Parts of my Minimalist Home (Apartment)… Baby Bun’s Toys and Things

By request (you can ask me anything anonymously & quickly here and then I post most of my answers every Friday at noon under my Ask Sherry! category), I was asked to show a bit more of my apartment. I originally posted my closet here, and my fridge here.

My minimalist living room & kitchen in detail was also recently posted.

As mentioned, I will be showing what I can of the apartment. It’s a bit of a mess right now with renovations taking a long time *cough* and some of the features of the apartment are unique and too distinctive to post without claiming to keep anonymity.

So, I am showing you what I can, and how we organize the way we live….

All of my posts can be seen here: Sherry’s Home.

BABY BUN’S THINGS

By reader request (and because I too, am curious), here is what we own for Baby Bun. It can pretty much all be kept on this one shelf.

Right now, all of Baby Bun’s things are stored in the spare bedroom / office. I say “spare” because it is actually his bedroom but he is co-sleeping with us because I have chosen not to fight that particular battle, and we are (now) both on board with the idea.

Long story short, he will eventually want to sleep on his own without his parents, and I don’t mind how long it takes as long as it means more sleep for all of us overall.

So, this is his rack in the entire apartment. You can see what the rest of that bedroom looks like here.

At the top it is partly an electronics / charging station because he tends to get his little paws into everything and likes electronics in particular, so we had to devise a station out of reach of little fingers.

I should note that instead of these racks, you can also pick up these colourful toy racks which my friend uses and swears by as they’re angled and allow children to put away and reach for things easily on their own as well.

On the rack below the electronics:

Sleeping shirts, pants, and these Naty 5 Pull-ups which we refer to as “night underwear”.

And beside that, puzzles. He has a huge floor puzzle with animals and letters on it, and puzzles in bags that he asks to play with on occasion.

I also keep the iPad here which I have no qualms using to teach him a second language except the flaw in the great plan is that he actually doesn’t ask for the iPad often, as surprising as that sounds!!!

It has no wifi, no videos, no pictures other than ones of us, and it only has French language apps to teach him French… which has greatly improved his learning and understanding. He has full access to it any time he wants, and he wants it maybe 10% of the time.

THE TOP RACK SHOWN

This rack holds his going out things.

These are all of his current clothes. Come to think of it, I don’t think we have any more clothes in store than this, unlike other parents we know, who have boxes and boxes of clothing labeled by size / age group, etc.

We kept it pretty simple. We only had ONE suitcase of hand-me-down clothing from his cousins, and I picked out half of it for when he was a baby such as the onesies (most of which he has completely ruined over time due to massive overuse and laundry).

The other half is the half he is using now as a toddler, and then we would go to stores and supplement where we were missing things such as longer jersey pyjamas for when he sleeps.

On the left:

He has a pair of grey jeans he got as a present a while ago, but knowing my son, he hates wearing actual pants, and would much prefer sweat or jersey pants which are soft and easy to move around in. I have a feeling these will get passed on or re-gifted which is a shame as they would have fit him well.

Beside that, is my beloved Mei Tai Chimparoo which I reviewed here. I may have to pack it away soon because not only he is finally getting too heavy to be carried around like that even while he is sick, he is resisting being put in it when I ask him if he wants to “Mommy Cuddle in the Chimparoo“.

Underneath the pants is a thrifted ivory cashmere sweater which is super soft and I love, but over time have shrunk in the wash (no matter what you do, these things will just get smaller and smaller). In about a year it’ll fit Baby Bun nicely, and it looks plain and unisex, so yay!

On the right:

This basket holds all of his going out clothes which you can see have no rhyme or reason.

What I have specifically:

• 3 going out long-sleeved shirts/sweaters (one was a present)
• 4 t-shirts (he somehow ONLY wants to wear the army green ones or the striped one; it’s his Mommy’s influence)
• 2 polo shirts (both were presents, I wonder if the parents are trying to tell me something about the way he is dressed :-P)
• 2 pairs of shorts (his favourite is the jersey soft one, hates the other button up one)
• 2 pairs of long pants (I need more of these pants but can’t find what I want)

When we do laundry, he takes it out of the dryer for me, puts it into that interim carrying basket I mentioned in my Minimalist Laundry Room post, carries it with some help from me to the bedroom, goes on his tiptoes, and sorts and puts away his laundry all by himself.

I have resisted against having a chest of drawers or hanging anything up because:

1. I hate folding things if I don’t have to. They just get disheveled again when you try and grab one out of the pile. What’s the point? It’s the same as making a bed in the morning — I don’t really care to waste even 5 minutes on it because I’ll just get back into it later. I only make the bed if the covers get too tangled to use properly.
2. I hate wasting my time on ironing. Unless the clothes need to be ironed (button up shirts), a shirt that’s a little wrinkled doesn’t bother me for myself or for Baby Bun.
3. Children can’t master the use of hangers nor proper folding until later. …and even then, I don’t want to put them through that nonsense until they start having to wear stuff that requires ironing when they’re older. I myself like everything hung on hangers to stay wrinkle-free-ish, so why not have the same thing for Baby Bun? Folded items suck up time.
4. He can put away the laundry by himself and is very proud he can do so. It is a nice way to teach independence, and self-reliance and it has gotten to the point where I just supervise him a little, but he does all of the laundry sorting & arranging by himself. He even sorts my things out from the basket saying: This is Mommy’s!

So there you have it.

I’m lazy AF and proud of it, because I have shaved off wasted time in unnecessary activities that don’t mean anything to me or my life such as read 262 books in 2016.

THE MIDDLE RACK SHOWN

On the left:

There are his old cloth diapers on the left because they are VERY handy in mopping up and cleaning little accidents all over the apartment. He still pees on occasion and these cloths are super absorbent and easy to wash.

On the right:

This is the basket that holds his ‘stay-at-home’ clothes:

We have two separate sets of clothes because that’s the way we live too. When we come home, we all change out of our outside clothes (dirt, dust, pollution), and hang them up to re-wear (if we’re able to, such as with jeans) on a hook, and then change into at-home clothes. Comfy cashmere sweaters and jogging pants (my favourite being of course the ones from Grana, full review here) and t-shirts.

Baby Bun is no different. He has at-home pants and shirts.

What I have:

• 5 white t-shirts for sleeping
• 2 white long-sleeved shirts to wear over t-shirts
• 5 pairs of long pants for sleeping

I may actually end up taking some of the pyjama pants and making them outside pants because I need at least one more pair of ‘outside’ pants now that a pair has become far too short.

Below all the racks

On the left side:

These are all of the books he owns. I went around picking them up from various rooms in the house (he was like me when I was younger, I used to read and leave books all over the place), and corralled them back into the basket.

I call it his “Book Basket”, and he knows that all the books have to go back into the Book Basket when I tell him it’s time to clean up.

I need to get rid of some of these books however, I am not loving some of the stories.

Here’s what I have currently:

• We’re going on a Bear Hunt – Likes the rhyme of this book and the sound effects I make about going through snowstorms etc
• [Gift] My First Book of Real Mother Goose Stories – Getting rid of this; the old rhymes are outdated.
• Corduroy – Loves this bear, he wants to be just like him with buttons etc.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Ultimate favourite book of all, he likes to “cook” for the caterpillar with these wooden sustainable fruits & vegetables.
• Dear Zoo – Again, a thrift store book, in brand new condition. He likes the flaps hiding the animals.
• Hidden Hippo – The Barefoot books are excellent. I found this in a thrift store but would have purchased it at retail.
• The Grouchy Ladybug – The worst of all of Eric Carle’s books I think. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I hate reading it (small text).
• [Gift] Snoozers 7 Bedtime Stories – I haven’t had Baby Bun read it enough to see whether he likes it or not
• Little Giraffe at the Beach – He loves that the things like the ball move on the page with flaps and the animals are hiding.
• Polo se trouve une amie – An old book with moving tabs about a dog named Polo in French
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear – He loves this book, but especially loves the Slide & Find edition.
• [Gift] La Gondole de Guido – Haven’t read it to him yet.
• Mr. Fixit’s Whacky Toolbox – Between the two Scarry books, I’d pass on this one, it doesn’t go in an easy flow for children to follow (he keeps getting confused and is reading it horizonally by going to the right side of the page for the story instead of going down on the left page the way a “normal” book would be)
• Mr. Frumble’s Big Flat Hat – He is obsessed with this book and the hat being run over. His favourite book with lots of action & easy to see where to go for the story.
• Les Chiffres – Stories of numbers in French up to 10
• Busiest People Ever – OBSESSED with this book. I read it at least 9 times a week for him.
• Goodnight Moon – Loves this book and finding the mouse hidden in the photos
• Hello Mrs. Piggle Wiggle – Too advanced for him but I really picked it up at a thrift store for me, I was such a huge fan of Enid Blyton and this reminded me of her
• The Tale of … Set – Picked it up in a thrift store for $20. The set is almost complete (missing 2 and 20), but the stories are terrible for today’s modern children and certainly not PC … he loves them anyway, and wants to look at the pictures inside of the cats, the mice, and to arrange the books in a row and push them around like a train *shrug* They’re more of a toy than for reading purposes.

The ones I’d buy again are these ones and I would keep them for the long-term for his children too if we had the space. They’re nice, sentimental books to be passed down through the family, I hope.

1. We’re going on a Bear Hunt
2. Corduroy
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar 
4. Hidden Hippo
5. Little Giraffe at the Beach
6. Polo se trouve une amie
7. Panda Bear, Panda Bear – Slide & Find edition.
8. Mr. Frumble’s Big Flat Hat
9. Busiest People Ever
10. Goodnight Moon

In the middle beside the books:

All his socks go here. It’s his “sock box” and he sorts them into this basket when we do laundry.

On the right:

All of his underwear.

There’s barely any in here because he keeps having mini accidents (not full-blown ones all over the floor), so I change him at least 9 times a day. *sigh*… did I mention we’re on Month 5? I wrote about realistically potty training your toddler but was fully prepared for it to take 6 months or more to “take” and to have dry underwear most of the day.

 

NOW FOR HIS TOYS

In our bedroom where we spend half the day, he has two more baskets and two little boxes I picked up from Ikea for him.

Correction, I actually picked up those boxes FOR ME because I love the cute cityscape design on them, but he has since taken possession of them because he loves them too.

Anyway. This is what else he owns in the other room:

See how cute the boxes are? I thought the design was very charming and a bit Kate Spade-esque.

Inside one of the boxes, are all of his sustainable wood fruits & vegetables, I call it his “fruit box” and he LOVES THESE THINGS.

He sets up picnics for his stuffed animals, lays out the table, feeds them, wipes their mouths, helps them drink water, and then hugs them to bring them back home to their Mommy & Daddy.

The second box holds his toy trains which he sometimes uses on the matching mat I purchased seen in my living room here, but he really just loves to run the trains over anything — chairs, the bed, the pillows, on Mommy….

I also have some cards behind it that hold numbers that you match up. Number puzzles if you will. We sometimes put them together and I ask him what number it is…

This is the third box I forgot to take a picture of, but nevertheless, it holds some flash cards I made for him.

It is how I got him to learn his alphabet by playing with them, and I have since snipped off the word at the bottom to see if he can match the word with the pictures now. It’s a new game.

He also has a collection of stickers for potty training and good behaviour. Instead of giving him stickers and letting him run all over the house plastering them on things that would be hard to peel them off from, I have trained him to use “sticker pads” and to create scenes and patterns with the stickers.

He also sometimes takes them out, re-peels off the stickers that come off easily (the plastic ones, not the felt ones) and re-arranges them to match with photos on the back, or re-configures them.

I also went to a thrift store and purchased an Opposites matching game.

I tried to play it with him but it is a little advanced at the time I bought it, so I just didn’t bother, and drew letters on the back in coloured sharpies to reinforce learning.

Now he loves these letters and spelling with them. He is obsessed with spelling certain words like NUMBERS (he loves numbers) or ANGEL because it features heavily in a book we read.

And that’s all we own for Baby Bun in terms of toys.

I am considering buying a car or some other vehicles for him to play with but that won’t be later until we get rid of something to make room for it. A puzzle perhaps.

All of my posts can be seen here: Sherry’s Home.