I won’t say I dreamed of getting all my baby’s stuff for free: that’s because I just didn’t think it was possible. Within weeks, though, I was nailing the magic of getting baby things for free, and I wasn’t even trying so hard.

In this list of my experiences of getting free baby clothes, free baby toys, free baby products and other free baby items I didn’t know existed, find out how you can score free baby stuff. You can even have some fun while doing it.

My note: This article is not about couponing, on-sale baby subscription boxes, reviewing free products in exchange for reviews, or getting discounts or price cuts on baby products. Everything I mention in this list is about my experiences getting baby stuff totally for free.

My Local Buy Nothing group

My experience with my Buy Nothing group completely changed how I view the world of free things and hand-me-downs.

It might’ve all started when I realized I could avoid buying maternity clothes if I got them all for free. This made me wonder if I could potentially get all my “baby stuff” for free. Was it possible?

The answer is: nearly yes. Over the years from my local Buy Nothing groups (I’ve lived in 3 cities since joining my first Buy Nothing group), I have received baby toys, diapers, unopened baby food, breastfeeding accessories, baby hats, baby shoes, baby bathing suits, baby slides, baby bouncers, baby bibs and baby socks, all for free.

Oh, and I’ve given away a lot for free, too. If someone gave me infinitely too many baby clothes and I already had some in the same size, I gave them away for “regifting” on my Buy Nothing group to another parent who was interested.

In this photo, all the toys came from Buy Nothing, hand-me-downs, gifts or the babies of friends nearby.

Neighbors on your block or in the neighborhood

Making friends with neighbors who had kids was one of the benefits of raising a baby in an apartment building. We also lucked out with great families as neighbors when we decided to move to the suburbs and got our first house.

Our neighbors across the street are two families with four- and six-year-olds. This means that within weeks, we were “gifted” toddler wagons, toddler bikes, little toddler cars that play music and crayons, coloring books and puzzles, all for free.

The neighbors we know less well even reached out to us offering to offload toddler clothes exactly in the size our toddler will grow into next, paving the way for more months that I can get my child’s clothes for free.

Friends with babies bigger than mine

Oh, I want to be clear: I don’t actually mean I had friends whose babies were necessarily older than mine—they just had to be bigger. Why? Because they gave us free diapers hand-me-downs for almost a year.

You’re understanding correctly: I got diapers for free for more than 12 months (except for the size Preemie ones we used in the 10 days after coming home from the hospital). These came from friends who’d buy the Costco boxes of size 2 diapers, for example, only for their child to need to size up 1/4 of the way through the box. I inherited the rest.

Family members

Whether family members have “older kids” or babies around the same age, I guarantee you can score gently-used or “We’re done with this thing” stuff from them.

We have various “free baby stuff” from a family member who lives a few states away. Her baby stuff was in storage and it all comes out sporadically to become ours, and go down to our basement.

The baby stuff is varied, and it’s all free for us: I mean things like sleep sacks for big toddlers, an extra high chair, booster seats, a little toddler “car” for inside the house, toddler books, potty-training seats and swim diaper covers, just to name a few of the free things we’ve inherited.

Pediatrician office free samples

Whenever I saw samples of things at the pediatrician, I took them. I didn’t even discriminate. It was a way for me to learn about new baby product brands and things I might want to have in my purse, all in sample size.

I have gotten free samples of Dreft baby laundry detergent (if you use half the packet for a load, it lasts twice as long!), free baby shampoo and free baby body wash. Those bottles of baby wash lasted us over a year, because we used so little each time (not even on purpose), and the samples of baby lotion in cute travel-sized sample bottles came with us on trips (I never had to buy “Travel-sized baby lotion”).

Free breast pumps from insurance

If you’re finding out from me right now that your health insurance can probably get you a free breast pump, then congrats! I had found this out from my sister, who was pregnant around the same time that I was.

Within a few months of being pregnant, my doctor wrote me a prescription (I recommend taking a photo of it in case you lose things!) for a free breast pump from insurance.

The story goes like this: my friend (who got two free breast pumps) actually gave me one of her free breast pumps, and I used my “free breast pump prescription” to get an upgraded mobile hands-free breast pump from insurance.

There’s a lot of free baby stuff going on here, but the bottom line is that the more you get for free, the more options you have to get what you want for you and your baby.

Gifts (gifts are free, right?)

Do gifts count as getting stuff for free? I think they do. I could tell you at length about how I don’t really like gifts, I’m not good at giving them and I don’t totally enjoy receiving them, but in reality, people in our circles are going to give you baby gifts.

They’re also going to give your baby gifts when they visit, and gifts for the first birthday. This even happened when I wrote, “No gifts, please!”

While I never have vied for gifts from anyone, I have wound up with some very nice baby gifts, from close family and even from colleagues of our child’s grandparents.’ Talk about generous people!

While some gifts are useless (more baby clothes? Really?), some are kind of sweet (crib loveys, baby blankets and more).

Your baby registry

While this technically qualifies as “gifts” as well, your baby registry is technically a way to get baby stuff for free, especially if you load up your registry with helpful and essential baby registry items.

That’s right: I didn’t fill my registry with the fluff of baby bows and headbands, or onesies and baby shoes I knew I’d get for free.

I certainly put all the technical stuff on my registry that I actually really wanted and could tell that I wouldn’t be getting for free: baby monitor, stroller accessories, pacifiers, highly-specific postpartum supplies and breastfeeding products for my registrty that I knew I wanted.

So, that’s my personal recommendation: consider which products (clothes, hats, blankets) you may be able to get for free from Buy Nothing, neighbors, family and friends, and use your registry wisely for the specific products or brand-name items you are set on.

Complaining about faulty products (and getting a new free one)

This isn’t really a flex on “how to get baby stuff for free,” but rather, it’s something everyone should do when you have an issue with a product. I detailed at length in my list of How to Save Money with a Baby that I have had a few successful experiences of complaining about baby products that broke, and having the brands send me new ones.

A few examples are the stroller gloves from J.J.Cole (I don’t recommend them, but they did send me a new pair), HALO Sleep Sacks (most of them are fine, but I’ve had two faulty zipper incidents) and our Frida Snot-sucker that got disgusting mold within the first year (because there’s no way to clean the tube).

All these companies sent me brand new (and free) versions of whatever it was that was broken or faulty, and I suggest that you always do the same, even if it takes a few minutes of your time. Getting a new version or an updated or non-broken version of your baby product is always going to be worth it.

(With J.J.Cole, they even sent me the wrong replacement product the first time around, so I wound up with a set of free newborn mittens and winter hats instead of the stroller gloves I had written to them about.)

Random baby stuff giveaways

In just thinking of things that our baby has gotten for free, a little teddy bear from our hotel stay on our first international trip as a family comes to mind. The hotel gave our daughter a little teddy bear with a T-shirt (two of them, in fact, because they thought she was cute) and at some point after her first birthday, I decided to put it in the crib.

She loves the teddy bear with the T-shirt, as she has begun learning more about the names for clothes, and appreciating small animals.

There’s also party favors from birthday parties: for example, I never really feel like going out to buy bubbles, but luckily we got them from a goody bag at a children’s birthday party. So, we’ll go with those until we run out.

Find free baby stuff on the curb

Before you roll your eyes or say, “Gross,” let me back it up for a minute: Only take things from the curb that are out for trash pickup if they look nice!

When we lived in NYC, Dan and I would 1) always leave things for giveaway on our apartment building’s stairs, and 2) pick up things we liked or wanted from other people’s stoops when they were giving them away. This included books (and baby books), shoes, small items of furniture and more.

Now that we live in the suburbs, we actually find great stuff on the curb before “Bulk Trash Pickup,” which comes at the end of the month around here. We once saw our neighbor putting out a great condition toddler water table (for the trash!).

We stopped the car, Dan got out so that he could take it and walk it home (five doors down) and that is how we “won” the Step2 two-level Toddler Water Table, with the toys and attachments included!