Indonesian bathrooms and the beauty of the “butt hose”
Initially, the idea of forgoing toilet paper and embracing the butt hose made me cringe. It didn’t take long, though, for me to adapt — and now I’m a total convert. When we visit countries that use toilet paper, I feel gross and dirty. I suffer from butt hose withdrawals!
Let’s get real: I decorated my kid’s room for myself
My almost four-year-old recently achieved a huge milestone: he finally has his own room. When I asked him what color he wanted his room to be, he said black (it’s his favorite). When I asked what he wanted on the walls, he said black things. When I asked if he still wanted his thrifted Harry Potter blanket, he said ok, but he wanted black everything else. I politely and sweetly smiled at him, told him there was no way my preschooler was going to have an all-black room.
I turned my bookshelf into a cat-approved climbing tree
For years I’ve wanted a bookcase that incorporates a cat tree. I think it’s really important for my cats to have a designated place to scratch that isn’t the furniture and a way to be the tallest thing in the room without knocking over breakable stuff I care about. BUT I hate the look of cat trees. Hence, the cat tree bookcase.
How to keep your personal information private
If you have utility, internet, or cable bills in your name, they will lead to your home address. If you file a police report or go to court as either a plaintiff or defendant, you may get calls from ambulance-chasing lawyers; those records are public. If you own your residence in your own name, anyone can search property records to discover where you live. Most of you will never face the level of harassment I have received, but taking basic privacy measures can also deter marketers, identity thieves, and other people you don’t want to meet. Here’s how…
Use bedroom furniture in your kitchen
Tucked into this home tour of a Delaware split level, Homie Heather B offered up a gem of a great idea for your kitchen.
Who can suggest clever ways to store my flatware?
We finally got round to redesigning our kitchen after four long years. Now that the design has been finalised and sent off to the fitters I suddenly released that I don’t have any drawers! I have no idea how to store my cutlery. I’ve always had a tray in a drawer and now that’s not an option. I would really love to hear about awesome cutlery storage alternatives.
Make your own framed display board for your button collection
I’ve been collection pins and buttons for years, starting with going to punk shows as a teen and over the years expanding to collecting them from travel, art shows, wherever. Forever they sat in a bowl or tin and I couldn’t really enjoy them. So I came up with this easy DIY solution to display my collection…
Container gardening, what works?
I have been poking around and growing sweet potatoes in containers looks to be easy enough. So, I would like to do a potato box, too. But should we put that on our deck? or would the cement patio be better? What else grows well in containers? (In the Northern Mid-west?) I know we can’t put anything out until near the end of May, but when should we start the sweet potatoes? Or… you know… any other suggestions?