Nursery Furniture

Changing table or gavetero cambiador:

most of the choosing in a baby’s room comes down to these two. A standalone changing table on legs is lighter and cheaper but has no job once the diaper years are over. A gavetero cambiador does the same work at the same height and turns back into a chest of drawers when the topper is unscrewed, which is why it is the piece people buy new and later sell on. The third route is a changing topper fixed onto a gavetero you already own, as long as its top is deep enough that the pad does not hang over the front. A ropero is worth more if its hanging rail drops low for tiny clothes and goes back up later, which keeps it useful into the school years. For feeding there is the traditional wooden mecedora and the upholstered glider that slides on a track or swivels, sometimes with a recline and footrest. If the room is narrow, look at the cribs that come with a changing unit fixed to one end, and once the baby starts climbing out, the next step is in toddler beds.

Choosing a gavetero cambiador and a glider:

open every drawer all the way. Metal runners on ball bearings glide and stop cleanly; plain plastic or wooden slides stick once the drawer is full of folded clothes. The changing top should have raised edges on every side except the one you stand at, and the gavetero should come with an anti-tip strap to fix it to the wall, because a baby who can pull a drawer open will soon use it as a step. Try a glider with something baby-sized in your arms: armrests where your elbow falls while feeding, and a lock that holds it still while you stand up.

Nursery sets priced in dollars, gaveteros in colones:

that split is how nursery furniture is sold in Costa Rica. An everyday melamine or particleboard gavetero with three or four drawers is around ₡100,000 to ₡120,000 new, while the boutique nursery sets, a crib with its matching gavetero cambiador, are quoted in dollars and run from about $900 to well past $1,500. Used, the gavetero holds its value best because it is still a useful piece of furniture once the topper comes off. A matched set loses most when it is broken up: crib and gavetero together are worth more than the two sold apart, and a lone gavetero in an unusual grey is hard to place. Upholstered gliders drop fastest: milk stains and a flattened cushion show from across the room.

Pull every drawer out of a used gavetero:

and look at the bottom panel, because thin hardboard bottoms sag and slip out of their groove after a few years of carrying clothes. Check that the changing topper still has its screws and that the holes in the top of the gavetero have not been torn wider. Ask whether the anti-tip strap is still in a drawer. On a ropero, a door that drops at the handle has a loose hinge. Rock a glider hard and turn it all the way round, listening for a click in the base, lift the cushion to look for split foam, and smell the fabric near the arms, where milk lands.

Photos of a gavetero with the topper on and off:

show both if you have already removed it, and say whether the topper is fixed or comes away. Give the outside dimensions, because buyers measure the wall beside the crib before they write. Name the finish exactly as it was sold and list what the set includes. For a glider, say whether it rocks, glides or swivels and whether the cushions unzip. A buyer from Belén who already has the crib wants to know above all whether your white matches theirs, so take the photos in daylight beside something plain white.