We have been extremely blessed with the coming of our new little boy, due at the end of July. God has answered our prayers and helped to heal our wounded hearts (I had a miscarriage about a year and a half ago).
We have been blessed by many loving friends who have given us everything we need to welcome this little one into our family. We had kept a few larger items and are constantly being blessed by the generosity of others.
As I was looking for a place to put some new items for baby a sudden panic hit me. Where are we going to put the baby??
Our house is under current renovations but we are not in a position to rush and complete the work before our little one arrives. We have plenty to work with if we are creative. We have two bedrooms, a playroom, office, family room, kitchen, bathroom and front hall. I'm trying not to put anything in the half that is being worked on as we also run our family business there too. For storage there is a linen closet, one cupboard in the large bedroom, some space above the hall and shelves in the hallway.
Here are the bedrooms currently, mess and all. In one room is a queen bed, two dressers and lots of baby stuff piling up. The larger one has bunk beds, a single bed, two bookcases and a dresser. Time for some musical rooms, creative organizing/storage and another purge!!!
Now every family is different and that is totally okay. I don't expect everyone to agree with our sleeping arrangements as it is a very personal choice. So I encourage you to go with what works best for your particular family and not worry about what others have chosen. For us we have found that everyone in the house sleeps better (for the most part) when there is an adult with the kids. Some nights just until they fall asleep but we have the option of sleeping in their room too. MJ shared a bed with me for years and often does if he's having a rough night. We plan to have baby and I share a room and daddy will be with the boys as he currently is. Once baby arrives we'll get to see what kind of sleeper he is and may rearrange the beds again.
After doing some searches on Pintrest, I came across the idea of a family wardrobe. Everyone's clothes all in one spot. Totally ingenious!!! I enthusiastically presented the idea to my husband and suggested getting rid of all the dressers and..... he was slightly hesitant. He liked the concept but couldn't visualize how that would work in our particular house. We had a very good discussion about clothes, sleeping arrangements, minimalism, our expectations and more. It was very helpful and in the end we came up with an idea we both felt good about.
So the plan... move the boys clothes to a new spot and use more vertical space, then sell their dresser. Move the boys' bookcases to the playroom and fix that up as a special play room for the two older boys. The smaller bedroom will just be for sleeping with the bunk beds and a single bed. The larger bedroom will have the queen bed and baby. We'll keep our two dressers but make better use of the cupboard so that baby clothes can also fit into this room.
The next morning I woke up early (this awesome plan was on my mind) and I made space in the hall shelves for the boy's clothes. Then I moved all their clothes to the new space, purging as I went. They each have one shelf for pants, one for tops, a bin for socks & undies and their off season clothes are in a bin at the top. I still haven't organized the rest of the hall as you can see. Half the dress-up clothes are in the playroom and some are in the photo. After breakfast I couldn't wait to show the boys their new wardrobe location. MJ didn't really care but TJ was very upset. The change was big and I hadn't explained the whole plan. I totally know this about him so I took the time to reassure him, listen to his concerns and explain the whole plan to him. Well then he was totally on board and wanted to know when all the rooms were going to change. I did explain that it would all take time so sometime that week. It all depended on if I could get the time (the boys not fighting but helping etc.)... TJ got right to work. He was so excited about changing rooms that we all got on board and spent the morning moving furniture.
We never imagined fitting the three beds into one room, but when you take out the unnecessary and get creative, it all fits well. Everyone has a special shelf for pictures and nicknacks. The beds are in the room and the PJ's are in the night table. Under the bunk beds are the boys tool boxes and a special robot that TJ made. Under the single bed are the boy's toy strollers (we decided to keep those until our winter purge), and some smaller suitcases. Everyone approves and loves the new space!!
The larger bedroom looks so huge. We have two dressers, the bed (this looks rather small in this space), a bassinet, and a box of baby blankets and stuff. As I settled into the new space I decided to go through all my maternity clothes and remove anything I never really wore. I have a bag of clothes to sell. Some clothes ended up in the closet and I now have an empty dresser drawer for baby gear. Then I went through all my normal clothes, this includes all seasons and variable sizes. Again I chose to keep items that I know I wear often and love. Everything fit into one large plastic tub that we put above the hall until the weather changes. I'm still setting up the baby clothes but those will all fit nicely in the cupboard with bins for the next sizes up within reach. We even had room to store some other items for the house on the top shelf!!
It feels so good to be a little more prepared. Now we aren't rushed to get extra rooms in the house done because we all fit comfortable in the space we are using. We have a tone of items and furniture to donate/sell too. 2 bags of cloths, 1 bag of cloth diapers, 1 bag of towels etc, 1 box of random items, 2 dressers all not needed.
Our next plan is to figure out the playroom. We moved the boys' bookcases full of toys and special items into that space. It'll be a joint project to figure out how to arrange it and make it work. The family room has a few shelves for toys, but will transition more to baby things down the road. After the playroom I'll be working on the hall shelves.
So do share, what areas of you home or life have you simplified recently??
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We have been blessed by many loving friends who have given us everything we need to welcome this little one into our family. We had kept a few larger items and are constantly being blessed by the generosity of others.
As I was looking for a place to put some new items for baby a sudden panic hit me. Where are we going to put the baby??
Our house is under current renovations but we are not in a position to rush and complete the work before our little one arrives. We have plenty to work with if we are creative. We have two bedrooms, a playroom, office, family room, kitchen, bathroom and front hall. I'm trying not to put anything in the half that is being worked on as we also run our family business there too. For storage there is a linen closet, one cupboard in the large bedroom, some space above the hall and shelves in the hallway.
Here are the bedrooms currently, mess and all. In one room is a queen bed, two dressers and lots of baby stuff piling up. The larger one has bunk beds, a single bed, two bookcases and a dresser. Time for some musical rooms, creative organizing/storage and another purge!!!
Now every family is different and that is totally okay. I don't expect everyone to agree with our sleeping arrangements as it is a very personal choice. So I encourage you to go with what works best for your particular family and not worry about what others have chosen. For us we have found that everyone in the house sleeps better (for the most part) when there is an adult with the kids. Some nights just until they fall asleep but we have the option of sleeping in their room too. MJ shared a bed with me for years and often does if he's having a rough night. We plan to have baby and I share a room and daddy will be with the boys as he currently is. Once baby arrives we'll get to see what kind of sleeper he is and may rearrange the beds again.
After doing some searches on Pintrest, I came across the idea of a family wardrobe. Everyone's clothes all in one spot. Totally ingenious!!! I enthusiastically presented the idea to my husband and suggested getting rid of all the dressers and..... he was slightly hesitant. He liked the concept but couldn't visualize how that would work in our particular house. We had a very good discussion about clothes, sleeping arrangements, minimalism, our expectations and more. It was very helpful and in the end we came up with an idea we both felt good about.
So the plan... move the boys clothes to a new spot and use more vertical space, then sell their dresser. Move the boys' bookcases to the playroom and fix that up as a special play room for the two older boys. The smaller bedroom will just be for sleeping with the bunk beds and a single bed. The larger bedroom will have the queen bed and baby. We'll keep our two dressers but make better use of the cupboard so that baby clothes can also fit into this room.
 |
| Boys clothes vertically in the hall (dress-up clothes beside it) |
The next morning I woke up early (this awesome plan was on my mind) and I made space in the hall shelves for the boy's clothes. Then I moved all their clothes to the new space, purging as I went. They each have one shelf for pants, one for tops, a bin for socks & undies and their off season clothes are in a bin at the top. I still haven't organized the rest of the hall as you can see. Half the dress-up clothes are in the playroom and some are in the photo. After breakfast I couldn't wait to show the boys their new wardrobe location. MJ didn't really care but TJ was very upset. The change was big and I hadn't explained the whole plan. I totally know this about him so I took the time to reassure him, listen to his concerns and explain the whole plan to him. Well then he was totally on board and wanted to know when all the rooms were going to change. I did explain that it would all take time so sometime that week. It all depended on if I could get the time (the boys not fighting but helping etc.)... TJ got right to work. He was so excited about changing rooms that we all got on board and spent the morning moving furniture.
We never imagined fitting the three beds into one room, but when you take out the unnecessary and get creative, it all fits well. Everyone has a special shelf for pictures and nicknacks. The beds are in the room and the PJ's are in the night table. Under the bunk beds are the boys tool boxes and a special robot that TJ made. Under the single bed are the boy's toy strollers (we decided to keep those until our winter purge), and some smaller suitcases. Everyone approves and loves the new space!!
The larger bedroom looks so huge. We have two dressers, the bed (this looks rather small in this space), a bassinet, and a box of baby blankets and stuff. As I settled into the new space I decided to go through all my maternity clothes and remove anything I never really wore. I have a bag of clothes to sell. Some clothes ended up in the closet and I now have an empty dresser drawer for baby gear. Then I went through all my normal clothes, this includes all seasons and variable sizes. Again I chose to keep items that I know I wear often and love. Everything fit into one large plastic tub that we put above the hall until the weather changes. I'm still setting up the baby clothes but those will all fit nicely in the cupboard with bins for the next sizes up within reach. We even had room to store some other items for the house on the top shelf!!
 |
| Please ignore the mess, we have a few things to put away. |
It feels so good to be a little more prepared. Now we aren't rushed to get extra rooms in the house done because we all fit comfortable in the space we are using. We have a tone of items and furniture to donate/sell too. 2 bags of cloths, 1 bag of cloth diapers, 1 bag of towels etc, 1 box of random items, 2 dressers all not needed.
Our next plan is to figure out the playroom. We moved the boys' bookcases full of toys and special items into that space. It'll be a joint project to figure out how to arrange it and make it work. The family room has a few shelves for toys, but will transition more to baby things down the road. After the playroom I'll be working on the hall shelves.
So do share, what areas of you home or life have you simplified recently??
This post is linked to:
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