CURRENTLY VOL. 3
DECLUTTERING: About a month or so ago I fell into a rut. Our home was a mess as we were preparing to paint & I felt like a mess internally as a result. Through the process of clearing out our living room to prep for the painting I realized we had A LOT of unnecessary clutter. Stacks of books, knick-knacks stashed everywhere, & dust piles behind everything. Something had to change. I’ve wanted to declutter & pair down our possessions for a while. I had been working on it pretty diligently & selling things on Poshmark & Mercari before Buddy came around but once he was here the T H I N G S piled up again & I lost my momentum. That very day I loaded up about 75% of the books we had all-over the house & took them directly to Half Price Books to sell & donate. With the money I earned I bought a few new children’s books for Buddy (which take up SIGNIFICANTLY less space than adult books). The process felt so good. From there on I started submerging myself into simplifying & decluttering resources. I’m not aspiring to be a minimalist, but rather to declutter the noise & simplify things for a more meaningful space. I really like how Gretchen Rubin describes a similar process she went through in Happier at Home (which I’m reading now as part of this whole process). I’m slowly making my way through all the S T U F F & it’s feeling good to let go. Our weekly cleaning routine is getting easier too because there are less things to dust & less places for dust bunnies to accumulate. I’m also working on being more thoughtful about what I purchase & bring into our home. Some resources that have energized me (& given me the nudge to let go) have been The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, The Art of Letting Go, TEDx Talk, Goodbye Things: The New Japanese Minimalism, Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, Happier at Home, & a bunch of Minimalism YouTube Vloggers.
BEHR MARQUEE: When we moved into our house all of the walls were painted a builder’s grade stale tan shade (that’s not the technical name, that’s the name I’ve dubbed it). The color was fine but I never truly loved it, how it worked with our décor, & how dark it made our home. We have slowly been painting every room in the house a brighter white shade (Cameo White it has a grey/brown undertone) to make the rooms feel bigger & brighter. We’re pretty sold on the Behr Marquee paint for its one(ish) coat abilities (sometimes we have to touch a few areas up with a second coat). The Behr Marquee paint is low VOC, which makes it a little bit safer with baby around (we still keep him out of the rooms we are painting as much as possible, keep the windows open & airflow moving). I get a lot of questions about the color of paint we use (rightfully so- why is it the hardest thing to find a good white paint?!) so here it is: Behr Marquee Cameo White. Next up will be our trim & we will use the Behr Marquee Ultra Pure White.
CARTERS PJs & EVERYTHING ELSE: If you keep up with me on Instagram you know that Carter’s is one of my favorite places to shop for my baby. They have phenomenal sales, their clothing sizes are the most reliable for us (even though Buddy is typically a size up from his age), & they have a huge selection of clothing styles. We are always sure to stock-up on their soft & adorable pajamas for each size range Buddy is in. If you get their emails they keep you up-to-date on all of the stellar sales they have, & they have a lot of great ones frequently! Not to mention their Rewarding Moments program just got a whole lot sweeter as they joined-up with OshKosh B’Gosh (where we get our denim overalls from!) & SkipHop. When you spend $100 you get $10 back in rewards & there are a bunch of other perks like easy returns, member-only promotions & even a birthday gift for your little one. Great deals & rewards perks- I can’t say “no” to that. And hey- here is $15 off your first $50 purchase in store or online!
BEABA BABYCOOK: Admittedly when constructing our baby registry last year I thought “I don’t need one of those fancy baby food makers, I can do that myself”… *inserts foot in mouth* I was wrong, I was very wrong. Making baby food, with various pots, pans, & food processors actually takes a decent amount of time. Enter our Beaba Babycook. It’s like a personal, live-in baby chef. All you do is fill the basket with fruits & veggies and let it do its thang. The Babycook steams & cooks the food & then, in the same vessel, will purée the food. AH-MAZING. That means no pile of pots & pans in my sink & more time to spend with my baby (or sleeping?). And this is just extra but the Babycook comes in 6 awesome colors- so good luck deciding which one you want!
GREEN CHILE SEASON: Thank goodness Oklahoma is only a state away from New Mexico (my home-state) & we get some of the fringe benefits of green chile season. Our Whole Foods just got their first batch of green chiles for the fall & I am already on my third case of them. I will be keeping them stocked in my fridge all season long & eventually stash a few away in my freezer to hold me over until next chile season. I put GC on EVERYTHING(scrambled eggs, veggie burgers, pizza, soups, salsa, etc) & sometimes I even just roll one up whole in a flour tortilla with some melted cheese and eat it like that.
Previous Volumes of CURRENTLY:
CURRENTLY VOL. 1
CURRENTLY VOL. 2