What does the saying 'don't throw the baby out with the bathwater' mean?

Answer 1

when you start making those people redundant make sure you keep the best - don't throw the baby our with the bathwater.

We use this expression when we want to keep the valuable things when we get rid of the things we don't want. It is usually used in the negative to mean that we don't want to throw out the good stuff when we throw out the bad stuff.

This expression has the extended meaning of causing a project to achieve the opposite of its intent by focusing too closely on inflexible procedure and regulation. For example, if the safeguards against election fraud prevent some legitimate voters from casting their vote, then we have "thrown the baby out with the bathwater."

Example dialogue:

Two friends are talking about making changes to a personal website.

A: I'm going to make some changes to my website soon.

B: Oh really? What kind of changes? You're still going to keep the old pages, aren't you?

A: Yes, of course. The old pages will still be on the site.

B: Oh, good. I don't want you to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This originated back when everybody in the house had to take a bath out of the same water, the oldest would start first. Resulting in the baby to be the last one to take a bath...The water would be so dirty that they would say "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water"
It just means be careful. You wouldn't throw your baby out with the bathwater would you? NO. The baby signifies something of great importance. The bathwater signifies the less important subject in the matter. When you have a good thing going, don't ruin it, think twice before you throw it all away.