I picked up these canisters at Target last week (on clearance; strange that the website doesn’t list them as such), and the pitiful photo included here does not do them justice. Sweet bamboo tops and spoons, airtight lids: perfect for prettying up your sugar, coffee, and tea storage.
The cliché is true: magnets (along with such gourmet delights as real butter and squeeze cheese) do make your life better.
Got babies? Then you need to get bins. Because accumulation happens at an early age.
This spunky bin from 3 Sprouts will hold a ton of stuffed animals, books, and games, and its hungry-looking face definitely lends itself to “Now it’s time to feed the elephant!”-type of cleaning strategery.
I’m not a big fan of the diaper bag, because, simply, it’s a bag meant to carry diapers. Which makes it awfully close kin to a trash bag. Which is what the diaper bag will smell like after a few months of forgotten burp cloths and ground-in Cheerios.
My position: diaper bags become dumping grounds. And that doesn’t make anyone’s life easier.
For my purposes, this Skip Hop Pronto changing wallet is perfect. It’s compact enough to be thrown in a purse or clip unobtrusively onto a stroller, yet expansive enough to hold a couple of diapers, about 50 wipes, and a fold-out, wipe-down pad that makes changing baby in a public restroom actually sanitary. And it’s made of virtually indestructible black nylon. (Really. I’ve crushed mine with the stroller not once, but twice.)
Now that Skip Hop has paired with Target on an exclusive line, you can buy the cheaper version that is much more cheerful than the model I ended up using with baby #1 three years ago.
Best baby shower ever: friends and family each bring big trays of ziti/moussaka/meatloaf/otherwise freezable meals, with these labels describing what and how to cook them. An act of generosity second only to relieving the new parents so they can take a nap.
