In November, only two months after our engagement, Lilac Dude’s grandmother sadly passed away. When it came time to start cleaning out her house all of the family decided that they would rather give Lilac Dude and I everything we needed to start a home than sell it to strangers.

Hand-me-down furniture is great. We’ll start off with a couch, chairs, a kitchen table, a counter top convection oven and pretty much all of the “big things” for a new home together. Even though these items are used, they’re a huge blessing to have because they are all pretty expensive to purchase just after getting married. When we were going through things I realized that some of things you just need to get new, which alleviated my registry worries a little because I had been watching the list of things we need shrink, which isn’t bad but I did want our guests to have a selection of different things on the registry.

Here are a few things I’ve decided we will register for new and why:

1. Blender – my parents still have and use the one that they got as a wedding present 27 years ago. They are a lasting appliance that we will probably never have to replace.

2. Toaster – To be honest, I don’t feel like cleaning someone’s old crumbs out of my “new” toaster. Plus this will be sitting on our counter for the next several years, I think I want to pick it out myself.

3. Towels – We both have “college towels” that over the last 3 years have taken a beating.

4. Bed sheets – I’m not really sure that this one needs an explanation.

Obviously we’ll be registering for more than just those 4 things. And we know where we want to register, but we don’t exactly know when we should do it. With 400 days until our wedding, we think it’s just a little too early.

What else should couples get new? And when do you recommend Lilac Dude and I build our registry?