Post-Shower Stress!

Anyone else experience this? My baby shower was yesterday and it was great! I had so much fun seeing friends and family and we received a tremendous amount of presents. I'm finding now that all the presents are back at my house, I'm really stressed -- unpacking things, exchanging things, inventorying things, etc.

I think I need to tackle the clothes first. Plan is going to be go through to see what I like/don't like. Then once I've sorted that, I'll put the clothes I like into size piles, and see where I have too much/too little. Do some returns, and hopefully get new stuff I like/need with the store credit/return $ from stuff I didn't like. Any words of wisdom? Can anyone offer some helpful tips to get things done without stressing?

Re: Post-Shower Stress!

Yes, it can seem very overwhelming after the shower when you have all of this stuff. Have some family members help you if they can, to organize things, unpack/put away, seeing what needs to be returned, etc.

Post-Shower Stress!

I got tons of 3month clothes at my shower and again after dd2 was born. I made a bag for each store with the clothes and receipts of what I was going to return and kept them in my car. This way I could easily tackle each store when I was able to. When I could I exchanged the same item for a bigger size at clothing stores and at stores like bru and target I put the credit toward other baby items like diapers etc.

Post-Shower Stress!

I feel the same way. My living room is a disaster zone.

Re: Post-Shower Stress!

I felt this way. The night of my shower my husband drove my MIL back to NJ because she hates driving at night. I looked at the pile, almost had a nervous breakdown, then watched a movie.

The next day DH and I tackled the pile together. I went through each bag/gift and checked my list first, to make sure I was thanking everyone for the right thing and had accurate records. I also took each gift receipt and wrote on top of it what it went to, because most of them don't say, then put it in an envelope.

As I did I split things into piles -

Clothes, blankets/sheets, diapers/wipes, toys, big items that have to be assembled.

As I went through them DH moved the piles to different spots.

As I found duplicates or things we didn't like we moved them to my den table where we started a return pile. (As I went through things more carefully I added more to this pile).

Once things were in manageable piles I felt less stressed.

Then I put clothes away and began washing the newborn clothes. Then I did blankets, bedding, etc. The to be assembled things are piled in the corner of our guest room until we get to each one.

GOOD LUCK!

Post-Shower Stress!

I did find the clothes I liked best had gift receipts. The clothes I like least usually did not and for the most part I have no idea where they came from. It figures.

Post-Shower Stress!

I was the same way. DH made me stop bc I wanted everything put away that day. I ended up getting everything I was keeping put away the day after, and all returns were finished within a week.

No way that would happen now lol

Post-Shower Stress!

I didn't but things like this don't stress me at all. I went through it the next day and then over the course of the next week or 2, put things away and made a mental list of things we still needed. I didn't return anything but duplicates. If I didn't like an outfit, I kept it anyway b/c babies go through clothes like crazy and I figure she could wear it to daycare or something. I'm not picky though. I just separated stuff by size, hung up or folded NB-3m. Everything else went into bins for later.