"See the happiest fish in the world at our fabulous Beer-Quarium!"
Our home is tiny. Once we bring a set of twins* into our home we will be cramped. Very cramped. Threatening to break fire codes cramped, especially if the authorities discover the zoo we’re housing too. I must carefully plan a furniture layout and pare down to the essentials in order to fit everything. It’s like I’m living in a dorm room again except my stuff is (slightly) nicer and I have (slightly) less privacy.
The shelves previously mentioned on here are part of my plan to pack our home with crud more densely than a Big Box Store clearance aisle. Making efficient use of wasted wall space will only take me so far though. I have to eliminate a few things, like the coffee table we removed from the living room as soon as we realized Abbie needed the space to crawl and throw toys. Then there are things we have to dispatch with that, unlike the coffee table, I actually like, such as dresser space. In anticipation of the twins’ arrival, the hardest thing I’ve had to remove is our saltwater fish tank.
In an earlier time, i.e. before Abbie, I enjoyed keeping fish, much more than some activities I do for fun now like vacuum the floors. At the height of my fish nerdiness, I had six fish tanks, 173 gallons worth, filtering simultaneously, but one was just a 1-gallon betta tank that I hardly think should count. Upon learning that we would be parents, I realized that the time and money required to care for began tearing down fish tanks. Naturally the betta tank was the first to go. When Abbie arrived I quickly discovered that I needed to free more time.
As fish died in the smaller tanks I stopped replacing them so that by the time we moved into our tiny home, I only had successfully reduced my burden to two tanks to care for. I had to inadvertently destroy one of the tanks in the moving process, killing the fish inside to cut back that far that fast, but I made it. Of course, the two remaining tanks were my two biggest, 55 and 72-gallons. Caring for just these two was feasible, especially once Abbie could entertain herself during their biweekly cleaning. Fitting them into the house was a little more difficult, but fortunately Abbie can’t complain about precious space in her bedroom being taken up by a giant 55-gallon fish tank.
When I discovered the twins were coming, I had to pare down even further. Abbie’s bedroom barely has space for three cribs, let alone three cribs plus a crib-sized aquarium. The tank in her room had to go immediately, but since one tank was saltwater and one tank was freshwater, I didn’t have anywhere to put the fish.
Fortunately the Des Moines Public Schools have a top-notch marine biology program. I imagine all major cities in landlocked states 1000 miles from the nearest ocean have top-notch marine biology high school programs. The one in Bismarck probably focuses on jellyfish. And Miami’s public schools probably have a 4-H program that puts Iowa’s to shame. Anyway, the program was happy to accept the donation of my fish since they, like pretty much every other public school program I’ve ever seen that doesn’t involve moving a ball, are desperately underfunded and have to beg for every resource they can get.
I spoke to the department and made an appointment for a couple of the kids to come to my place to pick up the fish at 10am, and they were at my door with shining faces at 10:35am. Ah, to be in high school again and go on field trips on my own schedule.
Now I’m down to one freshwater fish tank. Caring for fish can’t get much cheaper or easier, unless I was to tear down the 72-gallon tank and move everything into the spare 20-gallon tank in my basement, but that’s just crazy talk. We have plenty of space (barely) in Abbie’s room for three cribs. At least we will as soon as I move the empty 55-gallon tank out of her room. Want to help? I can let you feed my fish while you’re here.
* The twins by the way are as of yesterday both over three pounds and threatening to top Abbie’s birth weight of 6lbs, 12 ozs in a couple months.
The shelves previously mentioned on here are part of my plan to pack our home with crud more densely than a Big Box Store clearance aisle. Making efficient use of wasted wall space will only take me so far though. I have to eliminate a few things, like the coffee table we removed from the living room as soon as we realized Abbie needed the space to crawl and throw toys. Then there are things we have to dispatch with that, unlike the coffee table, I actually like, such as dresser space. In anticipation of the twins’ arrival, the hardest thing I’ve had to remove is our saltwater fish tank.
In an earlier time, i.e. before Abbie, I enjoyed keeping fish, much more than some activities I do for fun now like vacuum the floors. At the height of my fish nerdiness, I had six fish tanks, 173 gallons worth, filtering simultaneously, but one was just a 1-gallon betta tank that I hardly think should count. Upon learning that we would be parents, I realized that the time and money required to care for began tearing down fish tanks. Naturally the betta tank was the first to go. When Abbie arrived I quickly discovered that I needed to free more time.
As fish died in the smaller tanks I stopped replacing them so that by the time we moved into our tiny home, I only had successfully reduced my burden to two tanks to care for. I had to inadvertently destroy one of the tanks in the moving process, killing the fish inside to cut back that far that fast, but I made it. Of course, the two remaining tanks were my two biggest, 55 and 72-gallons. Caring for just these two was feasible, especially once Abbie could entertain herself during their biweekly cleaning. Fitting them into the house was a little more difficult, but fortunately Abbie can’t complain about precious space in her bedroom being taken up by a giant 55-gallon fish tank.
When I discovered the twins were coming, I had to pare down even further. Abbie’s bedroom barely has space for three cribs, let alone three cribs plus a crib-sized aquarium. The tank in her room had to go immediately, but since one tank was saltwater and one tank was freshwater, I didn’t have anywhere to put the fish.
Fortunately the Des Moines Public Schools have a top-notch marine biology program. I imagine all major cities in landlocked states 1000 miles from the nearest ocean have top-notch marine biology high school programs. The one in Bismarck probably focuses on jellyfish. And Miami’s public schools probably have a 4-H program that puts Iowa’s to shame. Anyway, the program was happy to accept the donation of my fish since they, like pretty much every other public school program I’ve ever seen that doesn’t involve moving a ball, are desperately underfunded and have to beg for every resource they can get.
I spoke to the department and made an appointment for a couple of the kids to come to my place to pick up the fish at 10am, and they were at my door with shining faces at 10:35am. Ah, to be in high school again and go on field trips on my own schedule.
Now I’m down to one freshwater fish tank. Caring for fish can’t get much cheaper or easier, unless I was to tear down the 72-gallon tank and move everything into the spare 20-gallon tank in my basement, but that’s just crazy talk. We have plenty of space (barely) in Abbie’s room for three cribs. At least we will as soon as I move the empty 55-gallon tank out of her room. Want to help? I can let you feed my fish while you’re here.
* The twins by the way are as of yesterday both over three pounds and threatening to top Abbie’s birth weight of 6lbs, 12 ozs in a couple months.
posted by Matt at
10:02 PM
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