I think I’d like to go back home
January 29th, 2010This week’s organization resolution is making me giddy. Filling up bags of stuff to take out of your home and never bring back is one kind of purging-thrill, but majorly condensing stuff that you ARE keeping around forever is a much more satisfying task, but harder to do. We know lots of people who, for space-saving reasons mostly, get rid of all of their CD jewel cases and keep the liner notes and cds in binders or wallets (the current issue of DIY magazine has a really cool photo-framing idea using empty jewel cases). This is a great idea if you are That Kind of Person – we aren’t. The album art is a huge part of the deal to us and we just can’t get rid of all of it.
BUT.
We don’t care about DVD packaging. We own somewhere around 150 movies and documentaries (as it turns out, eep) and it never occured to us to store them in a more condensed way. We’ve only ever really gotten rid of DVDs when we got married and condensed our collections, and I think we’ve put a few on swaptree. For the most part, though, all of the movies/etc. that we own are in our possession because we watch them over and over and over (we don’t have cable – we do Netflix, so all we do is watch stuff on DVD from there or our collection or stream it).
And… I HATE having shelves and shelves of DVDs – they are ugly, they take up lots of space, and I just hate them. Did I say that? I hate them. I’d never entertained the idea of getting rid of the packaging because I think CD wallets and binders are even worse. And let’s face it – I’ve got more pressing organizational needs than DVDs (…you should see my fabric.) We’ve built up quite the collection over the years because we usually buy them used for a few dollars or in the $3.00 bins at BigLots (does anyone else love Spellbound like I do? Capote? Maria Full of Grace? The Squid and the Whale? – all in the $3 bins at BigLots)… so movie-buying is like a treasure hunt.
Anyway – I had a revelation the other day that hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s definitely not ingenious, but I’ve just never thought of it before because, well, you know – fabric, all that. I bought a set of boxes like these and some packs of single protective CD sleeves, and will make some alphabet tab dividers to fit. As soon as we got home from picking up these things we attacked our DVD collection with gusto. A few things got to stay in their packaging: the few TV series that we feel the need to own and watch and rewatch and rewatch, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, and some music stuff. The rest got filed into the boxes and then gutted and sorted into bags for recycling.
So, so, SO satisfying for my OCD and aesthetic brain. *sigh*
Was it good for you?
In other news… we keep running into people that we know, or used to know. It took awhile for this to happen. I was beginning to feel so weird about living here because we’d go run a whole afternoon full of errands and not recognize a soul. Now it happens all the time and all is right with the universe.
Today’s parenting freakout is about whether or not to turn Hazel’s carseat. I knew this day would come but every time I tried to think about it my brain would scream no, not yet, for the love of god just STOP. She has a Graco Safeseat and since she’s such a peanut it will fit her for quite awhile longer, but we were about to buy a new seat so she could face forward. And then I started reading, and now I think we should keep her rear-facing for as long as we can, but I still think we should buy a new seat so she’s not so reclined and so she’s sitting up a bit higher and can look around more. I hate trying to decide these very hard things. Even if I’ve committed to rear-facing in my mind and Mikey is on board… WHAT THE HELL SEAT DO WE BUY??? This isn’t the kind of things you can just… go buy. Or I can’t. Right now I am thinking the Britax Marathon, but I just don’t know. Thankfully she DOES still fit in her infant seat and I’m quite sure she’ll outgrow it in length before weight, so we don’t have to decide right now, but I do think her car trips would be more fun if she was in a “big kid” seat. I have to eternally protect AND entertain / comfort this precious little gal.
Her imagination is developing so quickly all of a sudden – it’s amazing. Watching her learn to smile and laugh and sit up and play and crawl scoot and walk (with assistance of course) were all amazing, but watching her learn to pretend… well, I simply can’t handle it. I need more of these creatures in my life.
Listening: Neil Young
(I am) Reading: I informed Mikey that tonight I WILL take a bath and read an actual BOOK for awhile – probably The Happiest Toddler on the Block – I need to get through it so I can move on to my fun reading
(Hazel is) Reading: Big Red Barn
Working on: blue & gold blanket; fat quarters for a fabric exchange; Hazel’s valentine
Thanks to: Delightful Divas for the blog feature!
January 29th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
rear face for as long as possible.
January 30th, 2010 at 9:50 am
J & Cloyde use the Eddie Bauer booster/big kid seat. They’ve used it for Owen since he outgrew his infant seat. They love it, and I’ve used it a few times when we’ve taken Owen places, and I was really impressed, too. It’s secure, but also simple to move the straps in and out of the place holders. We’re using part of our tax return for Morgan’s seat because she’s out of room for her feet and needs to not recline. :-)
January 30th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I can’t wait to get to Ikea, run home, and implement the DVD purge. What a great idea; thank you for sharing it! :) As a perpetual mover, this is going to help so very much.
Good luck with the seat search too!
Jamie
January 30th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Triumph-Advance-Convertible-Seat/dp/B000YZD0QM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1264868241&sr=8-1
this is what i profess to be the best option. the britax is 3 times more pricey, and this one gets almost the same safety ratings. some of the britax seats go up to higher weight, but hazel is so small that it probably won’t be an issue for her. we kept ella rear facing in this for about 2 years and then forward facing until she was almost 3, when she was too tall/heavy. you could probably use this for hazel until you need a belt-booster. and even if you can’t, the price of this one plus the price of the fisher price seat we got that harnesses up to 65 lbs and then converts to a back and then backless booster is still less than the britax, and more versitile, as you can use it to 100 lbs, which means that you could probably almost use it :)
just my two cents on 4 years of car seat obsession. :)
January 30th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Britax has the best reviews. That’s what we bought for Forrest. We love it.
January 30th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
and my alternative…rear face in the safeseat as long as possible. no reason not to unless she is too tall or if you have another baby that needs the seat. if she grows out of it height-wise and not b/c of weight, then move up to a middle man carseat for a year or so. that *could* be something like the marathon, but you’re going to get much more for your money doing something like a scenera. they are highly recommended by carseat techs. use it until she can front face (35 pounds). other seats including the triumph, britax, etc can also rear face to 35 pounds, but they are more expensive and bigger. sceneras are recommended for cars like ours. (hondas). THEN…move up to the graco nautilus. you will then use it for the rest of her life. it is front face 5 point harness until 65 pounds. then a high back booster with removable back up to 100 pounds. in the case of hazel and edie, they’ll be in it until they graduate high school.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Jess, did you say you can tether the Scenera when rear-facing? I can’t find anything about it anywhere. The only one I can find that can do that is still the Marathon.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
whoops, yeah, we have the graco nautilus now, not fisher price. duh. i almost bought a brand new britax to keep her tethered when she hit 35 lbs at 2.5 years, but this one has excellent safety reviews. we love it. i think the britax is the only one that tethers rear facing, but the car seat people we have talked to have said that safety-wise it isn’t a big issue, including my uncle who is a police chief car seat specialist. we couldn’t afford the britax and at one point there was a big issue with the straps twisting when you tightened them according to many friends who had them, but that was almost 5 years ago. the evenflo’s straps arent’ the easiest on earth to tighten and loosen, but they have a really unique system with their buckles that eliminates virtually any chance of twisting, which i love, (as long as the new ones have the same systen) and we adjust the straps every time xavi gets in our out, because of the diaper size/coat changes, without any problems. we had a britax marathon for a while before we had to return it to a friend, and for some reason ella seemed much more comfortable in the evenflo on our numerous loooooong trips to see all of our hours away family members. but the padding and whatnot is different now than then, so it could be a totally different story. we had a scenera for pj’s diocesan car that he took ella in a couple times a week that my parents had for foster kids. it is actually in your basement now. it was incredibly uncomfortable, as it isn’t well padded, but did the job then. it also may have changed a lot in the last 4 years. anyway, i didn’t see any need to pay $200 more for a seat with the same safety and features and we’ve been really happy with these options, although the britax is a really nice seat. and of course comes in better colors :)
has she outgrown the safeseat? i forget.