tottoteenvillage.com Blog

We know that choosing the right furniture for your nursery can seem like a daunting task.  With a seemingly endless selection of cribs, dressers, changing tables, and chests, all in an assortment of colors, many people just don’t know where to start, become overwhelmed, and then frustrated.  In order to ease these frustrations, we recommend taking four major factors (color, timing, versatility, and adjustability) into consideration when it comes to purchasing your nursery.

Most people find it easiest to start with color. By knowing the color of the furniture you want, you can usually narrow down your furniture selections greatly.  Look for a color that compliments the walls and the floor of the nursery.

Timing is another important factor of your furniture selection.  Many furniture items will likely need to be ordered, so plan ahead to visit your retailer several months before your due date to ensure your furniture will arrive before then.  Most ordered items take about 8 weeks to arrive at the store.  Sometimes it can even take significantly longer, so remember, the more time the better.

Also important to your selection is versatility.  Almost all cribs are convertible now days, meaning that they can be turned from a crib into a toddler/day bed, and then into a full-size bed.  So ask yourself, “Do I want the furniture to grow with my child, or maybe use the same furniture again when I have a second child?”  If you have a smaller room, consider finding a crib that converts to a twin-size bed, or has built-in drawers for extra storage.  Also keep in mind that for all cribs, the adult bed conversion kits are sold separately and tend to range in price from $100-$200.  Instead of using changing tables, many parents are now mounting changing pads to the tops of dressers.  Although more expensive at first, it save money in the long-run because you will not have needed to buy a changing table.

Adjustability is the last major factor in crib selection.  Most cribs will allow you to change the height of your mattress, which you will want to do once your baby starts to sit up.  Most cribs will have 2-4 different mattress height settings.  You will want to examine the settings to make sure they are relatively easy to change, but not so easy that a child could do so.

Of course, there are other factors to look for, such as what type of wood the furniture is constructed with, but the general rule of thumb here is that you pay for what you get.

As always, we recommend visiting your local NINFRA (National Independent Nursery Furniture Retailers Association) retailer and allowing them to answer any questions to help you determine what will be best for your family.

At the Tot to Teen Village, I constantly speak to people who are looking for the “perfect” stroller.  One stroller that will satisfy all of their needs.  They talk about how they have searched for weeks all over the internet and local businesses, hunting for a stroller that will fold up extremely small, carry a car-seat, be able to jog with, is very lightweight, ect. The thing is, they are never able to find their ideal perfect stroller. That’s because it simply doesn’t exist.

You see, in order for a stroller to specialize in one area, it must sacrifice form or performance in another area.  For example, if you want to be able to jog with a stroller, you are going to want a nice solid frame, but that results in adding more weight to the stroller.  Maybe it has something to do with human nature, and never being satisfied, always wanting better, more efficient products.  Take at look at the strollers now days, compared to those of 10 and 20 years ago.  There are plenty of strollers around now, that people would have loved to have in the past.  Strollers are significantly lighter, and fold much more smaller and easier than even 5 years ago, but as consumers, we always want better.

So the truth is, there is no perfect stroller.  One that will fit all of your needs.  However, we do realize how expensive a good stroller can be, and we understand why you don’t want to buy more than one stroller.  Regardless, most people still end up with at least 2 or 3 strollers.

In order to minimize the damage on your wallet, I usually recommend to my customers that they ask themselves, “What types of things do you like to do with your family?” For example, “Do you spend a lot of time outside?  Or, do you spend lots of time indoors at places like a mall?” Followed by something like, “Do you like to jog, or casually stroll around the neighborhood?” Asking yourself these types of questions should allow you to visualize yourself in different scenarios, allowing you to determine what types of activities you will mainly be doing with your stroller.  Once you have decided what types of strollers you will need, then you can go to your local dealer and see which ones they suggest for you.

Recap:

• There is no perfect stroller.
• Plan on buying 2 strollers at the least.
• Determine what activities you like to do most.
• Visit your local retailer for expert knowledge and advice.

For our first real post, I felt it was only fitting to write about the man who made our store what it is today, Robert V. Penning.

Robert Penning, who retired from the store in 1994, passed away in his sleep back in December 2010. Therefore, we feel it is only fitting that we celebrate both his life and legacy by making our first post about him.

Robert V. Penning

The Tot to Teen Village started with Robert’s father William, who started the business by refurbishing baby strollers and furniture, and creating mattresses to help get through the Great Depression.

After his service in the military in Europe during WWII, Robert began to work for his father, and eventually took the business over. It was at that time that Robert started focusing on the sale of furniture, clothing, and toys for children.

Robert had a good sense of the importance of “location.” The original store was on the North side of Kalamazoo, and Robert also opened up a second store on Portage St.  In the 1960′s, and realizing that the area of Portage was up-and-coming, Robert consolidated his two stores, and opened the Tot to Teen Village, at our current location today.

When Robert wasn’t working in the store, he was off traveling the world. He loved to travel and experience the world’s different cultures, architecture, and mysteries. Throughout his travels, Robert made it to all SEVEN continents, even Antarctica.

Although Robert was away from the store often due to his travels, he trusted the people who worked for him, and they trusted him back. He treated both his employees and customers fair, and has been the “keystone” of the business ever since.

He is greatly missed, but reminders of him are located all throughout the store.

Hey everyone,

We just launched our new site today, and we have included a link to this blog on there. Although we haven’t posted anything yet, we will be using our blog as a way to communicate with our customers and followers.

We will be using this blog to help people make decisions about what products they should buy for their families. By following this blog, you will be hearing information from experts in the juvenile products industry, rather than reading reviews from people who usually don’t fully understand the products that they are referring to.

Stay tuned in with us for helpful information.