Oh How I've Changed My 12 Basics...

Before I had my baby, I wrote this post on my twelve home basics - THE items that I needed*. However, our new addition changed a lot of the ways I think about things, sometimes on a subtle, quasi-subconscious level. Here are my current twelve basics. I am restricting this list to non-baby items**.

My Basics
1-my bed - Sleep is a must
2-my iPhone 5c - I take photos on it of the baby and I love FaceTime
3-our cabin-shaped incense burner - For when romance strikes
4-our pets - They complete our family
5-paper - I use an owl notebook as a journal (it is hard to find unlined books), plus I have many different kinds of paper on hand for creating art or handmade cards (watercolor paper, Origami paper, crepe paper), as well as some stationary whenever I need to say "Hello" or "Thank you"
6-hair ties - Babies pull hair when it is not tied back
7-the baby necklace - shortly before our baby arrived, my husband bought me a blue necklace that I was wearing when our baby was born
8-the baby fig tree - I am going insane trying to keep this little tree alive since the Froylan cat likes to destroy it, but it is the same age as our little one and I would like it to grow up into a big tree one day
9-my West Elm Henry loveseat in dove gray - this sofa reminds me of "my style" - soft, quasi-luxurious, light in color, and mellow
10-my Emu knee-high boots - I am known for my love of a good pair of boots, and these are very comfortable too
11-our first decoy duck, and our Korean wedding ducks - I do not need our whole collection of ducks (we have about ten), but I do need these three
12-my blue poppies print from Target - I love big artwork and the color blue

Why My Basics Changed

• Tangible objects seem less important to me now that the baby has arrived, period.
• There is a whole lot less space in our house for my stuff because the baby's stuff takes up a lot of space. I'd like to have as much space in my house as possible right now because soon that little guy will be crawling all over the place and I want him to have the room to do so. Less stuff = Less hazards + Less obstacles
• I have less time to do general house cleaning (because the baby takes up a lot of time, as does cleaning his accouterments such as his bottles and clothes), and the less stuff I have, the easier it will be to clean the house. Less stuff = Do not have to clean it or maintain it anymore
• Because I have less money and space for things for me since the little one arrived, I am now paying more attention to small items (like eye shadow) rather than items that would cost more and eat up more spatial real estate (like furniture).
• I appreciate timeless things more now, but I've also realized that nothing is really timeless - everything is temporary in a sense.

I guess I just have a whole lot less tolerance than I did before for keeping my stuff, because I am all about that little baby.

Notes
*Note 1: Apparently, I had written the earlier post last year but never actually published it, so I retroactively published it.
**Note 2: If you really want to know, my twelve must-have baby items right now would be:
1-SpaSilk burp cloths, 2-Pampers Swaddlers diapers, 3-Huggies Natural Care diaper wipes, 4-my diaper bag / tote with matching diaper mat, 5-his crib, 6-a carseat, 7-A+D cream, 8-gum-drop pacifiers, 9-Sophie the Giraffe natural teether, 10-Philips Avent bottles, 11-his fuzzy soft lion nap blanket, and 12-his hand-knitted pumpkin hat.