Lets talk baby equipment. It can be pretty overwhelming, theres just SO much out there. Figuring out what you do and don’t need can be pretty tough, the different brands, models, colours. Do you want a carrier that faces in, or out, in and out, a self rocking bouncer,a singing bouncer, a jungle gym, a donut ring for sitting, a dummy that glows in the dark, an electric steriliser, a microwavable steriliser….argggh! And everyone has experience of something that has helped their baby sleep through the night, settle their crying baby, make their baby giggle, prevent colic, helped their baby transition into their own bed etc… Its only now that I realise that every baby is different and what works for one doesn’t work for another, which makes buying baby stuff even more difficult!
Living in a small space meant that I felt even more pressure to make the right decision about what we needed because I knew that not only we had limited room for equipment but that once it was no longer in use that there was pretty much no space to store it.
Whether you live in a small space or not baby equipment can be expensive and soon starts to add up.
Our solution has been to take up our kind friends and family’s offers to borrow what they were no longer using, a moses basket and stand, a sling, bottle teats, a highchair tray…the list goes on.
Not only can you ‘test’ out things without the need of buying them but once they are no longer needed or in use you can give them back. No storage space required!
I really wasn’t sure about this sling to start with but after trying out my sister in laws I was converted and recently bought one second hand after passing this one on to my sister for her baby.
With things that we did buy we were intentional about choosing quality over quantity, items that would stand the test of time and could be used for more than one baby, maybe even more than one generation! It has meant that we have been able to lend these items out to friends.
This bouncer, which for Ivy, has been so useful. She still loves sitting in there and kicking her legs. Once Ivy is done with it we have a friend already lined up who would like to borrow it for their baby!
I am so grateful that small living has not only ensured that we are careful about what enters our home, but also that we get to create community amongst friends and family by lending out our things. I love that we are demonstrating to Ivy how we can ‘share’. I love that things that Ivy has enjoyed using get to be enjoyed by someone else. I love that its an environmentally friendly way to live. I love that it is a great gift to be able to bless someone with an item they were going to have to buy. I love that it saves space! I love that it teaches me to be much less materialistic. And I obviously love that it saves space and money.
We borrowed our moses basket and stand from my sister in law. On a recent trip to visit her I returned it back to her bringing it with me on the train. Baby strapped on my front, backpack on my back, in one hand I clung to the basket, in the other the stand!
When it comes to baby equipment, if you’re short on space, or money, or just don’t want to buy tonnes then my advice would be to hold off buying things too soon. What works for one baby might not work for yours, so why not ask if you can borrow something first to see if it works. I panic bought a lot of things before Ivy arrived and in hindsight there are some things we could have done without if I’d have just waited until she was born. I got so worried that we wouldn’t be able to go out to buy things if we didn’t have what we needed because I imagined not being able to get anything done, EVER! But if you really find that you need something then you find a way to get it, be it a kind friend running out to get it, buying it online, borrowing from someone or even renting it out.
Any more tips on buying and storing and lending out baby equipment?
I recently read an article (well…..actually I read the title, skim read the intro and then got distracted and so didn’t read the rest…but I got the gist of it!) about how virtual our money is these days.
This article started exploring the idea that we have lost the value of money because of how easy it is to spend our money in this day and age. We buy our groceries online, transfer money using internet banking, purchase our eBay wins using PayPal and use contactless payments via our phone in shops without a coin in sight. Its not very often that we actually carry around cash (well at least I don’t). In fact its incredibly annoying if card payments are accepted, I’ve even started getting angry if shops don’t have contactless payment, because the act of having to get my purse out, find my card and then type in a pin number is just too inconvenient these days!
Its not very often that I hand over my hard earned cash to pay for something anymore. Its all too easy to not truly value the cost of something when with just one tap or a click you’ve purchased the item without having to physically hand anything over in exchange.
Nick and I have just started using cash cards in order to have a better idea of how much we spend. We use Monzo, which also charts your spending each month with a handy little app on your phone. I’ve found since using this card that I am so much more aware of the cost of things. I was shocked to start with just how quickly the money started to run low! I wasn’t making any major buys, but its surprising how the little things soon add up, eating away into your funds.
I love the idea of getting cash out for the week. Theres something in physically handing over my money that I think will help me to regain an idea of the actual cost of something.
I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with PayPal or contactless payments, in fact they are incredibly useful, so handy and a real step forward with technology in the banking world. But I do think that we need to be careful that convenience doesn’t blind us to the real cost of things.
What about you? Do you ever use cash only? How do you make sure that you don’t lose the value of something through ‘easy’ spending.
I am unbelievably excited to share this blog post from Preme James. Preme and I have been friends for many years and we even lived in New York at the same time. Preme is so inspiring when it comes to simple living which is why I asked her to write a blog post sharing her journey. Her house is just divine, incredibly peaceful and every corner is beautiful and so naturally I asked for a sneak peek into her South London minimal home!
Here is her minimal journey so far -enjoy!
Not long after we bought our house, we were catching up with some friends who live in a one bedroom apartment. They were telling us that they were thinking of moving because they had outgrown their space. As I thought about it, I realised that the number of people living in that space hadn’t grown, the square footage hadn’t decreased; what had changed was the quantity of possessions that was occupying the space within them.
This snippet of the conversation really stuck with me, our new home had three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, lounge and a downstairs loo. It’s 1,220 square feet. Right now, it feels like a lot. The thing is, this will most likely be our forever-home, given the cost of housing, it is unlikely that we will size up. This is the square footage we will have for a very long time and we’ll need to steward the space we have wisely.
We wouldn’t qualify as ‘small living’ people but we’re at the beginning of our own small living experiment; living small so that we can grow into our house. This was the start of our journey towards living a more minimal lifestyle.
When we designed our kitchen we chose only base units to keep the room bright and airy – this means storage is limited and we have to use it well.Our kitchen appliances our fairly minimal. We’ve chosen to invest in a few key items, like the Kitchen Aid stand mixer, that we love and use regularly.
KonMari
The Simplist’s very own Lizzie was the one to introduce me to The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. The KonMari method, in a nutshell, is to begin with discarding, picking up each item and asking yourself, ‘Does this spark joy?’. At the end of the discarding you’ll be left with a smaller collection of items that really do bring you joy. The next stage, and my favourite, is to find a home for every single item.
The primary claim of the KonMari method is that once you have gone through the initial tidying process of discarding and storing, you won’t need to tidy again. You will simply return each item back to its home after you’ve used it. It does work. Our house is never untidy. This is largely because we now have far fewer possessions and we know exactly where each item lives. However, what really made the vision of a consistently tidy home achievable was following Marie’s rule of storing items according to where you use them.
It sounds so simple but this was the real game changer for me. One example is my collection of nail varnishes. I have always, always stored my nail varnishes with my other cosmetics in my bedroom. But, I have never, not once, sat upstairs in my room to paint my nails. One of my small pleasures is to sit in the lounge, with a movie and enjoy the process of painting my nails. Retrieving a nail varnish from upstairs was never a problem and there was a constant collection of nail varnishes, perched at the bottom of our stairs, waiting to be returned to their distant home. After reading that it is better to store items according to where we use them rather that by type i.e. cosmetics, I grabbed my box of nail varnishes, and popped them on a shelf in the lounge, this is their new home. Simple, but oh so effective.
Everything we own we love, everything we own goes back in its home after use without any hassle.
90% of our books live on this shelf in the lounge next to my box of nail varnishes.A small collection of well loved possessions decorate our mantle piece.
The life changing magic of tidying
Having a tidy home made up of items that bring you joy is a wonderful thing, but for me, the effect of the KonMari method is much broader. It’s changed my bank balance, how I celebrate birthdays and how I value my possessions. Let me explain…
Money – my initial struggle with the discarding process was that I thought I was just wasting money. I vividly remember looking at two pairs of Kate Spade earrings which I hardly wore anymore. They cost £50 each. I was throwing away one hundred pounds. Argh, this was a painful one. Let me tell you something, discarding of items that you have bought will forever change the way you interact with money. It may feel, like it did for me, that you have literally just put a wad of cash in the bin, but it may save you money in the long run. Now, when considering if I want to buy an item, if I want to bring it into my house, give it a home, and hand over my money for it, I really think about it. Consequently, how I choose to spend my money has changed and my home remains a place exclusively of things I really love.
Gifts – when my husband, Phil, and I started the discarding process, I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of things in his ‘throw’ pile were things I had bought him as a gift. Of course, I was a little indignant but mostly I was just curious about how I had managed to buy so many gifts, for someone I know better than I know anyone else, which had completely missed the mark! A sheepish feeling then came over me as I thought about all the gifts I’ve bought for other people over the years, that must be sat forgotten in cupboards up and down the country. I needed to change my gift giving approach. We no longer give birthday or Christmas presents, for friends, family or each other. This removed the obligation and expectation from giving. What we do instead is spontaneous gifting, giving either ‘just because’ or because someone you know could do with feeling thought of, or cared for. Unless I’m sure they’ll really love a certain item, I keep to giving consumable items, such as, food, candles, flowers or experiences; things you receive, smile, use and then they are gone. As the giver, I find this approach to gifting so much more enjoyable. Gone is the pressure of feeling like you’ve got to scour the shops until you find something amazing or that you must spend a certain amount. Sending someone a bag of their favourite coffee when you know they’re having a tough week is now enough. As a receiver, how nice it is to come home from work one unremarkable Tuesday to find you’ve been sent something lovely in the post.
Upgrading – When you significantly reduce the quantity of your possessions, the ones you are left with sing a little louder, you notice them more. Since Phil started shaving he has always had a standard Gillette razor, it fulfilled the role that it was intended for. It didn’t however ‘spark joy’. After the discarding process, we started, almost instinctively, to upgrade some of our possessions. Phil replaced his Gillette razor with a beautiful razor from Aesop with a weighty ceramic handle and just one replaceable blade. It is simple and beautiful. It is a piece of art in our bathroom. Using the razor is now a part of Phil’s morning ritual. Previously, I would have thought that buying an expensive item like this, whose role could easily be done by something cheaper, would be extravagant. It now seems obvious to me that something you interact with everyday should ‘spark joy’ and be a pleasure to use.
Above our bathroom sink is this little crate which holds Phil’s razor.We try to choose utensils that are beautiful as well as useful so that we can keep them on show, within easy reach.Reducing the amount of clothes we have has meant that we can store them in one chest of drawers on the landing outside our bedroom. This helps make our bedroom a clear and restful place.
The small voice
Undoubtedly our path to achieving a more peaceful, joyful home has been to journey through the KonMari process – asking myself whether everything in my home sparks joy. The biggest obstacle in getting to this point has been battling the small voice of logic that pops its head up when I start to review what should stay, and what should go. It loves to say things like, ‘well, so and so bought that for you as a present, it would be rude of you to get rid of it’ or ‘that was really expensive and you never wore it, you should feel really bad’.
Your small voice of logic may sound slightly different to mine, but no doubt you’ll have one, and it would love to throw you off your discarding mission. Stay strong. Keep on going. Remember that everything in your ‘throw’ pile has done its job. If something in there was a gift, and you felt loved when you were given it, then it’s fulfilled its purpose. If there is a top in there that turned out not to suit you, then it taught you something, and you can let it go.
Keep only what sparks joy, and love what remains.
Good luck…
Preme
I just love Preme’s gift giving philosophy, and also how with minimal items they have slowly and quite naturally upgraded their everyday items to something beautiful that sparks joy. What about you, what has inspired you?
I thought that post birth I would be popping my maternity clothes away (or lending them out) and reaching for my pre baby clothes. How wrong was I?! Turns out your body doesn’t quite return to what it once was. My old clothes were ill fitting of my new lumps and bumps and did not lend themselves well to me navigating my way to my bust in a modest and dignified manner for breastfeeding! After all the changes my body had gone through I ended up buying a few new pieces in order to boost my confidence and find my new style as a mama.
The first few months I muddled through in a newborn haze, grabbing whatever clothes were clean and in my wardrobe. Those first few winter months lended themselves fairly easily to covering up in baggy jumpers and jeans. Its not really until the weather turned warmer recently that I’ve started to struggle. Adapting my poorly fitting summer wardrobe to the challenges of breastfeeding and keeping cool has not been easy.
So for my birthday Nick took me shopping to find a few items that would help me transition into summer. I have to admit that there were quite a few tears as I came to terms with the new lumps and bumps I’ve acquired, but I managed to find some key pieces that give me confidence this summer to love this new body of mine that has grown and birthed a child.
Here are just a few things I’ve learnt along the way…
Firstly, I had a cull of clothes that I didn’t like, didn’t fit or didn’t bring me joy. This was so refreshing. Looking through my wardrobe each morning with clothes that I knew were ill fitting to my post baby body did not boost me with confidence each morning. So getting rid of those instantly helped me see clothes that I loved and felt good in as well as giving me an idea of what I had and what I lacked.
Dungarees. Wow. Well dungas are the breast feeding mamas saving grace. Easy to whip on with very minimal effort, just changing the t-shirt each day and so easy to maintain modesty whilst breastfeeding.
I found a beautiful button down jumpsuit on sale whilst not really looking for it, but it has been such a good investment. Its so comfy to wear during the day, the buttons make for easy access for breastfeeding and is great to dress up for going out. HOWEVER just make sure you have gone to the toilet before putting your sleeping babe in the baby carrier whilst wearing a jumpsuit because there is no chance of getting to the loo when wearing your jumpsuit and your baby!
High waisted shorts. Not only do they cover my new mum tum, but also I can just about get away without having to wear an extra layer under my top for breastfeeding when its just too hot for extra layers.
Light weight patterned trousers. Super useful when its too hot for jeans but you haven’t had time to shave your legs, when you want something super comfy and want to change out of your pyjamas or when your feeling bloated- hello elasticated waist!
Swing t-shirts. I first wore one of these style tees when I was pregnant and it was great for accommodating my growing bump, but I’ve also found this style super useful for summer, floaty enough to hide everything and keep cool.
Lipstick. On those days when my hair needs washing, I have huge bags under my eyes, and I’m wearing yesterdays clothes, lipstick makes it all seem better!
I would love to know any tips that you have for dressing post baby, just comment below.
A few of my friends have asked recently about my capsule wardrobe progress pre and post baby, so I thought it was time for a little blog post!
What with growing a bump and then breastfeeding my clothes have had to adapt to my ever changing needs and to be honest its been pretty hard to maintain a simple edited wardrobe. And while I haven’t done particularly well at keeping just 33 items per season, I have learnt some lessons along the way that have helped me keep a fairly edited wardrobe.
There have been two distinct changes that my wardrobe has had to adapt to, growing a bump and then breastfeeding. So this post is all about my maternity capsule wardrobe tips and they’ll be second post all about a wardrobe for breastfeeding.
I really didn’t want to buy many maternity clothes because I figured that I’d only wear them for such a short amount of time, but then half way through the pregnancy when I started to feel really drab and frumpy I realised that investing in some key pieces was actually worthwhile, not only to feel good in myself but also for future pregnancies and even lending out to friends. Turns out theres a big network of maternity clothes being swapped from expecting mama to expecting mama!
Jeans. I was given some incredible maternity jeans that I lived in from my second trimester all the way until birth. I also bought another pair in a different colour. So I ended up with 2 pairs of jeans that I rotated between, 1 black, 1 blue. Both were super comfy and kept my bump super cosy.
Key pieces. I found this Essential maternity pack from ASOS, which included leggings, skirt, dress and tank top in blue and white stripe (which no longer seem to be available- only black). With hindsight I wish I had gone for the black, because the stripe dress didn’t transition very well into the winter weather, so only got worn in the summer. The other items were so versatile and were well worn as base layers under my non-maternity items of clothing.
Maternity tops. I bought a maternity vest top (which I actually wear post baby too) and 2 t shirts once my regular t-shirts were too short. I got these in black and white which worked great on their own or layered under a shirt or cardigan.
Smart dress. During my pregnancy I had several weddings and events that required a fairly smart dress, so i invested and found a classic black dress that would grow with bump and be suitable for several occasions and different seasons. Again ASOS had a great selection to choose from.
Many of my tops are quite baggy and floaty so I was able to utilise many items from my non-maternity wardrobe. I did buy a shirt and dress that were not maternity but could fit my bump and still look good post baby.
My main uniform was jeans (which were so so comfy that I wore whilst in labour!) a white or black t shirt or vest top and a shirt, which by the end of my pregnancy only did up over my bust and so my belly poked out from underneath.
Lend. Lend. Lend. I was super grateful that a few of my friends and family kindly lent me some of their maternity clothes. And I have now had the joy of lending out my maternity clothes to my sister in law (super useful for saving on storage!)
All in all, I ended up buying, 2 t-shirts, 1 vest top, 1 pair of jeans, 1 shirt, 2 dresses (x1 smart, x1 casual) and the ‘essentials pack’. The rest was either borrowed or I had already and it managed to adapt to my ever growing bump.
Essentials pack pencil skirt worn with white tee (28 weeks pregnant)
White maternity tee with maternity jeans (30 weeks)
Occasion dress (25 weeks)
Essentials pack stripe vest top, black maternity jeans (28 weeks)
Essentials pack stripe dress (20 weeks)
Maternity jeans, maternity black tee, non maternity shirt (38 weeks)
Maternity jeans, non maternity tee (35 weeks)
Essentials pack white stripe vest – worn into winter with a cardi (36 weeks)
Maternity jeans and black maternity vest (34 weeks)
Do you have any tips on keeping a maternity capsule wardrobe? Any key pieces you invested in? I’d love to hear, just comment below!
As a follow on from last weeks post on our studio set up with a baby I thought I’d share why we love living in this little flat!
There were lots of times before Ivy arrived where we wondered if we could manage bringing up a baby in our studio flat but we totally love it and here are just a few reasons why….
Living small means there is only so much mess we can make in our day! And if we do make a mess then it doesn’t take long to clear it up!
On the same note we don’t waste time constantly cleaning, we clean the flat once a week and it takes an hour max for a maintenance clean and two hours for a deeper clean. Which means we have much more time in our week for fun things!
Everything is within easy reach. If I’ve left something in another room/area of the flat its only a few steps to retrieve it! I’m not constantly running up and down stairs grabbing things, I honestly don’t know how people with stairs manage!
We have to be so mindful of what we bring into our home because we have to find a space for it to live. This has made me much more thoughtful in my purchases, choosing things that will last longer or are multifunctional. It also has helped my materialistic mindset of always wanting ‘more’ because there is just no space for more!
Spending a whole day inside is just not an option when its such a small basement flat. So it forces us to get out, to take a walk, head to a coffee shop or to explore our city.
There is no need for a baby monitor! Ivy now takes her daytime naps in her little cupboard nursery because its dark, and I am always within ear shot of her moans and cries.
Living in such small proximity is great for keeping Ivy close by. Especially in those early days. We are never that far from each other. Once she gets more mobile I will always be able to keep a close eye on her whilst doing things around the home. I think it has also helped her to adjust to being outside of the womb, a feeling of security that I am always close by.
Living in such a small space means that Ivy has got used to noise. I can hoover whilst she naps and she is used to hearing us chatter away whilst she settles herself to sleep at night.
Finally the main benefit from living small is that we can afford to live in an incredible central location. We LOVE our neighbourhood. It is full of so many amazing places to eat, have coffee, nearby parks and walks and incredible transport links. This has been invaluable for remaining sane whilst finding my feet as a first time mama.
So for anyone out there who is nervous about living in a small flat with a baby, it is totally do-able and actually incredibly fun. The benefits for us have totally outweighed the sacrifices! We feel so blessed that we get to stay in this incredible city and neighbourhood whilst raising Ivy.
When we announced we were having a baby we got asked a lot if we were going to move from our studio flat. When we told people we were staying their faces often had a look of shock and disbelief, maybe even thinking we were being naive.
But I have to say, twelve weeks in and we love bringing Ivy up in our little studio flat. Yes it has its challenges but the benefits of living here totally outweighs the challenges. We’ve had to re-jiggle the flat slightly and it might not look exactly as we want it to but it works well for us.
Ivy has her own little cupboard nursery which has her cot and chest of drawers where all her clothes, nappies and paraphernalia live. But we also have areas around the house that house her stuff. Currently she sleeps next to me in her moses basket. And also in the ‘bedroom’ we have a little basket full of nappies and wipes and a changing mat as its much more convenient to change her here, especially at night or early mornings.
Because we change her nappy in the bedroom we also have the nappy bin here. I was adamant that we didn’t need a special nappy bin, that just a normal pedal bin would suffice, but Nick was insistent and seeing as he does all the bins I let him purchase this nappy bin. His argument was that we couldn’t afford to have nappies smelling out the place considering that we live in such close proximity. However, it turns out that breastfed nappies are not at all bad smelling! But he still stands by his purchase!
Now that Ivy is older and enjoys looking and exploring toys we have moved her toy basket into the lounge, along with her baby gym. The baby bouncer gets moved all around the house depending on what Ivy comes to watch me do; in the kitchen whilst I cook, the bedroom whilst I dry my hair or in the bathroom whilst I shower.
The bathroom is where we keep her baby bath. We have a ‘wet room’ style bathroom with no bath so Ivy has her bath in the shower cubicle. She has a small shelf in there where we keep her shampoo, sponge and rubber duck!
And finally the buggy! The buggy is kept outside our front door in the corridor ready for use. Nick will take it up the stairs as he leaves for work and set it up in our shared corridor ready for the day. Thankfully we have the best neighbours who are happy with us having it there.
I really love our little studio flat, especially as it means we can live in such a central location which has been amazing for getting out with a baby…. I mean we live below a coffee shop, how convenient! With it being so small it doesn’t take long to clean, everything is within reach and you certainly don’t need a baby monitor (but more benefits of small living with a baby in a later blog post.)!
Nick adds…..
The benefit of a studio flat is that everything is en-suite, which normally would cost you an arm and a leg if it was a hotel room!
Now nappies, no matter what anyone claims with newborns, they smell like vinegar has been poured everywhere, so I swear by my special nappy bin contraption. Best purchase of my adult life!
Having my very own pushchair for my baby was somewhat of a childhood dream for me. As a child I would spend hours alone playing mums and dads and pushing my doll in their pram and so I was pretty excited about choosing my very own real life buggy!
Living in London and in a small space we had to be savvy about our pushchair choice and when we came to choose ‘the one’ we had several specific requirements: It had to fold, had to last from newborn to toddler and be fairly compact to store.
After a lot of research, a fair bit of time spent in the buggy department at John Lewis where Nick made me re-inact several different buggy related scenarios to test out each pushchair and a tonne of you tube reviews, we finally decided to go for the Bugaboo Bee3. And we absolutely love it!
Not only does it fold down in one movement and is fairly light, but you can lay the seat flat, upright and face it outwards. Its super easy to manoeuvre round the city and is such a good nifty size, especially for getting on and off London transport. Plus both the seat and backrest are extendable for when Ivy grows. I love that you can get a little scooter board to attach onto the back end of the buggy for when you have another child. We had fun choosing the colours for the Bugaboo, they have such a great range.
The only thing I would say about this buggy is that it doesn’t fold that flat or compact, not like the yoyo zen, which was totally in the running- I mean how clever! But we felt that it wouldn’t withstand heavy use around the city and last as long as the Bugaboo.
This week I took it on the train to my parents house in Wales. It folded well enough to store in the suitcase compartment on the train and I was able to carry Ivy in the sling and carry it off the train without too much bother. I also used it around the country lanes where my parents live and it took to the bumpy terrain well!
Now that Ivy is a bit older and not always asleep she likes the backrest up so she can look around as we stroll the streets of London.
I have to say this buggy totally beats any pram that I used to lust over in the Argos catalogue at the tender age of 6! In fact I still get that slight excited feeling whenever I get to use it with Ivy!
Nick adds:
Being light, you can be sure it will beat any other pram in a pram-race. This was my main requirement.
As soon as we found out we were pregnant I was adamant we wouldn’t buy any unnecessary baby equipment that would clutter up our small space. I wanted to be Mother Earth, she wouldn’t need a baby bouncer, she’d soothe a baby within seconds just in her loving arms!
Well…these past few weeks have been a steep learning curve in letting go of that unrealistic ideal and inviting in unsightly baby ‘equipment’ for the sake of making life easier and satisfying my child’s needs!
Unfortunately we don’t have a bath in our flat and so our friends kindly gave us a baby bath. I therefore thought we were done for bathing equipment! But Ivy had other ideas.
Growing up I was the fish of the family, I loved swimming and loved being in and around water. To this day I still love the smell of chlorine, an outdoor splash park and water fountains!
I went swimming a fair bit whilst pregnant with Ivy and even wanted a water birth. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to give birth in the pool but spent a great deal of my labour in there. I presumed therefore that Ivy would love the water and hence love bath time. How wrong was I.
Every single bathtime she would scream like a banshee as soon as she was in the water. Bathtime quickly became much more of a stressful task that was done in order to get her clean. Not even a bath with her cousins could distract her!
I eventually gave in and after a bit of research bought this towelled bath seat from John Lewis. It’s not too bulky, easy to store, washable and at the reasonable price of £10 I thought was a good option to try incase Ivy was still not going to play ball and it wasn’t successful!
So last night we gave it a go. Total success! She tolerated a 10-15 minute bath with a hint of a smile! No stress, we were hands free to play and splash with her and she lasted longer than a 2 minute dip!
So, Ivy, thanks for teaching mummy that sometimes it’s worth letting go of your ideals for the sake of making life a bit easier and you that little bit happier.
Living in a basement studio flat we had to get creative with space in order to make room for Ivy. We have two little cave like spaces that go under the pavement, one is the bathroom and the other we were using as a storage cupboard. So when we found out we were pregnant we got to work making this little storage cupboard into a nursery.
As renters we were pretty restricted with what we could do in this room including putting anything on the walls (the joys of a basement flat and damp proofed walls) or painting.
The room is pretty simple, with a large dresser on one wall and a small cot on the other. I would love to have some shelves put up in here but unfortunately we’re not allowed. Having a small space certainly made us incredibly mindful of what we bought for Ivy, we wanted pretty much everything for her to be able to fit into that dresser.
Our friends who were moving abroad kindly gave us their cot. Its a smaller than average cot and fits perfectly in this space. She doesn’t sleep in it at the moment, but as soon as she is old enough to not sleep next to us in her moses basket she will be in here. My mum is incredible at knitting so I sent her some patterns whilst I was pregnant and she has been busy knitting blankets, dresses and cardigans for Ivy. This blanket is one of her creations. I just love that it is something special that Ivy can have for the rest of her life, especially knitted for her by her Nainy.
Because we are not allowed to drill or put nails into the wall we use these command strips all over the house for hanging our pictures. They’re great little velcro strips that stick to the walls without leaving a mark when you want to remove them. I recently discovered that they also make hooks. Granted they aren’t the prettiest of hooks, but once you have anything hanging on them then you can’t really see them. So we used several of these hooks on the back of her door for hanging her coat and towel. We also used them on the side of the dresser to hang her washing basket.
Its been so sweet acquiring some of Nick’s childhood books and toys that his mum kept for him. These Rupert books were his growing up and we also have his old thunderbirds curtains! We’re still figuring out what to do with those! Any ideas welcome.
This little basket is for her growing collection of toys that we have been gifted! She has a bucket and spade, ready for trips to the beach to visit her Great Grandma, Nicks old trains, and some cuddly toys, including this dinosaur. I love the thought of her playing with trains and dinosaurs aswell as dolls and fairies!
We have been incredibly blessed with gifts from generous friends and family for Ivy, including this custom made body suit which hangs from the light fitting. We also have some pretty talented friends who have handmade gifts for Ivy, from knitted cardigans, dresses and this gorgeous little Bunny.
We really enjoyed creating this space for Ivy, being intentional about what we bought into her room. Theres something quite special knowing that everything in here has been gifted to her or lovingly chosen for her. There is nothing in this room, including whats hidden away in those drawers, that isn’t either beautiful or of use (Marie Condo would be proud!). I hope that Ivy grows to learn the art of simple living, being intentional about what she buys or brings into her room and home, choosing quality over quantity and valuing life over ‘stuff’.
A few of my friends have asked recently about my capsule wardrobe progress pre and post baby, so I thought it was time for a little blog post!
Nick adds:
the simplist 