doctor gave me one that was unsafe for nursing, and I didn’t find out until after I took a dose. I was so thankful to have some milk stored in the freezer! Another time I was quite ill and had to leave my baby with my mom for several hours. Again, I was so glad I had a bag of milk to give her! 

Mom tip: If you don’t get a free breast pump through your insurance, consider asking around in local mom groups. Most people that have hospital births do get free pumps and then aren’t sure what to do with them when they’re finished. I’ve helped multiple friends find free pumps this way! 

Don’t forget to get some milk storage bags, too (and make sure they fit with your pump).

10. Diapers and Wipes

If you’re not sure what else to ask for for your baby shower, don’t be ashamed to ask for diapers and wipes! Newborns go through about 10 diapers per day in those first weeks, and even those huge diaper boxes can get used up FAST. Whether you’re on a tight budget or not, it’s so helpful to have a stockpile of diapers on hand. 

Don’t ask for too many “newborn” size diapers, as larger babies may only use this size for a week or less. If you’re using disposable diapers, it’s helpful to have a few boxes of size 1s as well as size 2s to get you through as many of those first weeks and months as possible without having to worry about the additional cost of diapers. 

Cloth diapers are another option which can be an investment but will probably save you money in the long run. They do, of course, take a bit more time to wash and manage.

If you want a middle option between disposable and cloth diapering, I find it easy to combine disposable diapers and cloth wipes. I’ve found cloth wipes to be much easier to clean and use than cloth diapers, and using them with a DIY baby wipe solution is a good way to save some money, too. 

Other Essentials

• White onesies. A pack of white onesies in each size always come in handy for under pajamas and other clothing. 
• Zip-up jammies. I like to put my babies in zip-up, footie jammies almost exclusively (day and night!) for the first couple of months—unless it’s really hot. Why? Socks just do not like to stay on newborns, and who wants to mess with a row of snaps during a groggy late-night diaper change? Zip up pajamas are perfect. 
  
• Slippers. Slippers or booties are incredibly handy to have for baby’s first winter before he/she is walking. 
• Books. Even if you prefer not to have a lot of baby stuff, good books are one of those things you kind of can’t have too many of. Check out this blog post to find 50 of my favorite children’s books, and this one for 10 ways I find books inexpensively.
• Burp cloths. One of those true baby essentials. I totally recommend having a burp cloth in every room of the house. You never know when you’ll need it.
• Diaper rash cream. We love Weleda! It’s a clean, calendula-based cream that also works quite well.
• Baby thermometer. You don’t need anything fancy, but a simple digital baby thermometer can be good to have on hand. 
• Nail clippers. Not the most fun job, but necessary! 

10 Popular Items You Actually Don’t Need

What baby items are actually overrated? Here are 10 items we haven’t found all that useful. 

1. Diaper Pail

We have never used a traditional diaper pail—those special trash bags that you need for most of them seem like they cost almost as much as the diapers themselves! (Okay, maybe not quite, but they are so expensive!)

For awhile we used a diaper pail with a reusable cloth bag, but even though it was a smaller pail and we had two children in diapers, it took days to fill up, and by that time it was pretty stinky.

The best system we’ve found is just to keep a regular, small trash pail under the bathroom sink and line it with a (free) plastic grocery bag. It fills up much more quickly, and since the bags are free we just empty it when there’s a stinky diaper.

2. Baby Play Gym/Play Yard

We did have a floor play gym for our first baby, but by the time the second baby came around, we never got it back out. 

Babies will play with anything—a rattle, a wooden spoon, a coaster… Plus, they really don’t need stimulation coming from every direction, anyway. 

If you have a quiet house and plenty of living room space to keep it out all the time, a play gym may come in handy, but we found that we didn’t really use it enough and it just became in the way.

3. Baby Bath Towels

Baby bath towels can be so cute, but if you’re trying to cut down on “stuff”, just know you don’t need them! Your baby will only fit into them for a few months, and honestly, regular bath towels dry so much better. 

Skip the flimsy, small ones and just wrap up your baby in a thick, large, regular-size towel after they get out of the tub!

If you know basic sewing, you can even make your own cozy hooded towel for about $10 in just 15 minutes. I’ve made these for all of my kids and they love using them at bath time.

4. Diaper Changing Table

A diaper change table is one of those things that can be somewhat helpful (more for storage than anything) if you have the space, but if not, you really don’t need it. You can change diapers on top of a dresser (just keep your hand on that baby!), on the floor, anywhere.

A good changing pad can be helpful though, even if you don’t have a diaper changer to put it on. (See #5 in the list above.)

5. Boppy (Nursing Pillow)

A special nursing pillow is another one of those things that could be helpful, but can easily be replaced by a regular pillow. And after the first few weeks or so, you really don’t need anything special to nurse. If you want to keep it minimal, just grab the closest pillow if you need it! 

6. Video Monitor

Crazy, but some of our parents actually didn’t even have monitors at all—and their kiddos survived! We have never had a video monitor (although we do like these simple Vtech audio monitors), and honestly I think I would be way more anxious if we did! Babies stir quite a bit, and it’s okay. Often, being able to hear or see too much will just cause you to lose sleep when your baby really just needs 10 seconds to re-settle and go back to sleep. 

7. Baby Wipe Warmer

As a first-time parent, it makes sense that you’re concerned about your baby’s comfort, but they can be totally okay with room-temperature wipes on their bum! Plus, if you get them used to warm wipes, it makes things all the more difficult when you’re out and about, juggling a baby and a diaper bag and who knows what else, and your baby can’t hang with regular wipes. 

8. Shoes

Most babies don’t walk until they are at least 12 months old. No walking? No shoes needed! It’s so good for their little feet to be barefoot as they grow, and baby shoes are hard to keep on, anyway. If you need to add something to their feet for warmth during the cooler months, velcro booties are your best bet.

9. A Lot of Toys

In the first month (or first four months?), babies don’t really need any toys. Overstimulation can actually make babies cranky and overwhelmed (one of the reasons witching hour happens). All they really need is you to hold, talk, and sing to them! 

But even after that, babies don’t need buckets and buckets full of toys. Plus, you’ll find that they gravitate toward everything that’s NOT a toy, anyway.

10. Tons of Baby Clothes

I feel like new parents definitely get roped into thinking they need a TON of clothes, and I did too, and it’s just not true. Babies don’t need that much stuff, unless maybe you don’t have laundry machines at home. When we had just one or two babies, I typically did laundry just a couple of times per week. I found that a dresser full of clothes was way more than a baby needed, and she didn’t even get to wear most of them! 

Cutting down on clothes has been a game changer! It’s easy to keep their drawers uncluttered, I like everything I have in there, and they actually get to wear it all. 

Here’s a rough guideline for how many clothes you actually need for your baby.

• Newborn hats (2)
• Sun hat (1)
• Socks (3)
• White onesies (4-5)
• Sleep sacks (2)
• Footie pajamas (5)
• Pants (4)
• Shorts (2-4)
• Dress up onesies (1-2)
• Jackets (1-2)
• Shirts (0)—Shirts on newborns just do not really work!
• Scratch mittens (1-2)
• Swimsuit (1)

Mom tip: I like to keep it simple and only keep clothes that essentially all match. Pants are jeans, black, and brown. No crazy plaids or strips that only go with one onesie! Having pieces that all mostly match makes organizing clothes much easier. And as they get older, they can dress themselves and always look decent!

Items That Are Nice to Have—But Not Necessary

1. Ring Sling 

I 1000% recommend Wild Bird ring slings if you can get one! Not necessary, especially if you already have another carrier like an Ergo, but SO nice to have. I love that a ring sling is so easy to slip on and it can fold up into a ball so you can easily carry it around in a diaper bag.

I tend to use my ring sling if I’m hanging out with friends and family, standing with a baby at church, or walking around the house. For longer walks, times when I’m cooking or doing other chores, or shopping, I’ll opt for the Ergo.

2. Rocking Chair

I did really enjoy having a glider rocking chair and ottoman with my first and second child. Rocking and nursing them at night or singing to them is sometimes the best part of the day. By the time we got to child #3 and #4, the bedrooms no longer had enough room for a rocking chair, and it’s been totally fine. One of those things that’s nice if you have the space, but you really don’t need one. 

3. Bouncy Seat

A bouncy seat is nice to have in the first few months for setting the baby down in different parts of the house. However, I find I really only use mine for a couple of months before they grow out of it, so if you’re limited on space, you may want to just skip it.

4. Baby Monitor

Whether or not you really need a baby monitor depends on your preference as well as your house. We live in a long ranch, and if there’s not a ton of noise going on, you can hear a crying baby from pretty much everywhere in the house. In a bigger house or two-story, it might be even more helpful to have an audio monitor. 

We do like having a couple of basic Vtech monitors to hear the kids at night (especially if they’re sick or something), but I hardly ever use them during the day anymore. 

These also stretch pretty far, so sometimes we take the parent unit outside if we need to work on something while the babies are sleeping. 

5. High Chair 

While you could get by without one, especially if you have a Bumbo, we do get a ton of use out of our high chair. This is the one we have. The removable tray makes it super easy to wash, it’s nice to be able to adjust it for different ages. 

6. Sound Machine

A white noise machine is something I wish we didn’t need, but for one of our kids in particular, it really came in handy. 

Mom tip: I’d always recommend teaching your kid to nap without a sound machine if possible! It just makes it so much easier to get them to sleep if you happen to not have it with you. We successfully did this with three of our kids, but for one of them, he was just a difficult sleeper and needed that white noise to stay asleep. 

7. Nursing Cover

This is another one that you can get away with not having. If you have a muslin blanket, you can always use that to nurse your baby privately. But, I love having a nursing cover in the diaper bag to make nursing in public easy (and stay covered). I’ve always used a combo nursing cover/car seat cover. It stays on well while nursing and is perfect for carrying a sleeping baby in a car seat.

8. Carseat Mirror

Having a carseat mirror can give you a lot of peace of mind while driving. 

9. Exersaucer

This is another item that takes up a lot of space, but can be handy if you have the room for it. I like using the exersaucer from about 6-12 months when the baby wants to “stand” up and look around but needs to be contained for awhile. We keep ours near the kitchen so the baby can play while I cook. 

(I mostly use the Ergo in the kitchen a ton, so they don’t spend a lot of time in the exersaucer, but sometimes they want to be able to move a little bit more!)

10. Fabric Sling Carrier

A long fabric sling (like a Solly Baby wrap) would be my third choice for a carrier, after an Ergo and a ring sling. I have one that I use for the first couple of months and I do like how close and tight it holds the baby. They love it, too. But, if you have an Ergo with an infant insert, that works well from the start, too!