How Not To Feel Overwhelmed By Baby Gear

Photograph by Terry Richardson for French Vogue

The first week after our baby shower it felt like Babies"R"Us threw up all over our apartment. It was so overwhelming. I told my husband it felt like a phantom roommate moved in when we were gone and then took off to South America. Living in a one bedroom apartment, we have limited space so we just shoved all the boxes and bags of clothes in the corner of the living room and it sat there for a couple weeks. I figured out an organization plan that worked for us and brought the stress level down to a minimum. Here are some tips.

1. Buy a dresser/ changing station for the baby. There are so many affordable options out there for baby furniture these days. We found our dream changing table/ dresser at Pottery Barn Kids.  It is affordable and made of solid wood, which is important for us. We placed all the blankets, clothing and plush toys in the drawers so that they would have a home until the baby arrived.

2. Wash all of the infant clothes now! It's important to throw all the blankets and clothing in the wash before the baby comes in contact with them. I am the type of person who likes to prepare for everything so there is no better time than now to do this than now. Your newborn will have sensitive skin, so you need to prepare for that. According to studies some baby clothes, "Are sprayed with formaldehyde before being shipped so that they get that fresh look" and also who knows what was crawling around the warehouse where the clothing was stored. We use Seventh Generation Unscented Laundry detergent, which is biodegradable, free of dyes and synthetic fragrances. After washing everything, you can store them in your dresser for your baby. To read more about it, click here.

3. If borrowing baby gear, wait until two weeks before your due date to pick it up. We have friends and family members that are loaning us various things for our baby. Stuff like a car seat is just going to sit in the corner of our apartment so why not leave it at their place until we really need it?

4. Take inventory and make lists of things you still need. I am a total list person. I make lists everyday of things I need to do.  I realized after everything we received from the shower, I still needed various nursing stuff so I went out and purchased them and stored them in our adult dresser until needed.

5. If the item in the box is larger when put together than the box, leave it in the box. We received a swing and a pac and play crib and both items are a lot larger when put together than the storage box and travel case that they arrived in. There's no point in having a swing or crib set up in our apartment when there's no baby to put them in.

6. Have the will power to tell people "no thank you." One of the best part about being pregnant is realizing how much love and support you have around you. People want to give you things they have or buy you things they think you need. We've had so many generous people say, "Here, take this baby blah blah blah." At first, thought we needed it but then I realized it would just take up space in our apartment and then it would make me feel overwhelmed. I really can't pin point what our baby will need other than clothing, breast milk, a crib and other odds and ends but that doesn't mean I am going to load up on everything that people offer. Instead of flat out rejecting things from friends and family, I've told them that I would wait until the baby arrives and if I still needed it, I would take them up on their offer.

On a side note, I've been listening to 10,000 Maniac's 'Eat For Two.' I think my sister had this album and Our Time in Eden. If you are pregnant, have a baby or want to revisit late 80's nostalgia click the video below.