This week was rough. I couldn’t figure out what to do with the rest of the things in the china cabinet, so I decided to take a break from that project this week. We had a busy weekend, followed by a busy and tiring week. The little one is becoming a lot more aware of everything going on around him. In the past I’ve taken him wherever I’m going in a baby carrier (which I’m in love with) and he would still take his regular 3 hour afternoon nap. Now he is too interested in seeing everything that’s going on. Then instead of sleeping longer to make up for it at night, he wakes more often. That compounded with being out in the heat leads to one cranky mama the next day. Here he is, napping in the carrier:
So last night I had a dream that I woke up to find our apartment leaning to one side and giant cracks in the walls. We knew the whole place was going to crumble and we were trying to rescue all our “stuff.” A bunch of our friends came over to help even though it was the middle of the night. I was running around getting nowhere because I couldn’t decide what was worth saving. Then the whole building started shifting and I knew we were running out of time before it collapsed. People kept asking me what they should take and I couldn’t answer. Then I started thinking, “this can’t be real; I must be dreaming.” I decided to walk out into the hallway of our building. I knew if it looked wrong then I was dreaming and I could wake up. When I walked out of our front door, I was in a completely different hallway but I didn’t wake. I kept saying to myself “wake up,” “wake up.” Finally the baby started stirring next to me and I woke up. I groggily looked around to see our walls intact and gravity in the right direction.
Clearly I’m feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps I need to keep purging…
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been keeping one open box nearby so that whenever I come across something we haven’t used in a while I can toss it in the box to be donated. When it’s full I take it down to the car. When we have a few more we’ll take it all to Goodwill. I just have to keep telling myself that we’ll get there eventually, right?
So what did I organize this week? Well, once again (third time? fourth time?) I’ve gone through baby clothes and weeded out the too small clothes and got out some of the next size up. I can’t believe how fast this little man is growing! While I was at it, I decided to put away the rest of my maternity clothes for the next (hopefully) pregnancy. Yay for being back to pre-pregnancy weight!
I also have yet to mention another small organizing project we did as a team. When my grandpa passed last year Peter got a bunch of dress shirts from grandpa’s closet. He ended up with lots of duplicates, like 4 white shirts. They were too crowded in the bedroom closet and were getting wrinkled before he wore them. Since he does wear them 5 days a week, we didn’t want to get rid of them completely. Instead, we boxed up a bunch of duplicates so that when a shirt wears out, he can “shop” from the box instead of buying new. We clearly labeled the box and put it up in the top of the bedroom closet so it’s out of our way.
Can you tell my mind is all over the place this week? We’re planning a weekend of doing nothing together so we can unwind from the hectic times that always seem to come with NYC summers. (Not that I’m complaining; it’s great to get together with friends and family and enjoy so many activities that we can’t in the winter, but some down time is very necessary this weekend.) Hope you have a great weekend!
And don’t forget to check out more organizing inspiration at Org Junkie’s 52 Weeks of Organizing.
I call it new mommie brain. So many new things going on and you don’t want to miss a minute of it. Take a deep breath and take it one step at a time.
Happy Organizing!
Great advice. Whenever my husband is feeling overwhelmed I always tell him to take a few deep breaths. I need to do the same myself!
Oh honey, you obviously need grandma to come and help you. Just cuddle that baby as much as you can because you are going to turn around and he will be toddling about. You don’t have to do everything at once. Heck, we have been kid-free for 5 years and I am still not where I would like to be! You are never done getting organized really because then there is the maintenance. Think of the daily minimums for now and worry about the extras on a better day. A good day is getting the minimums done! Hang in there. Love the picture.
I know what you mean; it already feels like it’s going too fast. I do spend most of the day cuddling with him and can’t get enough. If only grandma would move in with me and take care of all the cooking and cleaning!
You’ll get to do the baby clothes weeding regularly for the next little while…I still do it at least monthly and my “baby” is almost three…
I hope the heat lets up soon and your dreams aren’t quite so strange!
Wow! That’s a good idea, I think I’ll add a monthly “appointment” on my calendar. Thanks.
WE do a once a month clear out as well. I try to do it the first week of every month and simply take about 20 minutes for each kid’s clothing. Sometimes I need them to try things on, but fo rthe most part I know what has become too small. Every once in a while I can get all three kids done in one day, but usually I just do one at a time and try to have them all done by the end of the week. The clothes go straight into labeled boxes with the gender, season and size and right back into their closet.
I also use this time to pull out anything that has become too stained or that needs to be mended. The clothing we can’t use is either donated or repurposed into rags and clothes that need mended go into a basket to deal with another day.
Just checking in to see how you are doing.
Thanks for thinking of me! I’m doing much better. I finished emptying the china cabinet and have a couple of potential buyers! I was planning to post it for Week 31 but didn’t realize the vacation spot we were going to had no internet access. We’re home again and I’ll post more soon.