This is the longest time we’ve had the same vacuum.  It’s been about 4 years.  And it only broke because my boys were playing indoor hockey and one smashed into it and broke part of it off.  It’s nothing special, just some Target find that rated high in Consumer Reports.  I hated that it was so ketchup and mustardy, and I guess if I ever actually put it away, I wouldn’t have had to see the colors and it wouldn’t have gotten broken but that’s another post.

I need a new one, and I don’t know how much we should spend since we have wood floors and tile throughout the entire house.   We do have 3 rugs downstairs–one is a furry shag, and they all need regular maintenance what with boys and a dog and life and all.  And upstairs there are four bedrooms and a playroom each with a rug.  I kind of hate big houses, but that’s not the point of this post.  Anyway….

Any advice for what vacuum, super broom, space sucker upper I should get?

EDITED:: Ok, I need to ask this, am I the only person in America still using a broom to sweep my wood floor and tile?  Should I be vacuuming this stuff?  Does it work?  Hi, I”m from the 1600′s and still use brooms.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

A few weeks ago this site got a makeover and at the same time I added Window Mistreatments, Content to Rent and The Nest files.  Wanna know how I plan to run them all?

I’m going to run four blogs all wrong.

I gave myself permission to do it all wrong as soon as I decided to start a few more blogs.  Sometimes, that’s the only way I can do something~if I’m ok with not doing it 100% perfect.

Normally, when people start any kind of business or new website they make big plans for a big launch complete with a big parade, bands and a wardrobe malfunction.  Maybe they call Kate Middleton WhateverHerLastNameIsNow to see if she can smash a bottle of champagne across their new logo.

I’m starting three new blogs and then hoping to slow down my schedule just a little for summer. What?  That is the wrong way to start a blog. It sure it.  But it’s the right way to have sanity during the summer.  My goal once again is to Do Less and Be More and I cannot even tell you how agonizing it’s been with the timing of these new sites.

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How can I run four great blogs with great content and be home with my boys every day this summer?

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I kind of can’t.

Remember why I started Window MisTreatments and Content to Rent? Both came from the idea of an ebook.  But I didn’t like the finality of finishing an ebook and then not being able to include other great ideas and links to you all who come up with creative new ways to do things on a daily basis.  So back in February I decided I should start three more websites.  Nest Files is the third but it’s just an extension of what I was already doing at my tumblr blog.  I figured I’d have those sites up and running at the end of March and truck away at them for a few months while my boys were in school.  Naturally, the design for those blogs was done the last week of school.  And we only have 18 summers~they aren’t something I’m willing to compromise in order to start other sites the right way.

The site you are reading right now, Nesting Place will always be the main focus and my baby.  Here you will get the same kind of posts you have for years, hope, encouragement and lighthearted decorating and housey thinking.  I always post less during the summer at Nesting Place, and this year is no exception.  I’m not willing to let those other blogs get in the way of what I want to do here. If something is ignored it’s not gonna be my kids or husband or Nesting Place.   It will be those other sites.  Poor things.

Window MisTreatments and Content to Rent are designed to be more resource type curation sites.  Both will have pillar posts, for example window mistreatment will have post like How to Buy Fabric, What’s a Window Mistreatment, Common Mistreatment Weapons Tools.  And Content to Rent will feature posts like How to Find a Rental Home, 10 Fast Ways to Cozy up Your Rental but, both sites will also heavily feature projects from you.  I’m not planning on writing every day for C2R and Wm.  I hope to write there once a week~once school starts.  And go ahead and expect sporadic, inconsistent random posting this summer. Again with the all wrong blogging.  I’m ok with that.

Also, I have a new secret weapon to help keep me sane…

Her name is Caroline and she’s my mentor in organization.  And she’s really pretty.  And she’s one of my dearest friends. Many of you already know her because she’s active online and has a reputation for being incredibly encouraging. I mentioned Caroline to Gussy while she and I were talking on the phone yesterday and Gussy was all, “Caroline {insert last name}? Oh, she sent me the nicest note in the real mail!”.  See what I mean?!

I’ve known for a while that I need help at Nesting Place but the thought of trusting someone scared me.  I never guessed that the someone who would rescue me would be someone I already knew so well.  Caroline told the whole story of how this came about at her blog. She has already taken over billing and communication for the private ads here at Nesting Place.  She also formats the posts at Window Mistreatments and I’m planning on her being the editor for the guest posts at Content to Rent.  And then I would like to move to the mountains and have her run my life because she is that intentional and amazing.   If you are going to Relevant this year you can meet her, we’ll be rooming together~we’ll be the ones hyper ventilating after the plane ride.  I just called it a plane ride. Makes it sound like the Wright Brothers will be our pilots.

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And for the record, besides Caroline, I have a few other people who help behind the scenes: Darcy the amazing, long-suffering graphic designer who makes Nesting Place pretty {I still think she might be a mind reader}, Daisy Olsen, WordPress developer and Genesis theme framework specialist…I call her the coding genus who makes Nesting Place work,  she also updates stuff and does backup so I don’t have to think. And then of course my husband.  Nesting Place simply wouldn’t exist without him and his encouragement.  And my dad and my sister put up with me all the time talking through how I think about the Nest and what I’m planning and on and on and on.

Anyhow, I think it’s important for you to know that I’m not doing stuff by myself.  And I’m purposely allowing myself to be slack with those other sites. And if you don’t know this about me, I’m kind of business minded so in some ways it kills me not to attack these new sites and launch the heck out of them.  In some ways, slowing down was a hard decision.

So yes, those other sites are live and you can visit them, there’s links up at the top of the blog, teaser posts in the sidebar and I’ll link here as well: Window Mistreatments, Content to Rent, Nest Files. I’m still tweaking the design and as soon as I figure out how you can subscribe to each one separately, I’ll let you know.  In the meantime, thank you for putting up with me while I do things slow, wrong and my own way.  And happy summer to you. I hope you find the perfect balance of intention, purpose and rest during these long but fleeting days.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”

~James Dean

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

My youngest, the speed reader and hockey goalie has 9 more summers around here. We are half done.

My adventurous outdoorsman only has eight summers left in the confines of our home.

And after five more summers this scuba loving fella will be off to college.

May this summer be slow and full of wonder.  Spend it wisely.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Lego blocks. LEGO.  Legos.  That word sounds really weird really fast.

We love and hate them. I only really hate them when I step on their razor sharp hard as steel tiny but you are gonna wish you were dead edges.

Tiny Twig started a little conversation about Legos the other day on twitter:

Then Heather chimed in:

And Caroline added some ideas:

I completely agree with Caroline that Lego blocks are an investment.  You can’t play with them without using your imagination and getting creative~toys don’t get much better than that.  And these days at 13, my oldest has outgrown toys and only plays with sports equipment, and the only toys that our 9 and 10 year olds play with are Legos, and not so much lately.  Did you hear that?  My kids are almost done playing with toys!!! Legos are all that’s left and they are hanging on by a thread.  And it makes me sad.  These boys are growing up so fast and now I don’t mind seeing a few stray Legos.  I might even be guilty of sprinkling a few blocks around the house hoping to remind them to play with them.

While yard saleing {my favorite sport} with Angela on Saturday, we hit a house selling “fill a gallon bag with Lego blocks for $1″~ jackpot!  I brought a bagful home and crossed my fingers that they would work their magic and sure enough, within the hour our two youngest were all about the Legos again.

A few years ago I finally gave in and accepted the fact that the easiest way for the boys to play with Legos is to dump them {the Legos, not the boys} in  a wide mouth container so they can sort through their collection IN the container instead of dumping it on the ground.  We moved from a metal bin to a large lined laundry basket and now it’s so full that they still can’t look through everything but, it’s easier than a tall narrow container.

So here’s Lego central in our house. Nothing all that life changing. The fella up there with Lego on the brain is the one most addicted so he keeps most of them in his room.  We brought in a table so he could have a big building surface and there’s the basket full of Legos.  As they’ve gotten older the Legos are downstairs less and less.  Sometimes when we get in the mood they’ll bring the basket downstairs and we’ll dump it out in the family room and I’ll pick out the rouge marbles and hot dogs ends and used band aids.  Then we have a contest to see how fast we can clean it up.

What about you?  How do corral Legos?  Do you love or hate them?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Every chapter of life tells a story in a home.  When it was babies, instead of a lunch basket in the refrigerator, we had a diapers and wipes basket under the coffee table.  Now, we have a container of sharpened pencils.

My youngest is nine years old.  He’s halfway though ’till you know what.  And my other two have already passed the half way mark.  I want them to learn to put their shoes away but, I also know that one day I will miss their messiness.

This home is here to serve us.  To teach us.  I don’t want to lose out on embracing each season of their childhood.  I hope I can recognize it and revel in it.

It is a sweet time.

Very sweet indeed.

“We’ve had bad luck with our kids – they’ve all grown up”  ~Christopher Morley

Be sure to visit the other 31 dayers::Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, Remodeling This Life, Chatting at the Sky, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen,  over the next 31 days. Want to read all the Less Messy Nests posts? Click here.

This post was included at my sister’s 31 Days of Grace Linky party today. And I used too many words but that’s grace, right?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Have I ever shown you the inside of this hutch?

It’s part homework station, part holding area for a few of my husband’s books that he uses downstairs.

Instead of putting what’s expected in each area of your home, pay attention to how your family uniquely uses your home.  Then, put stuff where you actually use it.

What do you not put where it belongs?

Be sure to visit the other 31 dayers::Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, Remodeling This Life, Chatting at the Sky, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen,  over the next 31 days. Want to read all the Less Messy Nests posts? Click here.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

The reason I like my house to be less messy is two fold. 

1. When the house is less messy, it is available.

Last Friday morning my sister called and wanted to make a spur of the moment visit.  All I had to do was get groceries and put sheets on the guest bed.  I could fully enjoy the fact that we got to hang out with them.  And fully enjoy our home.

2. I function better in a less messy nest.

If I feel like my house is a wreck, I am unsettled and ultimately I make my people miserable. I am a better person when our home is somewhat tidy and organized.

You may want your house to be less messy for other reasons. And my definition of “less messy” may be WAY different than yours.  And that is totally fine.

One way I accomplish having a less messy nest is to let go of expectations. I’m not very good at too many things but one of my biggest strengths is my ability to put up with imperfection. Learning to enjoy the pretty while living with the good enough for now takes practice.

Life is quickly passing by even while your home is less than perfect.

Last Easter we had 30 + people over for lunch.  Most had never been to our home before.  The house looked random, chaotic, odd, and other adjectives that I hate to associate with my nest.  I had one drape hung, sample paint colors on the walls and hardly any furniture in the family room.  And I made it a point not to apologize for any of it.  The focus was on the people.  It was perfect. Perfect for all the right reasons.

What is the the purpose of your home in this season of life and how does that affect your standards of messiness and perfection?

Be sure to visit the other 31 dayers::Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, Remodeling This Life, Chatting at the Sky, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen,  over the next 31 days. Want to read all the Less Messy Nests posts? Click here.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

My boys are almost 13, 10 and 9.  They demand some type of spooky in October.

It takes next to nothing to make them happy.  A few dollars worth of ripped up cheese cloth that looks better each year.

And a tiny family of birds.

I can never resist a good mantel party.  Check out all the creepy mantels at The Stories of A to Z today.

If you are wanting more traditional fall mantel ideas, there are over 250 fall mantels to look at right here.

And, if you are bored with mantels and are trying to find today’s 31 Days to a Less Messy Nest Post, scroll down or click here. Thanks for visiting and see you tomorrow!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Over the past few months {years?} I’ve heard myself barking the same reminders to my boys, “hang your book bag up, don’t pour too much cereal, you can’t use 18 different cups before lunch…“.  My husband and I made a few simple changes in our home and now I can save my words for better things like “can I have a hug? would you like some more cereal? flush the toilet…”

For example, we have always kept our dishes, you know, the plates and bowls, way up in the high cabinets. Our boys are in the stage where they are old enough to not break real dishes but not tall enough to reach all the higher cabinets without a stool.   We like for them to help set the table and put the dishes away so an easy solution for our family was to relocate the dishes to the lower cabinets where they can easily reach a bowl.  I consider that idea to be one of my best accomplishments as a mother.  I think simple mom would be proud.

Another issue was the poring of 8 servings of cereal into a bowl every morning.  Our solution: much smaller bowls. I know, it’s not rocket surgery but this simple change is going to really impact how often I have to buy cereal.  I found the bowls for $1 each at Big Lots.

Cup over usage was running rampant in our house.  Now each boy has his own style of clear plastic, unbreakable cup.  They each have 3 cups and those are the only ones they can use.  They use it, rinse it out and then set it on the dish rack until they need it later. I throw them in the dishwasher at night. If I see a cup laying around the house, I don’t grab it.  I leave it.  Right now one of the boys has unknowingly left two of his cups in the playroom and one half full of juice in the fridge. I can’t wait until he figures it out and has to go searching for his cups and then wash them out because he missed the nightly dishwasher run. If I really ran a tight ship I’d probably lower the cups down to one each but, I’m new at this.

Now you will roll your eyes at how I am so slow to miss the obvious.  We had book bags on the floor that seemed to multiply.  It finally hit me that I had not provided a designated spot for the book bags.  Problem solved.  Duh.  It’s from Target if you are wondering.

There is just not a good place near the boys room or bathroom for any kind of clothes basket or hamper.  The problem is, it doesn’t matter if I choose to provide a hamper or not, dirty clothes will come off and need to be put some place–I don’t walk down stairs naked just to put my clothes in the laundry room before I take a shower and I can’t expect my boys to either.  So, I went ahead and accepted the fact that I needed to put a bulky, in-the-way basket in our skinny hall.  It’s still better than a pile of clothes strewn around.

Lastly, every night we somehow had like 5 wet towels on the bathroom floor.  Even though we only have 3 boys. And of course, none of them left THEIR towel on the floor.  So my husband bought 3 different color towels {2 of each} and assigned a color to each boy.  Now, if they step out of the shower and their two towels are somehow dripping wet from the night before, they’ll have to reach into that in-the-way clothes basket and dry off with their dirty clothes or figure something out.  I have a feeling after experiencing a dripping wet towel once, they will naturally remember to hang up their towel.

None of these solutions were new, life changing or even things I hadn’t heard of before.  Just things that we failed to implement.  Now I’m on the lookout for other ways to help our house run more smoothly so I can focus more on fun things and help our boys become more responsible.

What about you?  What issues have you resolved with no duh, simple solutions?

This post is a repost but it was the post that got the most comments EVER other than a giveaway.  That response gave me the push I needed to decide to write for 31 days about less messiness.

Be sure to visit the other 31 dayers:: Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, Remodeling This LifeChatting at the Sky, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen, Life With My 3 Boybarians, over the next 31 days.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I’m no laundry expert, I usually have a load or two patiently waiting for their turn in the washer but, laundry isn’t something I dread and it rarely builds up.

I have three tips and I hope you have more.

1. Start a load right when you get up.

Every morning I come down the stairs with a basket of dirty clothes in my hand {my boys or I emptied it the night before} I go straight to the laundry room {before I get coffee or anything} and start a load.  My husband usually sees this and I think some guilt mechanism kicks in so he starts the lunches, its a brilliant plan.

Then later in the morning I move it to the dryer and by the afternoon it is folded and separated into the 3 stacks for the minions to take upstairs.  I just lay it in folded piles or baskets by the stairs and remind them to take the clothes up and put theirs away.  It sure does help once your children are old enough to pitch in.

2. Know when to hold them, know when to fold them

Our two youngest share a room so they have a bigger dresser for their folded clothes and we also ended up with this one little nightstand dresser.  It’s filled with PJ’s.  I RARELY buy new jammies. Old T shirts and thrifted bottoms are a plenty round these parts.  I’m always happy when I see pjs in the laundry folding pile because that’s one thing I never fold.  I just kind of clump it or roll it and put it with the rest of the folded laundry pile for that room and they know to throw it in the drawer.  Also, I recently went through and purged lots of jammies.  They really only need about 3 bottoms each, too many options and I end up with more to wash.

3. Start a sock basket

My sister just reminded me about the sock basket.  Baskets again, sorry.  My boys put their socks on right before they put their shoes on, so it makes sense to have all of their socks downstairs.  I don’t match up and turn their socks right side out, they are big enough to figure that out on their own.

What are your laundry tricks?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?