Approaching Newborn Life with Minimalism

As some of you know, we are in a bit of a transition period in our lives right now. We are currently in an AirBnB in Anchorage while we wait for Baby Middleton to make her arrival (which is now apparently going to be a late arrival). After she arrives, we are moving out of this AirBnB and into a new downsized house in Palmer, Alaska. Because of this, we’ve been really trying to approach life with a newborn from a minimalist place. We haven’t bought furniture yet because we don’t have a house to put it in until May, we haven’t really bought any clothes because Cody and I both have older siblings who happily supplied us with hand-me-downs, and we are trying to be a bit creative with what we already had available in our AirBnB rental.

Our current set-up is pictured above. We’ve got a pack-and-play, which features detachable newborn napper and diaper changing station. The pack-and-play also has a newborn bassinet feature, so that’s where we plan for her to sleep for now. Next to the pack-and-play, we’ve got a comfy chair, which I am hoping to use for breastfeeding. I’d love to have a glider when we move into our actual house, but this chair was the next best thing using the furniture we have available at the rental. On the other side of the pack-and-play there is a diaper pail. We probably could have used a regular trashcan, but there aren’t any trashcans with lids at the AirBnB and we didn’t want to be smelling diapers, or for the dogs to get into it (Note: we are switching to cloth diapers once she’s out of the newborn size).

Not pictured are our tote of baby clothes, which fits snugly under the pack-and-play because it is one of the those super flat, long totes. Also, next to the chair we have a small three-drawer organizer that contains diapers, wipes, a breast pump, and other essentials. We also have a baby swing downstairs and a small box filled with a few special toys, blankets, and books.

And that’s pretty much it! I have lots of ideas for Baby Middleton’s room once we get settled into our new place in May, but until then we will make due with this set-up. I don’t want to clutter her new room up either though and hope to keep that fairly minimal as well. I’m getting anxious to get into the new house and start on all of these little projects, but until then we are happy just relaxing and waiting for Baby to make her arrival, which is hopefully soon!