With four babies in our house, we have a colossal amount of baby gear. It’s not that we have four of everything, but we have everything one baby would need plus multiples of many items. George and I both like things tidy and organized and we pride ourselves in having a cozy home. Having enough baby gear to rival the nearest Children’s Courtyard would cramp our style; if we let it. After all, it is our home; we just happen to share it with our four babies and two fur babies. We’ve gone to great lengths to maintain some semblance of decor and normalcy for ourselves. We tend to become overstimulated by too much stuff, especially obnoxiously bright baby items that become eye sores. When registering for large items, I chose neutral colored swings and bouncy seats rather than the bold traditional ones. I prefer for those things to sort of blend in with the rest of our furniture rather than taking center stage. We started out with a few primary colored loaner items that I just could not handle so we promptly returned them. I’m sure our visitors would agree our home still resembles a home daycare center, but I think we do a decent job keeping things comfortable for adults too. We’ve found a few ways to cope with all the new gear inhabiting our home.
Before the babies arrival, George expanded a tiny linen closet to go underneath our stairs. It’s become a haven for baby toys and gear. During the day, I rotate the babies toys so that there’s never too much out at once and to keep things interesting and fresh for the babies.
This is the closet where baby toys find sanctuary. During naps, I store previously used ones in here and take out new ones for the next play session. The closet may be jam packed, but at least we don’t have to contend with ALL of the contents ALL day!
I LOVE baskets! Whenever I find a several of anything, I usually find a basket to contain them. Baskets keep things tidy and camoflauge unsightly clutter. Notice I actually have a basket for booger removal tools!
Here’s what you might see unfolding during a typical day at our house:
Here, we have three play mats out so everyone can bat and kick toys. I don’t like these out too much though because they seem to discourage rolling.
Here everyone except Rylin is trying tummy time. That chick still hates being on her tummy!
I find that the babies explore more and have more opportunities to roll and scoot if I spread out a variety of interesting toys on the quilt, but not too many. I don’t think it was coincidental that Mason began rolling when I left more space on the quilt.
We only have two saucers and babies take turns in them. There is no need for everyone to be in a saucer at once. I also stash several of our bouncers and small swings away so we never have more than a few out at once. I set up Boppy pillows at the end of play time for the next feed.
Below the television used to house fragile nick knacks and picture frames. When the babies came home, we replaced all of them with seagrass baskets. This allows us to store bibs, burp cloths, and toys without anyone seeing all that clutter. Also, when the babies are mobile all items in the baskets are safe for them.
After the babies go to bed, we put away all of the toys and roll up the quilt. I just love seeing our beautiful rug and cozying up on the couch with Sasha and Lily. When all of the baby clutter is stowed away for the night, Sasha and Lily dart around as if to say, “We’re free!” They romp around and bark at each other. Don’t get me wrong we love the babies and playing with them, but we also love having a den where we can retreat and unwind at the end of a the day where we don’t feel boxed in by baby gear.
Of course the large baby gear is still out, but see how nicely all of the toys tuck away into the baskets?
What would you do with baby gear multiplied by four?
hugs!
Amber
Four to Adore 
I am so OCD, so the baby gear around my house makes me want to have a panic attack! I use a ton of baskets too, the are awesome to store all of the things that would normally consume me. By the way you’re not the only one with a booger basket 😉 I unfortunately have to leave all of our baby gear out, our house is severely lacking in storage. When I move the play mats off of the rug to vacuum I feel a sense of uncluttered peace until I have to put them back
I figure when they are 18 I might get my house back!
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I’m always glad to be in good compnay, OCD behaviros, booger keeping baskets and all! LOL!
Sometimes I put the little mats under the coffee table so I don’t have to deal with them all day. 😉
Our house was lacking in storage too. Thank goodness George is handy! He’s made living here with quads possible!
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I always love being in good company with you- OCD, booger removal baskets and all! =)
Our house is also lacking in storage, but Geroge is handy and helps make it possible to stay here.
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Sometimes I think God gave me “many” kids to help with my ocd behaviors!! But don’t worry God underestimated me because yes we have a butt load of stuff but it all has a home. Think I need to do a similar post about all of our hiding spots. Every night everything gets put away except for the larger items. It does get so much better after age one when all the big stuff goes bye bye. Then its just finding bins and rubbermaids for toys. I love rearranging so I almost am always finding a better way to organize things. Its one of my greatest joys in life!!
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LOL, Krista! You are a girl after my own heart. I agree, God probably gave us multiples to help with the OCD stuff, but I bob and weave. I love that you also stow away all the clutter at night. It helps me keep sanity, and I am looking forward to not having the big stuff. We could probably use bouncy seats a good bit longer, but I’m about to send them away. Too much stuff!
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Amber, What a wonderful gift you have from God. You seem so able to handle everything in a real “common sense” kind of way. You ask, what would you do with baby gear X four? At my age, I’d probably cry. You and George have been blessed with these four precious little ones and they have been blessed with you and George. God is Good all day every day. And speaking of God, we don’t pass the microphone around at our church every week for thanksgiving or prayer request but we did this past Sunday. My announcement that the quads were six months old, doing quite well and that weights were between 13+ and 15+ lbs was received with a big round of applause. Our little church up here loves your babies. Blessings from Oberlin Congregational Church in Steilacoom, WA.
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If I couldn’t figure out a way to manage this stuff, I’d cry too! God is good! Thank you for sharing our story with your church and keeping us uplifted in prayer. It warms my heart to hear how many strangers care about our family. HUGS!
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Well all I know about kids…right now they are babies and they have no control over the mess. Time will come when they will contribute to it. What a time… that will be. LOL
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Actually, I am not dreading that time. It’s when they will begin learning lessons in responsibility. When they are big enough to create a mess, they can learn to clean them up too! Lucky babies have a school psychologist mommy 😉
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You guys are amazing at this having-lots-of-babies-but-staying-normal thing! We have two babies and two cats in our small apartment and this is one of my battles, too. We don’t have any closet like this to throw things in (YET – we have a closet that needs reorganizing, I’d like to do something similar!), but I have been trying very hard to clean up after each play time so that at the end of the day we aren’t swimming in toys and burp cloths. I feel like I’m on a 3-hr loop all day – feed, play, put down for nap, clean up. Over and over. But otherwise the apartment becomes COVERED in stuff!
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It really doesn’t matter if you have one or five babies, they just have so much stuff! I bet you can re organize your closet a bit so you can stuff things away too. When we started getting the nurseries ready, we had to do a major clean out and reorganization. Everything that took up residence in our two spare bedrooms had to go!
LOL, it is a 3 hour loop! That is exactly what I do, but the nap part seems so short I never get everything done. I tried to move to the coveted four hour schedule, but the babies just can’t stay awake long enough and got super crabby. Someday…
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