Family Homes

School is almost out and many families are planning summer plans and potential vacations after a year spent primarily inside. As more and more people try to reclaim a sense of “normalcy” in a post-vaccine world, many parents might be wondering if it’s safe for unvaccinated children to play together, hop on planes, and hug family and friends.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. About five years ago, I was interviewing a woman for a magazine story when we veered off-topic to her family’s new-to-them Westfalia. She mentioned how life-changing the shift to the camper van had been.

Is it better to travel during the day (have to entertain kids, stop for bathrooms), or travel during the night so kids sleep? But then at least one parent has some serious adjustment to their sleep once they arrive.CathyDear Cathy,Yes! It’s road trip time finally after over a year of being stuck at home, so thanks for the question. I hope I can be helpful here, but I do want to say that any good answer could be very different for different families.

Hey, Maxwell, I heard that when you were a teacher you kept a box of your students’ artwork for twenty years. Is that true? What happened to it? LukeDear Anon,It is true! Back in January of 2000, I was in my second to last year of teaching elementary school. As my class and I crossed the millennium mark and all the fears of Y2K subsided, I had the idea of asking my class to write down where they would be in 20 years, 2020, when I would call them up to come back to school for a reunion.

My daughter wants to make over her room. She wants to hang wallpaper. Should I do it? MeghanDear Meghan,I admire your daughter for her adventurous spirit, and I also understand your hesitancy. Wallpaper can seem like a big commitment and with children changing their minds all the time it doesn’t always make a lot of sense. Here’s what I would say: go for it by transforming ONE wall and don’t do traditional wallpaper!

I am confronting an empty nest and finally have time to go through all those stashes of art. I’m ready to let go, but HOW? A Viking burial pyre of burning art? We seem to have gone through a heavy phase of paint-your-own pottery, with some hideous results … (but as soon as I think of smashing them, it’s like “Ooh! Then we could make a mosaic with the pieces!” and there’s a whole new thing to not be able to throw away).

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When you’re in the thick of raising little humans, it can seem somewhat incomprehensible to carve out time for a creative project of your own. Especially if childcare isn’t in the cards at the moment.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Until I was a teenager, I was raised in a multigenerational home, with my parents, brother, and paternal grandparents, and, on occasion, an aunt or uncle or cousin who used our home as a waypoint on their immigration journey.

When my first child was born, my husband’s coworker gave us a wooden step stool as a baby gift. It was a beautiful: solid wood, about 12 inches tall, white with lavender treads and our daughter’s name carved in it in a sweet font. That’s nice, I thought, but why would anyone ever gift an apartment-dweller such a large gift?Well, obviously she was an experienced mom!

It’s difficult to imagine, in advance, the sheer enormousness of actual, physical things that kids come with: the clothes, the shoes, the sports equipment; the books, the games, and the toys. And then there’s the paper. No one prepares you for how long and never-ending the paper trail is. It starts before they’re even born, with doctors’ records, books, and all those special baby shower cards. And the deluge never stops.

Sarah and Tom Godfrey rented their small two-bedroom Victorian terrace house in a village in Nottinghamshire, England, for two years when their landlord decided to sell the house. Sarah was expecting her second child at the time, and although they thought the house was too small for a family of four, the couple knew it had potential. “Having lived in the historical village for two years we knew it was a special place to be,” says Sarah.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. I don’t know about you, but I could look at before-and-after photos all day. Show me a messy pantry and then — snap! — perfectly labeled containers of cereal and I’m giddy. That’s pretty much what it’s like in the land of #MomHacks on TikTok.

We’ll be moving soon and I would love any tips on moving with an 18-month-old. Packing, unpacking, cleaning, everything that goes into moving to another state. I’m all ears. 🙂 EmilyDear Emily,At first I was, like, WOW, I’ve got to do some research and ask my other editors to get more info before answering your question.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. This winter, when my 6-year-old’s plastic tiara broke into pieces before her virtual ballet recital, she asked if I would put out a call for a replacement to our local Buy Nothing group.

Every parent knows that cleaning up toys is a struggle, but the right organizing system can help make it easier.Leanna Laming, the author of the blog Life by Leanna and a mom of three, acknowledges that her family’s toy closet (above) was better looking than many, but it wasn’t working for her family. Leanne realized there was room for improvement. In particular, while toy types were arranged by bin, those bins were completely opaque and didn’t have labels.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. As a mom with a whole closet dedicated to fabric, paper, and 14 hot glue guns, few things bring me more joy than watching my boys harnessing their own creative genius. I beam whenever they excitedly hand me their newest “masterpiece.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When the world shut down last year, parents and kids were faced with all kinds of challenges, and everyone learned (very quickly) that the idyllic place to work, study, and Zoom goes beyond buying the perfect desk. Some families are still fine tuning their spaces to this day.

I like to get ready before my son wakes up in the morning, but lately, he’s been waking up when I start walking around in the morning! He’s got a sound machine in his room but the floor does creak in the hallway. Any ideas on getting a creaky floor to stop creaking? Or helping a kid sleep past 5:30 like he used to? EmilyDear Emily,Thanks so much for this question, because: a.) a quiet morning with children still asleep is one of the most precious things in life and b.

Name: Jean Ross, husband, Craig, two boys, Bowie and Rhys, and a Frenchie, Hawkins (aka Toots)Location: Cobourg, OntarioType of home: Coach houseSize: 3,000 square feetYears lived in: 1 month, ownedTell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: We just moved to a small town in Southern Ontario from Toronto a month ago! We had been looking for houses outside the city for years and couldn’t find the right one. We wanted something different and unique.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Spring was heralded by the first few 60-degree days in a row and we were ready. For many, the new season began with the refrain, “Mom, can we open the bubbles and sidewalk chalk, pleaseeee?” For my part, I knew spring had finally arrived when I saw the new Target collection.

Name: Vanessa Béland, husband Félix & baby daughterLocation: Saint-Hubert, QuébecSize: 1100 square feet + basementYears lived in: 4 yearsVanessa and Félix have been cultivating their first home together over the past four years. Taking the renovation process room by room, they have transformed the space into a warm — and very pink! — home that reflects their bright and fun-loving personalities.

Cleaning isn’t typically thought of as “fun” or “interesting” (or if it is, I applaud you). While the chore itself can be boring, there are plenty of clever, fun, and just plain weird cleaning tools out there that can jazz things up. We’re talking about products that are for those small annoying tasks that aren’t completely terrible, but could be made better — you just don’t think about them as much.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Our family is obsessed with thanking one another. We exchange gratitude for the practical acts (picking up the groceries; sharing the last slice of pizza; tidying up the toys) as well as the big moments (for being brave at school; for forgiving me when I snapped at you).

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. One night before the pandemic, I picked up my middle-schooler at a friend’s house and saw an amazing sight: the friend’s brother was folding napkins and setting the table.Kids can do things! I thought. It was a moment of revelation.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. I believe it is very important to begin this story by stating that while emotionally difficult, being able to isolate safely from one’s family is an enormous privilege. I am exiting my third extensive quarantine from my children and husband following medical procedures that put me at risk of exposure.

Name: Hannah Broadway and Felix HayesLocation: Eastville, BristolSize: 1600-ish square feetYears Lived In: Owned for 10 years (ish)“We are lucky that we share a similar aesthetic. I guess having been together for over 20 years can do that,” says illustrator and designer Hannah Broadway. She and her actor husband Felix live in this colorful home in Bristol with their daughter Ursula and cats Ron and Kitsune.

Name: Melanie and David Raver, three young girls ages 10, 6, and 5. And one furry black German Shepherd! Location: We live everywhere! Size: 200 square feetType of Home: 1973 Airstream ArgosyYears lived in: 3.5 months, ownedCurrently traveling from the California coast to the East Coast, Melanie and David and their three daughters have been a lot of places in their 200-square-foot 1973 Airstream Argosy. Exclaims Melanie, “We are having a BLAST making each new place we stop at our home!

I don’t really have a question. Just curious, what are you reading lately ? 🙂MyselfOkay, this week I didn’t get a question in my email. So I’ve been wracking my head what to write about — (send me a hard question!) — when I began to think about two books I’ve just finished and how they deeply resonated with me as a parent. They also made me think back to what it was like to be a child of ten with my own parents.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. One of the most utterly soul-sucking requirements of being a parent for me is having to repeat myself over and over and over again.

What’s a work space without proper lighting? While you may have your desk tricked out with a sleek modern lamp, it’s worth considering the light your kids are working with, too, when it comes to their crafts and homework. Lighting can make a huge difference — not just with visibility — but in setting the proper atmosphere, whether you’d like it to be relaxing or studious.

Jawaria Ansari has lived in this 675-square-foot Pittsburgh apartment for 18 years—a long time for any renter, but even more impressive when you consider how she’s been able to adapt the small space as her life has evolved. “I had just graduated from university, and moved from Florida to Pittsburgh for my post graduate studies.

Shortly after shelter-in-place began last year, so did the wild pandemic shopping. (Remember that phase?) Everything from used bicycles and basketball hoops were swooped up from second-hand neighborhood sites and new recreational equipment was back ordered for weeks and months. Meanwhile, people were adopting cats and dogs in record numbers. A video went viral of shelter volunteers in Florida celebrating the first time they’d adopted out every single pet.

“There are seven days in a week, and someday isn’t one of them” once read the letter board hanging in the kitchen of “Someday” the bus, which is home to Jennifer Bateman, her wife, Kaitlin Porter, and their two kids, Canyon (age 14) and Oakland (age 4).After downsizing from a 4,000-square-foot home, they now share a 170-square-foot school bus conversion (or “skoolie”).

When considering a rug for a kids’ room, style should not have to take second place to durability. Thankfully, many modern furniture stores carry lines of rugs and floor coverings that look great in a child’s room and are built to last.

Name: Elizabeth Rees, co-founder of Chasing Paper, husband Brian Leadley, Uma (19-month-old daughter), Marlow (5-month-old daughter), and Lucy (15-year-old Goldendoodle)Location: Walker’s Point — Milwaukee, Wisconsin Size: 1900 square feetType of home: House Years lived in: 3 years, owned Elizabeth Rees is the co-founder of Chasing Paper, a popular removable (and traditional) wallpaper you should absolutely know about if you rent and love pattern (or own and love pattern!).

When doing laundry, it’s all but guaranteed that at least one sock is going to go missing. You probably know the feeling of getting to the end of a folding session and finding a lone sock (if not more) without its partner, even though you’re certain you put complete pairs into the washing machine. You might even have a collection of singular socks drifting aimlessly at the bottom of a drawer somewhere, waiting for their other halves to return from the dryer in the great beyond.

If you’ve ever read The Five Love Languages book (or taken the ubiquitous online quizzes to suss out which love language is yours), you may recall that they are: words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, physical touch, and receiving gifts. But I’d wager that there’s also a secret sixth love language: Home decor choices.

Lockdown has struck us again and my kid is back Zoomschooling all day long. His room is like a troll’s den and his energy is super low. How can I help him? NancyDear Nancy,I feel very lucky that my daughter’s school has so far—knock on wood—kept them in the classroom since September. Last spring, when she was home full-time, she turned into a slouch-monster and never left the old lounge chair with her ready Hydro Flask all day.

Before I actually had kids, I envisioned their toy collection to be quaint and timeless—mostly wooden, and definitely not derived from the Nickelodeon franchise. But here we are, with an entire stable of miniature Paw Patrol stuffed animals.My boys aren’t the type of kids who drag a stuffed animal with them everywhere, but I frequently find myself turning my house upside down to find these Paw Patrol pups, who are often the main characters in their imaginary games.

During this pandemic we’ve caved in more than usual to letting our kids watch movies, and I would love them to be really good for them. Any guidance? MollyDear Molly,As a teacher of young children I saw firsthand the effects of too much screen-time on young brains, but I also believe in doing what I can as a parent to educate and turn a potential problem into an opportunity.

Most of the time my house is, shall we say, messier than one would strictly like. With a five-year-old and a three-year-old, c’est la vie. But up until recently there was one room that stood out as weirdly miserable: my family bathroom. This bathroom was the victim of a bad, sad patch job before we bought our home eight years ago. It has drippy plumbing (I have a spot on the living room ceiling to prove this), awkward corners, and a curious lack of storage.

I’ve got two daughters, one in first grade and the other in third, and they are prolific artists. It’s all over the kitchen walls and filling up corners of every room. I love it all, don’t want to throw anything away but I don’t know how to keep up with it all. What should I keep? What’s the best place to store it all? NadiaDear Nadia,I have very firm opinions on this and kids’ clutter in general, which is far less special than their original art. Here we go.

Kristin Pardy knows a thing or two about squeezing a large family into a small space. She shares her 800-square-foot home with her husband Preston (a resource enforcement officer for their provincial government), 13-year-old son Coby, 7-year-old daughter Isla, and 3-month-old son Jack. The family also includes three huskies, Bear, Blue, and Beau. Kristin, along with being an emergency medical responder for a local ambulance company, is also a blogger and YouTuber.

You know how in that post-holiday, pre-New Year’s limbo zone your house becomes kind of a mess because everyone is home, all day long, for days? It’s been like that around our house for two and a half months and it’s probably similar in yours. With school, pre-school, and every single out-of-the-house activity on hold, each and every mess made by my curious and vivacious kids and always-home husband happens right under the roof of our perpetually full house.

Tyler Moore blogs under the name “Tidy Dad,” and tidy is just what you have to be when you’re sharing a small NYC third floor walk-up, railroad-style rental apartment with a family. In Tyler’s case that’s wife Emily, 5-year-old Mabel, 3-year-old Matilda, and 7-month-old Margaret, and they’ve had to do some adjusting to their home’s layout a few times in the seven years they’ve been renting.

My current life does not cater to my natural HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) tendencies. I’m a mother of five, three of whom are active little boys, and our house is … boisterous. (Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way.) I’m learning to listen to the sound of sibling scuffles and middle children clamoring to be heard, and doors slamming as kids go outside to rollerblade and then back inside for an urgently needed snack as the soundtrack of the “good old days.

Big Mountain Skier-turned-startup founder Kina Pickett shares a 200-square-foot 1971 Airstream International with his wife Nellie, their 6-year-old son Ashur, 4-year-old daughter Story, and their dog Scout. This family of four (plus dog!) purchased an Airstream just before the pandemic broke in February, and have been traveling, remote working, and homeschooling since.

I turned 30 a couple of years ago and, despite being solidly married with two children, I suddenly felt this need to adult harder than ever. Things were pretty chaotic (see: two kids) and I was grasping desperately for small things I could tweak to streamline, or simplify — whatever I could do to help me gain more control over the day-to-day. I did not read Marie Kondo and thank my old prom dress before donating it. I didn’t start intensive Sunday meal prepping.

I have a number of colleagues at work who are all having babies in the next few months and taking leave. I’d really like to send them off with a present and want it to be something long lasting and memorable. Help!LauraDear Laura, Coming off the holidays, I’m primed with gift advice and I really like this question, particularly because we’re talking about NEW parents.

As my son gets older I’d like to give him a birthday present that’s also a keepsake and marks this special time that’s moving so fast. Any good ideas? YasminDear Yasmin,I remember when my daughter was smaller, I’d bump into other dads and they’d all say the same thing, “They grow up so quick, don’t they? I just don’t know where the time has gone.

Hi there, Cubby friends! We started Cubby on the spur of the moment this fall (although the idea has been in our heads for a long time). We felt cooped up with our families, but we had a hunch that, while this year has mostly been a flaming dumpster fire of things we hope never happen again in our lifetimes, we might be left with a teeny-weeny bit of nostalgia for all this extra time with our cubs.

Don’t dismiss the value of a child’s input. Their wildly imaginative and sometimes brilliantly simplistic ideas are key to the design plan.

What Cara Shultz misses most about her pre-pandemic routine isn’t the bars or parties: It’s the grocery shopping. After dropping off her 4-year-old son, Jack, at preschool, the New Jersey mom and YA author would often head to Trader Joe’s for a few essentials — and a sliver of peace. “They would play ‘80s Madonna and I would leisurely stroll the aisles, checking out the seasonal muffins,” Shultz says. “It was my ‘me time.

I’ve always loved rearranging furniture. It’s a great opportunity to deep clean and it just feels good to look at everything from a different perspective. My family is a few weeks out from beginning a living room makeover, and the state of the space is currently a jumble of pieces for the redesign mixed with pieces that have found their way in from other rooms—and a little bit o’ Christmas sprinkled in there because at this point, why not?

To this day, my mother has a mark on her ceiling from when my younger sister threw a glob of slime on the ceiling and it stuck for a while. I guess the oils or whatever was in that abominable stuff seeped into the paint as the slime slowly dripped and squelched away from the ceiling and fell onto the carpet where, thank goodness, it didn’t stick.

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.

Name: Stefanie Archer, Chris Archer, Gabriel (12), James (8), Darcy (6)Location: Amsterdam, The NetherlandsSize: 1,872 square feet When Stefanie and Chris Archer started to think about shopping for a new house, they asked their kids if they wanted their own rooms, and they all emphatically said no. An unsurprising reaction given the fact the kids share a verifiable playground in their Amsterdam home.

Name: Tomás, Martina, Nina, and Florián Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Size: 1,800 square feet Tomás is an architect and Martina is a decorator, so of course the home they share in Buenos Aires with their two children, Nina, 7, and Florián, 4, is stunning. But it didn’t always look this way: When the couple first found this apartment, it had been neglected for years and it needed a full remodel, which gave the creative couple the opportunity to make it their own.

Kids ruin everything. Really (not really, but you see where this is going). You can’t enjoy a great night out without worrying about a hangover the next day. Every trip you plan, you think out worst-case scenarios, pack a great quantity of medicine, and invariably freak out when the airline messes up your seats and places you far away from your toddler. They especially ruin lazy holidays.

I have a son who is now five and has a hard time going to bed, which is my job. I’ve heard it’s good to read to children before bed, but he’s restless and I’m not good at it. Should I keep trying? SamDear Sam, Yes—and don’t stop! It will turn into one of the greatest joys you can share with your son. Starting a reading habit early helps, but five years old is a fine time to begin.

Keeping kids organized is a herculean effort during the best of times, but trying to keep their spaces clutter-free and clean during a quarantine that involves both working from home and virtual learning presents undeniable organizational challenges for parents. Luckily, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin—the dynamic duo also known as The Home Edit, Instagram’s beloved home organizers—shared their easy, doable tip for helping to keep clutter at bay in shared spaces.

We have space a few doors down from our toddler’s playroom that we call the Quiet Room. The sunlight from outside hits perfectly on the two single window panes, and moments of deep sighing are shared with tri-color leaves waving in the wind. Our interior designer recommended a soft green meditation mat and singing bowl for one corner, and all the books perched on the tower-style rack are self-help or “how-to-care” for plant titles.

I did the math. Tucking my five kids into bed every night means I do almost two thousand tuck-ins a year. As much as it’s my joy and pleasure to do them, I’m not always Patient Happy Mommy by the time it comes time to switch off the light and leave the room. Sometimes all it takes is an “I’m thirsty” while I’m kissing a forehead for Growly Mom to come onstage. And I know I’m not alone.

Name: Ellen Maire, Patrick, and JoniLocation: Melbourne, AustraliaEllen, Patrick, and their daughter Joni, age 2 1/2, live in a post-war brick house in Melbourne, Australia. Their charming home is flush with original details such as cornices, ceiling plasterwork, and lovely wooden window frames. It’s an architectural style that suits the couple’s nature and vintage aesthetic perfectly.

My first nephew’s first word was “Grino.” This is not a variation on green; rather, it is an abbreviation of Pellegrino, the sparkling water that my parents always have stocked in their refrigerator. My other nephews (there are three) and my niece all have a penchant for fancy carbonated water. They drink a lot of it — and they can go through a lot of cups in the process.

Names: Angela Wator, owner/designer of BASH Party Goods, and owner of Festive Collective, and Jeramy Webb, and their daughters Penelope, age 5, and Ramona, age 2. And Bogie, the family’s 10-year-old bulldogLocation: Oak Park, Illinois Angela Wator and Jeramy Webb weren’t planning to buy a home when they stumbled across an 1896 Victorian outside of Chicago where they live. (Amazingly they each found independently while daydreaming on Zillow and emailed the listing to one another!

I struggle particularly with the organization and clutter of my kids’ toys. How do you store them easily and how do you part with old toys when kids are resistant?SusanDear Susan, I’m very old school when it comes to toy storage and always feel that the easiest, open shape—BINS!—are the most practical for kids and parents. I like soft bins that can easily slide under shelves, up against the wall, in a corner or under a bed.

As busy as they are, kitchens are just about the germiest places in our homes—especially all those handles. You touch food, you open the oven. Your kids come in after touching who-knows-what and head straight to the fridge (or maybe it’s just mine?). With all that touching comes the risk of cross-contamination of foodborne illnesses and the spread of germs (in addition to all our fears about coronavirus, flu season is coming!).

Last spring as the world shut down, I snapped up masks, Purell, and something expensive and seemingly frivolous: an outdoor sectional. I’m not kidding when I say that impulse purchase saved us. It got me through the long, lonely first months of quarantine, the worry about my kids’ emotional health, and the heartbreak when I suddenly lost my dad in early summer. It’s like we magically got a bonus room in our cramped house.

I have two children: a six-year old boy and a three-year old girl, who eat and play all over the house. They are wearing things out fast. What kind of sofa is most likely to survive them?MelissaDear Melissa, I’ve got three directions you can go.

Names: Bridget, Bill, and Mabel Watson Payne Location: Nob Hill/Tenderloin — San Francisco, California Size: 650 square feetHow do you fit more books into an apartment with 20 bookshelves is not a question most families find themselves asking, but it’s constantly on the minds of Bridget and Bill Watson Payne, who are parents to one daughter, Mabel. “One look around will tell you that we love books, color, and art,” Bridget says.

With all our meals happening at home, what can we do to make our dining space more inviting? We recently converted a small bedroom to our dining room, we eat all our meals there, with our 10-year-old and 7-year-old, and the space is so drab. With cold weather approaching here in Maine, we’d love for our dining room to feel like more of a destination in our house and not just a pass-through space.