Organizing

"Let's organize some things in Uncle Joel's old room," Isaac has been saying lately. He also asks if we can "sort some stuff." He doesn't mean toys, either -- he wants to work with real things. And we've got plenty of it!

I think it started two weeks ago when my friend loaned me her maternity wardrobe. Isaac watched as I systematically tried on every item, sorting out those which would work for me. Then, to make room for the bonanza, I cleared my dresser of my regular clothes. I sorted those as well: items I might consider wearing in the future and items I never want to see again. Isaac seemed very impressed.

And as Isaac said, we've also been sorting through items in my brother Joel's old room. When Joel moved out of our house last year he left behind a random assortment of stuff, and we're finally dealing with it. I'm disposing of the unwanted things (we've made $50 on Craigslist so far through the sale of two elderly TVs, a DVD player, and a VCR) and figuring out where to put the things Joel wants us to store on a permanent basis.

Isaac's method of sorting isn't that helpful, which probably doesn't come as a surprise. He usually takes an existing stack of items and randomly distributes them around the room, or even around the entire house. He is especially interested in taking records out of their sleeves, but he also enjoys scattering the coins from a cache of foreign money left over from Joel's overseas tours (now mostly worthless due to currency changes). He also likes to measure the furniture with a tape measure, then pretend to consider his options. He mutters things to himself like, "What are we going to do with this?"

Joel's room is pretty exciting for Isaac. He never knows what cool thing we're going to uncover next -- could be a drumstick, a toy car, or a portable DVD player in a neat little case. But he's also happy to find a 7-inch record on orange vinyl, or an empty laundry basket to climb into.

The specifics of organizing are a drag, but overall I am enjoying the process, which I guess means that I'm nesting despite being only 18 weeks pregnant. It's a good thing I'm starting early, because there's a long way to go. We plan to clear out the master closet in order to put the crib in there, which means relocating much of the contents to the second closet in the master bedroom, which will have a trickle-down effect on the closets in the guest room and Joel's old room.

Last time I was pregnant, our house was being remodeled, and the only nesting for which I could summon spirit was organizing the wrapping paper. So I want to take advantage of this impulse!

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This will be too detailed for some readers, but other people have actually asked about our plans for settling the new baby into our house (which, by the way, has four bedrooms and therefore plenty of room). We will turn Joel's old room into an exercise / TV / overflow guest room, while the current guest room will remain as is. Unfortunately those two rooms are at the opposite end of the house from the master bedroom, so they aren't good options as bedrooms for small children. (They should work well for noisy older kids, though!)

So Isaac will stay in his room, which is right next to the master bedroom, for at least two more years. For her first six months the new baby will spend nights in a bassinet by our bed, and she will nap either in the bassinet or in the crib in the master closet*. After six months, she will outgrow the bassinet and will do all her sleeping in the crib in the closet. By the time she's 18 months old she will probably be eager to move out of the closet, and as Isaac will be nearly five years old by then, maybe he will like the idea of moving across the house into a brand new room -- or perhaps he would prefer to share his old room with his little sister. We'll let him choose.

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*Or, if she turns out to be anything like Isaac was, she will nap only when being held. Sigh.