Nesting: List of Bare Minimums to Stock Up On

So, I'm behind on blogging.  We weren't doing much at the beginning of the year, but we've had some adventures lately I want to post about.  But, I can't stop nesting to write and edit photos!  I don't really remember ever feeling these compulsions with the last two, but all I want to do lately is to buy everything we might need until a good month after the baby comes, and find places to store it all.  I'm finally feeling the baby quickening, and I think that has something to do with getting started with preparations.

Now, I'm normally not one to buy in bulk.  I just feel like our house doesn't have much storage space, so I never buy more than we need.  That all changed last week.  I basically spent a day price shopping between Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon, soap.com, and our local grocery store.  I was pleasantly surprised that Target actually gave me the best prices for lots of things, especially when I factored in my 5% red card savings, shopkick points, and Cartwheel deals.  As well as a few coupons I happened to have on hand.  The next day I headed out and bought up lots of things, including:

Bathroom:  Toilet Paper, Shampoo, Conditioner, Shampoo + Conditioner (for days when you don't have time for both), Deodorant, Contact Solution, Toothpaste (3 types, adult, kids, training), Make-up Wipes, Kleenex, Body Soap, 1 extra baby soap (in case Eli dumps it out again)

Kitchen:  Dishwasher Tabs, Trash Bags, Water filters, Wax Paper, Aluminum Foil, Zip-lock Bags, Plastic Wrap, Paper Towels

Laundry:  Softener Sheets, Detergent, Bleach, and Oxy-clean

Pets:  Dog Food, Cat Food, Cat Litter

Other:  Batteries, Vitamins, Newborn/Size 1 diapers, printer ink

I then re-organized the bathroom closet, hallway "baby" closet, and boys' room closet to find places for everything (and to put away size 2 & 5 clothes-  Theo is definitely a size 7, and Eli is starting to fit into size 3).  Another couple trips to Target for plastic totes later, I was in love with all my newly organized spaces.  I basically just keep going in and opening the doors and staring.

Tall Closet in Bathroom, (more supplies are under the sink)

Boys' closet all ready (box on bottom is the remainder of 

the baby boy clothes, in case we need to grab it in a hurry).

I should have took before-and-after shots for all of them, but this closet was definitely the biggest change.  This hallway closet, though a blessing to have, has always been a nightmare for me.  I use it to store holiday decor (except Christmas), overflow kitchen/table decorations, candles, frames, swimwear, and my maternity clothes (or currently, non-maternity).  The wreaths are always all over the place, and I feel like I have to go through the whole closet every time seasons change to make sure I get everything.  I have thought about getting totes to organize it better before, but could never find good sizes to fit on the shelves.  It finally hit me that I could get some large totes and use the top shelf to store all my Easter, Thanksgiving/Halloween/Fall, and minor holiday decor.  And put the wreaths on top!  It worked perfectly, and I even had room left to store my clothes in totes and hang all of the baby stuff in here as well.  This baby, like Eli, won't be getting a room for the first 6+ months of it's life, but will basically be in ours.  So finding so much room in this closet it great for us.

I also got out most of the baby supplies and made room in the bathroom wardrobe and boys' wardrobe for some of it's things.  I pulled out everything that could possibly be described as neutral, and this baby already has a nice little wardrobe full of yellow ducks and monkeys.  I love seeing these tiny things hanging in the closet.

Finally, with my nesting energy, I even drug out everything from our downstairs storage (Christmas, baby, and mostly-school related) and downsized a few boxes of files/books/school supplies (though I still have many-many more).  Through this I was also able to put together several more busy bags and activities for the boys and got out some math manipulatives they are ready to play with now (tracing paper, base ten blocks, geoboard for Eli, pattern blocks, etc) as well as some beginner chapter books to start reading with Theodore.

And I'm done now.  At least for a while, I'm going to force myself to take a break.  I'm waiting to do some freezer meals closer to d-day (4 months away!) but I am half tempted to right now.   And Brian's lucky that we don't necessarily plan to be in this particular town house for too much longer or I would probably want to paint everything...  I still just might.  We'll see what other nesting compulsions crop up.