When you are pregnant with your first baby you don’t know what you need. So naturally I spent hours reading a million reviews on Amazon and made spreadsheets to compare types of car seats because the sheer amount of choices was totally overwhelming. I was fortunate to have a baby shower and I received presents mostly off my registry: a diaper bag, clothes, a video monitor, a crib, a play mat etc. And to my surprise I used most of it. I never thought I would use a bouncer, a pack n play and a boppy pillow but I did and sometimes I used them all in the span of a few hours!
What I really wanted and needed was money to put towards small home renovation to make our guest bedroom/office/junk room into a proper nursery for baby #2.
I had already scoped out the cost for the work we wanted to have done because we had been talking about doing it for a year. It would include: plastering the ceiling because it was cracking, buying a dresser for clothes since the room had a tiny un-usable closet (old house charm :)), paint the walls which were now a dreary shade of lite-ish brown, new window and insulation addition in the walls because the room was over the garage and was freezing. Total cost of the renovation we estimated about $3,500.
If only there was a way to tell my friends and family about this plan show them the pictures I pinned on Pinterest and ask them to donate money to the cause instead of buying me another adorable pink outfit for the baby. And that is when the idea for Feather The Nest was born. An online platform to give people an easier way to register for what they really want – a home improvement for their nursery, a down payment on their own home, furniture for their first apartment and for loved ones to donate cash in a way that made them feel like you were really going to use it for something special and not just groceries.
Owning a home is sooooo expensive and even after you save enough for your down payment the constant need for renovations, a new roof, paint etc seems never ending. So why not ask your friends and family (who are going to give your presents for your birthday, holidays, wedding gifts, baby presents etc) to give you a cash present that you really want and will actually use.
Written by Lindsay Oparowski (@loparowski), founder and CEO of Feather The Nest. Pictured above with her older daughter Abby.
If you are interested in setting up your own real estate registry, create your free nest now!
