Alice’s room: the storm before the calm

Hi guys!

So as you know, our movers came and did their magic on August 17th, exactly one month ago today. My goal was to be fully moved into our new place, down to the last little thing, by September 10th, to give myself a whole month of order and harmony before my due date.

By the night of September 10th, one week ago, we were almost there! The only things left to be done were in Alice’s room. Namely, we had the crib left to build, pictures to hang on her walls, and a decent rug to find (I ended up hating the $30 dark blue one we bought at Ikea–it looked kinda awful in the space though the rug itself isn’t bad looking, as you will see further down in this post).

Altogether, I feel pretty good about what we accomplished in under a month. We built the crib last Wednesday, put up pictures on Thursday, I painted a shelf white and we hung it on Friday, and as of today, the rug is the only missing item. And honestly, the room works as is without a rug, so I’m not going to rush into a rash purchase. As long as she has something soft to move about on once she starts crawling, I’m good to go.

Pictures of the finished apartment will be up next week, but today I have some pictures of the past chaos in Alice’s room. Because I think the finished space will be more satisfying for you all to look at if first I show you the mess.

While my husband was in Cedar Point the other weekend, I tackled the putting away of all the little clothes. It turns out that those tiny clothes are kind of hard to organize. Not only is there a variety of sizes, ranging from newborn to 3 years old or so, but there are so many different little types of items: sleepwear, bath towels with animal ears, swaddlers, onesies (short sleeved and long sleeved), leggings, little skirts and pants and shirts and dresses and cardigans and full body winter suit thingies . . . you get the idea. Organizing it all so that the system makes sense and I can find what I need required major thought power!

And by the way, these pictures were taken without a flash in very low, late-night lighting, so the space looks pretty hideous.

It was even worse when I tried with the flash . . .

I promise that with some fresh sunlight, it looks about 1,000 times better.

But the point is, chaos slowly gave way to order.

Things made their way into their proper places.

It was so satisfying and engaging and I was so driven to whip everything into shape that I forgot to eat dinner.

But what is food for the body when there is food for the soul? Ergo, a stack of rolled mattress protectors. A neatly folded stack of burp cloths. A home for the pile of diapers we’ve been given (in a bin!).

Anyway, if these pictures are making your heart palpitate uncomfortably because the mess gets under your skin, let it be known that pictures of the finalized room will soon come to soothe your pain . . . and mine.

Oh, and guess what else I did while my darlin’ was in Cedar Point? I did laundry.

I LOVE DOING LAUNDRY.

Just had to put that out there one more time.

9 thoughts on “Alice’s room: the storm before the calm

  1. Layla

    I too found myself saying the same thing about organizing baby clothes because it’s not as simple as “just size” you have to work the seasons too, so you’re not wading through winter clothes in summer time for example.
    Though I never realized you have it even harder than me, because girls have sooo many more styles of clothes, such as tights and dresses like you mentioned. I even found myself much later looking online for organizing advice for kid clothes, to do a better job, but haven’t found anything that catches my eye yet. If you find a good system, that might be a good future blog entry all on its own LOL!

  2. Kimby

    Jenna, that was a huge undertaking at this stage of the game, but it looks like you got the upper hand. (Sorry for the generic sounding comment thus far — my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.) 🙂 Curious to see where you put the rug — you’re right, it didn’t “fit” there — but the floor is gorgeous and the blue walls are serene. Alice is sure to love her room!

  3. Twinky

    Oh dear… you are like me!! I get busy and forget to stop and eat–no wonder you haven’t put on more pregnancy weight!! Sorry to hear about the rug, however. I guess an IKEA trip can’t be 100% perfect =).

  4. Suzie

    You’re trucking right along there Jenna! The color of her room is pretty, I really like it. Can’t wait to see the finished product 🙂

  5. Veronica

    Wow, you had your work cut out for you but it already looks so much better! Looking forward to seeing the finished room, and the rest of the room too!

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