Your kids outgrew their crib, stroller, and car seat. Now that gear just sits in your garage or closet.
The good news is that you can make money renting out baby gear to traveling families.
Parents who travel hate hauling bulky baby gear through airports. So they rent what they need once they arrive. You can be the local parent who provides it.
Below, I’ll show you how baby gear rentals work, what you can realistically earn, and where to find customers.
Table of Contents
Can You Really Make Money Renting Out Baby Gear?
Yes, but how much you earn depends largely on where you live and how much gear you have available to rent.
BabyQuip says providers who receive orders earn more than $1,000 a month on average. Some top providers in busy tourist markets reportedly earn $10,000+ a month.
Real-world results vary quite a bit, though.
For example, one provider near Tampa reported getting about two rentals a month and earning a few hundred dollars while spending less than 12 hours on deliveries and pickups.
Your starting costs matter too. If you already own the gear, your profit starts strong. If you buy new, it takes longer to break even. A crib runs $100 to $200 and rents for roughly $15 to $20 a night, so it pays for itself after several bookings.
The biggest factors that affect your earnings are:
- Where you live
- How much gear you list
You can increase your earning potential by:
- Living near a tourist destination or popular travel area
- Listing high-demand items like cribs, strollers, and car seats
- Expanding your inventory over time
- Building positive reviews
- Being available during busy travel seasons
The Federal Trade Commission’s report on the sharing economy found that income in peer-to-peer rental markets varies widely based on local demand and asset availability, which lines up exactly with what baby gear renters report.
The bottom line is that earning a few hundred dollars a month is realistic in many markets. Reaching $1,000 or more usually requires strong demand, more inventory, or both.
Baby gear is one of the easier things to start with, but it’s not the only option. If you’ve got other stuff gathering dust, here’s my full list of things you can rent out for money.
Where Can You Make the Most Money Renting Baby Gear?
Location is the biggest factor in how much you can earn renting out baby gear.
The best markets are places where families travel frequently and need baby equipment after they arrive.
Some of the strongest markets include:
- Theme park destinations like Orlando and Anaheim
- Cruise port cities like Miami
- Tourist hotspots like Las Vegas and Nashville
- Beach and lake towns with lots of vacation rentals
- Ski resort areas that attract families during the winter
Why do these places perform so well?
Many families fly to these destinations and prefer renting a crib, stroller, high chair, or car seat instead of hauling bulky gear through airports.
If you live in or near a popular travel destination, you may see steady demand throughout the year.
If you live in an area with few visitors, rentals can be much less frequent, even if you have high-quality gear.
How Renting Out Baby Gear Works
Renting out baby gear is pretty straightforward.
Here’s how the process typically works:
- Sign up and get approved. Apply with a baby gear rental platform. Most require a background check and a short training before you can start accepting bookings.
- List your gear. Add photos, descriptions, and pricing for the items you want to rent out.
- Set your service area. Choose how far you’re willing to travel and set your delivery fees.
- Accept bookings. When a family places an order, you’ll receive the rental details and arrange delivery.
- Clean, deliver, and set up. Sanitize the gear, deliver it, and set up larger items like cribs. For safety reasons, most platforms don’t allow providers to install car seats.
- Get paid. After the rental is completed, you’ll receive payment through direct deposit. Then you’ll pick up the gear, clean it, and prepare it for the next rental.
Best Baby Gear Rental Platforms to Earn With
You have a couple of legit options.
Here is how they stack up:
BabyQuip
This is the one I would start with.
BabyQuip is the biggest player in the baby gear rental space. It operates in over 5,000 cities nationwide and is the exclusive baby equipment partner for Vrbo, so it pushes real bookings your way.
Here is what matters most:
- You keep 78%. That is on rentals and delivery fees, plus 100% of your tips.
- Startup fee is $200. It covers your booking website, business email, and training.
- Insurance is included. Covered rentals get up to $1 million in liability coverage.
Note: sometime they do wave the set up fee in select markets. For example at the time of writing this post there is no set up fee for providers in Estes Park, CO, Big Sky, MT, West Yellowstone, MT, Telluride, CO and Taos, NM.
Payouts are fast, too. You get paid up front, often before you deliver, and the money reaches your bank in about two business days.
Traveling Baby Company
This is a great alternative for people who live in places where BabyQuip is the biggest name.
Traveling Baby Company is a smaller national network that has run since 2004. It rents gear in dozens of markets, including plenty of tourist cities.
You join as a local affiliate.
One of the biggest downsides is that the company does not post its pay terms online. You have to reach out by phone or email to get the details and check if they cover your area.
Still, if BabyQuip is saturated where you live, this is a great option.
Boost Earnings With BabyQuip Cleaning Gigs
Want a second income stream? BabyQuip also runs a cleaning service.
You deep clean and sanitize baby gear for busy parents, and the company says cleaners earn $25 to $50 an hour. It runs on the same Quality Provider setup, so you can do cleaning, rentals, or both under one account.
It pairs well with renting, since you are already sanitizing gear between bookings anyway.
Keep in mind that you will need a few tools to start, like a handheld steamer, a wet/dry vacuum, and baby-safe cleaning products, which I’d assume if you have a baby, you’ probably have this stuff anyway.
Best Baby Gear to Rent Out for Steady Income
Some baby gear gets requested far more often than other items.
The best products to rent are usually the ones that are bulky, expensive to buy, or difficult for traveling families to pack.
Here are the most popular baby gear that get rented often:
- Full-size cribs: Heavy and impossible to fly with, so demand stays high.
- Travel cribs and pack-and-plays: A top pick for short trips and on-the-go naps.
- Strollers: Nearly every traveling family needs one.
- Wagon strollers: Hugely popular at theme parks like Disney.
- Car seats and boosters: Required by law for car and rideshare travel.
- High chairs: Small, easy to deliver, and used at every meal.
For most baby gear rental businesses, cribs, car seats, and strollers are the core money-makers. Smaller items like high chairs, baby baths, and toys can help increase each order value without taking up much storage space.
And if your kids have clothes they’ve outgrown sitting in those same bins, you can sell baby clothes for extra cash while you’re clearing out the garage.
What Baby Gear You Can’t Rent Out
Not every item sitting in your garage is safe or legal to rent.
Baby gear rental platforms take safety seriously, and certain items are off-limits.
Do not list:
- Expired car seats
- Car seats that have been in a crash
- Recalled baby gear.
- Damaged or heavily worn items.
Before listing anything, check the product for recalls. You can search any product for free on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall page.
A quick check protects the families renting your gear and reduces your own liability.
Gear that flunks the safety check isn’t worthless, though. You can still sell it to make some money, just be upfront with the buyer about its age and condition.
Watch out for older cribs and pack-and-plays
Most parents know car seats expire. Far fewer know that cribs and pack-and-plays have safety cutoff dates too.
Two big ones to watch:
- Drop-side cribs. Federally banned in June 2011, including resale and rental. If the side rail slides up and down, you can’t rent it.
- Older pack-and-plays. The first federal play yard standard took effect in late February 2013. Units made before that date no longer meet safety rules.
So, before creating a listing, do this:
Flip the item over and find the manufacturer label. It usually sits on the bottom rail, the mattress support, or a leg, and it shows the manufacture date.
If a crib or pack-and-play came from an older sibling or a secondhand sale over a decade ago, skip it, even if it looks brand new. BabyQuip can shut down your account fast for listing banned gear.
Insider Tips Most New Baby Gear Renters Miss
A few small decisions can make a big difference in how much you earn. Many beginners focus only on buying more gear, but the smarter move is making each rental easier and more profitable.
Choose wipe-clean gear whenever possible
Cleaning time eats straight into your profit.
The worst offenders are fabric high chair covers and strollers with light cloth canvas. One messy rental can leave you scrubbing crushed crackers and leaked juice for the better part of an hour.
So lean toward smooth, non-porous gear you can wipe down in minutes.
If your high chair has a cloth seat cover, pull the fabric off and rent it as a plastic-only shell. And if you are buying gear specifically to rent, choose wipeable materials from the start.
This one habit can cut your cleaning time from close to an hour down to a few minutes per order, which means you can take on more bookings.
Add small extras to increase each order
Traveling parents do not just forget the big gear. They also forget the small disposable stuff that is a pain to track down in an unfamiliar town.
BabyQuip lets you sell add-ons like diapers, wipes, and groceries alongside your rentals. So buy a few items in bulk and offer them as $5 to $10 upsells:
- Single-use swim diapers
- Travel packs of baby wipes
- Baby food pouches or snacks
These cost you pennies and take up almost no space.
Stock the things parents always forget, and you turn a basic crib rental into a bigger payday without buying another large item.
Who should skip this
This side hustle is not right for everyone. You may want to pass if:
- You live far from any travel destination, since orders will be slow
- You do not own gear and do not want to spend money buying it
- You cannot store and haul bulky items like cribs
- You do not have a car for deliveries
- You do not want to clean and inspect gear after every rental
If most of those apply to you, your time is better spent on a different side gig.
If money’s tight and buying gear up front isn’t realistic right now, my money-saving tips for new parents are a better place to start.
Frequently asked questions
Is renting out baby gear worth it?
It is worth it if you live in or near a travel destination and already own gear, since your costs are low and demand is steady. In a quiet, low-tourism area, the orders may be too few to bother with.
How much do BabyQuip providers make?
BabyQuip says providers who get orders average over $1,000 a month, with top earners making much more. Real income depends heavily on your location and how much gear you list, so many part-timers earn a few hundred dollars a month instead.
Can I rent out used baby gear?
Yes, as long as it is clean, working, not recalled, and meets current safety standards. That rules out drop-side cribs, pack-and-plays made before 2013, and expired or crashed car seats.
Do I need insurance to rent out baby gear?
Not separately if you use a platform like BabyQuip, which includes up to $1 million in liability coverage on covered rentals. If you ever rent gear on your own, you would want your own policy.
Can you rent out a crib or car seat?
Yes, and both are among the most requested items. Cribs must meet current standards, so no drop-side models. Car seats must not be expired or crash-involved, and most platforms have you hand them over rather than install them.
do you pay taxes on baby gear rental income?
Yes. The IRS treats it as self-employment income since you work as an independent contractor, not an employee. So keep records of what you earn and spend, and review the rules on the IRS Gig Economy Tax Center.
How I Researched for This Guide
To write this guide, I reviewed the current 2026 sign-up pages, FAQs, and fee terms for BabyQuip and Traveling Baby Company to confirm both are active and that the numbers are accurate. I checked the safety and recall claims against the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the tax details against the IRS. I also left out platforms that have since shut down, such as goBaby, so you only see options you can actually use today.
The Bottom Line
Renting out your baby gear is a smart way to earn from items that would otherwise collect dust. Traveling families need cribs, strollers, and car seats, and they are happy to rent from a local parent instead of hauling their own.
BabyQuip is the strongest place to start, with the widest reach and built-in insurance. Traveling Baby Company is a good backup if your area is crowded, and gear cleaning can add a second stream of income.
That said, this gig is not for everyone. If you live far from a tourist area, do not own much gear, or cannot store and haul bulky cribs, your time is probably better spent on a different side hustle.
But if you live near a travel-heavy market like Orlando, Las Vegas, or a busy beach town, renting out baby gear can turn the stuff in your garage into steady monthly cash.
