Nesting anyone? « Back to Group Discussions

[skycheattraffic]

The nesting instinct kicked in for me a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be fun/motivating to list what we plan/need to do and what we've accomplished so far. I couldn't get much done at the time because everyone (almost 2 year old DD, DH, my mom, even MIL and FIL) was sick, mostly with a nasty stomach flu. This past week though DH was off work and my mom booked off vacation time. She watched DD while DHand I got into decluttering mode. I joined the "2013 in 2013" thread and went through a lot of our possessions in a ruthless way: if it wasn't a need or didn't have MAJOR sentimental value, it was donated/thrown out. Over four days we decluttered the kitchen, the dining room and the family room, letting go of over 270 items. We also let go of old furniture and yesterday I thoroughly vacuumed the family room and shampooed the carpet there. This afternoon DH and FIL are going to Ikea to pick up our new couch so we can put the family room back together. Right now the dining room is a disaster since everything from the family room is shoved in there but those items are coming back out after a thorough dusting/vacuuming .
As it stands, we have the living room and front hall left to declutter downstairs. DD's second birthday is at the end of the month and we are having lots of people over for a little party. This was a big motivation to straighten up downstairs but the upstairs (bedrooms and linen closet) can wait if we run out of time.

Anyways, that's my story so far. We do have the third bedroom set up and ready for baby; we did that when we moved DD to a big girl bed months ago. Anyone else feel the nesting bug yet? Anyone else have help to start doing something about it?

Cross posted in July DDC

[Edelweiss98]

I don't know if it's nesting but I feel like I want to do something for these babies so I already bought cloth diapers and am working on a blanket. I think I'm still too sick and tired to nest properly.

[Calladona]

I think I will feel ready to start thinking about these things after my big ultrasound...  Right now, I mainly just want to go through the baby clothes and get the ones we won't need ready to get rid of (but I won't get rid of them until after the baby is born)...  I dunno if it's nesting per se, but for the last year+ I've wanted to pare down our possessions.  I have a big pile in my basement that I'm ready to tag for a yard sale soon.  I just need to set a date and get to it.

[carmen358]

I totally want to start nesting but I'll have to wait until we're in the new house to start! Hopefully by June 1 at the latest. My first priorities are to get the garden planted, get DD's room ready and drag out the cloth diaper stash and baby clothes from storage.

Things we have to buy/borrow:

• Second carseat (may put baby in DD's convertible - she has been in it since birth - and get DD a new slimmer front facing seat)
• New sleep nest for the first few weeks (goes on our mattress for newborn days until I'm comfy with a baby in our bed again!)
• Baby socks :)
• Wrap for newborn days

[FarmerCathy]

I'm in the same boat as Carmen.  Waiting to get ready to pack and move.  I need to find DD a new dresser and move the baby clothes into hers.
 

[GISDiva]

I'm starting to get antsy about some of the little house projects, but I haven't been motivated to actually do anything about them. I should start making lists, that usually helps the "oh my god, I don't know what to do first" paralysis. Once we know sex, I'll either be visiting my friend and grabbing her girl clothes or starting the search for boy clothes. The very first thing we need to do is fix the drawers on the dresser/changing table thingie someone gave us so I can start filling it up. The particle board drawer bottoms got a little saggy over the years so I'd like to shore them up somehow. Any suggestions welcome.

[CrunchyMama19]

My kids are going away for over a week to visit their grandma and I intend to get some serious cleaning done, this place is a wreck! I hope to

-clean and organize the DDs room

-clean out our third bedroom that has a bunch of DH's crap in it.

-paint some canvases to hang on our bare walls.

-crochet

-find some cool tapestries to cover up the ugly paint in lieu of painting myself (I'd rather spend the money on the garden).

[CraftyMcGluestick]

Originally Posted by GISDiva 

I'm starting to get antsy about some of the little house projects, but I haven't been motivated to actually do anything about them. I should start making lists, that usually helps the "oh my god, I don't know what to do first" paralysis. Once we know sex, I'll either be visiting my friend and grabbing her girl clothes or starting the search for boy clothes. The very first thing we need to do is fix the drawers on the dresser/changing table thingie someone gave us so I can start filling it up. The particle board drawer bottoms got a little saggy over the years so I'd like to shore them up somehow. Any suggestions welcome.

We have the same problem with ours, but the drawers are so stubborn and DH, who is a good fixer-upper, has thrown the towel in on them. We're going to Craigslist ours and buy a new (or new to us) dresser with more storage for both kids and just put the changing pad on top of it, too. I've been shopping for them online.

DH's business is taking off, so he finally got Internet up there (it's a machine shop, so it wasn't essential as a start-up), so he's moving the office out of our house. I am going to set up the room with Montessori work and low table/chairs and playroom-type stuff and a nice, comfy nursing chair for me. I have also moved my sewing table into the closet and want to finish setting it up with labeled bins and shelves for total craft organization!

We've had a minor kitchen renovation (new countertops/backsplash) planned since December, but were waiting on my mom's major renovation to be done so we'd have a working kitchen between us. So looks like we'll be doing that later this month.

I've already started going through my diaper stash and deciding what to sell/give to my sister (she's having a boy in about 2 weeks; I'm having a girl). I had a minor (compared to some!) Goodmama diaper addiction in 2011 and I want to sell some of them to make room for...nothing. Air, I guess. I have *plenty* of diapers. I have also started going through all of DS's clothes to decide what to give to my sister, what to keep in case of another boy later (and sentimentality), and what to consign. I am also going to consign some maternity clothes that I just couldn't bring myself to wear last pregnancy or this one.

We are major clutter purgers, so even though we did one in November of general stuff, we'll probably do another round this spring. I am starting to wonder why I need ANY CDs anymore (the opposite of my mom who clings to all her VHS tapes, despite not having a VCR!).

I want to do some kind of special decor update for Baby, even though she'll sleep with us and even though the idea of "his room" is still just a farce for our 2.5 year old.

My list is long! But I've got 4.5 months or so, right?!

[LeighPF]

I am still/again trying to recover sickness, hen I need o put the doors back on my kitchen and give it a once over. The rear of the house needs. Little work too.
Then nesting

First. The nursery is full full full of clothes that don't currently fit that need to be sorted.
My dad comes in may to tear out te other half of the closet stuff (it was a master closet, with window, off the hall) and pull the carpet and replace it with laminate.
We need a dresser, plus 2 for the big kids and one for downstairs clothes in the playroom, so to ikea we go

Then quilt, decorations, embellish sheets and do curtains

And fill the drawers with tiny little clothes etc. love that part.

[somegirl99]

We have been in the process of redoing 3 bedrooms in the house (all but the master bedroom), they were the rooms with old carpet and I am really allergic to them.  DH finished one last month with hardwood and new paint, this is my new home office (I work from home about half of the time), we are now in the process of clearing out my old office so we can do the flooring there.  This one will be a spare bedroom and then the last one will be DS's room (he still sleeps in our room).   Part of what's taking a while is that I can only spend about 10 minutes in one of the carpeted rooms every other day, then my allergies kick into high gear.

After we finish the renovations we can get serious on our long-standing decluttering project, we have a lot of things to go through and sell, we've done a bit here and there but we want to get serious with it before August. 

Meanwhile I have been collecting some things I know we need for the new baby (mostly CD stuff plus a couple of slings) but once the bedrooms are done we'll be able to dig out the baby clothing collection and properly go through it.

We are much more motivated this time around to get things done as we now have a clue how little we will be able to accomplish for quite some time after baby arrives!

[skycheattraffic]

Originally Posted by somegirl99 

We are much more motivated this time around to get things done as we now have a clue how little we will be able to accomplish for quite some time after baby arrives!

That's one of my big motivators too! When DD was born, she wouldn't latch and I EPd for weeks before transitioning her to the breast. If I have nursing trouble with this baby, I will need a very streamlined house to keep up. If you haven't already, join the 2013 in 2013 decluttering thread in the mindful home section. It's a great motivator to track what you're letting go and see those odds and ends add up.

[Jillgayle]

Oh, I so want to get started on so many things, but i am still pretty tired and not much gets done after putting DS to bed. 

I really need to get down into storage and pull out the bins of clothes, and sort them.  I have lent out clothes to friends, but have not been very good at putting them back in any organized fashion.  Somehow I have over five huge bins to go through.  I think its kind of ridiculous and want to weed out anything that we never used for DS.  We wont find out what we are having until birth, so I can't get rid of too much just yet in case we have another boy.  

DS will be sharing his room with the new baby so i have to rearrange the dresser and the closet to accommodate clothes, diapers etc. I thought about getting a larger dresser, but the room isn't that big, so i think we will install a lower rod in the closet and get one of those hanging organizers with bins for clothes.  THis also means that the front hall closet needs to be cleaned out so that i can move some of things stored in DS's closet in there.  

I would also love to clean out some toys, but DH insists on holding on to them for baby.  We have way too much in my opinion, and things that DS never even played with!  I may just have to be discreet and do it myself. 

Big projects include finishing repainting our front entryway porch, arranging consults for and redoing our one bathroom (thats a big one) and arranging for a contractor to fix  some damage to our roof/gutters (yuck!)  I would love to get the kitchen updated too (just paint and new counters) but that may be pushing it :)

[Calladona]

I'm anxious to get going on clearing stuff out...  My big project is prepping to hold a big yardsale in exactly a month. :)  So, for that I'll be going through all the toys and picking stuff to get rid of.

Jillgayle - word of caution on getting rid of toys - each of my kids has had different favorites, so I'd only get rid of the junky ones, duplicates, and toys that truly annoy you or are broken. :)  I'm using that as my "rule" when getting rid of stuff.

Once we know if this is a boy or girl, I'll be sorting through the baby clothes and putting the ones we don't need in a box and if I CAN get tags to start tagging for the fall consignment sale, I'll do that too, as soon as I can.  I know that come August I'm going to be too tired to want to tag and of course after the baby comes, I'll be too busy. :p

[southernmommie]

We started a couple of weeks ago. We rearranged our living room and mounted our TV onto the wall. We also switched the dining room with our game room. Then we tackled our upstairs. We split up the girls so they couldn't keep each other awake all night. Got all that stuff moved to where they needed to go and crib taken apart and moved so that our 2 yr old boy could go into a bigger room with his older sister.

We mounted our shelves with the hanging rods in our garage for our family closet. I keep the little ones clothes in there since it's next to our laundry room and the kids can easily get their own clothes and help the littles get dressed without having their stuff in their closet for them to take down and throw on their floors like they use to. Now they are supervised. The older 2 have their clothes in their own rooms only because they have shown that they can be responsible enough to take care of their own clothes. Bonus, I don't have to treck up and down the stairs or disturb them while they nap putting their clothes away!

I've got cloth diapers washed and now just need to be organized by sizes and set up ready for babies. My bedroom still needs to be organized and ready for babies. We cosleep so I have the changing table in there and a rocker recliner in there for when I nurse them. Right now they are full of clothes and books.

My next project to complete before babies arrive is to have freezer meals done for at least a month if not two.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by southernmommie 

My next project to complete before babies arrive is to have freezer meals done for at least a month if not two.

This I need to do if I can.  DH can help since he only teaches one class this summer.

[somegirl99]

We're planning to do freezer meals too, but need to buy a big freezer first...not enough room in the bottom drawer freezer.

[thecoffeebean]

I hope I get the nesting urge soon! 21 weeks and still no real motivation to do much for the baby. I keep thinking, 'Eh, he'll sleep in our room for an eternity anyway. Why do I need to prepare a room for him?'

[cardigan]

Not sure if this is nesting or just problem solving. We have much of my husband's clothing in plastic bins. I saw a very handsome dresser at local antiques shop yesterday. It should accommodate most of DH's clothing, and be a piece that should last a life time. My usual rule of thumb w furniture: is it beautiful, does it fill a need, will it last our life time? It will require some rejiggering of bedroom furniture including the shelf the cat uses as a perch. We did a tiny bit or rearranging our guest bedrooom/ study as well. I think there will have to be some massive rethinking of furniture layout in the next few months. I'm going to do a schematic of our flat on illustrator and little furniture pieces we can move around to figure out best placement.

[FarmerCathy]

I'm just happy to know were having a girl and have both girls in the same room.  We'll probably eventually put a double or queen in there for them both to share until they want their own beds.  My DS has a queen size bed in his room.  I may change that to a twin and give the girls the queen.  Not sure.  Lots of thinking to do.

[Calladona]

The food is a good point.  I need to make a list of what foods I want to have on hand...  I can start in April I think without the food getting too freezer burned. :)  I like to have 30 meals prepped so I have enough to last at least 2 months (assuming I get energy to cook at least half-time).  I make a full list too of what I have available. :)