Nursery Tour

A question I've been getting a lot is "What are you doing to the nursery?"  Not a lot, as far as decorating goes, but lots of furniture changes!  Here's a photo tour, so you can see for yourselves.

When you walk in the door, you're greeted with both a Pack'n'Play (with bassinet) and a crib.  The Pack'n'Play will be moving (to our bedroom for the first couple weeks, and then to various locations around the house), but for now it makes sense to just keep it all in here.

The Pack'n'Play is also currently the storage location for Baby's already-massive stuffed animal collection, and a few other things:

(I LOVE that happy polar bear!)

To the right of those is the closet, which got a little bit of a makeover.  The top two shelves are still for paper products and cleaning supplies, but now we have a few of Baby's things hanging up, too.

Including what will be her diaper bag once she's old enough to carry her own bag.

Down below is my collection of baskets, an extra Pack'n'Play (we have been super blessed!), and bathtime stuff.  I'm really glad the bathtime stuff fit in here, since we don't have a lot of extra room in the bathroom.

To the left of the crib is the window and the rocking chair (the chair does have a cushion, too, it's just currently being cleaned).

I also did a quick update to the curtains so that they'll be easy to open and close.  They were just tied open before, but now they have actual ties.  "Actual ties" being a loose term that I'm currently applying to a piece of yarn with some knots in it. :)  Not exactly elegant, but functional.  And easy to replace later if I feel like it.

The other side of the room is still a craft room.  Yes, I should not have these things out in Baby's room when she's no longer a baby, but she's not going to be getting out of her crib on her own for a while, and I see no reason to try to reconfigure everything at once.  And yes, it's kind of a mess.

This part still needs organizing, as the top of the 12-cube organizer will probably be partially emptied to hold wipes/diapers.  In the corner, I have some bags of larger size baby clothes, all sorted and folded and ready to go in the dresser when she outgrows the size currently in there.

If you kept going left from the dresser, you'd be back at the door, so that's a full circle tour.

And now you get to peek inside the dresser!

The top drawer holds newborn-size disposable diapers, disposable wipes, and the one-size cloth diapers (that we'll use once Baby is big enough for them).  

I used various baskets and cardboard boxes to make really fancy drawer dividers. :)  In the middle drawer are onesies, sweatshirts, pants, sleepers, and sleep sacks.  We also have an entire box of hats (she has 15!) and socks.

The bottom drawer holds burp cloths, extra sheets, swaddlers, and blankets.

I am very aware that every time Baby grows this whole system will need to be redone.  I am okay with that.  I am also aware that my cloth diaper stash will probably not stay in rainbow order, and I'm also okay with that.

Now, I've seen a lot of blog posts about people's nurseries and what it cost to decorate them, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents here, also.  First of all, we've been very blessed and have very generous families.  The crib is the same one my little siblings used when they were babies.  We bought a new mattress for it, but the sheets were gifts from family.  We were given two Pack'n'Plays, and sheets to go with them.  The dresser is also a hand-me-down from my parents, and I used stuff I had around the house to organize it.  We were given tons of clothes from friends and family.

What did we purchase?  Most of the diapers, the changing table pad, the crib mattress, a few blankets (from Salvation Army), and the rocking chair (at a garage sale).  (We did purchase other things, like a car seat and stuff, but I'm focusing on the nursery today.)

Now, even if you don't have friends and family give you things, I think some of the principles still apply.  I saw one Pinterest nursery where the writer raved about the amazing deal she got on a dresser - only $300!  I can't even imagine spending $300 on a little dresser!  I guess I understand not having the energy to browse thrift stores, consignment shops, garage sales, and/or Craigslist, but I also feel like if you could score a dresser for $50 that just needed a little love, it would be totally worth it.

I get some things have to be purchased new, or at least fairly new, because of newer health/safety standards, but you should still be able to find good deals on these things.  They are used for such a short period of time that it seems wasteful to spend a lot of money on them. (Yes, you will continue to use a dresser for a long time, unlike a crib, but there are also not a lot of health/safety regulations applying to dressers.)  And all it takes to refresh some of these items is a good cleaning.

Okay, well, that turned into a rant/ramble.  You're welcome? :)

Love and Yellow Walls,

Leah Joy