Mia Nakaji Monnier

Mia Nakaji Monnier is a freelance writer and former weekend editor at Apartment Therapy. She lives in Los Angeles and spends most of her free time knitting.

Isn’t It the Right Time for an Official IKEA Blanket Fort?

If you’ve ever made a blanket fort at home, you probably didn’t have an instruction manual. Forts are usually created ad hoc, with whatever you happen to have on hand. But designers like to get in on the blanket fort tradition, and none other than IKEA itself released patterns for blanket forts, made in the style of its furniture assembly pamphlets, and they look like they’d be fun to try.

Mia Nakaji Monnier

Jan 14, 2021

There’s a Tidying-Themed Board Game for Kids Featuring a House of Cluttered Mice

Sooner or later, we all have to learn how to tidy, at least if we want to be able to find our keys each morning and get along with a roommate or partner. But how do you teach kids to tidy—and maybe even enjoy it? As it turns out, there’s a cute board game that can help.Simply called “Tidy Up: Sort Around the House,” the game features a family of mice who live in a four-room house.

Mia Nakaji Monnier

Dec 30, 2020

Kids’ Weirdest Christmas Wishes, as Shared by Mall Santas

If you have kids or have spent a lot of time with them, you know they have an outsized ability to say things that catch you off-guard. Apart from parents and preschool teachers, there’s another group of people who get to hear kids at their most candid: mall Santas.Because mall Santas hear the deepest wishes of hundreds of kids per day, they’re bound to hear some interesting things. In a recent Reddit thread, mall Santas (and elves and Mrs.

Mia Nakaji Monnier

Dec 17, 2020