First of all, no, I am not tossing out, leasing, or selling Reina (thanks for the offer). I’m keenly aware that type of behavior is frowned upon, not to mention that I am quite fond of her. Although the advent of twins will necessitate some changes being made to our living situation (lots of changes) and that additional space must be carved out for them in the home, no current member of the family will be displaced as even my own application for extradition was denied and there have even been veiled hints (some not-so-veiled) that this increase in family size is my fault.
I know that many will say babies are small and do not take up much room. This is true, but there is something daunting about twins and the amount of stuff it will take to get them through the first year, let alone the following 17 years or so.
We are still about 7 weeks away from having the twins descend upon our apartment and already we have two double strollers (we gave away the third) given to us by friends. Even when the strollers are closed, they take up a lot of space. Add a couple of cribs, a changing station, clothes, and a mountain of diapers, and that alone will nearly fill a small extra bedroom. And we don’t have a small extra bedroom.
Consequently, it’s spring cleaning season in July. I’ve been eyeing just about everything in our home and asking myself (and occasionally the rightful owner) whether or not we really need the items on the shelves and in the closets – since our family is increasing by 40 percent and our home is not.
I’m conflicted about this, as I am a minimalist packrat. From my point of view, everything could be useful again someday, but am I really going to re-read a book about Alexander Hamilton? So it’s out with the books, beware piles of paper, the days for unused toys are numbered, and if that outfit hasn’t been worn in a year, it’s out of here too.
We simply must make more room in the dresser, as I’ve a sneaking suspicion one of the babies will end up sleeping in it as I cannot for the life of me imagine where we will put a second crib. Come to think of it, that dresser does look a lot like a baby high-rise.
Photo by r0kk via Flickr
