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Five gender-neutral themes

It's time to start getting the nursery ready, but you don't know whether you're going to have a boy or a girl. Does it matter? Not really, according to fellow iVillagers. There are lots of great ideas beyond pink for girls and blue for boys. Here are five of their best ideas for creating a cosy haven for your new addition

Finding Inspiration
'A great way to pick a theme for the nursery is to choose an activity that you enjoy, then build a theme around it, such as scuba diving, sailing, gardening, rodeos, astronomy ... or think of something that relates to your family, where you live, your ethnic background, etc. Once you've narrowed it down, you'll find that most themes can be tailored to either sex. If that doesn't yield any ideas, check out the kids' section at the bookstore. There are some really great books and characters (like Maisy) that can easily be adapted to a nursery theme. Maybe something that you enjoyed when you were a child. Also, remember that you don't have to have a character for a theme. You can also use a colour or a fabric to build a theme around.'
- mamaroja

Space Saving
'I've lived in a few storage-challenged places and have had to deal with a small space for the nursery. If you need the closet in the nursery for your stuff, you can create an 'open closet' for baby's things. Baby clothes are so cute and colourful that they look great on display. Figure out how much space you can spare and buy a couple of lengths of white-wire ventilated shelving plus brackets, end caps and fittings. Attach the shelves to your wall. Leave enough room under the bottom shelf for your laundry hamper, taking into account that you'll have clothes hanging from that shelf. Buy several inexpensive plastic baskets or clear storage boxes to organise socks, babygrows, sleeper suits, etc. and place them on the shelves. You'll also need several hangers for all the cute overalls and jumpers. It looks best if all the hangers are the same. The nice thing about the ventilated shelves is that they equally space the hung items for a really organised look. You can also curtain this area off when the child gets older, if you like, but you'll have to wait until you're past the 'pulling on curtains' stage.

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