Are You Putting Baby In A Corner?

I confess that when my first child came along I had no idea how it would be. I was the eldest daughter in the family. I had no-one around me with young children. My career was good, I loved it and lived for it. Being pregnant was fab, happy apart from the inevitable concerns, and I did what I always do: I started reading. And making lists. And buying/preparing what was needed ahead of little one’s arrival.

When the time finally came for my first to make his appearance, I had a beautifully decorated second bedroom in my little terraced house in Reading. Pale blue and Winnie the Pooh. (We had no idea whether baby was a boy or a girl, but Pooh was, and probably still is, still something of a hero.)

I arrived in the hospital with two very large suitcases of things based on all of the lists I’d combined from baby magazines, Emma’s Diary (a book they gave me in pregnancy classes) and advice from whoever I could get it from.

In reality, baby would have been fine with a blanket, a nappy and a box to sleep in (if I’d ever put him down)!

And I was disabused fairly quickly of the notion that babies sleep all day except when they wake up to feed, and that I was going to write my novel whilst he slept.

Even so, like most new mother’s I had ‘stuff’. Into the house arrived cots, nappy bags, boxes of nappies and baby wipes. Babygrows. Knitted booties. Pram. Teddies. Sterilising equipment. Bottles. And more.

He’d outgrown most of it within three months and into a new phase of growth and life.

Things went into boxes and the same cycle repeated and as we had presents from naming ceremonies, gifts from delighted family ad visitors, keepsakes to store and yes, more books with more advice, and magazines.

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Then he started to walk, and everything needed to be put out of reach. To eat by himself: enter the high chair and plastic floor mats. To learn to read and write. To go to school. To play football. To ride a bike. To ride a horse. To kayak. To play hockey.

At each stage, more ‘stuff’ arrived, and whilst some was reused for his little brother, they were completely different children with different personalities and very different colouring and shapes. In fairness, I was more chilled when the second arrived, but the constantly changing need for things in our home to change to accommodate them was a constant throughout their early years.

For most parents it’s the same.

But the reality is that you’ve had to move things out to accommodate a baby who might even eventually be grateful for whatever you’ve just moved out to make way.

If baby’s sleeping in your room, you have to reorganise. Office becoming a nursery? Where’s the office ‘stuff’ going? Spare bedroom becoming a baby’s room, complete with intercom? What about all the things you were storing in there like the Christmas decorations and Hallowe’en costumes?

There are things that you can do to make more space, from underbed storage and extra shelving to toy bins and overdoor storage hangers. But if you want some temporary space as you go from phase to phase with your offspring, it’s worth considering a storage unit.

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That way you can keep hold of the furniture that was there before and will be again once the children are older. You can pack away those keepsakes to bring out on their 18th, 21st or wedding day. You can hold onto the memorabilia without having to look at it all of the time. And you can save first baby’s barely used clothes for the next child, for a friends child or just as a memento.

When babies first arrive, we tend to forget that they grow so rapidly. Each stage is special, but children’s living needs change, and your space will need to adapt. It’s not permanent, and a storage space will offer you flexibility and could save you from regrets.

It is now cheaper than ever to use good quality storage facilities. easyStorage is about half the price of traditional storage (you can get a no-obligation quote online here. easyStorage not only collect from you and return your goods to you, but also bring them back – and can even pack and load.

And with the space you free up, baby doesn’t need to be stuck in the corner, surrounded by stuff. Baby can return to centre stage!