Pre-Advent Declutter Challenge

My friend Brandi came up with a great way to help declutter our lives in advance of the Advent season, so that we can truly relax, enjoy, and prepare to welcome Christ once again. It’s way too easy to let the time leading up to Christmas become over-full with advance Christmas celebrations, shopping, preparing our homes, seeing all the people, and doing all the fun/cute/Pinterest activities (no, just me?). While enjoying the season in all of these ways is definitely not a bad thing, when they take over the season and take away from the focus of preparing for Christ’s birth and truly entering into Advent, it can be.

One way that Brandi decided she could more easily enjoy Advent was by preparing her home for it. She decided to start up a decluttering challenge in the days remaining before Advent and she invited her friends on Instagram to join along. She made her profile temporarily public while this challenge is going on so feel free to check out her stories @branadyga to learn a bit more about the challenge.

At first, I wasn’t going to join in. She started at the end of last week, and this week is my final week at work before baby. I figured I would be too busy to focus on any decluttering. But as I watched her stories and she emphasized how this isn’t some big, deep decluttering project, but more of a “some is good” project, I decided to join in.

The beauty of this challenge is that you can really join in whenever and make it as big (or as small) as you want. You devote as much time as you think you can to it, and there are no specific time or volume rules. It’s really about coming together for a little bit of accountability and fun seeing other people’s before and afters.

I started on November 23 with my side of the bedroom. After that, I came up with a list of things that I could do with my remaining days (minus this past Sunday), which I’ve shared below. I made sure everything fit with my schedule, and only planned to do something on the days where I wasn’t busy in the evening. I plan to share my progress on Instagram, so make sure you are following me @sweetspontaneity. 

One item on my list, my office, is an on-going process that I am approaching with a different mindset than I usually approach decluttering. Usually, I’m a dive in and get it done kind of person. I don’t leave the room and instead use a basket to collect anything that doesn’t belong there. After I am done the space, I then go take the items to their proper places. With my office, however, I was getting nowhere. I’ve had the space very tidy and quite organized (for some standards, very organized!) but it would continually get in bad shape again. The problem is, it’s kind of the place where I put things that I have not assigned a specific home to yet.  I have found that I would start sorting, make piles, have someone coming over, and shove everything back into the room and close the door. Only to start again a week or so later. A couple weeks ago, I made the decision to start with one item at a time and to put that item in it’s proper place before moving on. This often means that I am walking all over the house, back and forth, while decluttering. No, this isn’t efficient, but it’s helping me to make progress!

Do you have any decluttering projects that you would like to get to before Advent begins?

Five Experience Christmas Gift Ideas for Toddlers

There has been a bit of a surge in interest in the last few years about experience gifts versus physical gifts. With the popularization of minimalism, sustainability, and intentional living, experience gifts seem like a no-brainer. As a parent, I completely see the merits of limiting the “stuff” and avoiding overwhelm – not only for your children, but also for you as the parent keeping it all in order! I have been brainstorming what we could gift to Isabelle this year and came up with these ideas.

Weekly Activities/Clubs

If your child is involved in a regular, scheduled activity, or if there is something you were thinking of signing them up for, this makes a great gift! Dance, swimming, gymnastics, hockey, music – the possibilities are endless. As for what they can actually open on Christmas morning, you could purchase something they need for the class or activity. A bodysuit and tights for dance, a swimsuit for swimming lessons, skates for hockey, etc. Or, you could give them a small toy that emulates the activity, which you could use to help explain the activity if it is new to them or they are very young.

Visit to Local Attractions

You likely have a museum, children’s centre, or special local attraction available to you – why not get your child a pass to that? They will have fun spending time with you, and it would likely be educational, too.

Road Trip

This might not be for all children or families, especially if time in the car is more stressful than fun. But if you like short trips, consider a road trip to somewhere new or somewhere you have been before but could explore a little more.

Family Vacation

While a road trip could definitely be seen as a family vacation, this category is meant to be more of a larger vacation. Some families like to forgo presents to take a trip together instead. I am a huge fan of this idea, if your budget can accommodate it.

A Visit to the Bookstore or Library

Instead of purchasing your child books to open on Christmas Day, let them know that you will spend an afternoon together choosing a few books for them to enjoy. This can be at a bookstore or a library, but the key component is spending time together looking through all of the options and making the selection together.

I came up with plenty more ideas for older children, but it was a little bit harder to think of things that made sense for toddlers. What else would you add to the list?

Our Living Room & Fireplace Before and After

I cannot remember if I shared this information on the blog before, but in August 2017 my parents moved from Saskatoon to Regina and my husband and I moved into their home here in Saskatoon. We have been super happy with this arrangement – this is more house than we could even rent, nevermind buy; there is a huge backyard; there is a wonderful neighbour community; and I grew up here. When I look around at the different paint and design features, I see the hard work that my father put in to making our home beautiful and updated. There definitely is not anything that we needed to change or update, just a few things that could stand to become more our personal taste. We painted the living room from beige to a warm white within six months of moving in, and that is it. 

We have been taking our time with the whole house, but since the living room is the centre of the house and the first room you see when you enter, we wanted to focus our efforts here first. It took a while for us to decide to paint over the oak touches. While the tone of the wood was not really our style, we are not people that tend to jump right to painting over beautiful, great condition wood. We ultimately decided to go with white over the wood to brighten up the room, and then a blue on the walls (Soft Chinchilla - Benjamin Moore) as a contrast and statement.

Another large part of why we worked on this room first was the tiles on the hearth. The original ones were loose when we moved in (they had been on my dad's to-do list for years). When our daughter was starting to crawl, she discovered that she could loosen the grout. All of a sudden, the tiles were off and the little pieces of grout were finding their way into her pudgy little hands on their way to her mouth. We obviously did not want her to be eating the grout, so my husband removed everything that was loose or could possibly become loose soon. What was left was about half of the tiles and a half-naked hearth. My husband and I do not have similar styles when it comes to home decor, and we are still pretty new at this, so it took a very long time to come to a consensus and we lived with this sad hearth much longer than I would have liked to.

Once we were ready to go, though, my husband did a great job building the wooden sides to the hearth to match my vision. Instead of tiling the top and sides as it had previously been, we decided to tile the top but go with wooden sides with a curved wooden edge - this was my number one priority so that it was a bit more child-safe. We really struggled to agree on the look, and particularly the size, of the tiles to use, but we ultimately ended up with these marble-look subway tiles, and I could not be more happy with them,

This room does not have any exterior walls, so there are no direct windows to the outdoors (the windows flanking the fireplace go into the sunroom). There are pockets during the day, especially during the bright, reflective winter, that allow light into this room, but the majority of the day sees this room in darkness. As such, it is important to us to make design decisions that maximize the light and brighten the room when we can.

We still have plenty we want to do in this room, including changing out the baseboards and even the floor, but it will be a long, slow process. We haven't really styled or decorated the mantel yet, either. We tend to layer pieces over time, and I will be decorating for Christmas soon.

Another thing we did in the living room was remove the built-in, look-through shelves that separated the entrance from the living room. This still isn't totally complete, though, because we have some patching and painting to do, so I will share that update when it's fully finished.

What are some updates that you have done recently in your home, or that you hope to do soon?

Products used:
Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior Eggshell - Soft Chinchilla (Wall)
Benjamin Moore Advance Interior Pearl - Distant Gray (Woodwork)

Household Items to Stock Up On Before Baby Arrives

I recently shared a post about the practical ways I am preparing for baby. In that post, I mention stocking up on household items before baby comes so that you don’t have to worry about them for a while after baby arrives. I had a lot of people ask what exactly I stocked up on last time and what I’ll stock up on this time, so I thought I would share a list. I am not stocking up on some of these items this time around, because I have more than enough on hand to get us through the first three months, but I wanted to include a more comprehensive list for someone starting from scratch.

Kitchen

Dish soap

Dishwasher tabs

Garbage bags

Ziploc Bags (multiple sizes)

Saran wrap

Tin foil

Parchment paper

Paper Towel

Napkins

Cleaning

Toilet bowl cleaner

Multi-purpose Cleaner (or use the ingredients below to make your own)

Ingredients to make different cleaners (empty spray bottles, rubbing alcohol, white vinegar, dish soap, essential oils, baking soda) 

Laundry

Detergent

Vinegar (in place of fabric softener)

Stain remover

Bathroom

Kleenex

Shampoo/Conditioner

Body Wash

Bar Soap

Toothpaste

Toothbrushes
Dental floss
Razors

Specific skincare (one backup of each item)

Toilet paper
Hand soap
Q-tips
Cotton rounds

If you start stocking up a couple months ahead of time, you can also wait until the items are on sale, which is actually a great habit to get into if you’re trying to be budget-conscious and you have some storage space to spare. Instead of waiting until you are on the last bit of a product or the last roll of paper towel, when you grab that last item add it to your list and keep your eye out for the next couple weeks to wait for the sale. Sales tend to go in cycles of six weeks, and you will eventually notice the patterns in your area. But I can dive into that another time if you’re interested.

Is there anything else you would add to this list of items to stock up on?

Practical Ways to Prepare for Baby

I recently shared a post about how I am preparing for maternity leave in Canada. As I wrote that post, I realized there were a lot of other practical ways that I am preparing for Baby #2 that I thought I should share. A few things that I am doing to prepare for when baby arrives are preparing myself mentally for a different schedule, making some very loose plans for activities or events, making plans for meals/food, stocking up basic supplies, and making a list of people I can reach out to for help.

A Different Schedule

It is a big shift to go from working full-time, Monday to Friday, to being home all day every day. While my introverted self loves it, I actually need to be prepared to push myself into a little bit more of a schedule. I can easily fall into laziness (especially with the excuse of a new baby), and I do not want to do that. Thankfully Isabelle is pretty structured, so I know I’ll need to be at least a little bit more scheduled for her, but I also do not want to rely on her to keep me in check! I have a rough idea of the kind of schedule I want to aim for, based on my experience with Isabelle, but I know it might be extremely different with this baby, and I am prepared to show myself grace and allow for changes. This, of course, is only after I have taken time to rest and heal during the Fourth Trimester.

Planning Activities

Just like my plan for my schedule, I have a loose plan for activities and events that I want to get to with the kids. Things like mom groups, mommy and baby exercise classes, recurring playdates (maybe even hosting a regular group one??), and mid-week visits to both sets of grandparents are on my list and slotted into my mental calendar. I want to take advantage of this amazing time at home, and for that I need a plan (even if it changes).

Food

In terms of food, I find I am not the best for preparing freezer meals. Lisa from the blog Farmhouse on Boone recently did a different kind of freezer cooking prep that I think I might try to emulate. Instead of preparing full-on meals, she cooked up meal components that her family enjoys and that can be mixed and matched to make meals. So, although it might not be quite as easy as pulling out of the freezer and putting into the oven, it cuts the prep time considerably.

I also recently started a Meal Train program at my church that I fully intend on signing up as a recipient for.

Household Supplies

Before my last maternity leave, I watched all the YouTube videos, read all the blogs, and found all the pins on Pinterest about how to prepare for baby. Some of my favourite tips had nothing to do with the baby at all; they were about the function of your house and your family. The top tip was to stock up on household things such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, cleaners, dish soap, etc. I am all for this, because it makes me feel accomplished and it is something I can organize in the nesting phase if I run out of baby clothes to fold.

Now, yes, my husband is fully capable of picking up toilet paper and buying laundry detergent. However, I would prefer he not waste his time doing things that I can easily do ahead of time anyway. He wants to be with baby, too! Moreover, if he needs some alone time out of the house, I think he would rather see a friend than run to Walmart. Also, with the hormones that come after giving birth, I don’t want to deal with the potential sob fest I might experience if the “wrong” kind of laundry detergent was picked up (yeah, that’s a thing that can happen, as ridiculous as it may sound).

Support System

Finally, and honestly most importantly, I am making a list of people that I can reach out to for help. I mean an actual list. It is important to at least think about who you can go to for help, because when you are in the thick of it, you might come up blank. I am taking it a step further and writing it down so that it is available for me in those inevitable moments when I just cannot think, and so that my husband can step in and ask for that help when I do not feel I can ask for it. The postpartum period is so beautiful, but it is also so, so difficult. It is important to have a support system in place and to ask for help when we need it. Even though my parents and my in-laws do not live in Saskatoon, I have a large support system, and my mom and mother-in-law are still only a phone call away.

This list should include anyone and everyone who has offered you help in some way. The list can include how they can help if they were specific or just their name if they are a general helper. You should also include community help associations and medical organizations that can be helpful, such as a lactation consultant, your health region’s contact for postpartum support, your doctor, the health line, etc.

AND USE THIS LIST! You can and should ask for help if you need it. Your loved ones want to help.

If you are in Saskatoon, here are some organizations or contacts I am adding to my list.

If you are pregnant or have had a child, what did you do to prepare for when the baby arrived?