March 2007

My old roommate and I used to have an activity that we called “Liberation through Clothing Donation”. As much as we hated dealing with cleaning out our closets, we loved the feeling of moving that bag of undesirable clothes out of our bedrooms and dropping it off at the GoodWill.

For the past few years, Heather has hosted a Clothing Swap, which enables us to go through each other’s bags before hitting the women’s shelter where we now donate our clothes.

And now I’ve just learned about the 27-Fling Boogie. This is a phrase that comes from the FlyLady, who is an online trainer of housewives and husbands. If you don’t have a housecleaner or nanny, you should definitely explore her site.

If you just want to feel good in about twenty minutes, try her suggested activity:

As fast as you can, take a garbage bag and walk through your home and throw away 27 items. Do not stop until you have collected all 27 items. Then close the garbage bag and pitch it. DO NOT LOOK IN IT!!! Just do it.

Next, take an empty box and go through your home collecting 27 items to give away. This will change the energy in your home and bring about good feelings. Every time I do this I feel better and my home is becoming decluttered in the process. As soon as you finish filling the box, take it to the car. You are less tempted to rescue the items.

Rule of thumb: if you have two of any item and you only need one, get rid of the least desirable.

Friends, you know this would be a better way to spend a nap than Internetting. And I know where to start with my purging - my makeup bag and jewelry box. What the hell am I storing in there? Quite a few things that qualify as trash.

Fellow parents of newborns, here’s a super easy way to make a time capsule that your child will love (some day):

1. Buy disposable camera
2. Take lots of pictures around hospital, home, baby, car, and your life as it is in general
3. Write your name, address, phone, email, today’s date, and the words “Photo Time Capsule! Develop me in a few years” on the camera
4. Throw it in a keepsake box and let time pass.

Done and done. This idea brought to you by the good folks at Photojojo.

Allergic to duckies and bunnies? Feeling too sophisticated or hip to welcome a baby into your home? We have some thoughts for you… and some of ‘em are downright cheap.

I was wandering around IKEA at about 15 weeks pregnant when I saw a baby’s room design that I loved. Mostly it was the stripes on the wall. They were so much fun, and gender neutral. I took a closer look at the wall and saw that IKEA had done me the favor of indicating exactly what paint brand and color they had used. Fast forward two months and I had my mom and stepdad under my command, painting along the straight lines I had pencil-sketched on the wall. (Instructions: Paint whole wall light color. Wait one day. Pencil in stripes. Tape along pencil lines. Paint darker color. Remove tape.)

Other suggestions from smart parents:

• Use a dingbat font to put funny faces on the wall
• Make artwork in the vintage-y style you see at Pottery Barn Kids “all by self,” as my toddler used to say
• Put up huge-ass letters, bought or made
• Use an alternative to a mobile
• Put a large animal on the wall (omigod is this cute!)
• Even hipper than the last link, a whimsical cartoon for the wall
• Get customized (skin, hair, background!) fun and funky wall designs at YoonKids (via DesignMom)
• And below, see how my sister decoupaged the pages of Goodnight Moon onto a child-sized table.

When you design your baby’s room, post a link to a picture! We love to see cool baby rooms and hip nurseries.