Before I had children, baby-proofing seemed like a one time thing you did. Your house wasn’t safe, you baby-proofed it, and now it was. Instead I’ve learned it’s an almost constant state. First you move things out of reach, and then what they can reach changes. They learn to climb, and then more things need to be moved or secured. We’ve done a pretty good job, but it’s getting to the point where we need to do another pass through the house.
First up? Our bedroom.
Originally it wasn’t a big deal, since E was never in our room, or never in there alone. But as he’s gotten bigger and more curious, and as we’ve started to give him a bit more freedom, things have changed. First we secured the cabinets in the bathroom, and made sure all the cleaning supplies were locked away. We still have more work to do in there, but it was a start. But up next? Our closet.
I jokingly call them the death dressers, but there’s unfortunately a lot of truth in that name. All heavy furniture can become dangerous around children if not properly anchored, but for whatever reason these dressers are extra unstable. There’s an active recall out for them, but when it was just the two of us, that wasn’t a big deal.
After E came along, we’d often mention it. They needed to go away, and we both were in agreement. But they needed to be replaced by something. I was of the opinion if I just got rid of the dressers and dumped our clothes on the floor, we’d suddenly become motivated to do something about it! Tom wasn’t excited about that idea, so he took the lead in designing us a new closet. I’d already done some of the leg work to give him a pretty good idea of where to get started, but there was still a bit of planning work to do.
I may be great at big picture ideas, dreaming up projects and doing lots of research, but where Tom shines is actually getting things done, and doing it quickly. If you put him to work he just keeps going until the job is done. I get distracted and will start and finish three other projects and have a second child before finally finishing what I started, but Tom will go from designing, to a solo trip to Ikea with the baby, to all of a sudden over 50 boxes are delivered to our house in less than a week.
So although the route may seem circuitous, we are well on our way to getting rid of the death dressers. We’ll end up with a new and hopefully better organized closet, and then I’ll have a large and empty bedroom to figure out what to do with.
In the meantime, we might be living out of piles of clothes on the floor though… so if we’re looking a bit wrinkly the next time you see us, we’re working on it!
