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Last Minute Ideas for Mother's Day: Do Her Chores!

Brooke Foster — 2011-05-06T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Crafts & Projects, Parties & Entertaining, Holidays, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

Forget the flowers. Here's the best last minute Mother's Day gift you could give: Sit mom in her favorite chair, grab a sponge and clean her house.

On Mother's Day I typically go to a local farmstand to buy my mom a flat of pansies or a hanging plant spilling over with colorful flowers. My mother loves flowers, and she loves spending Mother's Day planting whatever flowers my sisters and I bring her. At least I think she does.

According to the National Retail Federation, two-thirds of Americans will buy their mother flowers this Mother's Day.

Photo: amy_kearns, Flickr

But here's the rub: Now that I'm the mother of a 14-month-old baby boy, I think the last thing I'd want on Mother's Day is flowers. A flat of morning glories, while thoughtful and pretty, is only going to give me one more thing to do on a day when I'm supposed to do nothing but relax. Gardening is a chore, no matter how enjoyable or rewarding it may be.

Photo: mr_jeffreed, Flickr

Plus, there's a double standard when it comes to gifting. While fathers get to spend Father's Day golfing, sailing or attending a ball game, mothers are encouraged to do more housework. How is that fair?

If you really want to give your mother a gift this year, here's what you can do: Take on some of her most dreaded chores.

You'll make any mother's day by taking on one of these gross-out housework tasks on her "to do" list. Besides cleaning won't cost you a dime, just some elbow grease. (One caveat: If you already bought your mom a plant, don't fret -- Insist on planting it for her!)

5 Chores You Can Cross Off Your Mother's To Do List This Weekend:

1. Scrub your mom's tub, toilet and bathroom sink. Who enjoys chipping away at soap scum in the tub? Absolutely no one, including your mom. Here's the best way to remove soap scum, a guide to the dos and dont's of cleaning the tub and how to clean your tub the non-toxic way.

Short on time, but want to give your mom the gift of a clean bathroom? Here's how to do it in 15 minutes.

2. Clean out her fridge. Then stock it with gourmet goodies. Pull your mom up a chair, and she can direct you as to what in the fridge should be tossed. You can catch up while she watches you wipe away the syrup drips and onion peel shavings, and then disinfect the drawers and freezer. Here's tips on how to clean out your fridge in less than an hour. And don't just make the inside shine -- Use a sponge and cleaning spray to wipe down the top of the fridge, the coils and behind it.

When you're done, stock a few of her favorite treats inside. Then she'll get two gifts next she opens the fridge.

3. Do her laundry. Every mom spends a ton of time washing, drying and folding clothes. Some moms keep up with it on a daily basis, but many of us fall behind, and within a few days a mountain of laundry can appear. Tell mom you've got it covered. Spend the afternoon emptying all of the hampers, and play her personal laundry service for the day. If you've got extra time, air-dry her clothes so they smell fresh and spring-like.

Earn brownie points by putting the clothes away, returning hampers to their proper place, and wiping down the washer and cleaning lint from the dryer.

4. Disinfect the kitchen trash can. No matter how clean your mom is, chances are her kitchen trash can has a bit of an odor. It's normal -- All it takes is one tiny leak, a small scrap of food, and the trash can releases an icky smell when you open it. This is a job I often put off for weeks until it gets worse and worse. Here's how to do it: Empty the trash, and take the can outside. Dump any contents in the outdoor trash receptacles; you may have to scrape off any old crusty food bits. Then get out the hose and wash it out. You can add a small bit of spray cleaner to help disinfect. The job will take only a few minutes, but your mom will appreciate it in a big way.

5. Pull out the stove and clean behind it. Then tackle the greasy backsplash. Stoves are heavy, so this is hard for older moms to pull off on their own. Here's what you can do: Pull the oven out from the wall as much as you can without disrupting any gas lines, then reach a vacuum down and suck up as many crumbs and food particles as possible. Then spray the backsplash down and scrub.

If you're feeling ambitious and (particularly giving), move out the bookshelves, couch and any other pieces of furniture from the walls of your mother's house. Go around and vacuum all of the dustbunnies. A full deep cleaning is dreaded by all -- Your mother will breathe easy knowing she didn't have to do it!

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Living Without: Could You Go a Year With No Dishwasher?

Brooke Foster — 2011-05-04T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

In our new series, we peek into the lives of people living without standard (and non-standard) home luxuries. First up: My year without a dishwasher.

I was nine months pregnant when we went apartment hunting for a larger place. My husband and I had been crammed into a one bedroom Manhattan rental apartment for a year, but when I got pregnant it became clear that we couldn't fit a crib or a sweet mobile, let alone a baby. So we went looking for a bigger space.

"Let's make a list of what's important to us," my husband, John, suggested. I listed: Close to Whole Foods, walking distance to parks, dog-friendly, quiet, charming, lots of light.

Photo: {EHPhoto}, Flickr

"We probably want an elevator," John said. "And a dishwasher, and a washing machine and dryer, right?"

I shrugged. "I just want to find a place that feels homey," I said.

We looked at over a dozen apartments on the Upper West Side of New York City, no small feat for someone who is 9 months pregnant. And when we walked up two flights of stairs to apartment 3R in a brownstone on West 92nd Street, I knew we'd found our new home. While it was only a one bedroom, the living space was enormous by city standards. It had beautiful hardwood floors, an oversize fireplace, crown molding, a renovated bathroom and kitchen, and a big Bay window and second fireplace in the bedroom. There were plenty of closets -- and more importantly, there was plenty of extra space for a crib, changing table and rocking chair.

"But there's no dishwasher," John reminded me. "And there's no elevator. You really want to carry a baby up all these stairs?"

Photo: LadyGuinevere!, Flickr

"We don't need a dishwasher," I told him. As for the elevator, I had a theory: If I could walk up and down the stairs with 30 extra pounds of weight on my body, why couldn't I do it with a 25 pound baby?

So we took the apartment.

After our baby was born, we walked him gingerly up the stairs. We put him in a baby carrier to sleep while we did dinner dishes or washed his bottles. As our baby grew from 3 months to 6 months to a year old, we found ourselves spending quite a bit of time washing dishes. And since he was more mobile, we often waited until he was asleep to tackle the dishes. There were his bottles, then his bowls, cups and spoon, then his food-encrusted high chair tray, which is "dishwasher safe," but I always had to scrub it with a sponge.

The other day I counted how much time I've spent washing dishes in the last six months, and this is what I've come up with: 3 meals per day plus baby bottles @ 30 minutes each = 90 minutes per day. Multiply that times 7 days a week for 52 weeks, and I've washed dishes for 546 hours this year.

Which is one of the reasons why we bought a house. We needed a dishwasher. (We also needed a bed, but that's another story.)

On our first night in our new house, I loaded the dishwasher for the first time. It cut the dish washing job in half -- Pinch me! But I also, surprisingly, found myself longing to wash the dishes myself. Washing the dishes is cathartic. I often spend the time thinking about the day's events, coming up with story ideas for my blog, or brainstorming meal ideas for my baby -- it's chill time. So I stopped loading, picked up the sponge and scrubbed.

And you know what? It made me feel more at home. Weird, huh?

For more from Brooke Lea Foster, see her writings on MommyMoi.

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Kate Hudson Decorates the Nursery

Brooke Foster — 2011-05-03T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Famous Homes, Fun Stuff, Celebrity Homes

Actress Kate Hudson is pregnant with her second child and the mom-to-be is decorating the baby's nursery. Here's what we think it should look like.

Hudson has reportedly painted the nursery a gender-neutral yellow. All product suggestions are ours. Photos: Charles Sykes, AP; Courtesy photos

According to OK! Magazine, actress Kate Hudson has converted an extra room in her home into a nursery. The expecting mom is pregnant with her new rocker fiancer Matthew Bellamy's baby; she was recently seen with her 7 -year-old son, Ryder, in New York City while promoting her new film "Something Borrowed."

"All's good," she told QMI Agency. "It's different this time. With Ryder, I didn't have a nursery. I didn't even have a house until I was seven months pregnant. This time I actually got to paint a nursery."

What color did she choose? Yellow, of course, since it's gender neutral. The 32-year-old mom doesn't know if she's having a girl or a boy.

"I'm going with neutral colours," she says. "I don't know what (gender) it is. Yellow's a good sunny color for kids."

We think Hudson should extend the theme with soft browns, greys and baby blues. While the colors are more masculine, the floral pattern and cute elephants balance things out should Hudson welcome a girl. Pieces like this Oeuf crib, SurfaceInspired decal, the Land of Nod curtain panels and this DwellStudio for Target chair emphasize the warm and inviting yellow.

In a 2007 interview with People magazine, Hudson said: "You realize after you have had children that you'll never love anything more than your child."

Hudson is due with baby number two this summer.

Crib: http://www.oeufnyc.com/sparrowcrib.aspx
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62812741/elephants-with-water-birds-wall-decals
http://www.landofnod.com/kids-curtains/kids-room-decor/lattice-curtain-panels/f5287

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Taylor Swift Buys Sprawling Beverly Hills House

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-26T08:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Famous Homes, Celebrity Homes, Cool Homes

Taylor Swift was recently named "entertainer of the year" by the Academy of Country Music Awards. To celebrate, she bought a new house. Isn't that what you would do?

Pop country star Taylor Swift is on the move. The 22-year-old singer just plunked down $3.97 million for a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom house in Beverly Hills, California. The home is unusual for the West Coast -- It's a classic New England-style colonial.

Photo: Jon Kopaloff, WireImage | Realtor.com

No doubt that Swift was drawn to the home since it's set back an acre from the road behind private gates. Imagine rolling lawns, french doors that open up to a patio and overgrown arbor, and tennis courts.

While there's plenty of living space for the singer to entertain and write music, the backyard is lacking one thing -- A pool! I guess Ms. Swift prefers the beach.

To see her new home, click through the gallery below.

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http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf

Taylor Swift's Beautiful 3.5 Million House

For more on celebrity homes, don't miss these great ShelterPop stories.

Here's a video on how to transform an empty patio into a party space!

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Coffee Table Makeover Ideas

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-21T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Your Home, Living Room, Projects, Furniture

Here's a designer secret: Coffee tables matter more than you think. Here's how to make yours stand out.

It's easy to forget how important a coffee table is to living room design. It anchors the couch, provides an essential place to display our favorite art books and remotes, and if well chosen, they can make a design statement.

To help you rethink your coffee table design, we rounded up some of our favorite makeover projects. Get ready to be inspired!

Photo: Make

Coffee Table Makeover Idea #1: Paint it!
Yes, you'll have to sand your old coffee table. But it will be worth it once you're painting it your dream color. Try a fun spring color, like honeysuckle or Robin's egg blue or a bold spring green. Or have some fun, and paint it in a fun checkerboard pattern or like a playing card, as shown above.

If you're transforming your room from whites to woods, try painting it a deep espresso to match your new furnishings. If you're going from white to wood, try a distressed look. Or paint your favorite pattern on it, like this designer who used a Marimekko print as inspiration for her coffee table makeover.

Photo: Creative Little Daisy

Coffee Table Makeover Idea #2: Change the topper.
If your table is wood, but you'd love a glass table -- you can still change the look. Buy a piece of glass large enough to cover your table, put your favorite postcards (or any other collage of beautiful imagery) between the wood and the glass, and voila -- tres chic. If your prefer an upholstered look, but can't afford a new piece, buy or sew a cushion to sit on top, like Creative Little Daisy did. Instant update! See photos below.

Photo: Sew Many Ways

Coffee Table Makeover Idea #3: Make a new one.
Get inspiration from Project Pretty. She bought three end tables, pulled them apart and then reconstructed them into one fantastic looking coffee table. Check it out here. It may have you DIY your own creative version.

Coffee Table Makeover Idea #4: Cover it with your favorite print.
Sew Many Ways had one particularly fun idea. She tore pages out of an old dictionary, artfully arranged them on the coffee table and stuck them on with Mod Podge adhesive (see above). The end result: One great lesson in creative thinking. Try her idea with your favorite wallpaper, like this DIYer on Design*Sponge, or fabric. Or you might even cover your table with leather.

Photo: Pottery Barn

Coffee Table Makeover Idea #5: Choose new tabletop decor.
If you're too lazy to paint or take on a DIY project, maybe it's time to swap out your coffee table decor. Try an artful fan of magazines or a well thought out collection of items that play off one another, like a white porcelain figurine, a candleholder and a quilted bin for your remotes. Maybe there's a color that you can't get enough of. Introduce it through items on your coffee table, then pick it up in a throw pillow on your sofa or a couple of strategically-placed items on your shelves. For more inspiration, flip through your favorite home retailer's catalog. I often look at Pottery Barn (shown above) for ideas.

For more great ShelterPop stories, don't miss:
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5 Great Garden Apps

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-15T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Gardening, How-To, Tools

Whether you're new to gardening or a seasoned expert, these apps will help your garden grow.

I usually grow tomatoes in pots, but last summer I decided to plant them in the ground. I was about to start replanting them when I realized I didn't know how far apart they should be. Luckily, I could find out the answer without leaving the garden.

Enter garden apps. Whether you're a newbie or an old green thumb, you'll benefit from the encyclopedia of knowledge offered right on your iPhone or iPad. Here are some especially helpful sites.

Photo: Getty

iGarden USA, $4.99
The app offers information on recommended planting dates for various fruits, vegetables and herbs, and suggests good and bad planting companions. You can find out common pests for whatever you're growing. Best of all, the app asks you to add whatever you planted to "my garden" -- then it will begin counting down to the harvest date. Fun!

Botanical Interests, $5.99
A boutique gardening app that will appeal to anyone who loves heirloom varieties of veggies; there is information on dozens of varieties of popular summer tomatoes, peppers and more. Not only will you find in-depth growing instructions for hundreds of vegetables, there's a "Tips and Tricks" section as well as Hardiness Zone Maps. Since the app is designed by a seed company, if you find something you want to grow, you can buy the seeds.

IGrowIt, $.99 cents
Listed in the Sunday Times as one of the best 500 apps in the world, IGrowIt is a photo-driven app with lots of helpful gardening information. It's especially helpful for beginner gardeners, since you can tap a button for a list of everything you can plant in your zone that month. I love that there are recipes to go with every vegetable as well as detailed growing instructions.

Vegetable Gardening Guide, $2.99
Featured in the New York Times Home & Garden section, Vegetable Gardening Guide is a wonderful app for beginners and advanced gardeners alike. Not only will you find detailed planting info, but there are sections on gardening tools, canning and preserving, nutritional info and recipes.

The Plant Doctor, $1.99
Consumer Reports called this one of the 20 best home improvement apps, and we'd have to agree. If your plants are dying, the Plant Doctor app can help. The app features info on the 32 most common symptoms of dying plants, allowing you to examine yours and make a diagnosis. Then there is detailed solutions to bring your plants back to life.

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Best Cleaning and Organizing Apps

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-13T12:02:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

We hunted down some of the best apps for whipping your home -- and your to-do list -- into shape.

There are thousands of free apps in the iTunes "Productivity" store, but finding one that works for you -- now that's priceless. Here's a guide to some of the most fun and effective cleaning and organizing apps out there. A few will cost you.

"Wait, there's an app for that? All this time I was paying a maid!" Photo: Age Fotostock

Custom Hypnosis: House Cleaning Edition, $1.99
Now this is an app we all could use. Custom Hypnosis: House Cleaning Edition uses suggestive music to allegedly hypnotize you into cleaning the bathroom, doing your laundry and dusting. Zachary Taylor, who created the app, has several "hypnosis" apps available for download; his theory is that if you're relaxed, you'll clean more. Surprising, since if I'm relaxed, the last thing I want to do is scrub a toilet. Still, at least one user on MacWorld claims it works, saying that she got caught up on her laundry just listening to the app.

HomeRoutines, $5
To help you keep up with your cleaning and organizing to-do list, HomeRoutines allows you to type in a list of chores and rewards you with gold stars as you complete them. You can separate them into morning and evening tasks, create reoccurring to-do lists and create custom daily lists. To motivate you to clean more efficiently, the app also offers a cleaning plan for your home. One week it will tell you to focus on decluttering the living room, another you'll be disinfecting the bathroom. Best of all, it offers a 15-minute timer to encourage you to get the chore done faster!

Photo: Clean Freak

Clean Freak Cleaning Schedule, $.99
This cleaning app, designed by busy working parents, feels a bit less sophisticated than others I've seen, but for 99 cents you will get a basic helpful to-do list. The app breaks down cleaning projects into small tasks, and you commit to doing at least one everyday. My favorite part: It tells you the last time you, say, wiped down your fridge or washed your sheets.

Green Shine, $1.99
Green Shine may be the coolest app we found. It offers green cleaning solutions for everything from polishing the furniture to mopping the floors. Not only will it tell you how to make a product that is as effective as a commercial cleaner, it also spells out how to clean with it and offers warnings, like "Test this method on a small part of your furniture first."It's a really neat idea, and the app itself seems easy to use. If you don't want to pay two bucks for it, Green Shine offers a "lite" version for free.

Photo: Chore Hero

Chore Hero, $2.99
Chore Hero tries to make cleaning fun through a little friendly competition. Rather than offering up a list of chores to check off your to-do list, the app allows you to assign different tasks to different people in your home. When they finish, say, making their bed, they get "points," and you figure out what those points can be redeemed for. If you're winning, you'll be deemed the "Chore Hero," while those who don't keep up with their cleaning jobs will be "Delinquent." Not sure if it will inspire extra cleaning, but it's worth a shot; the interface is fun enough to engage kids.

Good Housekeeping @ Home, Free
The popular women's magazine offers an A to Z guide to stains and spills. You type in what spilled -- maybe there's avocado mashed in your rug -- and it will tell you how to remove it. There's also a thorough guide to cleaning every surface and space in your home with expert tips from the Good Housekeeping Institute.

Photo: 100 Uses for Baking Soda and Household Vinegar Tips

100 Uses for Baking Soda and Household Vinegar Tips, $.99 cents each
Made by the same developer, these two handy little apps offer dozens of tips for using baking soda and vinegar to make your own cleaning solutions. The 100 Uses for Baking Soda app offers more than cleaning ideas; expect health uses as well. Household Vinegar Tips has over 270 ways to use vinegar at home.

Photo: J's Job Jar

J's Job Jar, $.99 cents
This may be the least helpful of all of the apps I found, but it's certainly the most fun. You can write your cleaning to-do list on sheets of paper in a virtual jar. When you have a few minutes of time, shake your iPhone and the app will randomly select one of your tasks. You can click "OK," "Later," or "Never!" It's kind of a procrastinator's dream.

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Sleeping on the Couch

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-13T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Bedroom, Your Home, Living Room, Furniture

My husband and I sleep together on a tiny couch. Here's why we left our bed behind.

I yawn, rest my head on my pillow, roll on my side and close my eyes. "Knee," I say to my husband. He flutters his eyes open and grunts an "I'm sleeping" noise. "Your knee, my love, is jabbing into my back. Can you move it?" As he readjusts his position, he rests his arm on my feet -- Oy, this is even more uncomfortable. I tap my feet against his bicep to get his attention. "Your arm," I tell him. "It's resting on my feet."

"Where else can I put it?" he asks.

The writer and her husband asleep on their couch. Photo: John Vargas

It's a good question. You see, my husband and I sleep head to toe on our sofa. No, not a pull out sofa. We sleep on Crate and Barrel's Petrie mid-century modern style couch, which is pretty much like sleeping in a twin size bed. And it's awful. Every night around 10pm, we take the pillows off the couch, lay down a sheet, put bed pillows at both ends and drape a down comforter over us, which my husband quickly tosses off of him because "it's so hot." (Which makes me too hot because now I have two layers of a down comforter on me.)

Here's the rub: We have a bedroom and a bed with a thousand dollar mattress and super soft flannel sheets. And we never use it. Never.

Because we also have a baby. And he's taken over everything -- our food cabinets are lined with jars of Earths Best pureed carrots, peaches and squash to the point that I can't fit our cereals, pastas and rice. Our living room is cluttered with toys, a Jumperoo, a high chair, an activity table, and many other big, loud, talking and blinking airplanes and choo-choo trains. I even have a Pack N' Play in the middle of my living room -- the sight of which drives me crazy, but it's become a necessity since my 12-month-old is crawling and nearly walking, and sometimes I just need to put him on lock down. (I also store the couch pillows there at night; my husband drapes his clothes on it.)

The writer stores the pillows from her couch in the baby's Pack N' Play. Photo: John Vargas

That's why the baby has gotten the bedroom in our one bedroom apartment. He needs his sleep. We used to sleep next to him, sneaking in the room around eleven each night. But we noticed that he started waking up when we'd come in. He was also needlessly waking us up in the middle of the night -- babies make noise when they sleep: they cough, cry out, toss and turn, or talk to themselves before falling back asleep. But the moment of truth came when Harper learned to stand and peak his almond eyes over the crib railing; he could see us in the bed right next to him. "Da-da-da-da," he'd sing to us before the sun was up.

"I can't do this anymore," my husband declared. "I'm going to start sleeping on the couch."

For awhile I continued to sleep in the bedroom. I'd kiss my husband good night and mournfully head back to the bedroom. But I started to feel like I was married to the baby, not my husband, and it made me kind of depressed. "Just sleep next to me," my husband begged one night, as I got weepy about leaving him on the couch to go to sleep by myself in our bedroom. He reminded me that we slept in a twin bed for a few years in college. "You loved that," he said. "You said it always made us closer."

He was right. I did love sleeping in a twin bed. Still today, we're sometimes forced to share a twin guest bed at a friend or family member's house, and I'll squeal with delight. It means that we get to spoon all night. It always seems that we kiss a little more, just because. A bigger bed can give you so much space that sometimes you can go through a night without touching at all. Many couples don't want to touch each other while they're sleeping, but I actually like it. It makes us feel closer.

While I certainly don't want to sleep on a couch forever, I have to say it's not that awful. It's kind of cute. It kind of feels like we're having a marital sleepover party every night -- we snuggle, we snack, we watch movies and our favorite TV shows, we constantly check the baby monitor, we read our e-readers. We're together.

Photo: John Vargas

"It's time to get out of that apartment," my dad will tell me.

"Why not invest in a pull-out couch?" a friend recently asked.

We're trying. We think we found a house, and if all goes well, we'll be living there in a month. If not, then we'll buy that pull-out couch we've been eyeing at Pottery Barn.

But until then, I'll consider these nights sleeping on the couch together a gift, even if I get a foot in the face more times than I like to admit.

If you'd like to leave a comment, visit us on Facebook.

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Men Only Clean When It...Smells?

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-11T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

A recent study on cleaning habits by the American Cleaning Institute reveals that men and women clean at different rates -- and for different reasons.

If you think you care more about cleaning than your boyfriend or husband, you're probably right. According to the American Cleaning Institute's 2011 Spring Cleaning Survey, women ages 18 to 29 are more likely to wipe down and disinfect the kitchen counters daily and vacuum, mop or sweep the floors compared to men of the same age group.

Getty

And while 82 percent of respondents said they would do some pretty serious spring cleaning this year, men had some fairly interesting motivating factors. "When it comes to doing the 'dirty work,'" reports the ACI, "30 percent of Generation Y men agree that if it wasn't for spring cleaning, they probably would never clean."

Oh, gross.

Women said they tend to clean when their space begins to look messy or when they're expecting company. Men, on the other hand, clean when their home starts to smell.

If you're thinking about where you're going to start your spring cleaning, use the cleaning survey as your guide: 73 percent said they would start in the bedroom, then 65 percent would head to the kitchen and bathroom.

If you're feeling inspired by Generation Y men's slovenly ways, here are some stories to get your spring cleaning on track.

Spring Cleaning: Tips From a Pro
Spring Cleaning For Allergy Sufferers
Cleaning With Vinegar: Spring Cleaning Guide

Brooke Lea Foster is an editor at ShelterPop. Get more of her at MommyMoi!

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Home Myth: You Need to Change Your Sheets Every Two Weeks

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-10T07:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

You think you know how often you should change your sheets? Think again.

I was peeling a set of my favorite flannel sheets off my bed this morning when I realized it had been not two -- but three! -- weeks since I last changed them. Eww.

I did change the pillowcases earlier, just as Good Housekeeping recommends.

Getty

But here's the rub: You're actually supposed to change your sheets every week, even two weeks is pushing it. According to Martha Stewart Living, "In general, it's a good idea to launder them weekly to remove dirt and dust." And prevent the development of dust mites.

Does anyone else think that's a bit overkill? I mean, we sleep in so many layers of clothes in winter that we barely even touch the sheets. I change the pillowcases more frequently since my face touches them directly every night.

I know what the experts say, but I'm going to make two weeks my goal. If I had to change all of the sheets in my house every week, I'd spend my life doing laundry. No thanks!

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How to Recycle: My 30 Day Recycling Challenge

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-06T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

I didn't recycle at all until a couple of months ago. Here's how I got started -- and how you can too.

I was at the grocery store checkout buying a dozen jars of Earth's Best baby food when I heard the woman next to me say, "I wonder what her recycling bins look like?" I cringed. My recycling bins are empty, because I don't recycle at all.

Amazon

Don't judge. I'm a busy mom. Most days I'm just trying to find time to apply my makeup and take out the trash. Who has time to recycle?

But I still carry the guilt, especially when I see women in my neighborhood carrying their groceries in eco-friendly bags -- and pushing a stroller down the street. (I own a dozen eco-grocery bags, but I forget them every time.) The truth is: Often, I'm just too lazy to recycle.

Last month I decided to become a more committed recycler. I told my husband of my plan. "Let's see how long this lasts," he said. But I decided to see if I could pull it off.

I saved two sets of brown paper bags and put them side by side next to my trash can. One was for paper and plastics, the other for cans. As my baby finished eating jars of baby food, they went into the sink for washing and then into the recycling bags. When the milk emptied, I rinsed it out and tossed it in. Sunday's paper -- sometimes it went in before I even read it.

We filled the bags with recyclables overnight. We had way more trash than I'd even realized, and each morning I had a fresh set of recycling bags ready for the next crop of recycling.

And I started to feel really, really good. Recycling wasn't a drain on my time, it became a daily meditation in simple living. And like doing the dishes, it had a big payoff. When I dragged the recycling bags down to the trash every day, I hoped someone would see me. I'm a recycler now, I wanted to say.

Here are a few things I learned during my 30 day recycling challenge:

1. You don't need fancy recycling bins. Just re-use brown paper bags you pick at the grocery store. When you recycle your paper and plastics, you can recycle those too.

2. Easy prep. Place items that are ready to be recycled in the sink, and wash and drop them in to the recycling receptacle at the same time that you do your dishes. Then it feels like it's part of doing the dishes, rather than an extra set of chores

3. Do as much as you can, but don't overdo it. If you're too lazy to recycle a few items one day, it's okay. If you don't put pressure on yourself to be an over-the-top recycler, you're more likely to stick with it.

4. Take your recycling bags out often. You don't want to add clutter to your kitchen with bins overflowing of trash.

Brooke Lea Foster is an editor at ShelterPop. Get more of her at MommyMoi!

For more great ShelterPop stories, don't miss:
"I Hate It When You.." -- What are your biggest home fights?
Got Frugal Fatigue? One writer is tired of penny pinching.

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Is Bravo the Next HGTV?

Brooke Foster — 2011-04-04T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Famous Homes, Design, etc, News & Trends, Celebrity Homes

Martha's network is a flop. So is Oprah's. And Bravo seems poised to win with a new crop of lifestyle programming. We assess the current roster of home shows -- and offer some makeover advice of our own.

Bravo recently announced that fast-talking house-flipper Jeff Lewis is getting a new reality show, and this time he's playing shrink. (At least he knows a great couch when he sees one!) In "Interior Therapy With Jeff Lewis," the design star will move into a stranger's home, diagnose their design problems, and help them redecorate, all while pointing out their bad habits. And in typical Lewis fashion, he'll probably cross the line more than once.

Photo: Joe Pugliese, Bravo | Mike Coppola, Getty Images

This is a feather in the cap of Bravo who continues to make a push for style and home-related programming. And with the popularity of "Million Dollar Listing" and previous seasons of "Top Design" and "9 By Design," they've got another show to add to the home line-up: "Million Dollar Decorators," which will premiere in early summer. The show will feature celeb designers like Martyn Lawrence-Bullard and Kathryn Ireland as "they navigate the high-pressured design industry for their wealthy, famous and extremely demanding clients," says a Bravo press release.

Hearing the news inspired us to assess the other home shows on TV, other than the regulars on HGTV. Here's a guide to which shows are winning, which are losing -- and which ones are in need of a makeover.

MCT

1. Martha Stewart Network
When Martha Stewart moved her show over to the Hallmark Channel, we assumed her audience would follow. Well, they didn't. Apparently, the network is failing to attract a regular audience. It may be because the channel runs more chick flicks than they do quality programs. In October, it was reported that Hallmark cut back MSLO's 10am to 6pm program block.

Will Stewart's daughter save the day? Hallmark recently announced that Alexis Stewart, who just gave birth to a baby girl, will host two new shows on the channel: the first is a continuation of "Whatever, Martha," a show where she critiques old Martha shows, and the second is "Whatever, You're Wrong," a show that will pair her up with Jennifer Koppelman Hutt to discuss parenting. (Who comes up with these names?)

What the network needs: More lifestyle shows! While Bravo is experimenting with home decorating and personal beauty programming, Hallmark is relying on tear-jerker films and "Little House on the Prarie" to boost ratings. Give us a new reason to visit the network!

John Lamparski/WireImage.com

2. "The Nate Berkus Show"
The design world went abuzz when this Oprah darling left to start his own show. Nate Berkus is gorgeous. He's got great style. He's got a great personality. So why is his show so boring?

I think it's the format: Sometimes he plays Oprah interviewing celebrity guests, sometimes he plays decorator. But he doesn't move seamlessly between the two roles. He was so fun on Oprah because he was dishing out his creative advice. Now he's interviewing other people for theirs, and he's not a strong interviewer.

What the show needs: To commit to being a design show. If a celebrity comes on, they should decorate with him, the way that Martha has her guests talk to her as she cooks. Sometimes there's so much going on in the Nate Berkus Show that it feels like a circus. Nate: It's time to simplify.

WireImage

3. Gwyneth Paltrow. The celebrity world was abuzz this week with rumors that Gwyneth was getting her own food magazine. Whether it's true or not, it got us thinking about the Hollywood starlet. Since Oprah's network is struggling, here's an idea for a turnaround: Hey, Oprah, let's help Gwyneth transform GOOP into a lifestyle talk show for OWN. Imagine if Gwyneth had a show with segments about home decorating, beauty and fashion? Now that's a show I would watch. Say what you will about GOOP, but Gwyneth understands the power of branding -- and a television show is a natural next step.

Brooke Lea Foster is an editor at ShelterPop. Get more Brooke at MommyMoi!

For more great ShelterPop stories, don't miss:
Cheap Chic Ideas From Gwyneth's Bedroom
Moving In Together: My Girlfriend Took Over My Apartment

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Let the Gift Fair Fun Begin!

Brooke Foster — 2011-01-31T11:46:00 00:00

Filed under: Design, etc, News & Trends

Can't make it to this year's New York International Gift Fair? Don't sweat it. We're bringing it to you!

The international home design community descended on Manhattan's Javitz Center Sunday for the opening of the Winter 2011 New York International Gift Fair. Our team of bloggers hoofed it up and down the aisles scoping out the new lines of some of our favorite designers, while I stood and lusted after John Robshaw's bedding -- it's so hard not to shop for yourself at the gift fair.

Photo: Allegra Muzillo

At the Working Class Studios booth, our first ShelterPop and SCAD Design Challenge winner Corey Green stood with his winning design, the balloon vase. He was often surrounded by a crowd of onlookers wanting to know the inspiration behind the vase -- his mother used to get on him for not watering the flowers and he wanted to invent a visual reminder of dissipating water. "Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Justin Bieber?" many onlookers asked. "All of the time," he'd say.

Photo: SCAD

But the most common question was: Where do I put in an order? Unfortunately, the vase won't be for sale until August when Working Class Studios completes its production.

The ShelterPop team dined with Corey after the gift show at Ovest Pizzoteca on West 27th, and we were equally charmed by him and all of his other exciting designs to come. Go Corey!

But enough about us. We're covering the gift fair all week on ShelterPop, and we're really excited about all of the products and trends we're uncovering. Check out our full guide to the 2011 New York International Gift Fair.

Check back everyday for more great NYIGF stories.

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The Case Against Cleaning Hits Home With Readers

Brooke Foster — 2011-01-28T13:07:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Storage & Organization, Cleaning

When I wrote a story about how I hate to clean my house, I never thought that readers would get so fired up about it. Here's what they had to say.

You never know who is going to read your stories on ShelterPop. After writing about how I rarely clean my house in "The Case Against Cleaning," (and how I pay a cleaning lady to the dirty work), I got a Facebook message from my 6th grade health teacher who read all about my slovenly ways: "Was just strolling through my aol mail and i suddenly saw a very familiar face- YOU. hope all is well," he wrote.

Photo: Getty Images

Um, embarrassing. Yes, I'm well -- I just don't clean my house much.

But my former teacher wasn't the only one who wrote in. I heard from readers who offered criticism, praise and even tips to get me cleaning.

"I totally agree with the author," wrote Patty Linck Oberg. "I would much rather spend time with family and friends than have an immaculate house. I read a poem that said something like, housecleaning will always wait for you, but your children grow so fast. They remember the good times you had with them, not how clean their house was." Indeed.

One commenter made me laugh when she heard how little I clean: "Makes you wonder how many days the woman wears her panties before changing them," said Beth DeRoos.

Then came Kristine O'Malley-Levy, who called readers out for saying they'd rather spend time with their kids than clean. "If you want to spend every second playing with your child instead of tending to life's normal responsibilities, you will create a child who has learned to be the center of attention. That is not reality and not a good lesson."

Yes, I thought, but cleaning makes me unhappy -- it's not only about spending time with my baby. But Kristine brought it back to the kids when she added an interesting point. She suggests getting your child to help you clean. "To a child," she wrote, "it's all play anyway."

Amanda Regan got me thinking when she saw the fault in my mindset. "Notice that the author describes things SHE will give up or the additional hours SHE will work in order to pay for a cleaning lady," she says. "Even though she is able to contract the physical act of cleaning, the burden still falls on her and not so much her husband." Good point! Why is it assumed that women are responsible for all of the cleaning?

Stacey Staaterman Feeney echoed that when she said that her husband lobbied against hiring a housekeeper. "I let him know I was down with that as long as he understood that I would not be cleaning. He slogged through the housecleaning for about 4 months, then found us a new one." Mary Nelle Clendenen did something similar to her husband. "I went to work part-time in the '90s just so I could afford a housecleaner once a week. Hubby was not happy about it. I told him, fine, here is the Comet, Windex, rags. Never heard another word about it."

Becky Avery Brennan's tongue was sharp. "Personally, I say anyone who won't clean the place they live in is lazy...The fact that the author doesn't change their sheets for 3 to 4 weeks is disgusting. Sorry, but I have worked full-time, taken care of my family & pets, volunteered and still kept my house clean." Ouch. Well, maybe some women are just better at juggling. And you know what else, Becky, I could do it, I'm choosing not to. I'm thankful that I have the choice.

Photo: Getty Images

"I don't like to clean either," wrote Robin Baker. But she offered this tip to make it more bearable: turn on your favorite music and get out your favorite toothpaste. "It cleans, polishes and smells good too. I have used on all types of sinks, showers and a few toilets...It saves time, gets rid of soap scum. Hope this makes you smile." It did.

We love that we inspired some people to hire a cleaning lady. Ann Campbell says, "Don't even have kids or a fussy husband, but I just always have something better to do. This article convinced me to pull the trigger and hire that cleaning person!"

DeCarla Jenkins Steels is currently deployed, but she's already thinking about hiring a cleaning lady when she comes home. She says she actually loves to clean -- Hmm, maybe she just misses home? But she can't stand a dirty house. "But it seems I'm always cleaning and doing laundry with little time for anything else. Sooo, when I return from deployment I'm going to hire a cleaning lady as a reward to myself. Not because I'm lazy or spoiled but I want to spend time doing other things like gardening which I love."

A few housecleaners themselves piped in. "I love all of you spoiled women. You keep me in a job...I love the thank you's I get from all of my clients when they come home to a clean house it makes me feel good that they're so happy about something I've done," writes Nicole Vatala Keesler.

My favorite commenter by far was Lora Cali: "I'm absolutely proud of the author and the other ladies for making this breakthrough! Cleaning sucks, and for most of us women it is an annoying chore! It sucks up your time like crazy and just before you know it you need to clean again. So I say screw cleaning! Don't stress yourself and your family over crumbs on the floor or the mess in the bathroo. Life is too short to waste it.. Happy mother = Happy home!!!"

We couldn't agree more. Thanks ShelterPop readers for your spirited comments!

For more great ShelterPop stories, don't miss:
Wallpaper Trends: What's Fresh, New and Fun
The Writer's Garden: Tour Elizabeth Buchnan's Sacred Space

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Everything You Need to Know About Christmas

Brooke Foster — 2010-12-24T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Holidays

Whether it's advice about how to get out a tough stain or a heartwarming story of a couple falling in love over Christmas lights, ShelterPop's has covered them all this holiday season. Here's a roundup of our favorite Christmas stories.

I'll be eating chocolate croissants off of my mother's holiday dishes Christmas morning. I love these dishes -- each one has a painted scene of a home decorated with lights in what looks like snowy Vermont on the front. The plates aren't fancy. I think my mom picked them up at a garage sale years ago. But they make me happy. (As does this miniature gingerbread house I saw online today by the creative folks over at PetitPlat Food Art.)

Photo: Petit Plat Food Art -- Stephanie Kilgast

That's what the holiday season is all about -- happiness, the simple joys of being home together with family and friends, breaking out the Christmas dishes, and decorating the mantel with something glittery. We had lots of happy stories on ShelterPop this Christmas season -- and all year long. After all, that's our motto: Happy homes make happy people.

And happy homes make for happy holidays.

Merry Christmas!

xoxo
Brooke and Amy
ShelterPop Editors

Here are our favorite ShelterPop Christmas stories:

Britney Spears is a superstar, mother-of-two gazillionaire. Oh, and she loves Christmas lights. Check out what she did to her California home. Magic!

Our writer dreamed of meeting a man who takes Christmas decorating as seriously as she does. Then she met 'Captain Christmas' and he changed her life forever. Here's their story.

Tired of bringing a pointsettia for the host of every holiday party you attend. Think outside the pot, and check out these ideas for other winter flowers and plants to give as gifts.

Our writer hasn't gone home for Christmas in years. She loves her family, but she doesn't love spending Christmas with them.

Dozens of staffers at Aol came together to decorate a life-size gingerbread house to rival Neiman Marcus's crazy-expensive version. The result: One sweet little (big!) house. Then we shipped the gingerbread house to St. Jude Children's Hopsital, and the children went crazy for it.

Tinsel is tacky, difficult to hang on a tree and can kill small animals. Still, one writer won't decorate her tree without it. Here's why she's defending tinsel.

Think your neighborhood has the best Christmas lights? Check out these houses first. A look at the best Christmas lights in America.

With the Ugly Christmas Sweater becoming an ironic Christmas party tradition, we asked ourselves: What is equivalent tacky-chic item in home decor? Here's a look at the ugliest Christmas decor around.

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In Defense of Tinsel

Brooke Foster — 2010-12-21T10:45:00 00:00

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Crafts & Projects, Parties & Entertaining, Holidays

I'm feeling nostalgic for tinsel this year, even if it's one of the tackiest Christmas decorations around.

I'm a December baby, one of those ill-fated children that grew up sharing their birthday with Christmas. It wasn't that bad -- I wasn't born on Christmas Eve; my birthday is three weeks before, on the 10th. Just close enough that my family and I often went out to select a Christmas tree sometime during my birthday weekend. My sisters and I would nibble on pigs in blankets and fight over which ornament to hang first as Mom and Dad arranged the lights. And all of the excitement made it easy to forget that there was leftover Carvel ice cream birthday cake in the fridge.

I might have sulked about all of it if I didn't love Christmas so much. My birthday was the gateway to Christmas, the beginning of an endless loop of "Jingle Bell Rock," the woodsy smell of Fraser Fir, and, best of all, tinsel.

The writer's tree, covered in tinsel. Photo: John Vargas

Yes, tinsel. Tinsel, in case you don't know, looks like long strands of glittery silver linguine or sparkly pom-pom fluff. The packaging sometimes refers to tinsel as "icicles," since it clings to a tree the way ice would... if your Christmas tree was outside in snowy temperatures.

Some people love their tree topper. Others have a special relationship with a childhood ornament they made or a tree skirt that grandma knitted. But my favorite part of decorating a Christmas tree is covering it with tinsel. Every year until I went away to college we hung tinsel on our Christmas tree.

And it's beautiful. When a tree is covered with tinsel and then illuminated with light, the tinsel's reflective surfaces bounce the light around and make the tree look like it belongs in the Magic Kingdom. It literally sparkles. As a kid I felt like a Christmas tree wasn't complete until it was covered in thousands of strands of silver.

Tinsel was a fairly common Christmas decoration when I was growing up on the east end of Long Island. But somewhere along the way, it got really, really uncool. Between Martha Stewart's envied, oh-so-perfect Christmas trees to the surge in stylish trees lit with white lights and monochromatic ornaments, tinsel started to make a tree look cluttered and unkempt. Even worse, dated.

Hanging tinsel is an old tradition. Invented in Germany in the early part of the 19th century, tinsel was originally made of pressed strands of real silver. My great grandparents, who immigrated to New York from Munich in the early 1900s, used tinsel to decorate their tree, and the tradition was passed down to my grandfather, my mother and then me.

The writer's mother and siblings with their tinsel-covered tree (left), and her grandfather (right) with her mother (forefront) and siblings with another tinsel tree. Photo: Courtesy of Diane Strecker Foster

My grandfather, William Strecker (above right), took hanging tinsel very seriously. He was a painter, which made him a student of light, and I can imagine that tinsel took on a sculptural quality that he could appreciate. He passed away when I was 12, but he taught my mother and her seven siblings the technique that his parents taught him: Hang tinsel from branches one strand at a time -- not in clumps -- and start from the bottom of the tree. The idea was to build thin layers of tinsel, so ultimately it looked like a cascading waterfall of silver. "He'd line us up like his foot soldiers and hand us one strand at a time to put on the tree," my mother told me. "I tried to do that with you girls, but at some point it got to be too much. I'd hand you girls clumps to hang in single strands, and you'd want to just plop the whole thing on the tree."

Tinsel certainly has its drawbacks. Unlike garland, which is more of a decorative tinsel wreath strung on a cord, tinsel sticks together with static electricity as you try to hang it. It's not uncommon to brush by a tree draped in it and end up with a strand stuck to your back. When removing ornaments and packing them away for next year, it often sneakily wraps itself around hooks and into packing boxes. Since picking each strand off the tree could take hours, you typically carry the tree outside for pick-up with all of it still on, which creates a mess of its own. Plus, if ingested by small animals like cats, it can be deadly.

My family tired of cleaning up tinsel so much in the weeks after Christmas that one year I remember Mom declaring that she was done with the silvery strands altogether. The following year, we covered our tree in white lights and monochromatic ornaments. Very Martha.

For all of my love of tinsel, I forgot about it entirely for several years. I covered my tree with rainbow-colored lights, glittery red, green and gold balls, teardrop-shaped ornaments in fuchsia, purple and blue, strands of blue and aqua metallic beads. I love a colorful tree!

This year, when we finished decorating our petite tree, I stood back and stared. "Something is missing," I told my husband, John. He didn't see it, so I asked my 9-month-old baby Harper, who couldn't stop staring at the lights, what he thought: "Da-da-da-da," he said, his pointer finger stroking a branch of the tree. It seemed like he was reaching for something, something that wasn't there.

That's when it hit me. We forgot the tinsel. and we had forgotten the tinsel every year before this one.

The writer with her husband in front of their Christmas tree. Photo: John Vargas

I thought of how excited I used to get when Mom would open up the tinsel packaging and hand us clumps to hang on the tree. I thought of how the light danced around the room and how tinsel would hang from the lower branches and touch our Christmas presents on Christmas morning. I loved that tinsel brought our family together; it was like frosting on a cake -- sure, it was sweet without it, but not nearly as good.

And suddenly, all I wanted was tinsel. I wanted Harper to see the flickering lights in it, and I wanted him to look forward to it each year as much as I used to. I wanted it to stick to his feety pajamas on Christmas morning, I even wanted to find it in the house three months later and smile at the memory of Harper opening his presents.

Maybe it's because I was nuzzling my baby's neck that day. Maybe it's because we're all collectively wishing we could return to simpler times. But suddenly, the only thing I wanted to do was to recreate my childhood Christmas tree in my very grown-up living room. (I knew I'd have to be careful -- if harmful to small animals, I can imagine it could do some damage to Harper's sensitive little belly if he ever managed to get a piece in his mouth.)

After an exhaustive search, I finally spotted tinsel at the Kmart in the East Village of Manhattan and grabbed a few 99 cent boxes. That night, John and I stayed up late to hang the tinsel on the tree. John, who had never hung it before, seemed amused by it all, but wasn't sold on a tree smothered in silver strands. I was halfway through hanging the first box when he turned to me: "You really want to cover the tree in this stuff? Isn't it kind of ugly?"

I held a strand like mistletoe over his head and gave him a peck on the cheek. Ugly or not, messy or not, retro or not, I love tinsel. It's like the smell of a turkey roasting on Thanksgiving or the sound of glass clinking on New Year's Eve. It's just part of Christmas, just as it should be.

Don't miss these great ShelterPop stories:
- Ryan Phillipe Selling His Home
- Gwyneth Paltrow Loves This Furniture Designer
- Is Oprah Moving?

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The Case Against Cleaning

Brooke Foster — 2010-12-08T13:08:00 00:00

Filed under: Storage & Cleaning, Cleaning

One writer hates cleaning so much that she's given up cleaning altogether. Here's why everyone deserves a housekeeper.

I was walking through the hall of my apartment yesterday, carrying my 9-month-old baby Harper on my hip, when I noticed a tumbleweed of dog hair blow by my foot. I was about to lean down and brush it up with my fingers until I realized that tomorrow my housekeeper comes. I watched it tumble under the radiator, and instead of picking it up, I kissed Harper's button nose: "Let's go to the park."

Harper crawling on his play mat, while mama keeps up with the dishes in the kitchen -- and that's about all she does. Photo: Brooke Lea Foster

Here's my dirty -- and I mean dirty -- little secret: I hate cleaning. I hate cleaning so much that I typically let my apartment creep into borderline filth before I'll breakdown and pick up a broom or a mop or a dust rag. And yet if you came to my apartment, you'd find a very neat and tidy space where the dishes are always cleaned, Harper's toys always tucked into a toy box and towels neatly stacked in the linen closet. I make the bed every morning right after I wake up, and there are never clothes strewn around the bedroom floor. I'm obsessively neat. I just don't clean much.

If you were to look closely -- and I really hope that you don't -- you'd find some pretty unsavory sights: sheets that haven't been changed in 3 or 4 weeks, dust on the bookshelves, crumbs in the silverware drawer, a shower liner with a slick film of something gross in the bath, dust bunnies gathering under furniture, several pairs of kicked off socks at the bottom of my blankets in bed, small pieces of dog kibble that my mutt, Sadie, dropped out of his mouth near his dog bowl.

And I typically choose to ignore all of it until my sweet housekeeper, Roselle, arrives every other Tuesday. She cleans our one bedroom apartment for 4 hours, and I'm home the entire time, since Harper needs to take his morning nap while she's there. And it's humiliating; I cower in shame while she cleans.

Haven't you ever heard people say that they "clean for the cleaning lady"? Well, there's a reason. A cleaning lady knows all of your slovenly secrets, and as I've let on -- mine aren't pretty (but I bet they're fairly common). I'm actually so embarrassed to watch her clean up after us that I try to use Harper as a distraction. As she pulls the silverware out of the drawer and wipes out the holder, I'll hold him up and say: "Isn't he getting so big?" She'll nod and smile. When she scrubs the tub, I typically take Harper for a walk. I can't look her in the face after she comes out. I can imagine she wants to say: You could at least rinse it out a few times in the week that I'm gone.

Mop the floors? Nah, let's take Harper to the swings instead. Photo: Brooke Lea Foster

And here's the bad news: We just bought a house. When we leave our modest apartment in the city for a modest four square colonial in the suburbs, there are going to be so many more rooms to clean. Two bathrooms. Stairs. A dining room and foyer. As my husband and I poured over our new budget the other night, it became clear: A housekeeper may no longer be in the cards.

"Well then we can't buy the house," I told him.

This is the part where readers snicker, roll their eyes, call me a princess and stop reading. I know, it sounds absurd. But here's the reality: My husband hates cleaning. I hate cleaning. Our dog, Sadie, can't clean. And while Harper loves when I clean sweet potatoes off of his face -- trying desperately to eat the wet napkin as I wipe his chin -- he can't exactly dust the floors as he crawls (although that's kind of a genius idea). Plus, I work at home. When I'm not trying to entertain my baby, feed him or smarten him up with books, I'm on the computer writing or editing.

And don't I deserve something in return for all of my hard work? I'm not interested in fancy jewelry. I don't buy expensive clothes. And I don't even own a car. I'd rather invest my money somewhere I'll get a big return, and for me that means a housekeeper.

I told my husband all of this. I said that I'd take on more work (meaning extra freelance writing jobs) just to pay for a maid. "We should at least try to do it ourselves," he said.

Been there, done that. When we lived in a house in Washington, DC, we set aside every Saturday morning to cleaning. We made a handy list of all of the chores -- scrub tub and toilet, dust bookshelves, wipe down cabinets -- and divvied them up. We did it once and patted ourselves on the back.

And we never cleaned again. A month later, we hired Lena who charged us $100 to clean our whole house. I'd come home to the fresh lemony scent of Murphy's Oil Soap and gleaming hardwood floors and think: Best money I'll ever spend.

Some women try to do it all -- work themselves to the bone at the office and at home, find time for their husband, run the kids to activities and maybe find 15 minutes to soak in a bath. Or they're forced to.

I've got options: If I work a little harder each week, I can afford to pay for the cleaning lady myself. And that means freedom. Plus, I can save elsewhere. Harper and I can certainly miss a lunch with our mommy and baby friends once a week if we have to. I can pass on that Banana Republic sweater.

Harper doesn't mind when his mother takes him outside to avoid making eye contact with the cleaning lady. Photo: Brooke Lea Foster

Instead, I'll buy myself the greatest gift of all: time -- with myself, with Harper, with my husband. I'd rather live with less-than-pressed sheets and clumps of dog hair on the floor than take time away from the people and things that I love most to scrub a toilet. And while I do have to sweep everyday to make sure that Harper doesn't scoop anything -- like dog kibble -- into his mouth, I'm able to spend the rest of the day chasing him around the apartment on my hands and knees making him laugh.

Call me a spoiled brat, a prima donna, a lazy housewife. But I'm just spending my money wisely. For $80 every other week, I buy myself a piece of heaven: A clean house that I don't have to lift a finger for.

Do you hate cleaning? Tell us what you'd rather be doing on our Facebook page!

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Politicians' Homes: From Palin to Pelosi

Brooke Foster — 2010-11-02T11:22:00 00:00

Filed under: Famous Homes, Design, etc, News & Trends, Celebrity Homes

Arnold Schwarzenegger is leaving office, Sarah Palin is quietly (or not so quietly) leading a revolution. But all we want to know is: What do these politicians' homes look like?

The ads for any political election can be contentious, but this year's ads are hitting home -- literally. Candidates are being battered in political ads for having second homes, sprawling estates, anything that reads extravagance. At a time when unemployment is high and thousands are losing their jobs, "living large," as The New York Times reports, translates to out of touch.

Try to guess the candidate who lives in this luxe apartment building? To find out, click through our gallery. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

In an ad released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is up for re-election in Nevada, was accused of "living at the Ritz-Carlton while thousands are losing our homes." (Reid says he lives in a 2,200-square-foot one bedroom condo on the second floor of the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC -- not the penthouse, like the ad suggests.)

In the West Virginia Senate race, Democratic Governor Joe Manchin III accused his opponent, Republican John Raese, of owning a mansion in Florida. While a photo of the home is revealed in the ad, a narrator reports: "That's O.K. for John Raese, who lives in a Palm Beach, Florida, mansion with a pink marble driveway. But it's not O.K. for the rest of us, who work to pay our bills and struggle to afford insurance." (According to the Charleston Daily Mail, Raese does own a mansion in Palm Beach.)

So what do the homes of the election all-stars look like? Check out our gallery! We're peeking into the homes of Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and more of your favorites (or least favorites).

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Home of the Election All Stars!

The home of President-elect Barack Obama is located in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

Home of the Election All Stars!

Image #: 566943 President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton entered a $1.7 million contract to buy this house, photographed September 3, in Chappaqua, New York, that will give Mrs. Clinton residency in the state for a possible senate race. The 100-year-old, five-bedroom Georgian Colonial-style home is in Westchester County, north of New York City. pm/Photo by Peter Morgan REUTERS /Landov

Home of the Election All Stars!

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, Tuesday, June 19, 2007. The San Francisco home of Nancy Pelosi, the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Before becoming Speaker, she was the House Minority Leader from 2002 to 2007, holding the post during the 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses of the United States. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi ranks second in the line of presidential succession, following Vice President Dick Cheney. She is the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. Government. The 3,332 square foot brick home, originally built in 1938, has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Photograph: CelebrityHomePhotos.com.

Home of the Election All Stars!

BRENTWOOD, CALIFORNIA - August 31, 2005 Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver live in this $11.9 million dollar Brentwood, California home. The property which is on six acres boast within its 6,000 square feet living area five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The extensive hillside grounds also contain a swimming pool and tennis court. The property is located in a gated community and has stunning ocean views. Photograph: (C) Mike Carillo, celebrityhomephotos.com

Home of the Election All Stars!

Sarah Palin's home

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisboese/3885377853/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Home of the Election All Stars!

ca. 2009 --- Todd and Sarah Palin at home with their two youngest children, Piper and Trig. --- Image by (C) Nathaniel Welch/Corbis Outline

Home of the Election All Stars!

Which of these homes are your favorites? Weigh in on Facebook!

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The Rent is Too Damn High Party Would Appreciate These Cheap-Chic Crafts

Brooke Foster — 2010-10-19T15:48:00 00:00

Filed under: Your Home, Projects, Fun Stuff, Crafts & Projects, News & Trends

If your rent is eating up your paycheck, you can still pull off great décor. Here, our favorite budget decorating ideas.

And if you're a homeowner, don't worry -- you can still enjoy these affordable adorable ideas. True, you can't chant "The rent is too damn high!", but we bet you can come up with something similar enough: "The mortgage is freaking me out!" or "The property taxes are enough to make my head explode."

Just two of the frugal decorating ideas Tria Giovan, Country Living; mylandblog, Flickr.

The rent is too damn high, says Jimmy McMillan, who is running for governor in New York.

And he's right - the rent is too damn high here in New York City, but it's also too damn high in Washington, DC and Los Angeles and dozens of other locales around the country. While I seriously doubt he can change the world one slumlord or fat cat at a time, I do think he's got a point. I'm so tired of wasting my money on rent.

My husband and I cringe when we think about what we pay to live in our Manhattan apartment. (Hint: It's probably double most people's mortgages. I'm not bragging - It's the size of a studio, we have a baby, and it eats up most of our salaries.) What's worse? Thinking back to all of the rentals I've lived in since I graduated from college in 1998. I can count nine. That's about 12 years of writing checks to mostly absentee landlords.

In DC, I lived in two apartments I shared with multiple roommates. For one, I paid $290 a month for a year, and in the other I paid $425 a month for five years. I didn't have central air in the steamy DC heat, and we had mice. In the second apartment, the rug was tattered and stained, paint was chipping off the walls, and the kitchen was a hallway with a few cabinets. (I have to admit that I loved this apartment; it's amazing what great light will make you overlook.)

Still, over six years, I shelled out close to $30,000 for rent, and I've continued to send checks to landlords since (though I did own a house for one year in 2008). Just like everyone else who rents, I write checks to make somebody else richer, while dreaming about the house (and stuff) I'll someday own.

That's when I pinch myself.

I don't need a lot of money to decorate the house of my dreams. There's so much I could do with the meager amount leftover after paying the rent each month. I just have to get a bit more creative. I don't want a lavish home, just a pretty one that is comfortable and cheerful.

And my own.

Here are some of my favorite ideas of how to pull off budget decorating -- even if your rent is too damn high to afford much.

Kirsten Grove; Craftzine.

In the living room: Just about the quickest thing you can do to make your bookshelf look completely different: Flip your books! And it's 100% free.

In the kitchen: Re-purpose the humble mason jar and make a charming terrarium. Not sure how? We've got the details, plus get more ideas for re-using mason jars.

For the table: Use what you have to make elegant place cards. Even if it's just a humble weekday night, write each of your family members' names on a small piece of paper and use a gold pin to attach it to a pear. This is also a great look for Thanksgiving decorating.

For the bedroom: Buy a new dresser just because you're craving something special for your clothes? No thank you. Paint, tape and new knobs can be all you need for a shocking, stunning piece of furniture that's basically new to you. Check out the full story for more tips!

Looking for money-saving ideas that go beyond decorating? Our sister site DIY Life was also inspired by Jimmy McMillan's platform. Check out their piece: The Rent is Too Damn High - So Save Money by DIYing. Or check out the fantastic The Rent is Too Damn High video on Urlesque!

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Put Your Home on an Energy Diet -- and Save

Brooke Foster — 2010-04-12T14:33:00 00:00

Filed under: Green Design, Solutions, Your Home, Projects, Design, etc

Getty Images

Consider these 10 steps for putting your home on an energy diet to help you can save money.

When you get fat, you go on a diet. With summer on the way, there's a good chance that your home's cooling bills are about to to get seriously bloated. The solution? Put your home on an energy diet. Just like you'd go the gym to work out problem areas of your body, let's work on problem areas of your home and reduce your energy consumption.

To make it easy, we came up with a room-by-room cost cutting approach. You'd be surprised at how simple it can be to save big.

And you may even get some help paying for these energy upgrades. President Obama recently announced $6 billion for the Homestar Program, designed to reward people who purchase energy-efficient appliances with immediate rebates, as part of a larger jobs program intended to put people back to work, particularly contractors. To entice people to hire contractors, the program would reimburse homeowners 50 percent on their energy-efficiency investments. It's also a way for the nation to reduce its energy consumption dramatically.

According to a study by McKinsey and Company, a nationwide weatherization of homes could reduce energy use by 23 percent in the coming decade.

But don't worry, we know it's your bottom line that matters most. So we talked to experts at Lennox, a home heating and cooling company, to help us get you on track. Click our gallery below to learn how to save in every room in your home.

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Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

Easy tip: Lower the temperature on your hot water heater from 145 degrees, which used to be standard, to 120 degrees. Cunningham swears you won't notice a difference at all, but you will see savings when you get your next bill, by as much as $36 to $61 each year. Another easy money saver? Wash your clothes in cold water. According to Lennox, you'll save about $40 in fuel that it takes to heat up the water you'd typically wash with - and another $34 each year just by cleaning out your dryer's lint trap, which increases the efficiency.
And get bonus green laundry tips here!

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

Take an energy audit of your doors and windows, especially if they're on the older side. Do you feel a cool breeze leaking in? Is the caulking around your windows cracking or peeling? "Then you may want to buy yourself a $2 tube of caulk and seal these leaks," says Bill Cunningham, a heating and cooling expert at Lennox. "That will save you 2 to 5 percent on your energy bills." Another trick: Open the shades and curtains; you'd be surprised how much the sun can heat up your home.

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

Before the first snow, walk around the perimeter of your home and examine the exterior walls for cracks. You should pay particular attention to areas where brick or siding fits against another material, since it can be easy to miss hidden cracks. Cunningham suggests an easy way to identify leaks: Hold a candle near the spot where you suspect there may be a leak. If the flame dances, you know you're in trouble. Still, don't fret. It's an easy fix. Again, just seal the leaks with caulk or weather stripping.

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

A recent survey of heating and cooling contractors nationwide revealed that 58 percent use programmable thermostats. Why? They know that these handy little gadgets control energy use and costs. Heat your home to 70 degrees in winter when you're home, and when you leave the house the thermostat will turn the heat down. Still, Cunningham says only 70 percent of people who have programmable thermostats use them. Using one on a regular basis leads to dramatic savings, he says.
Also consider a tankless water heater, to save even more energy.

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

It will cost you on the front end, but there are savings when you install a wood burning stove. Expect to cut your heating bills by about one-quarter to one-half. Plus, if you don't have a fireplace, you'll enjoy this new piece of décor immensely.

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

Do you hate the sound of your kitchen faucet dripping? Well, you'll hate it even more when you hear that its sending your money down the drain with it. According to experts at Lennox, "hot water leaking at a rate of one drip per second can waste up to 1,661 gallons of water" per year. It's a fix that the same experts say will save you $35 annually in electricity or natural gas. Another easy way to save on your energy bills: unplug. If you keep your counter free of small appliances, your kitchen will look neater - and you won't be draining unnecessary energy from outlets.

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

There are numerous energy-efficient showerheads on the market today, and experts say they're worth your consideration. Today's low-flow showerheads, which release 2.5 gallons per minute, waste a lot less water. If you couple that upgrade and limit your showers to 10-minutes each day, you'll save about $145 a year on electricity used to heat the water, says Cunningham. "Look for how these little things can really add up," says Cunningham. "It's not just about turning off the lights."

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

Just like old cars are gas guzzlers, aging furnaces and hot water heaters are energy guzzlers. "Older heating systems typically consume more energy than newer units, which means higher utility bills for homeowners," says Ken Ely, a home heating expert at Lennox. Besides, older units are often repaired more often, an added expense. According to experts, the average lifespan for a heating and cooling system is 12 to 15 years. Even with routine maintenance, your aging equipment is probably increasing your heating bills. If you're not willing to pay for a new furnace, at least change the air filters. Why? Dirty air filters reduce air flow, which means the home heating system has to work harder, which is a bigger drain on your energy bills. Also consider adding a natural air purifier that uses plants to clear the air!

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

If you haven't already, climb into your attic and make sure that you have insulation up there. This sounds like a no brainer; what house doesn't have insulation? You'd be surprised. I lived in my house for two years before we had reason to climb into the attic. That's when we noticed we didn't have any insulation. No wonder why our heating bills were so high. The good news? It's one of the easiest way to put your home on an energy diet. "You can blow it in yourself," says Cunningham, referring to loose-fill insulation. "Just pick it up at Home Depot."

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

This is an obvious one: Not only will replacing traditional bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs save you money -- about $30 over the bulb's lifetime -- but it uses 75 percent less energy. These bulbs also last 10 times longer, says Energy Star.

Heres How to Put Your Home on a Diet

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