Dream This Home

Building and Maintaining your forever home.

Declutter your counter – Bathroom Edition

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When it comes to countertops in a bathroom, less is more.  That thing we all do when guests come over, you know, the mad rush to hide everything in random drawers…  That should actually happen every day.  Just without the mad rush part.

There really is no need for anything on the counter but the pretty essentials.  Soap and a hand towel.  Maybe a candle.  If you can hide the make-up and shaving cream for the guests, it should be done on a daily basis.  A few organizational tools is all you need,  I personally love little plastic bins in drawers.  Clear lucite ones are nice.  Toothpaste tubes and hairy razors are not decor.  A pretty perfume bottle next to a candle or a glass canister of cotton balls is decor.  Hide what is ugly yet necessary and your bathroom will look more spa-like and less utilitarian toilet room…

I’d personally would rather keep my most personal things hidden.

-K

That Thomas the Train shirt has got to go.

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I tend to loathe character shirts.  You know, the one’s you see at Target and Old Navy.

With my first child, he doesn’t care what he wears.  He never has.  I put an outfit on his bed, he puts it on and doesn’t ask questions.  (Because he has other things to worry about.)  Yes, he has Star Wars shirts and a few vintage superhero shirts, but for the most part, the kid lets me curate his wardrobe.  Actually, he’d rather be naked most of the time… but at 5, he knows better because naked is getting to be a bit inappropriate…

My 2 year old on the other hand…  He cares.  Why are kids so different when it comes to things like this?  Every morning, it’s a chore.  He has to pick his own shirt (usually the same 4 or 5 on rotation)  As of late, it’s been Thomas the Train, Dinosaurs, Shark Shirt, or the Star Wars character shirt.  I did not purchase any of these items.  I usually stick to solids or patterns.  We have melt-downs when the shirt he wants is in the wash and I force him to wear something mom-approved.  Please tell me that this phase passes! Quickly…

So please, do not gift my children clothes featuring Paw Patrol or Ninja Turtles or Pokemon or any of that shit because I’m the one who suffers.  Yesterday, #2 wore a TMNT pajama top all day because I didn’t have it in me to fight the fight.  He was as happy as a clam in the black, long sleeve piece of crap which reads, “NINJAS NEVER SLEEP.”  Mind you, it was 80 degrees out!  I shouldn’t care so much, but I do…

I suppose I should just be glad that I don’t have a girly-girl who wants to wear princess dresses to the super market, but the capes and masks are equally annoying.  Spiderman doesn’t even wear a cape does he?  Oh yes he does!!  And he climbs all over the cart in true Spidey fashion and gets forlorn looks from strangers.  Maybe the princess would be better???  At least she’d probably sit in the cart nicely.

I keep checking the tags on the backs of his character t-shirts to see if he’s outgrown things by size.  We know it’s really about fit, but I can’t help it.  Because seriously, that Thomas the Train shirt has got to go.

Wait… does it say 18-24 months!?!?

PERFECT!!  Because he’s technically a 2T!!

On the agenda today?  Goodwill drop.

-K

Toy Organization – Part I

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This is my current toy organization attempt.  My kids have way more than they need. We will be paring down before the big move, but for now, this is what we live with.  Our one bedroom was converted into a backroom play area.  (Where our beds disappeared to is for another post.)  This does not mean that the toys don’t make it to the front room.  I still pick up legos underfoot in the living area all the time.  But for the most part, toys stay in the back.  My hopes for the new house (which will be 2 stories plus a mezzanine level) is that toys will be confined to the children zone on the first level and will not come upstairs.  Will this rule really work in all practicality? Probably not, but a girl can dream.

Creating a system that works for your family:

Everything has it’s place.  The kids know where to find everything.  Bins and drawers are provided for everything they own.  There are no questions about where something they want is because they know that everything has it’s appropriate place and is put back in that exact place after they are done.  At the end of the day, sometimes I do the bulk of the cleaning up, but I do emphasize that once they are done with one thing, they must clean up before moving to the next activity.  It seems like a lot of overseeing at first, but after a while, they get the picture.

2 rules I will instill for new house:

  1. Toys stay downstairs.
  2. Toys will be hidden away.  Planning on large pull-out drawers and closets with doors that hide the bulk of their treasures.

I’m hoping for only presentable collections to be on display.  I’m looking forward to the day when the vertigo-inducing blinking, noise making, annoying toys will be graduated from.  If you have littles, you know which ones I’m talking about…

May your life not be over-run by toys!

-K