Monday 10 June 2013

General yapping about stuff

I feel like we are drowning in stuff. Having a kid is not helping in this, on the contrary it has brought up the horrible feel that we cannot fit the kid's stuff anywhere or yet alone fit the kid anywhere.


There are certain items children need, actually there aren't that many things, but some of them are big, like for instance the crib and the strollers. The maternity package also contained huge amount of stuff that I know will be useful, but it also seems quite excessive to suddenly have huge box of stuff that no one has thought where it will be stored. Also I have been making lots of things for the kid, mostly I've made all of the things from materials we used to already have. So in theory we have not got more stuff from what I've made, but previously all my material was not lying on the office floor so it just seemed that it was more in control.

It's still almost three months before the kid is supposed to be born. It seems really difficult to store the kid's stuff for that time. Usually when I get something I'd like to put it in place immediately, but now it seems so useless to put everything in place, because that means that some of our own stuff will need to move and there really is no point staging our home like it already has a kid. But also there is no point postponing of getting all the stuff. I like to be prepared and not have to buy all things in a hurry in last minute. So I have tried to find temporary storage places for the kid's stuff.

What makes this most ridiculous is that for people of two or even three our apartment is supposed to be BIG. I mean we have almost 100 square meters (1070 square feet), many people live in a lot smaller apartments. A lot. Only explanation is that we have too much stuff, since nothing fits anywhere and everything is so darn difficult to put in place. That also means that it is difficult to find places for the kids stuff, temporary or permanent place.

On last Monday Christina posted about radical decluttering of her clothes. She got rid of about 75 % of her clothes. I feel like we should do something equally radical, but to all our stuff. I know that is not very realistic, but something needs to be done. The kid we are having is not going to be with us just temporarily, s/he will need more and more space when s/he grows up. This is quite obvious but I think I only just realized this. I'm not sure if A has realized this yet.

I hope to have some serious purging, decluttering and simplifying done on the summer.

11 comments:

  1. if you get your nursery set out now you will have a better idea of how much you can keep/need to give away. 3 months will fly by, and you may get tired and not want to work on it later on. 3 months is so soon! so excited for you!

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    1. You might be right, I just thought I want to avoid having all stuff dusting on their place for the three months. Also because we actually don't have any nursery, just a corner in the bedroom, I thought it would be easier to have them off the way, but maybe that is not working.

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  2. I think you should start purging asap, you might not be physically able to do it during the last weeks (stomach is in the way) or maybe you will be to tired. And after the baby has been born, who knows what kind of circus you will have going on, maybe you can't get any sleep and you will be sleepwalking 24/7. Just the worst case scenario :D Good luck with the project!

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    1. Crap... I know you are right. I've known this all along, but only now I truly understood it. We have been talking about this issue with A, but so far nothing has been actually done.

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  3. Aww, that's exactly how I felt a few months ago (even though we have no kid on the way). My wardrobe was just the beginning, we're doing our entire house too.

    It does seem overwhelming at first, have you thought about just tackling one room at a time? Or maybe starting with a certain type of item, like dishes or clothes and then just working your way through the house?

    (And thanks for the link!) :)

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    1. Just thought of another thing...Have you heard of a "Packing Party?" http://www.theminimalists.com/21days/day3/ That might be the quickest and easiest way for you. Maybe you could just do one room at a time instead of the whole house?

      If nothing else, reading the post is inspirational.

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    2. The thing is that it is not actually overwhelming, only exception is the crafts supplies for me, I think I'm awfully good at simplifiyng and purging. But I feel like I have purged and purged and I'm doing all I can to keep stuff in control and while I do that A does not get onboard at all. Perhaps he is not as impossible as he was before and I cannot blame him on all the stuff and maybe I'm just hormonal but I'm getting a very discouraged by his stuff... I'm running out of ideas.

      The packing party is inspirational! I would love that, but a certain someone would most likely hate a idea.

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  4. Is your problem a space issue--or an organizational issue? I'm wondering if you may need to organize what you have better--rather than get rid of it--perhaps that will help? For example, my kitchen, in terms of square feet, is quite large--but it is so poorly laid out and badly designed that it just can't hold a lot of stuff. Perhaps you need better storage and organization, rather than less stuff? (But, of course, if there is stuff you need to get rid of, do that!)

    Three months is nothing. You need to set up that corner now and get things organized. Anything can happen and you will feel better knowing you are prepared. At least the baby stuff will have a home....

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    1. I think the root of the problem varies depending on the type of stuff. For instance our kitchen cabinets are really full and we have lot of space in our kitchen and most things are even well organized, we just have so much stuff that we do not use. Exercise equipment on the other hand is very poorly organized and we are lacking a good space to keep them, so there we could use a better design of storage. This I think also applies to my crafts stuff. I have quite a lot of those but I have tried to fit them in such a tiny area that it is really not working.

      I have one grand pland about storage, but it's so big thing that I do not know when and how we can incorporate that.

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  5. Oh I can so relate. We just had a baby shower over the weekend and everything is just sitting in our dining area. And to your point, some of these things are huge and take up SO much space.
    And never mind the things I'm setting up at my mom's (play yard, swing, high chair) for when she babysits.
    Oh, and we have 4-7 weeks to go...

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    1. We are especially in trouble with the prams. No clue where we keep those.

      I guess you could use some simplifying too... and also your mom :)
      I have not even thought about the play areas or high chairs yet, but I do not think we need them that soon.

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