While you’re in the waiting periods of your adoption, I came up with some beneficial ideas that can be done in the interim to remain productive. Some of these tasks will be mandated by your agency while the others are just my ideas and things I’ve done while I’ve waited.
I’ll break them down one by one and give you a little commentary on each. Let’s go!
- I purged my home of clutter.
I actually started decluttering my home and my life about a year ago of things I no longer needed. Almost a year ago today, I wrote the following post:
9/12/2020
Sooooo today, I had my yard sale ! In fact, I’m actually typing this post during some down time. Thank God I had some good traffic today… only a couple more hours to go !
The purpose of this post is to encourage you to purge and declutter your home before your little one(s) arrive. A yard sale is a great way to do that. Whatever I dont sell is going to Goodwill. I already feel like my house just lost 20 pounds. Hmph, it probably did !
This purge renews your space and clears up clutter. You’ll need that free space once you start adding little ones to your household. I’ll probably purge once more before they come. But for now, I’ll consider this yard sale a successful purge. Officially decluttered !
Here we are exactly a year later, and I’m currently doing another purge. I won’t be having another yard sale (although I probably should), but I will be tossing and selling things that I no longer use. FB Marketplace is a great platform to get rid of things quickly. I’ve been selling A LOT of stuff on there.
2. Stocking my pantry and deep freezer with food.
About a year ago, I purchased a deep freezer. It was during the pandemic when the shelves in the grocery store were scarce. I didn’t know what was in store for us regarding the food situation, but I knew I needed to stock up when I got the chance.
I didn’t stock up all at once. I decided to add at least 1 item to my cart for my deep freezer or pantry every time I made a grocery trip. For me, that’s once a week.
I would get 1 item to store away, even if it was just a bag of rice or a pack of frozen hashbrowns. This way, I could stock up slowly and wouldn’t really feel it financially with an outrageous grocery bill. It worked. Before I knew it, I had a nice supply of frozen and dry goods to eat from in case it gets bad out there. Oh, and make a point to stock up on toiletries and water as well so that you don’t have to rush to the store for those items when you get a placement.
3. Obtaining my dog’s health records.
Yep, the adoption agencies want to know about your pets, too. I have a 9-year old German Shepherd, and I had to upload his medical records to show he was current on all of his shots. If you have pets, be prepared to share an updated copy of their medical records. When I was with DFCS, they even requested a picture of him for their records. So, even the family pets will be in the system. Just a heads up, Lol.
4. Creating a fire safety plan & hanging it on the wall.
My agency required that a fire extinguisher be installed on each level of the house. If you follow the link to my Amazon store, you will find a link to purchase the ones approved by my agency. https://pathwaytoadoption.com/store/
Once you install them, your agency may require that you draw out a fire safety plan and hang a copy on every level of your house as well.
5. Saving Money.
I actually have a 3-part series on this in the upcoming posts. I’ll save my commentary for then.
6. Childproofing my entire home.
Now this was some work. Your agency will definitely provide their guidelines for this task, but let me share mine so you’ll have an idea of what may be asked of you.
~All knives must be in drawers with a safety lock.
~Cabinets containing cleaning products must have a safety latch installed.
~All detergents, bleach, ammonia, cleaning liquids, etc must be stored on the top shelf.
~ I had to install a locked doorknob on any room with equipment that could be harmful to children. For example, I have a craft room that I use for my business. I store my heat press machine in this room. My home study inspector needed to see that room with a lock on it in order for me to pass the inspection.
~All alcohol and firearms must be locked up and out of reach of children.
~ The hot water will need to be turned down to whatever temperature is required by your agency. You can adjust the setting on your hot water heater to achieve this.
~All medicine will need to be stored in a locked medicine box that must be placed in a cabinet or closet that also has a lock on it. That way, there’s double security that kids wont get into medications.
~All unused electrical sockets must have the childproof plugs filling them. These are typically priced under $5, so this step is fairly inexpensive.
Again, head over to my Amazon store to see all of the childproof mechanisms that I used to childproof my home. You can make your purchases there as well. https://pathwaytoadoption.com/store/
I may be missing a couple things, but trust and believe your agency will definitely let you know their requirements for childproofing your home. Try not to be overwhelmed. Do a little at a time and pace yourself.
7. Installing extra Smoke/CO detectors for each bedroom.
8. Purchase a waterproof/ fireproof safe to keep important documents.
9. Make sure your furniture is child-friendly.
Okay, so I recently sold my cream-colored sofa set on FB marketplace. I loved my sofa set, but the color was a light cream, and it was made of cloth. All I could see was future juice stains, so I saved some money and bought a dark leather sofa set …PLUS THE INSURANCE, lol. Now I’m not so worried about stains and other accidents that come with children and furniture. I’m definitely not implying that you need to buy new furniture. I just needed to because I knew my old sofa definitely was not going to last long with kids.
10. Make sure your transportation is up-to-par.
This is probably the biggest task I did for my adoption, but it was necessary. I bought a new vehicle. Again, this is definitely not necessary for everyone, but in my case, I needed to. My truck is 14 years old and was giving me a lot of problems. Every 2 or 3 months, I was having to take it to the shop for something. My dad kept telling me it was time to buy another vehicle. I kept putting it off because I didn’t want a car note ! Plus, I loved my little SUV. There were times where I’d be in a shopping plaza, and my truck wouldn’t even start. I had to call my dad to come fix it…more than once ! He would give it a temporary fix, but it would usually end up in the shop. Then, it started cutting off at traffic lights on my way to work. Not cool.
One day, I had had enough and decided to start looking for more reliable transportation. I found a vehicle I loved that was in my budget. Of course, as soon as I bought it, my old truck started working perfectly ! I’m sure that’s probably because I’m not driving it everyday.
I just keep it as a backup now, but I’m glad I went ahead and got something reliable. I definitely don’t want to be stranded on the side of the road with little kids. Again, you don’t have to do anything that drastic, but if you have any issues with your vehicle(s), now is a good time to take care of them.
BONUS items to stock up on:
~Toiletries for their bathroom
~Self-care products
~Cough medicine/ First aid kit
~Kids’ Face Masks
~Blankets
~Sippy Cups & Eating Utensils
~Towels
~Tissue
~Gloves & Hats
~Clothes hangers for their closet
~Pajamas
~Pillows
I know this post contained A LOT of info! As you’ve previously read, you’ll be bringing all this stuff into your house. This is why it is important to declutter ahead of time. You don’t want your home to feel overcrowded, so purge as much as you can before you expand your family. These are just my thoughts and ideas. I’d love to read your thoughts on this. Leave me a comment below. See you next post !
~Banessa