Storing Baby E's LARGE Items

Baby E has pretty much outgrown several of her essential items. So, the other day I decided it was time to pack them up. My baby girl is growing up. A bitter sweet moment.

So, before I started to pack everything up. I took pictures of everything. 

• how the item looked (before I broke it down)
• the items that belong with it (seating pads, screws, rods, etc.)
• the labels (everything that I labeled)
• everything together while it was broken down

Taking the pictures kind of helped me to remember everything that went together as well as hopefully help me in the future. 

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Here are two of the items that I took pictures of before breaking them down. 

 

After I had taken the first picture, I began to break down the swing. I broke it down one by one and labeled everything as I broke it down. That way when we go to use it again for a future baby, we know how to put the stuff back together. This is mostly because my husband threw away the directions to the items and we can't find them on the companies websites.

 

Once everything was labeled and pictures taken, I placed them into the bin. I also grabbed all of the screws/tools and placed them in corresponding plastic sandwich bags. 

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This is where it became tricky. I wanted to fit the swing, bassinet, and bouncer together in one box. And I was able to as well, except for the frame to the bassinet. That part didn't break down (I'll explain what I did with that part later). 

With trying to get everything to fit, I just had to find a way to get everything to work. I would lay out the different parts and move them around if necessary. 

Once, I got the basis down of how I wanted to lay the majority of the rods and especially the top of the swing. In the picture below, you can see that all the rods are in place for all three items. The top of the swing is laying on its side. I placed a few grocery bags around it to support it. I also took majority of the swings parts and placed it in the blue bag next to it. Also providing additional support.

Now, before placing the seat pads and other miscellaneous fabric parts into the bin; I made sure to wash each one. This way I could get any stains and funky smells that may have been embedded into the fabric. I can't stand putting dirty things away. Especially in storage.

After everything was washed and dried, I placed them in several grocery bags and used those as cushions as well.

I then placed the seat to the swing on top of everything.

To ensure that the screws and other items that were in plastic baggies wouldn't fly everywhere in the bin or get lost at a future date, I decided to tape them to one side of the bin (on the inside).

After taping them to the side, I placed the swing cushion on top and then to top it all off... I also placed the wooden bottom and cushion of the bassinet on top of that.

Then closed the bin and that's all she wrote.

Now, all I have to do is write up the labels for the outside of the box.