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Reader Dilemma: Katie’s Odd Closet Space

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Recently, a sweet reader sent me a photo of a spot in her house that could use some advice.  Katie and her husband moved into a new home last September, and they have been pondering this little space ever since.

Katie wrote:

we have no idea what to do with this random bit of space in the house. the previous owners put a narrow-ish bureau in there with pet food dishes at the base.

as you can see right now, it’s holding (although not very neatly) our painting supplies while we’re in our ‘PAINT ALL THE THINGS!!@#’ mode.

what can we do with this space?

I’ll add that we do not need more shelving/bookcases.
We have a pantry (to the left, see?).
We do not have pets so an amazing pet jungle gym is out.
We have a decent sized laundry room, so my ironing board does not need to go here.

AND – we have 9-foot ceilings on the first floor. Yep, that baby is 9 feet high.

Katie asked if I would bring her dilemma before my awesome readers, and I was happy to oblige.  What would you do with this space?  And why do you think it was built into the house in the first place?

Spring Break Shenanigans

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This week is Spring Break for my son, so I am soaking up some quality time with my kiddos.  I’m trying to make it a special week of more than just the usual stuff, so we are taking a few day trips.  Yesterday, we drove about 2 hours to go to the best zoo in our region.  You would think that it would have been a simple trip, but as all thing go with little ones, it wasn’t.

When we got out of the car after our two hour trip, I discovered that Emma had poured her entire box of chocolate milk all over herself.  It was all over her shirt and her pants, making it look like she had a really disgusting dirty diaper.  It was only then that I remembered that I had left her “emergency” change of clothes on my kitchen counter.  Awesome.

What did I do?  Well, what could I have done?  We just went about our business as other moms were looking upon my poor, dirty child in horror.  Our situation was not improved when she slipped in some mud and then Zack drug her across the ground as he was trying to help her stand up.  Oh, and she took out her bow and left it by the fence near the tiger exhibit (an offering?).  At any rate, she was looking a little disheveled by the end of our zoo visit.

Even after all of that, the kids had a great time at the zoo, and I did a pretty good job keeping calm in all the crazy.  I’m generally not very calm in that sort of situation, so I was quite proud of myself.

I’m going to push my luck and try an overnight trip with them later this week (and I hope that they will agree to let their loving, caring mama stop at some vintage stores along the way).  This time, I’ll remember the “emergency” change of clothes and will hopefully live to tell about it.

If you’ve done the overnight trip alone with your kiddos, please give me your tips for survival when you are outnumbered two to one.  I think I’m going to need them.

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I have two giveaway winners to announce today!

Congrats to Brenda, who will likely use her $50 gift card to Marshalls/T.J.Maxx for some new home decor!

And congrats to Kristin, who’s going to rock a custom red and white monogram sign from Signs by Andrea!

Ladies, please send me an email (LivingWithLindsay@gmail. com) so that I can get the prizes to you!  Woo hoo!