There’s a woman in my neighborhood who always calls me, “Edgar’s mother.”

Before having a child, someone referring to me via my relationship to someone else would’ve certainly annoyed me… excuse me, I have a name. But now, interestingly, it doesn’t bother me at all to be addressed as such. It’s like it reminds me of the honor and delight of holding such an important role to such a precious person. I’m proud of it. I’m proud of my son.

This identity shift toward a more altruistic version of myself is just one example of many, many changes that I’ve experienced over the past four and a half months, and, honestly, I’m here for it. As you know if you’ve been following along, motherhood hasn’t exactly been an easy transition for me… it’s been beautiful but blindsiding. So, gratefully, these new mama life lessons have indeed resulted in personal growth, and hooray for that.

In additional to “rearranging the furniture” of my own priorities and pastimes, another change we had to make in preparation for Edgar’s arrival, on a more practical note, was the creation of a nursery nook in our master bedroom.

It’s no secret that Arnold and I strive to lead a minimalist lifestyle… (Definitely check out my Minimalism playlist if you haven’t already!)

So when we went about creating a space for baby, we sought to do it as mindfully and uncomplicated-ly as possible – plus we have a small space. Babies can come with a lot of stuff, and if you’re not careful, suddenly there’s baby paraphernalia bursting at the seams, and you’re tripping over baby bouncers and Sophie the Giraffe. (I mean… even with our minimalistic tendencies and fervent desire to only own the essentials, we still feel a bit overloaded if I’m being honest.)

Furthermore, we weren’t keen on buying a bunch of stuff either – for ecological and economical reasons. The goal was to re-work, re-use, re-paint and re-configure as much as possible what we already had. So though we did end up buying a new dresser for our clothes and a pouf for the corner, most things we found at the thrift shop or were given to us as gifts – e.g. that adorable rhino that sort of doubles as a second pet.

Is our nursery nook truly minimalist? Maybe not entirely. Minimalism, in my book at least, is just having what you want and need — what sparks joy, if you will — and eschewing the extraneous. Since Edgar’s nook shares space with our bedroom, it is indeed a bit overcrowded for our tastes, but we’re working with what we got.

Well, first off, we wanted Edgar to be in our room in the beginning for safety and for nursing. Secondly, though we do have a two bedroom place, our second bedroom is home to our desks and my voiceover studio, and since both my husband and I work from home, our office/studio is… a whole thing.

What about when he gets a little older? Well, ideally we’ll be in a new place so he can have his own space – it’s on the vision board – but we’ll have to wait and see. 😉

So, here we go…

(This one has obviously been in the pipeline for, uh, a while, but I’m hoping you’ll be forgiving and join me in the “better late than never” club.)

I hope you enjoyed creating this minimalist nursery nook with me! It’s always fun to take you along. Of course, if you enjoy my content, it always means the world when you tell me so in the comments below.

Lastly, if you speak French and didn’t have a chance to tune into Un Monde Sain, the online program that I co-hosted with Dr. Neal Barnard and Noémie Demay, here are episodes one and two on YouTube. (Stay tuned for the next four episodes!)

A bientôt, les amis,