Hi there and welcome to this late afternoon edition of Friday Loves. Today, Friday Loves Lists. You may be familiar with some Lists: Thirteen Items of Furniture You Must Have in your Thirties. Four Things Every Woman Needs in her Closet. And my favorite: Six Design Rules So You Don't Look Like a Noob.
Eh. This is not that type of post. This list of Things Every Room NEEDS is relegate pretty much to my own home, though your own home may abide by similar rules. So, without further ado, here are three things every room in my house has, and you can, too.
1. Scissors. I've actually been made fun of for having scissors in every room in my house. Being a self-conscious 20-something at the time, I took the note to heart and considered relegating scissors to just one spot in our home. After all, it's not like we live in sprawling mansions. Surely any need for scissors that arises is not exactly emergency status, and I can walk the twenty feet to fetch a pair. But. It turns out having scissors in every room is just something my family needs to operate smoothly. We use them in the kitchen, of course, for snipping herbs, cutting pizza, opening food bags and tearing into Amazon boxes. The practice is so ingrained that Lou actually recently put a pair of her kiddie scissors into her snack bin for help opening tricky packets. I wholeheartedly endorsed this move (and then moved her snack bin, heretofore Westley's very favorite toy in the whole house, up a little higher). I keep pairs in all our bedrooms for removing tags, sweater snags and cutting up boxes and paper. I'm on a NO WASTE kick (shocking, I know), wherein I (try to) repurpose the packaging that comes into our house. For the most part, this means cutting down boxes and big sheets of packing paper to replenish Lou's art supply stash, though occasionally more creative applications arise. Having a pair of scissors handy to do all this, no matter where we are, is the key to saving our teeth and our sanity - by eliminating piles of boxes and junk I'll get to "later." Of course, we keep scissors in the bathroom as well, for bang and brow trims. And the craft area in the back has about half a dozen pair, each assigned to a specific task. Use my fabric scissors on paper at your own peril.
2. Clocks. This is actually a new one for me. It's a little embarrassing, really, how long it took me to realize that maybe my innate sense of time passing is not so great? Maybe I need to actually know what time it really is? Maybe that will get us out of the house a smidge closer to on time? We had been relying on our various devices for time-telling, but it turns out that's not super efficient when your hands are full of squirmy baby. When choosing clocks, I decided to go with non-digital all the way. It took me a really, really, embarrassingly long time to learn to quickly read a clock with hands, and I thought I'd try to spare Lou and West that indignity. (Yes, we're working on our Right and Left from a pretty early age too). The clocks are an experiment in progress, but one I'm feeling very optimistic about. I have clocks in all our bedrooms (I shared the IKEA chalkboard one we put in Lou's room and we still LOVE it) and am hunting down some for the entry and, even, a water resistant version for the bathroom.
3. Aquaphor. More of a winter staple than a summer one, Aquaphor is nonetheless something we go through by the tub year-round. Lou has terrible ezcema and we all have dry skin. We slather this stuff on rough elbows and chapped lips, diaper areas and whole chubby, slobbery baby faces. One tub is not enough, because then it always gets trapped in a sleeping baby's room or occupied bathroom. So now we all have our own, and I even carry a tube with me in my purse.
Er, and that's it. Feeling bereft? Like I haven't shamed you enough or mentioned "crisp white button down," or "furniture without legs," or "something black" enough? Sorry. Here's a bonus list for ya. Three things in every room of our house that I freaking wish weren't.
1. Cheerios. Every. Goddamn. Room.
2. Hairbands and bobby pins. Ditto.
3. Single dirty socks. For the (Friday) love.
That's it y'all! Short and sweet. So please, seriously, tell me: what are three things that live in every room you inhabit? See you Monday!