Preparing For Their Arrival: Organizing the "Stuff"

Before you say, "It only gets worse!" or, "You're going to need more of XYZ!", please hold your comments, and go back to read this post which begins by saying:

"...It requires us to think a lot about what we bring into our home, to shop for groceries more often, and to try to live a little more simply than we did when we had a huge two story apartment.

And we're OK with that.  In fact, we're more than OK with that-it's actually one of the philosophies behind why we want to continue living aboard and why we want to raise our twin sons on a boat.  We want them to appreciate the value of community, neighbors and friendship.  We want them to appreciate that you can, in fact, live with less, even though society tells us we need more, more more!" 

It's true that we have a lot more "stuff" now that the babies exist-it's two extra humans living in a small space.  But it's also true that we still have a lot less than the average family expecting twins, and we're pretty sure we'll survive.  We don't have a traditional crib, but what we will have is a kick ass custom cabin built by their daddy with a lot of love.  And they won't have a large playroom to run around in, but they'll have the entire ocean to explore, including islands to conquer (complete with pirate gear!), beaches to comb and interesting people to meet.  And in the summer, they'll know what it feels like to have the wind in their hair (oh, how we hope they have hair!) and they'll be surrounded by the splendor of the sunlight dancing like diamonds on the water.

They won't have the latest and the greatest <insert gadget/gear/toy here>.  But what they will have will be divine...

PSA over...now, onto the post. :)

Over the last couple of weekends we've really been trying to get everything ready for Jack and Bobby's arrival.  That means that everything we received from our multiple baby showers that once lived in storage, now lives at home.  And that means that we've been organizing like mad!

Here's what our car looked like when we left the storage unit:

Everything's boxed up in bulky packaging, crammed into bags or boxes.  I knew that once we got home and opened everything up, we'd be able to get a handle on it.

First things first, the car seats!  Those two boxes alone took up most of the back seat and LOADS of room in storage.  So, we installed them!

Somehow, even though I have this huge belly, we've felt them kick, seen their little hearts beating and have them named...THIS made it all seem very real.  We're actually going to have babies!  (It's even still currently hard to imagine, being that neither of us have ever had babies of our own.)


Once those two big boxes were broken down and thrown away, we were left with two carts of stuff that we brought back to the boat.  Most of which ended up in these two cabinets.  Yes really:

There are additional diapers stored under the crib/bed (and more will be opened and put in that bin above-I just didn't want to open too many in case the boys don't fit into these, or don't react well to this brand), a bag of toys that have a home on a shelf across the way (space is already set aside for that, I just have trouble making it over there, physically, right now due to my huge belly), and burp clothes and swaddlers that will also get a home on that shelf in a bin (so I can easily grab them when feeding).  But we managed to get everything in that big, crammed car, onto our 36 foot sailboat without making our space unlivable.

We kind of rock.

Stay tuned for more nursery pictures, coming soon!