ok, so this post is totally new, uncharted territory for me. not only is this whole buying/changing furniture business something totally stressful and scary (especially since were making BIG changes), i also have never really felt all that comfortable sharing pictures of the inside of our apartment. you know, because it was always so cluttered and ugly and embarrassing. but now as we make our way through this journey to a sleek, minimal household, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable not only changing it, but also documenting and sharing those changes. i told you that this minimalism business has been life changing.
while things in general are shifting all over the house (things getting cleaned out, moved, replaced, sold), those changes have all been on a smaller scale (typically only one small thing at a time). but our bedroom... well, over the next few months (i really, really hope we can get everything done before the baby comes in july...), its getting a complete overhaul. and honestly, it really needs it. see, with the exception of our bedding, clothes, and personal affects, there is not one. single. thing. in our bedroom that we picked or even actually like. most of it is hand-me-downs from jamess family, and im pretty sure everything else weve pulled out of the trash. im not joking.
so here are a few "before" shots (which i kind of hesitate to call an actual "before" because weve already purged so much junk that it looks like a completely different room). while we are mostly done with our big house purge, we still havent gotten to jamess side of the closet/his dresser area, largely because previously they had been physically blocked by other piles of crap. i cant believe i just admitted that on the internet.
now before we get into actually changing things, lets take a minute to go over the problems that need addressed here and what our goals are:
1. the bed. i hate this bed. its a king-sized pillow top mattress that jamess mom had in storage for who knows how long before giving it to us... almost five years ago. i guess its nice if you like absurdly soft, completely unsupportive mattresses that are so tall your feet dont touch the floor when you sit on them, paying literally $100 on sheets and not having any usable floor space in your entire bedroom. unfortunately, i do not like any of those things. also take note that its just on a basic wire frame with the hideous box springs totally exposed. ive wanted a cute bed frame and a smaller, firmer mattress for years, so, a new bed and mattress are the #1 priority.
2. the dressers. objectively, i cant really say anything bad about these dressers. theyre super solid actual wood and theyre a matching set and im sure they were very expensive new. but like the mattress they were in storage for years and not looking so hot. also, theyre totally not our style, which was something i was totally willing to overlook until i realized just how HUGE they are for how pathetically little they hold. we werent even looking for dressers the last time we went to ikea but we literally found some that could comfortably hold all of our clothes (i feel its worth noting that neither of the existing dressers is full) in about 1/2 the space. im not exaggerating. so after the beds all done, those are up next.
3. a place to put the new baby. honestly, i wasnt in a rush to get a full blown crib because of how long alice co-slept with us/how long it was before we used ANY of her nursery furniture. BUT once we realized just how much space the new furniture was going to free up, we realized that for just a tad more money than we were going to spend on a bassinette, baby #2 could have its own mini-crib to last it to toddlerhood. unfortunately/fortunately, bedding options for mini-cribs are severely limited, so ill also need to make baby's nursery from scratch (though this is a challenge that i am totally up for/not freaking out about).
as of right now, were still working out the bed situation. but over the next few weeks i promise to keep you updated on our progress!
I'm interested to see how your baby situation plays out. One of the first things we got (at like 2 months pregnant) was a crib that someone was giving away... it's a bigger one that converts into a toddler bed, which was a big plus... plus FREE. It's at the end of our bed, but we recently decided we want to go the co-sleeping route (at least in the beginning and while only breastfeeding and at night, and use the crib for naps etc.), though I know very little about co-sleeping. Any tips you might have about it (what works, what doesn't, etc.) I would love to know. And yay for getting stuff done. I love having a minimalist lifestyle, but it's so freaking hard to get there and stay there. I am glad this baby is bringing out that nesting side that makes me want to purge a bunch of stuff and just simplify my life, because I don't know what else would make me want to do it.
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