I used to really love big changes before I had kids. Starting new jobs, changing my hair, living in various different cities, going on last minute trips. It was all very exciting and it felt like true freedom to me. I still embrace change, but with a family and pets, there is so much to consider before making decisions that will affect each and every one of them differently. Before our recent move, I worried about Jack and Zoe starting in a new elementary school, about Beau and Evvie feeling out of sorts and not knowing why. I worried about our cat Charlie getting outside and being scared, and about Theo feeling disconnected from the home he grew up in. The emotional stuff made the physical act of moving our lives pale in comparison, and in the end, unsurprisingly, the kids and pets fared just fine. I’m learning a thing or two from their resilience.
The process of moving from one structural home to another one is incredibly intense, and it’s something that we’ve done 4 times in the last 6 years. We decluttered and pared down our belongings to move to a tiny apartment in New York City, and when we came back with another child and a cat, we upscaled and quickly filled up that extra space with all kinds of stuff. We moved again this summer, this time with yet another child and another pet. Four children, one cat, one dog, three fish and all of the things that come with raising that size of a family. Our new home was only slightly bigger than the last, but the process of paring down, packing all of the little socks, LEGOs, toothbrushes, band-aids, bikes, strollers and high chairs into one moving van was exhaustive. I wanted to start life in this new town on a good foot, and part of that meant phasing out a lot of the extra belongings we all had and properly organizing the things we did keep.
With 8-, 7-, 3- and 1-year-olds in our home, there is really no way of avoiding our living areas and their bedrooms feeling like Romper Room. I spent a ton of time designing the basics of our new living room complete with new furniture and rugs to feel like the more formal room for celebrating holidays with family & friends, on any given day. Our TV room has a bookcase with children’s books and an organizer bin full of more books and toys, but I wanted this particular living space to feel more sophisticated but also a place where my children felt comfortable and welcome, too. It came down to organizing their toys into bins that matching the aesthetic and feel of the room itself, only geared towards children. I researched storage units and baskets all over the internet, but ended up finding the perfect ones at Ross Dress For Less for less than $20 a piece. I’m always pleasantly surprised at the great things I find for the home at Ross, both by the quality and the price point. It’s easy to get sucked into the vast aisles of various home goods, and I almost always find something awesome that I didn’t even go into the store for. These baskets however were one of my favorite Ross finds yet. They are the right color and size, and I know with all of the little hands in and out of the bins, wear and tear is a real and detrimental thing. I’m not concerned about that given the minimal investment, and that alone is a relief in the worry department. It’s not easy maintaining a well groomed home, and I’ve struggled investing in furniture while the kids are still so young which is why I personally appreciate an option that suits the style of our room and the vast functionality that multiple children demand.
With all of the vast changes that come with moving, and as the kids grow older and move through phases, the things they like to do and others they grow out of, being flexible during that journey is so important. I want my children to live in a space that makes them feel happy, motivated, intrigued, comfortable and safe but I also want certain areas of our home to be on the more sophisticated end, too. I feel like I’ve found a happy balance between those two with the storage options I found at Ross Dress For Less at a great price and also good quality. These years are so short, but the days sometimes feel long… It makes all the difference finding happy medium between the functional, whimsical kid space and a sophisticated and calm adult space. With the holidays coming up, I don’t cringe at the idea of company anymore and I’m looking forward to spending time in all of the areas of our home and our lives with the people I care about the very most in this world.
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