The trouble with changing tables.

We are opting for the baby to sleep with us for the first year. We really only need a place to change her diapers. It isn't so simple as just putting up a diaper station, though. Oh, no. Nothing is ever that easy or straightforward in this family!

In order to have the changing table near us (for those half-awake-middle-of-the-night changings) but not actually in our bedroom (so we don't have to smell it), we must:

• move the random-stuff-we-all-seem-to-have out of the family room space and into some kind of storage structure
  
• move my sewing area out of the third bedroom and into the freed-up space in the family room
• move the daughter out of the second bedroom and into the vacant third bedroom
• set up the changing table (and other nursery items) in the vacant second bedroom

No time being like the present, we piled into the car this unseasonably hot Saturday morning and braved the Amsterdam Ikea crowds. We literally filled two pallet-carts so high with boxes I couldn't see over one, and the other one was as high as my shoulders. Somehow the husband managed to jenga every last one into the car all by himself. My big baby-belly prevented me from doing anything other than making several trips to the beverage counter to keep him hydrated while he stood out in the scorching sun lifting and stacking. He is now taking a well deserved nap (ok, ok, so he actually fell asleep on the couch watching tv) before he has to drag them all in, one by one, down a flight of stairs to the family room.

Then the fun begins. We can assemble and bolt in place two large storage units- one for our stuff and one for my sewing.

And when I say stuff, I don't mean a tiny bit of items. Again, this is our family and we never seem to be able to do things by halves. Here are the "before" shots of the family room (as taken this afternoon):

These two shots were taken "side by side" as I simply cannot figure out how to do a proper panorama shot.

See? I wasn't kidding when I said we have a lot of stuff. Yes, that is a full sized side-by-side fridge there, all the way on the left. You can use it to imagine just how much is really there. Most people have a junk drawer in their kitchen. We have a junk wall in our basement. There really is that much stuff.

I am also not a fan of the piles everywhere: piles of games, piles of encyclopedias, piles of toys that get left behind (today is a good day, the daughter recently cleaned up her last pile of toys). Mrs. Beeton said, "A place for everything, and everything in its place." Mrs. Beeton was a genius. When I grow up, I want to be Mrs. Beeton. We seem to have everything, so now all we need is the place to keep it!

With a little luck the nap will be over soon and the husband can start lugging boxes in the house. I can't wait to get started on finally organizing everything and putting it all away. Perhaps I may need to drop a pan or two on the kitchen floor, accidentally of course, to help wake him up?