If you follow me on Instagram, you may notice that when I take a photo of my food, there’s a lot of baby “stuff” in the background. You can see our baby playmat and lots of toys scattered around. That’s because the area I take my food photos for the blog in is also the area Luca plays in, in our living room. It’s where all of his toys are stored and the area that we’ve designated “the baby’s space.”

For us, we were always concerned that our apartment home would explode into one big baby’s room. We’re happy that we have a little nook in our living room that we could build into a safe space for Luca. Of course, now that he’s crawling everywhere and climbing on furniture (I feel like he’s weeks away from walking!), he doesn’t stay there, but he usually starts out there and when we play with him, it’s there. It lets us feel tidier and feel like we have our own space as adults, also.

However, Luca’s play area is where the big windows are in our apartment and as a result, it’s also where I take all of the photos for Inspiralized. So, my workspace is also the baby’s space. It can be tricky when he’s awake and in the apartment, so I try not to do any of my food photography then, because h tis cute little hands grab everything (which can sometime make for an adorable photo, haha!) I have my camera setup in this area and all of my food styling props are in the media console underneath the TV.

Sometimes, when I’d go to take photos of a recipe, Luca’s toys would be scattered around and my camera didn’t have a designated space, so I’d often feel disorganized when taking photos. I’d spend minimal time food styling, because I’d just want to take the photo and be done with it. I didn’t feel like I had my own space to work.

Recently, I partnered up with HomeGoods and their Go Finding campaign, where they challenged me to get inspired in their stores. I went to HomeGoods, looking for some cute food styling items, like plates, bowls, and serving ware. When I came out, I had a lot more (that always happens!), including a couple great organizational pieces to keep my workspace more organized and less cluttered.

My camera now has a designated bin, and I have a large, matching bin for all of his loose toys. Just adding these two things to that area makes me feel a bit more balanced. And of course, I got some great food styling items to add something extra to my food photos.

For more on how I approached my Go Finding mission with HomeGoods and more behind the scenes, check out my post over on their blog!

Thanks to HomeGoods for sponsoring this post and including me in their Go Finding campaign! 

Photos by Erin Dwyer Photography.