To Minimalist and Back Again

Welcome to the September 2014 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Home Tour

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have opened up their doors and given us a photo-rich glimpse into how they arrange their living spaces.

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I wrote in October 2011 (for the Carnival of Natural Parenting, actually!) about how we minimized from a spacious 3 bedroom condo down to a 2 bedroom apartment and, soon after, into a 1 bedroom apartment. At that time, we were planning our next move, which was into a 10 x 10 bedroom and an attic room for the teen. That was our entire living space, which we rented from friends. A couple of months after Spencer was born, we took the next plunge: We bought and moved our family of five into a 200 square foot travel trailer. Wow. For real.

In hindsight, yes, I think I may have taken things a little too far. We did feel the need to make that next move and it was what worked for us at the time, but spending Summer in a tin can in a slot with no shade... it was harsh. Otherwise, we rather liked our RV park. We used our shower as a space to stack drawers for Ronni and just used the shower facilities on site. The coolest thing about that was using the handicap accessible shower to have my husband's help bathing the littles. I loved our "Family Showers."

Our next move was into a government subsidized neighborhood... it was a very cute home. It was 2 stories, 3 bedrooms, 2½ baths. Holy cow! We didn't even have this much space in the condo! We loved our space, though I had trouble with the stairs. This was also when Spencer's sleep issues surfaced, so he and I started sleeping downstairs. We also started over with basically zero furniture. All we had was mattresses and a desk plus kitchen stuff. The place looked very minimalist at first! But with lots of space... its like the stuff just follows.

Now we've moved into a modest house (I love not sharing walls with neighbors!) with 2 bedrooms. This is more our size, though we're still a little cramped. Sasha and Ronni (about to turn 5 and 16 years old) share a bedroom, which holds a bunk bed and a full size bed. We share our bedroom with Spencer, using queen and twin beds. Somehow... we've amassed so much stuff! Again! I wouldn't say it compares with living in one place for years, but considering I have been a self-proclaimed minimalist, its a lot of stuff.

And I guess that is the moral of my story. Its difficult to up-size your space without upping the amount of stuff you have. It has been amazing to have our own fenced in yard, though! I would say that is probably the biggest plus of our current home. I've been able to garden and Sasha has gotten SO much more time playing outside, which is something I very much wanted for her. We still dream of hitting the road, I think I just jumped the gun a bit.

I'm not sure I can still call myself a minimalist.

Have you made drastic changes to the size of your homes?
How has that changed the amount of stuff you had?

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Being Barlow Home Tour — Follow along as Jessica at Being Barlow gives you the tour of her family's home.
• A Tour Of My Hybrid Rasta Kitchen — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama takes you on a tour of her kitchen complete with a Kombucha Corner, a large turtle, her tea stash, and of course, all her must-have kitchen gadgets. Check out Hybrid Rasta Mama's most favorite space!
• Dreaming of a Sisters Room — Bianca, The Pierogie Mama, dreams, schemes and pins ideas for when her younger daughter is ready to move out of the family bed and share a room with her older sister.
• Building a life — Constructing a dream — Survivor at Surviving Mexico-Adventures and Disasters shows you a glimpse inside the home her family built and talks about adaptions they made in constructing their lives in Mexico.
• Why I'm Sleeping in the Dining Room — Becca at The Earthling's Handbook welcomed a new baby but didn't have a spare bedroom. She explains how her family rearranged the house to create Lydia's nursing nest and changing room in spaces they already had.
• The Gratitude Tour — Inspired by Momastry's recent "home tour," That Mama Gretchen is highlighting imperfect snapshots of things she's thankful for around her home. Don't plan to pin anything!
• Our Home in the Forest — Tara from Up the Dempster gives you a peek into life lived off-grid in Canada's Yukon Territory.
• natural bedding for kids — Emma at Your Fonder Heart shows you how her family of 3 (soon to be 4) manages to keep their two cotton & wool beds clean and dry (plus a little on the end of cosleeping — for now).
• I love our home — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings explains how lucky she feels to have the home she does, and why she strives so hard to keep it tidy.
• Not-So-Extreme Makeover: Sunshine and Rainbows Edition — Dionna at Code Name: Mama was tired of her dark, outdated house, so she brightened it up and added some color.
• Our little outdoor space — Tat at Mum in search invites you to visit her balcony, where her children make friends with wildlife.

• Our Funky, Bright, Eclectic, Montessori Home — Rachel at Bread and Roses shows you her family's newly renovated home and how it's set up with Montessori principles in mind for her 15-month-old to have independence.
• Beach cottage in progress — Ever tried to turn a 1980s condo into a 1920s beach bungalow? Lauren at Hobo Mama is giving it a try!
• Conjuring home: intention in renovation — Jessica at Crunchy-Chewy Mama explains why she and her husband took on a huge renovation with two little kids and shares the downsides and the ups, too.
• Learning At Home — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling helps us to re-imagine the ordinary spaces of our homes to ignite natural learning.
• My Dining Room Table — Kellie at Our Mindful Life loves her dining room table — and everything surrounding it!
• Sight words and life lessons — The room that seemed to fit the least in Laura from Pug in the Kitchen's life is now host to her family's homeschool adventures and a room they couldn't imagine life without!
• A Tour of Our Church — Garry at Postilius invites you virtually visit him in the 19th-century, one-room church where he lives with his spouse and two kids.
• Preparing a Montessori Baby-Toddler Space at Home — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares the Montessori baby-toddler space she's created in the main living area of her home along with a variety of resources for creating a Montessori-friendly home.
• The Old Bailey House — Come peek through the window of The Old Bailey House where Erica at ChildOrganics resides with her little ones.
• My New House Not-Monday: The Stairs — Claire at The Adventures of Lactating Girl shows you her new laminate stairs in her not-so-new-anymore house.
• To Minimalist and Back Again — Jorje of Momma Jorje shares how she went to the extreme as a minimalist and bounced right back. Read how she finds it difficult to maintain the minimalist lifestyle when upsizing living space.
• Our Life As Modern-Day Nomads — This family of five lives in 194 square feet of space — with the whole of North America as a back yard. Paige of Our Road Less Traveled guest posts at Natural Parents Network.

Monday Minimalist: Clothing Storage

As promised, I'm sharing our minimal clothing storage today! And in true Monday Minimalist fashion, the words are minimal, too.

Monday Minimalist: Our Big Bedroom

When we moved from the travel trailer into this house, we got a lot more space! Sometimes its been hard not to fill it up. We've lived here over a year and plan to move into a smaller home soon. This is our bedroom as of today.:


No, there is no dresser in the room. We don't even have clothes hung in the closet there, though it does store holiday stuff, scrapbooks, gift bags and our tent. I'll plan to post about our clothing storage soon...

We do have the bed up on a frame now (after battling bed bugs) and Spencer's new mattress is on top of 3 plastic storage bins. They make for a perfect fit!

How much furniture do you have in your bedroom?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Clutter Minimized

Welcome to the March edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Clearing the Clutter cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month our participants wrote about de-cluttering and cleaning up. Please check out the links to their thoughts at the end of this post.

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I've always been a sentimental sort. I held on to items for the emotional attachment. I'm still disappointed that my year books are missing. Once when I was a kid, I kept all my bandages from a particularly bad scrape. I guess I wanted to see how many it would take by the time I healed? I think this goes to show that I'd be a prime candidate for hoarding.

I lived in the the same house with my ex-husband for... 11 years? The longer you're in one place, the easier it is to accumulate more and more clutter. But when I left, I took almost nothing. I had to start from scratch. It can be easy to go crazy with that (shopping for a new home), though, too. And then I discovered minimalism. I want to live on the road and I surely can't take everything with me! And keep stuff in storage... to what end? So I knew I needed to downsize.

Where is the "Living" space?
Photo Credit: nilexuk

After our first major downsizing of stuff and cutting back on "extra" bills, we realized we could fit into a smaller apartment. With those smaller bills, including rent, we figured out that we could afford for me to switch from full time to part time work. Each step along the way has meant more time together, whether it meant more money or less.

After minimizing down to a 200 square foot travel trailer and now back up to a 1300 square foot home, I think there is a little backlash. I find I'm hoarding extra jars for possible projects... just because I can. I'm still making an effort not to collect things we don't need, though. More stuff requires more time; time that I'd prefer to spend with my family.

Have you ever cut back on your stuff, your bills or your commitments to have more time?

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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating simple living into their lives by clearing out the clutter. We hope you will join us next month, as the Simply Living Blog Carnival focuses on Going Green!

• 7 Tips for Cutting the Toy Clutter - In a post at Natural Parents Network, Mandy offers easy and child-respectful ideas for downsizing your kids' growing mountains of toys.
• De-Cluttering and Moving to Minimalism - Laura from Authentic Parenting is actively trying to achieve a more balanced life by giving up the things in order to make room for more enjoyment.
• A Minimalist Clutter Bug - Destany at They Are All of Me writes about the daunting task of clearing away years of clutter brought on by disorganization and a dislike for throwing things away.
• The Pack Rat Stops Here - Mercedes at Project Procrastinot doesn't want her twins to inherit the pack rat legacy but is uncertain how to lead by example.
• Clutter Minimized - Jorje of Momma Jorje shares how minimizing different aspects of her life and household have changed her life.
• Uncluttering Childhood - Are fewer toys and books harmful for your child? Does simplifying the stuff in your life, merely mean faster clean up? Find out if "less" is truly "more" for parents and kids alike at Heart-Led Parenting.
• Lagom - Sustainablemum shares her family's search for balance in decluttering their home and their lives.
• Letting Go - Of Things and Thoughts - Amy W. at Me, Mothering, and Making it All Work rejoices in her ability to allow others to teach her to let go - of things and of thoughts.
• From Cluttered to Clutter Free - Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children discusses the changes she went through from growing up in a cluttered household to becoming a decluttering diva.
• Facing the emotional roadblocks of clearing clutter - We all have reasons we hold on tightly to our stuff. Lauren at Hobo Mama offers advice for breaking through those walls.
• Spring Cleaning with Freecycle - Amy at Anktangle shares how her spring cleaning ritual has become much more fun (and productive!) since she's embraced her local Freecycle community and all it stands for.

Getting Back to the Basics

Welcome to the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Continue your reading read on at the bottom of this post by clicking the links to the other participants' posts.

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I like to think of my minimalist lifestyle like Fight Club, I don't let my stuff own me. I have certainly gotten rid of a few things I regretted (several by accident), but I've also learned the hard lesson that "stuff" doesn't have to be special. I can hold on to the special memories without holding onto the items.

I used to have so much stuff. Now I'm starting into some focus on cooking and gardening (and composting!), getting back to the simple basics. I want to provide healthy food for my family and I want to be good at getting it from the dirt to the table.

Minimalist Holidays

Welcome to the January 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting:
Recovering from the Holidays

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about how their families get back to normal after the holidays are over.

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In my previous marriage, we both had divorced parents. This made for a mess come holiday season. Of course 2-3 households wanted us to come visit at 2 o'clock Christmas day. And at least 2 households had gatherings Christmas Eve. Its one thing when its just you and a partner, but add babies and then there is all this supposed obligation.

Now? I'm remarried to a man who is from Florida. (We're in Oklahoma.) I've never met my in-laws and don't actually expect to meet them. I used to think we'd travel there, but right now... I don't see it ever happening. Then my mother passed away and I wasn't in the habit of going to see the rest of her family. That leaves only one place we have to visit for the holiday.

Monday Minimalist: Giftmas in July

I haven't heard it mentioned yet this year, but I believe some people start thinking about their holiday shopping in July. Crazy, right? Good planners!

The economy is rough... it can be hard to budget for gifts and for toys in general. Did you know?: Americans reduced average supermarket spending by about .5% from 2009 to 2010 while in the same period, toy industry sales grew by 2%.

Monday Minimalist: More Toys

I've posted about toys before. There are several ways you can go about keeping the toy collection from getting out of control. Here are 10 [more] Ways to Keep Kids from Accumulating Too Many Toys.

Sasha's Toy Basket - November 2011

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Email

How many emails do you have sitting in your inbox? If you're anything like I was, you've got literally thousands! Cleaning out your email inbox can be a very daunting task. I've always done it in chunks when I felt motivated enough to do it.

I've slowly been unsubscribing from newsletters that don't interest me. If I have several unread editions of the same newsletter in my inbox, I apparently don't find it interesting enough to actually read. If every time I get a newsletter I file it away, archive it, or delete it... I apparently don't have the time to read it. That is one good place to start. Just occasionally, when you receive one, open it and find the "unsubscribe" option.

I have always hated the idea of switching email accounts. It can be a huge hassle and there are so many people to update! It can, however, be a great way to clean out your email hoarding habits and start with a clean slate! This is exactly the approach I wound up taking. I wanted to use my email associated with my blog domain (MommaJorje.com).

I am awful about reading an email and then just holding on to it... with the intention of responding later. You know when you get to such emails? Never, that's when!

My current new inbox has, count them, two messages. Both messages are regarding an order I have not yet received. Since I'm using gmail now, I can also archive everything if I want and not have it slow down my mail system. I have a lot of saved emails on my old system, including a section for sentimental messages. I still need to clean things out and a couple of regular mailings I still need to switch over to my new address, but overall I've been happy with my behavior on this new system. I've been on it for 3 months and still... only 2 messages sitting in my inbox.

You can do it, too. If you'd like more ideas on how to keep your inbox empty, check out Inbox Zero: Better Practices for staying (near) zero. Now, tell me again, how many emails do you have sitting in your inbox?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Towels

How many towels does a household need? Some people feel the need to wash their towels after each use. Some of us are comfortable using towels more than once (and don't want to wash tons of towels!).

We have 8 towels:

• Daddy - 2
• Mommy - 2
• Ronni - 1 towel in his favorite color
• Sasha - 1 baby towel
• Spencer - 1 baby towel
• Extra - we have 1 beach towel we keep in the truck for emergencies.

We generally hang our towels up after our showers. I do laundry every other day when I have to wash diapers anyway. Sometimes we have to use our towels for EC misses, too. If the babies' towels aren't clean when we shower, we share our towels with them.

We have no "guest accommodations" in our home, so we have no need for guest towels. How many towels do you have for how many people in your home?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Economy

In our family, we've minimized our income. It isn't that we don't like nice things. We can even appreciate huge beautiful homes. We simply placed value of our time together over the "finer" things. That means sometimes we have to scrape by. That means sometimes we don't get to have extras we'd really like.

Can going without money hurt the economy? Check out this story of one man's quest to be penniless. He has even had a book written about him (see affiliate link to the right).

How do you think quitting money would impact the economy? Do you think you could do it?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: A Journey

Being a minimalist is not about a destination, though it may sure seem it when you first start. It becomes a journey, an ongoing effort. I had gotten to the point where I was donating 1-2 shopping bags of stuff (including some fresh groceries I'd pick up) to our local Free Store per week. After skipping 2-3 weeks, we did some Spring Cleaning in our Travel Trailer and now have 2 garbage bags full of stuff!

Free Store

Tomorrow I'll deliver the bags while I'm on that side of town. I'm donating newborn size cloth diaper supplies, outgrown girlie toddler clothes, toy overflow, an old skillet, etc. My doula is also coming by tomorrow and will collect a few slings I no longer use. She'll pass them along to mommas in need. She'll also clear out my freezer of all the donor milk we wound up not needing.

Once I actually get all these bags out of the trailer, I'll be glad for the new space! We don't have extra space to store stuff we don't need.

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Mothers Day Gift Idea

This post was originally published in May of last year...

How do you take minimalism and apply it to a holiday? There are, of course, coupon books you could buy or make. You could get gift cards or create a book for doing the dishes and such. However, my absolute favorite Mothers Day gift, the one upon which I have insisted several times is this:

Serena & I on the slide
Mother's Day 2009
that would be Sasha under the overalls!

Monday Minimalist: in a tree

I have a link for you again this week. This time it is an amazingly beautiful small living space... in a tree. It is literally built around a tree. Skylights open up for a gorgeous view of the surrounding forest.



I don't think the walkway would work with little ones. It would be hard enough carrying groceries across! What do you think? What is your craziest dream house? Is it big or small?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Tiny Space

If you've been following long, you know I'm always fascinated by people that design or engineer very small living space. This week I have a link for you that is a slightly different take than usual. This guy designs small, portable sleeping space, but it isn't living space. These things don't have kitchens and such, but they're more meant for taking to events and sleeping in a structure more sturdy, secure and comfortable than a tent.

Here, you'll understand so much better if you just go check out this article from DailyMail UK.

They're called "Eco Friendly Micro Houses" and they're made from household junk! My dad (and his dad) was well known for taking scraps from job sites to reuse on other job sites or for his own stuff. He built a tiny cabin to have on-location at a place we used to camp regularly. My grandfather reused the wood from an old skating rink to floor his home!

What is the best or most creative way you've seen materials reused?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Easter

A few years ago, a friend picked up this adorable Easter basket for our daughter:

This year was her third Easter and she is still using this basket. I was really wishing I had dug our Easter stuff out sooner this year. I thinned down our eggs. Also, my oldest is a teenager now so she got a giant chocolate rabbit - no more eggs. I set aside 28 eggs, 1 bucket + plastic grass to donate. If I'd done it sooner, someone could have gotten use out of it this year.

I kept 30 eggs and even then split them in half. Sasha got 15 eggs and next year I'll split the 30 between her and Spencer. It was so tempting to purchase the metallic eggs I saw, but we obviously had more than we needed.

Does it seem weird to store Easter stuff? It isn't really any different than storing stockings for Giftmas. In fact, you could even set baskets out the night before Easter in the same style. Make your own traditions. They shouldn't include wasting materials.

Do you save Easter stuff from year to year?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Breastfeeding Accessories

There was a dishwasher at our last residence. I started out pumping into and then even freezing 4oz bottles. They take up too much space! Besides, eventually you run out of bottles. I did finally get some bags for milk storage, but I still kept all my bottles. They were actually from when Sasha was an infant.

Then we moved into a Travel Trailer. I don't use 20+ bottles anymore. I donated all but about 9 bottles and gave a trial run to surviving with just 6. I soon decided I would survive just fine with 6 and donated the rest. I only kept enough screw tops and nipples for what I kept, too. I only kept 3 lids. I also donated a set of pumping breastshields that I didn't need. I have kept a spare set, though. I also kept all of my extra valves and membranes. They don't take up much space, could get lost or damaged, and this way I won't have to worry about replacing them.

This is my entire pumping / feeding kit.
It fits neatly into a cabinet.

What is more amazing is that I donated the pretty bottles. The plastic seemed thicker and so they took longer to warm milk, or at least that was my theory. I was surprised to find that hand-washing my cheap bottles made them more transparent! They'd become cloudy from only going through the dishwasher.

I've come close to having all 6 bottles dirty at once, but it is rare. My kitchen is very small. I do dishes 3-4 times per day to keep it clear.

How much stuff do you have for pumping and feeding your baby?
How much space does it take?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: In the Kitchen

I did some pretty major downsizing (I thought) in my kitchen last August, as you may recall from that MM post (Monday Minimalist: Small Appliances). I traded one appliance for a toy, but wound up giving several others away because no one wanted to buy them.

Fast forward to March and moving into a travel trailer. If I thought moving into a small, shared space was motivation, it had nothing on moving into a travel trailer!

We gave our microwave to the Free Store because someone had taken the community microwave there. We donated lots of other appliances to Goodwill (and later wished we'd sent them to the Free Store instead, especially since someone took the community coffee maker, too). We were able to donate our microwave because there is one built into the travel trailer.

The only small appliances I actually kept were:

The toaster: I love that it has plastic sides! I can put it away immediately after using it because the sides don't get hot.

The mixer: because I don't know if you can use the immersion blender instead of a mixer for everything.

My new immersion blender! This thing is nice, small and versatile, plus it is a lot easier to clean than a blender, especially when you consider that I'm hand washing the dishes now!

That is IT. I do not own any other small appliances for the kitchen at all. What small appliances could you not live without in your kitchen?

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: How low can you go?

We recently purchased our travel trailer, one step closer to living on the road. We had been staying with friends, so we were anxious to move into our own space. We had been minimizing, even while staying there. Four of us (including Spencer) were living in a 10 x 10 room. Other than using the kitchen there, we did everything in that room.

We did have a decent size closet. We shared the hanging space and still had plenty clothing items, despite downsizing a few times. (Sometimes it is a process.) Our new closet is about 1 foot wide. We brought all of our hanger clothes over to the new space and went through them on the tailgate. We gave some items to a friend and donated the rest to the local Free Store.

I also got rid of the rest of my small appliances. The only items I kept were my immersion blender and my toaster. We even took our microwave to the Free Store after finding out that someone took the community microwave from there. I wish we'd taken them our coffee maker, too. Alas, we donated the other appliances to Goodwill. I also accidentally donated some coffee mugs that held some sentimental value. I don't have a single cup for drinking hot tea. I'm working on that.

Back to the closet, though... our jeans are folded / rolled at the bottom of a lower cabinet. Elmo has 1 week worth of work shirts folded at the bottom of the closet seen above. Otherwise, those are all of our shirts (and my dress and skirts). That isn't for a particular season, that is everything (other than what we were wearing at the time). You can see the divide, half of it is his and half mine. There are a couple of items for the babies in the middle.

We have done some amazingly hard core minimizing! If we get an apartment in a few months, it will surely feel quite empty! How many clothing items do you think you need? I've seen other minimizing challenges for closets.

Let me know if you have a Monday Minimalist post and I'll share it on my blog.

Click the icon to grab the button for your MM posts or for details on how to join the movement.

Monday Minimalist: Baby Registries - Infant Care II

All we really need to bathe our babies is a creek, right? Ha! Baby stores disagree.

Baby Care / Grooming

They use the term "baby care" loosely, don't they?

• Nail Clippers - Yep, you're gonna want them. Unless, of course, you prefer to chew your baby's nails down. It is actually a common practice, I'm told.
  
• Brush & Comb - Really? You don't even know if your baby will have hair yet. And really, a wet wash cloth works fine.
  
• Digital Thermometer - You might check with the hospital first. The hospital gave me a digital thermometer the last two times I had babies.
  
• Ear Thermometer - Why would you need both of these? I actually did get a fancy thermometer. Just research and see which you would prefer. I was fine with the freebie digital thermometer for Sasha, but with Spencer's increased risk of getting sick (and some other factors), I wanted something better.
  
  
  
  
  
• First Aid Kit - I don't specifically have one, but most first aid kits I've seen include bandages and ointment. There are some things that are good to have in case of emergency, so you could either register for a good kit or put one together yourself / register for the individual items.