Unpack It Now, Not Later

One of the organizational things I do, without fail, is to always unpack a thing when I bring it into the house, instead of doing it later.  For example, baby food bottles come in four can packs.  We would but six at a time.  It's work up front, but if you unpack them when you put them up, you have a more organized pantry or cabinet and you don't have to fuss with getting into an item later, when you need it.

I do this with everything.  I take the tags off clothes and put them on hangers, I take the wrapping diapers out of the box and put them on the shelf, I break down the cardboard from the new toy and put it in the recycle bin.   Sometimes it seems like it takes longer to get everything in the house and put up from a shopping trip than it does to make the trip in the first place.

The benefit is everything is ready to go when you need it.  I've found I'm more likely to do everything at once like this than bits at a time as I need an item.  It also seems many food or kitchen items take up less space once unpacked than they do in their packaging.

The Big Boy Update:   Ghost Balloon.  It's been almost three months since he turned one and we still have one Mylar balloon that hasn't died yet.  It's finally losing enough air to drop to the ground.  Yesterday though it was in an almost perfectly buoyant state,  It magically appeared upstairs from the basement and then floated up to the second floor.  When it was in hot air, it would rise and when it found cool air it would sink.  He had fun playing with it, hugging and squeezing it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Not so tiny anymore.  She's getting little leg fat rolls.  She's still tiny in comparison to her brother, but she's twice as big as she was when she was born.  It doesn't seem like she's much bigger when I hold her, but when I see someone else holding her, I realize how much bigger she is in their arms.  The baby fat rolls are definitely cute.  She's not gotten enough chub to merit the name "fatty" like my son did though.

Right-size countdown:  13 pounds to go