StrawberryPie's Profile

A lovely homage. As I put together my first real home at the age of 34, I find myself thinking A LOT about the many choices my parents made in creating my childhood homes. It's a bunch of work! And I think it's important to let them know when we are finally at a place in our lives where we can appreciate it.

Fabulous and inspiring!

I make him sleep on the left because it's the away-from-the-door side. He always piles a bunch of junk on the floor next to his bed - and this way you can't see it from the door! Most importantly for my sanity, *I* can't see it from the door, so I can pretend it doesn't exist, so I can remain married to him.

When my parents were moving out of the house where my sisters and I grew up, my mom had us do this with the toys and other stuff stored there. Made it easier to get rid of those teddy bears, dolls, ribbons won at the state fair, etc. to know that I could still get a nostalgic glance at them - or share them with my future children - via photo.

Um, I actually have a major crush on that granny square design... for real. Alas, judging from their website, it does not seem to be available any longer.

Also, I would LOVE to see some scientific studies on this - do the majority of women *really* see messes more than the majority of men (i.e. have a different standard of "clean")? Certainly there are couples where this isn't the case. Why is that? Is this due to personality type, brain chemistry, hormone levels, childhood experiences...? I've seen some really dumb studies out there; certainly someone could study something that affects so many millions of people on a daily basis. Of course if this were something that had been confounding men for this long, we would have tombs of research on it already...

Honestly, I think it's high time AT started talking about this. There are so many posts about *how* to clean a bathroom, but none about *who* cleans it.

House cleaning does come up when I talk with girlfriends - the messes our men make, who does more, etc. These are private, not public, conversations. I feel like everyone talks about this behind closed doors; like it's a dirty secret that feminism hasn't solved all of our problems yet. We desperately want to think of ourselves - and be seen by others - as strong, independent, smart women who wouldn't put up with an unequal partnership - even if it's 49/51. And we hold other women to a similar standard.

I know for me, just being the one who brings up housework in my relationship makes me feel a bit antiquated and queasy. I have ended up teaching my husband how to do many household chores because his parents simply never did. As a woman, if you do more of the housework, you might feel or be seen as being servile; but if you want him to do more, you feel like you're "nagging" - and is there a more insulting dynamic than that?

Ten Thousand Villages also has a nice, affordable basket selection: http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/products/baskets?limit=all

louly - I completely understand what you're saying about feeling like you used to have so many of your own creative ideas, and now you're not sure which are your own.

Recently I've been thinking I'm having fewer ideas the older I get - maybe just getting into a rut - or maybe it's that my standards for what's "good enough" has been altered by the internet - or I need someone's random blog post to validate a project idea and tell me it's going to "work." Upsetting!

Thank you for this great post! I've been feeling this big-time this past week... just joined Pinterest and going a bit pin-crazy, recently bought my first home, am getting into re-decorating mode, but have absolutely no extra cash to actually do any of the projects I want to do or buy all the cool things out there...

I keep telling myself that I need to focus on the *experience* of my home and the new husband I'm sharing it with, but your ideas are great reminders of concrete ways to do this. You are helping preserve my sanity. THANK YOU!