Nesting out of necessity

Nesting started early around here. Last weekend, we started a massive cleaning project that could be called "Making Room for Baby." Since we decided we won't be moving any time soon, we (we, as in, I convinced Matthew) thought it was a good time -- before I get too enormous -- to do some cleaning and clearing out to maximize the space in our small apartment.

Step one: rent a carpet steam cleaner. We were not blessed with an apartment of beautiful hardwood floors. All wall-to-wall carpeting, but I guess that's one of the reasons the rent is so cheap. As for renting this machine, we were pleasantly surprised to learn it's pretty cheap -- $22 a day at a local hardware store. Hint for anyone thinking of doing this: You do not need to also spend the extra $20 to buy the special cleaning solutions. After a little research, we learned that Dr. Bronner's castille soap (or something similar) will do just fine. And, it smells much nicer!

Step two: actually steam clean the carpets. Matthew was all over this. He did pretty much the whole apartment by himself. He never actually flat out told me he didn't want me trying to maneuver the steam cleaner (though it's not too heavy or complicated -- I'm sure I could have done it), but I was perfectly happy to let him go at it. I spent the time cleaning furniture, helping him shift things out of the way, etc. We were a pretty good team. We started on a Friday night (after dinner with friends, even) and finished up and returned the steam cleaner by 1 p.m. on Saturday. We even did the couch ($5 extra for the upholstery tool) and smaller carpets.

Step three: clean out the closets. This was, by far, the more daunting task. It's a little scary to think about, but we literally had boxes of things packed into closets that we haven't opened since we moved in five years ago! We committed to being "ruthless" and "unsentimental." It was sometimes difficult. I'm a bit of a pack rat and I think Matthew is, too. But, it's just not feasible anymore in our small place with a third little "roommate" on the way. It was a bit hard to get rid of some things, like much of the bulky things in our "Halloween box." But, we figured it was time to give up those SNL cheerleader costumes, probably our BEST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES EVER, but, alas, I will probably never fit into that tiny skirt again in my life ... and, I'm afraid, those characters are so 1990s. Luckily, lots of foot traffic on our street that weekend and really nice weather meant that the box of "Free Stuff" in front of our house went away pretty quickly.

Our reward for all this sweat and toil? One word: IKEA! We had several items to look at. Matthew wanted to approach the shopping task by actually beelining it from item to item, but my way prevailed -- a meandering stroll through every inch of the showroom. "It gives me inspiration," I told Matthew as I wandered around while he sat at a large, modern looking computer desk scrolling through his blackberry "just checking the score."

Not all of our desired items were in stock, so we'll have to go back later (yeah!), but we did manage to leave with several items for baby: this crib, this storage cabinet (and our future changing table), these curtains in black and white, this mirror, and these hand towels, which aren't really for the baby -- I just thought they were cool.

All in all a pretty successful project.

We still have work to do. Later this fall, we plan on turning the big bedroom (now an office) into our bedroom, where the baby will sleep with us for a while. The small bedroom will become the place for all the baby's stuff (plus guest room as long as the baby sleeps with us. HELLO, DID YOU HEAR THAT? GUEST ROOM!) and eventually the baby's own room. Our nest is shaping up nicely. ~ Nicole