caligulala's Profile

The only way I can manage Ikea is by doing it the same way every single time. The only thing worse than following the road through the store is trying to go against the flow of traffic because you were skipping around, missed what you needed and have to back track. If I stick to my method, I can be in and out relatively efficiently. I try not to go with my husband because he'll want to gallivant off and ruin my carefully laid plans.

I'm sure the original article led to some great discussions with your future husband!

One thing that has helped my husband and I (also a scientist) is depersonalizing the chores and money.

We use FlyLady to tell us what to do for cleaning. I get the emails and usually do whatever mission she is yelling at us to do that day. We also set up routines and posted them so the mundane tasks get done daily. My husband likes to come home and go through his routine list and zone out for awhile, whereas I like to do the deeper cleaning tasks. It works really well for us and there isn't resentment building towards each other over stupid chores, because it's a neutral party telling us what to do.

We also use YNAB to budget and keep track of our money. We set it up at the beginning of the month together and then YNAB yells at us if we get out of line. Again, it's neutral numbers telling us what we can and can't do, not one of us being the money bossy pants. We do pool all of our income. After all, our family is a team and we're working towards goals we've discussed together, so it seems weird to have a his/her money. It's team money!

We got along very well before we started using these systems, but they have pretty much eliminated division of labor and finances as sources of conflict. Which is invaluable when you're both sleep deprived parents of two boys under two!

Awww... I grew up in Sellwood neighborhood and this looks like so many of the little houses there. A full house tour would bring on full nostalgia!

pepsin... my sentiments exactly. What a dream. Can you imagine finding those floors under linoleum? I think I might actually keel over if that ever happened to me.

I grew up on a houseboat community. The thing to keep in mind is that most houseboats are inexpensive - it's the docking and community fees that are expensive. They also don't build equity, since you don't own any property. There are tons of advantages to houseboat living, but they are basically just trailers on water. That said, this one is fabulous!

We looked at the R&B sofa and the Macy's Corona. We ended up going with the Corona because we have giant dog and a messy baby, so the thought of having a $699 sofa possibly ruined in a couple years was more palatable. The cushions are also foam wrapped and seem to be holding up quite well, so if you're only going to be there for a bit, you may want to check it out.

I have the exact same dark cabinets in my rental kitchen. I tried putting contac paper in the insets as has been suggested above, but the problem was that there was just still so much space that the doors don't cover. The result was a completely cluttered look. I left it up for a couple of days and then pulled it down because a monochromatic ugly cabinet was way better than jumbled ugly cabinet.

Since you don't have too many cabinets, I'd go for getting the landlord's permission to paint, although if they are as cheap as mine, they have vinyl laminate on the sides and painting that will be tricky. Good luck!

I feel you! I've been dealing with a similar issue in my living room and I think I finally solved it just by rearranging the furniture. What seemed like the most intuitive layout actually just made the room feel really narrow and out of scale, even though it's a huge room.

Perhaps swapping the TV and the couch would help, since when you're watching TV, you won't be staring at a giant expanse of wall behind the set. The shorter wall will be easier to balance out.

Also, almost all your pieces are neutral, so there isn't really a focal point for the eye to zoom in on. It just bounces from object to object. A unifying color theme on the bookshelves and an accent wall might help that. Recentering the mirror above the fireplace instead of tilting it on the mantle may help with the visual clutter made by the diagonal roofline and the up-down-up rhythm of the built-ins.

All your stuff is great, it just feels like it needs fine tuning.

Right now I've got a world's best cat litter vs. crystal contest going on. We've traditionally used crystals, but I wanted to try something compostable since we got our outdoor bin.

Feline Pine was all right, but I found it really annoying to scoop because the soaked pieces dissolve into dust, so when you sift the poos, you keep the unused pellets and lose the wet, used litter. It also tracked like crazy and smelled when I was too lazy to scoop. So I switched one box back to silica and am trying this corn business. So far so good.

Has anyone used the the rolling litter box where you take the clumps out with a tray after rolling it on its side? I'm curious and it has great amazon reviews, but it is so gigantic.