After buying a crib, the most important purchase you’ll need to make for the nursery is the baby bedding. If you’re looking for a special kind of crib, try shopping online. You may find that the crib set you like is completely different from the one your husband chooses. Also keep your budget in mind while you’re shopping. Bedding sets can get very expensive, so try not to fall in love with crib bedding you can’t afford. So before you start your search, try to have an idea of the theme and price range you’re looking for.

Thinking about the future can help you save a lot of money in the long run. If you’re having a girl, you might have decided on a crib set for girls, feminine to the max, like a Maya 4 piece crib set. But you might have a boy next – and a feminine bedding set would look pretty weird in his nursery. When you think about the cost of a baby bedding set, unless you have a big budget, it’s much smarter to pick a gender neutral bedding set that you can use again and again. Bedding sets can get as expensive as you’re willing to spend, so plan a budget ahead of time and stick to it no matter what. Your baby is going to treat her bedding the same no matter how much it costs, so why exactly are you spending that extra money?

Department stores, or even specialty baby stores, are limited by the amount of floor space they have, and can almost never offer the selection that an online store can. For example, while a web store may have 20, 30 or even more brands to choose from, most offline stores carry only a couple of brands. Some only have one. And you’re not paying more when you shop online, either. Online retailers can almost always sell for less than a physical location can (lower overhead).

Buying bedding online does comes with some drawbacks, though. The most obvious one is that you can’t pick up or feel anything. So when an online retailer tells you that a bedding set is cuddly, you have no way to verify it. While photographs can show many details of the bedding, they simply can’t replace holding it in your hands. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the massive product selection online, so be sure to plan out what you want ahead of time and stick to your budget!