Thursday, April 12, 2012

What's the Opposite of Minimalist?

We live in a smaller home than we used to. We brought Sweetheart and Little Bit home from the hospital to our old home. The bigger one. I was happy when we down-sized. Really, I was.

But....now that we are adding a new, teeny-tiny person to our family, well.....

WE'RE BEING OVERRUN WITH STUFF!

I was very determined to keep it simple. My registry was short and sweet (I thought). There were only 30 something items on my registry and a lot of those were little things like baby shampoo and powder and diaper ointment and bibs. Little stuff. Really...I wasn't extravagant.

But then I had a baby shower. Cool! Things we needed! And then the ladies at church also threw me a baby shower. OK. We go to a really small church. Like, 30-40 people! I wasn't expecting many gifts from the church shower. Well.

My living room is FULL of baby items today. I feel so blessed! Seriously, all our big items were given to us and we won't be having to spend money on those things. VERY blessed!!

Now.

What do I DO with all of it???

See, at our old house, I had a little kitchen cabinet by the back door that was separate from all the other kitchen cabinets. That was the "baby cabinet." Now I have sippy cups and baby bowls sitting on my counter and no idea where to put them. I had places for all the baby items at our old house. Here? I have no plan.

Our dining room table fits 4 little chairs around it just perfectly. now we have to add a chair for the high chair to sit in.

Gotta clean out the trunk of the car to fit the stroller.

Gotta squeeze the kidlets in the car in order for a car sear to fit in there.

Gotta find a place to hang or set a diaper bag.

Where will I put the boppy? The bouncy chair? Our living room is tight.

OK. I know not all of that is NECESSARY. I read the minimalist parent lists and I know from experience that I am not going to operate on THAT sparse of a list. But really, I know space is tight and I was trying to keep it simple.

Looking at my living room right now, you'd never know it.

So...now it becomes even MORE IMPORTANT to declutter and keep mess out of this house. Keeping things picked up and put away is vital now. I need to be thinking: Little House on the Prairie simple. (But with A/C)

I know some of you are laughing at me. ONLY 3 kids and she's freaking out about fitting everyone? Puhleeze. What an amateur.

It's true. But hopefully by the end of today I will have found a new home for all this stuff.

And then I'll go spend those gift cards we got. Hee hee.

6 comments:

  1. i love the thought of little house on the prairie simple :) I have often thought that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. the beautiful thing about a lil' baby is that people expect your house to be over-run... no matter the size. right? that's what i choose to think. ;) sadly, we know all too well how quickly they grow out of the baby stage. *sigh* and your house will, once again, be back to normal. although, normal will probably have a different definition. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, then you get overrun with dolls right?

    ReplyDelete
  4. You'll do fine! You might be cramped, but you'll find a way and things will work out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tell me about stuff. I wish I could downsize.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My friend found the coolest highchair at IKEA. It is small, folds up small to put away, and has adorable washable fabric! It fits at the table perfect, and you use the table as the surface instead of a tray! Yes, Baby stuff takes up so much room! We have minimal stuff for our foster baby and I still feel so over-run but the stuff....bouncy chair, swing, bumbo....I keep stuff when not in use in the garage.

    ReplyDelete

I don't get to talk to a lot of actual grown-ups during the day, so your comments make me really happy! :)