Can a Teenage Girl and an 11 Year Old Boy Really Share a Bathroom?

The answer is probably "no." However, they do share a bathroom in our house. At least for now, until Andie and all her toiletries squeeze Jack, his toothbrush and his Axe out into the hall.

Our arrangement works for now as long as the following rules continue to apply:
No Pink Stuff
Happy stripes work great -- red on Andie's side and blue on Jack's side. Each kid gets a little personality on their side, but not too girly. These towels from Garnet Hill are perfect:


Everyone Gets Their Own Trashcan
As everyone knows, boys and girls generate vastly different kinds of trash, and it's best to keep cross-gender exposure to a minimum. These SimpleHuman cans from The Container Store are extra good because they have lids.


Keep Everything Segregated
I bought these kitchen cannisters a several years ago, and repurposed them into the bathroom when we moved into this house

Even if he doesn't really need it, Jack likes to have one of the cannisters for his stuff. Sometimes it's filled with pennies, sometimes with stuff from his spy kit. He doesn't usually fill it with bathroom stuff, but he does like to keep it full, just so Andie doesn't move in.

Make Sure The Boy Gets At Least One Drawer
Although Jack doesn't need his very own drawer for the three grooming items he uses regularly, he still gets one. That way he doesn't have to sort through lip gloss, barrettes, and other girly things to get to his dental floss. And he doesn't have to pick long blonde hairs out of his toothbrush.

No Underwear On the Floor
Both genders are strictly forbidden from abandoning their underwear anywhere but their hamper or their room. No 11 year old boy wants to look at his sister's underwear.

Put the Lock Back on the Door
Remember when the kids were toddlers and you took all the locks off all the doors in the house so they wouldn't lock themselves in their rooms by accident? It's now time to find the lock for the kids bathroom and give it back. While an 11 year old boy doesn't mind having company while he's in the bathroom, his big sister doesn't really like walking in on him by accident.

Now You Know, I Carry a Purse by Guest Blogger Laurie's Dad

My wonderful daughter invited me to guest blog. I thought I could write about my garage which is a standard garage in terms of design but not in terms of use. But instead she has asked I write something about living through recessions. She seems to think I have lived through a few……….ye gads, I am not that old.

During challenging financial times it is always good to buy only what you need; not what you want. Now think about your needs carefully. You may think you need something when in fact you only want it but have convinced yourself you need it. An easier way to think about this is to stop all impulse buying. You will save tons of money. When Laurie was young we implemented that rule during tough times but trips to the Dairy Queen were always an absolute need !

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Garden is the key word folks. I recall a time in the 70’s when we rented a tiller and plowed up a large section of our Colorado back yard. We planted all kinds of fun foods to save money and eat healthy. All went well until the sunflower plants ripened and attracted every kind of living bird within a 70 mile radius. The neighbors were not pleased.

Nothing beats a family trip to the local theater to see something on the big screen. There are ways to cut costs here too. Go to the first showing of the day, always a lower price. Even some days of the week have discount evening showings. Skip the candy counter but do stop at the popcorn stand. Get one and only one bag of popcorn…….the biggest popcorn in the house, the bag or tub with the free refill. Take it to your seat, take out the paper coffee filters in your purse, fill one filter per person with popcorn and voila, popcorn for all. When the purchased tub or bag is empty, go get your free refill and do it all over again. Easy, fun and keeps all those hands out of the popcorn tub too.

This was fun. Thanks sweetie for inviting to use your space to ramble. I love you lots, dad.

Investment Advice for the Family Room

A house with kids in it is like any investment -- you want to spend more on the things that matter to you, and less on the things that don't.

It's my opinion that the best investment in any family home is a comfortable, well-built sofa for the family room. It's also my opinion that many people invest too little in their sofa, and aren't quite sure how to choose a good one that will last.

Here's a simple rule: a good sofa is like a good meal -- you have to start with the right ingredients. The main ingredients for a good sofa are:

The Frame
A good one is made of kiln-dried hardwood rather than soft pine, plastic or particle board. The best frames are corner-blocked, double-doweled, glued and screwed together. As a general rule of thumb, there is less wood in cheaper sofas. Instead of being screwed and glued, the frames may be stapled together. Juliette Barrell of furniture maker Wesley-Barrell says, “A quick test to do in store is to gently lift the sofa by the corner. If it feels heavy and solid, this means work has gone into engineering the frame.” When you lift one corner of the sofa from the floor, at least one of the other legs should come off the floor also. If the other three legs stay on the floor, you know your frame will twist over time.
Penalty for choose a poorly constructed frame: your sofa will squeak.

The Springs
The very best springs are coil springs that are eight-way hand-tied to the frame. A good second best is a sinuous steel spring that's tied to the frame. Watch for zig-zag springs or pre-fabricated spring units that are dropped into the sofa -- they're bad. We've all seen antique sofas that sag in the middle: that's because the springs aren't strong enough to withstand years of regular use.
Penalty for choosing an inferior spring construction: your seat will sag. (And who wants that?!)

The Cushions
Part of the overall feel and comfort of the sofa will come from the style of cushion that is used in the sofa. The base cushions separate you from the springs of the suspension system, so they should be constructed well. For the best comfort, and lowest maintenance, you'll want a high density foam core in your cushion. You can then choose fiber or down to wrap the cushion, depending on whether you want your cushions to look tailored and neat (fiber), or loose and cushy (down). Avoid cushions that are foam only with no additional fiber or feathers -- they'll be uncomfortable and they'll break down quickly. The best test of a good cushion is to drop into the sofa like you will every Friday night when it's in your family room. If the sofa is the one for you, you'll feel comfortable right away. If you have to keep squirming around to get comfy, keep shopping.
Penalty for choosing an inferior cushion: a sofa that you don't really want to sit on.

After you've grilled the salesman about the frame construction and springs, and completed the comfort test, the last thing you should do before buying is sit on the arm of the sofa. If the arm is well-padded and comfortable, then you can reasonably assume your sofa is well-constructed, and you can confidently invest.

Your return on investment will be a sofa that will withstand hundreds of movie nights, bouncing and jumping from the most rambunctious kids, the occasional night spent on the sofa, and can still be passed onto your kids when they move out.

The Cheater's Guide to Appearing Organized

Organizing is very heavy on my mind these days. December always seems like a flurry, and the New Year always brings with it a desire to pull it all together. While I'd like to actually be organized and efficient, these days just appearing so is a huge victory. I can find most things in my house at a moment's notice, because of a simple tool: The Shoebox.

Rather than neatly file or stack things, I like to put all the similar stuff together, throw it in a shoebox, label it, and stash it away. I used to save my shoeboxes and use them, but now that shoeboxes come in all different sizes, shapes, materials and patterns, I love them even more.

I use shoeboxes like these for photos, chords to all our misc. electronics, art supplies, and other stuff that seems to always be piling up here and there.


We use art files like these for all the kids' art and papers from school.

Scrapbooks are a ridiculous idea for a family with three kids and a working Mom. It's much easier to assign one box to each child each year, throw everything in it as the year progresses, label it and put it away at year end. And it's much more likely to get done.

We use canvas boxes like this for food in the pantry. No plastic, and they're easy to move around.


Andie uses boxes like these to organize her room.


Shoeboxes are the best organizational system. I love them because they're neat, they stack, and they're nice and small so I can easily seem what's in them. I also love them because they create the appearance of organization -- only I know what mess lies within.

My Favorite Accessory -- The Sheepskin Throw

My husband and I generally aren't big spenders, but we do have a weakness for real estate. Consequently, we've got a few residences to maintain (and a beautiful lot in Ketchum, Idaho that's on the market, if anyone's looking). So the challenge of decorating a home that works for a family and still looks great replays itself over and over in my life as I roam from San Francisco to Sun Valley to Olympia and back.

One item I've found that is universally useful, comfortable and kid-proof in all our locations is the classic sheepskin throw.


We use them on the floor as rugs, but also:
Thrown over chairs they made a super comfy and soft place to sit
We always have one draped over the foot of our bed in the winter to keep our feet extra warm.
Sometimes I'll throw one on the floor in front of the fireplace and make a little nest for Katie to snuggle into.
Jasper has now adopted one in the the bedroom has his resting place in the evenings.
And my favorite use: in a pinch, I'll throw one over the sofa in the family room if one of the kids has wiped their face on the slipcover and I don't have a minute to wash it.

Sheepskins are especially great for babies, as they absorb 30% of their own weight in moisture, so they create a nice, natural dry zone around the baby.

Our sheepskins take a beating, but they're machine washable, so just a spin through the wash and a few strokes with a wire dog brush and they're good as new. I think every family should have a stockpile of sheepskin throws in their home, so I've compiled the Furber Family Guide to Buying a Sheepskin Throw below:

When buying a sheepskin, there are a few things you should consider:
Sheepskin rugs from sheep-producing countries such as Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom are almost always higher in overall quality than rugs produced other places. It's not the sheep that are different, but sheep producing countries have centuries of sheep shearing traditions that newer industries often lack. In many cases, imported sheepskin rugs have been subjected to old fashioned washings in local waters and multiple dryings and combings.

The most important consideration when buying a sheepskin is comfort, so the overall texture of quality sheepskin rugs should be soft and pliable. The piling should be neatly combed, with very little to no shedding. Beware of any backing material that feels rubberized or artificial.

I've found that sheepskin throws range in price from the very inexpensive to the very expensive, but there's a middle ground of $50 to $100 per rug that looks great, wears well and lasts. Good resources for sheepskins in that price range are:
Pottery Barn
Ikea
SheepskinTown.com

All are very similar in quality and price, and are usually in stock so if you start right now you can be lounging with your sheepskins by next Friday night.

Five Things I Forgot I Had

The swap meet at the Furber house last weekend was a moderate success. JP,Jack, Andie, and Katie all got great things that they were very excited about. One man's castoff is another man's treasure, it seems.

I rate the event as only moderately successful because I didn't get the inbox I was hoping for. Maybe next time. However, as always happens when I start looking in closets and under sinks, I found some pretty good and useful stuff I had forgotten about. For example:

Some plastic storage drawers that were nearly empty under my bathroom sink are now in the garage holding JP's odds and ends on his workbench.

Some empty wine crates are now holding table linens in my dining room.


I found a supercool corkboard that now makes a great addition to my command center in my laundry room.

I found stashes of notecards all over the office. When I gathered them all together, it seems like we've got enough to get us through about the next five years of thank you notes. We now have a drawer in the office dedicated only to notecards and thank you note writing supplies. Stand by Grandmas and Grandpas -- thank you notes are on the way.

I found dormant frames all over the place -- in the garage, in the office, in the hall closet. Next time I think I need to buy a frame, I don't. And the next time after that, too.

Cleaning out my closets looking for stuff to trade just wet my appetite for a bigger excavation. I think I'll venture into the garage next -- maybe my inbox will be in there.

Swap Meet and the Furber House

Now that the resolutions are done, it's time to get back to my topic of making the most of your $$ during a recession.

Andie and Jack have been making noises lately about needing (or wanting) new things for their rooms. I've fended them off, as I feel like we don't need any more stuff in our house. In fact, I've noticed that whenever we move, we find great things that we'd forgotten about, or didn't realize we had.

That gave me an idea: this weekend all five Furbers are going to find ten things in our rooms that we don't need or want anymore. All 50 things are going on the kitchen table, and all family members can shop from the table for new things for their rooms. Anything that doesn't get swapped will be donated to charity.

I need a new inbox for my desk in my office. Wish me luck!

Resolution #7: Be a Little Greener

I rarely borrow content for my posts, but The Daily Green has a fun list of ways to go green in the New Year that I wish I'd written:

I will relinquish my title of Most Likely to Acquire Useless Crap I Don’t Wear or Need.
Admit it — your closet is full of had-to-have items that have been punished to a life of hanging unworn. You have enough notepads, pens, books, magnets, and collectible tchotchkes to fill a mini storage unit. Yes, our purchases keep the economy going, but most of us buy far more than we need. (There are whole TV shows dedicated to demonstrating ways to unclutter!) Remember that packaging, waste, and pollution are created to make these items available to you. If you trash those once-new goodies when you’re no longer interested in them, they will live in a landfill for years and years. It’s time to clean out, and stop the crap collecting.

I will avenge my phantom load.
Phantom load has nothing to do with the pounds that mysteriously appeared on your midsection over the holidays. The term refers to the energy wasted by electronics and power chargers when they are plugged in but not in use. That’s right — your computer cord, cell phone charger, and time-telling DVD player are all sucking energy from the outlet even when there isn’t anything attached or being watched (hence the spooky phantom-ness). Actually cut the power to your electronics by plugging them in to a power strip and flipping the switch to off when you’re not watching or listening.

I will be smarter than bottled water companies and drink for free what they are trying to sell me.
Kicking the plastic water bottle habit might sound like an impossible feat if you’re as addicted as the average thirsty American; last year we consumed about 50 billion plastic water bottles. If the fact that plastic is bad for the environment doesn’t get you to quit, just think: several bottled water brands use the same H20 that’s available from your faucet. So buy an eco-chic reusable stainless steel bottle, and refill it throughout the day — for free. If you’re parched at the mere thought of quitting cold turkey, ease into a plastic-bottle–free life by bringing one less bottle a week to the gym, or by giving them up at the office.

If I can remember to TiVo “Dancing with the Stars,” I can remember to bring my own bags to the grocery store.
It’s as if plastic shopping bags are required to exit a store—the disposable sacks are forced on customers even when the purchase is just a can of soda. But plastic bags are made from petroleum and only about 1 percent of the estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion Annie Bell plastic bags consumed worldwide are recycled each year. Most end up in landfills (where they take perhaps 1000 years to decompose) or in the sea. If you start bringing your own bags now, you’ll be ahead of the curve if plastic ones become outlawed in your community.

I will switch to recycled paper products at home (but not if they make me chafe).
We know there are some folks out there who must have two-ply, but even you can commit to changing just one thing. If you have a Larry David-like aversion to recycled toilet paper, try the paper towels. If brown won’t match your kitchen colors, look for recycled paper towels that are whitened without chlorine or stick with washable dishcloths. By purchasing recycled paper products you’re preventing trees from being chopped down, and paper waste from ending up in landfills. In addition, less energy and water is required to produce a recycled paper product.

I will consider whether my meal came from the farm or the factory.
Big agriculture isn’t all bad. Everyone has a guilty culinary pleasure that comes from a big factory (see: Oreos, and Cap’n Crunch). But while you’re worrying about your own carbon footprint, remember that your food has one too. Think of how many miles your food has traveled (do you really need berries from Chile?), how many chemicals are used, and how much pollution and waste have been generated in the production of your foodstuffs. Support local agriculture by shopping for food at a farmers market. The goods will be fresh, and you might enjoy meeting some of the people who grew your dinner.

I will take a day off from road rage and take mass transit or car-pool one day a week.
If you have public transportation options available to you, try switching to the train or bus one day a week. According to the American Public Transportation Association, public transportation use saves 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline each year, and can reduce household expenses by $6,200. Plus you’ll get a day off from road rage. If you don’t live near public transportation, try organizing a once-a-week carpool with your neighbors or coworkers. You’ll save on fuel, tolls, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by removing cars from the road. As a bonus, you’ll gain access to that exclusive carpool lane.

Thanks, Annie Bell Muzaurieta. Any ideas on how to lose ten pounds?

Don't Worry, Be Happy

With the economy down, bad news everywhere and the strange weather, now may be a bad time to develop a list of new year's resolutions. But tradition prevails, and today the Furbers will be completing our fun, fill-in-the-blank resolutions for the year:

At the top of my list is "have more fun."

I was lucky enough to enjoy a cruise to Mexico over Christmas to celebrate my father-in-law's 80th birthday (Thank you, Jim and Linda. You're the best.) The cruise was great, but the most fun part was coming back to the cabin at night to see what kind of animal the cabin steward had made with our towels. Katie especially loved it. Her favorite was the elephant that was wearing Andie's sunglasses.

Click here for a video on how to make it.
It's always a thrill to surprise my kids with something fun like putting their initials in their pancakes or twirling their PJs in the dryer before bedtime. Now I can add the occasional origami elephant to my arsenal.

Now, moving on to resolution #5. Dad, do you have any ideas for me?