Monday, July 16, 2012

Nesting for Baby...By Cleaning House!


They say that when you're expecting a child, you start to nest.

To nest is to prepare the house for Baby's arrival.  It means going through stuff, getting rid of stuff, cleaning stuff, and organizing stuff.  And we sure do have a LOT of stuff!

It is mostly my fault, really.  I lived on my own for 6 years before meeting Michael, and I crowded my apartment and then later our house with tons of stuff.  My weakness, especially, was clothes.

Michael, on the other hand, is very minimalist.  He owns just what he needs and very little else.  It's quite admirable, and I'm learning from him.

With our baby scheduled to arrive in just about 7 weeks or so, I agreed that it was time to clean house.  The basement was were I ought to start.

Our basement is this bright yellow, spacious place where we store everything.  I prefer to keep all my clothes there, too.  It makes air-drying them easier, and the distance from the hamper to the washer is only a few feet!

Michael's wonderful mother spent the day with me this past Friday and we cleaned out and organized the basement.  What a great feeling that was!


When Michael got home from work, the organizing continued, with only a brief pause for supper.  But when we hit the 12-hour mark and saw that our pile for Goodwill had gone from a small hill to a large mountain, it was time to stop for the day and call it successful!

Today, then, my parents and I loaded all the stuff I was getting rid of into multiple cars and then drove to our local Goodwill's drop-off point.

Friendly faces greeted us and helped empty our cars.  Immediately, the staff at Goodwill started sorting our materials into appropriate categories for the store.  Other items went into big blue bins in order to be sorted through a bit later.


My parting with Shaniqua was particularly difficult.  She came into my life back in 2006 and graciously wore my favorite wig when I wasn't.  I could rely on her for that, and she was always a respectful and quiet roommate. 

It pains me to see the expression she wore at our parting today, realizing that we would now be going our separate ways.  And she seemed a bit bothered by the fact that I did not send her off with a proper wig.  I kept the wig.  I just...didn't keep Shaniqua.  I feel bad about that now.  :-(

But Shaniqua will not be alone.  Sally went with her.  If you look closely in the above photograph, Sally is right behind her, although rather inconveniently inverted.

I thank both girls for being good roommates over the last few years.  They will both be missed.