Hasta La Ideas

Reader Liz submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

My husband and I recently bought our first house, and we’re really looking forward to all the space, especially with our 20-month-old son! However, we have an issue I haven’t seen addressed here (or anywhere for that matter) — what is a good computer set-up that can also be locked away to keep little fingers away from the keyboard, mouse, and tower? We’re looking for something relatively inexpensive, but we haven’t found a good solution that would also fit in a living room, since our computer/monitor also functions as our TV/DVD player. Any suggestions?

My eight-month-old son is about a week away from taking his first, unassisted steps. The past month has been a giant lesson in baby proofing our home as he has learned to pull himself up to standing and toddle along next to any surface that will support him. I wholly understand your dilemma.

We found that making items “invisible” is the best thing to do with the things that can’t be set on high shelves. If my son doesn’t see the breakable and expensive electronics, he has no interest in messing with them.

For cords and cables, we used Kwik Clips to secure them to baseboards, support beams, the desktop, and along the back of furniture. Not only are the cables secured, but they become “invisible” because they’re no longer obviously there. We also put down area rugs to hide our surround sound speaker wires and then ran the wires up through the speaker stands. For your computer table, a large mouse pad might work in a similar fashion.

For your electronics, you can hide these items by installing cupboard doors or screens to an existing desk or media center, or purchase a new storage system that already has doors. If the doors open, simply use childproof latches to keep them closed. If you’re buying something new, I recommend checking out the desks and media centers at Ikea. They’re inexpensive and you can easily unload them on Craigslist if you ever want to upgrade. At least in our area, there is a huge community of people always looking for Ikea pieces. Armoires are also great for hiding desks and equipment — check out Mark Coggins’ office that we featured as a Workspace of the Week. Using a closet might also work, and you can simply shut the closet door when your son is in the adjoining room.

If you want to make your own screens to use with your existing furniture, I recommend purchasing art canvas frames or large picture frames and then stretching a material similar to panty hose across them (check your hardware and fabric stores, there are a few different fabric styles available). This way, your child can’t see the electronics, but your IR remote can still communicate with the hidden devices. Once your child loses interest in pushing buttons, you can permanently remove the screens.

I’m sure that there are other solutions out there that our readers have used, so be sure to check the comments for more baby-proofing solutions. Thank you, Liz, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

In our seventh installment of Unclutterer’s 2009 Holiday Gift Giving Guide we’re discussing gifts for children.

I’m coming to find that creating a Guide for kids is more difficult than expected. The things we want for our son now are very different than the things he’ll want when he can pen his own letter to Santa Claus. My husband and I want practical things for him that will help us cover the expenses of raising a child — diapers, a new crib, and baby gates. By the time he’s in elementary school, however, I’m sure that he’ll want toys, gadgets, and even more toys! I can’t even fathom what will be on his list when he’s in high school.

So, instead of breaking it down by age, I’m just going to give an over-arching theme and one or two examples that might work with the category. Parents with jr. high and high school children should feel more than welcome to add ideas to the comments section as I feel that I’m not doing this age group much justice in my themes.

• Experiences. We’ve written about these types of gifts in the past, but they’re certainly worth mentioning again. Zoo memberships, movie passes, event tickets, etc., are great gifts for the giver and receiver to both enjoy. If Aunt Jane buys a pool pass for little Billy, then the two of them can swim together on summer afternoons — or go to the zoo together or see movies or whatever the experience.
• Gifts with storage solutions. I’ve become a big fan of gifts that come with storage or gifts that are storage. Toy bins with a new toy, video game storage console with a new game, a puzzle rack with a new puzzle, or a block set with a block box, like the one below, are examples that would work for younger kids.
  
• Vacations. Technically, this is a subset of Experiences, but I thought it warranted its own line item. Growing up, I took a vacation each summer with my grandmother. I’ll never forget riding the train with her across the country or going on road trips to crazy roadside attractions. My cousins also have fond memories of flying to see her and spending two weeks playing on the farm without their parents. Showing children the world can be a rewarding experience for everyone.
• What the child wants. Sneaking a peak at a child’s letter to Santa Claus before it is sent in the mail can be a good way to learn what a child plans to play with in the next few months. It’s not clutter if the object is used and loved.
• Hints from mom and dad. If parents have created wishlists for their children (especially new parents with young children), it’s extremely kind to buy from that list. Great thought and care usually go into creating these lists, and buying from them can help the parents to provide for their child. It’s not very creative, but it is incredibly generous. If mom and dad are running on such little sleep that they can’t find the energy to create a list, pick up the phone and ask.

Please add your ideas to the comments. Also, don’t forget to check out our Unclutterer’s 2009 Holiday Gift Giving Guide Index Page for a listing of all the articles as we publish them.

My daughter is going to be three years old in less than a month. The amount of clothing and other baby products that we have gone through in those 36 months is pretty extensive. We have donated a lot of items to local charities, consignment shops, and friends, but it seems like we still find ourselves behind the curve in the accumulation battle.

Reader Tina wrote us to recommend a website that focuses on swapping baby goods. From the Swap Baby Goods site:

SwapBabyGoods.com is the first web site of its kind, providing a friendly place for parents to swap, buy or sell baby items that are no longer needed. Our philosophy is very simple – Why buy when you can swap? Our product focus is baby items; for this reason, our users can enjoy the website, knowing that they are part of a community. Our primary goal is to provide a platform that brings together willing sellers, buyers and swappers in an online marketplace, benefiting everyone involved.

Babies grow so fast and so do their needs. Before we know it, the cute little outfits, baby toys, and other baby items we once could not live without become outgrown and underused, taking up an inordinate amount of space in our homes. The baby item one family is ready to put in the attic or out in the garage sale might be just what another mom or dad is looking for. Our ultimate goal is to help parents all across the nation save money and the environment by providing them an online venue to swap baby items.

While there are many options to buy, sell, or donate items, this looks like a pretty good resource for tracking down some must-have baby products. It also looks like a place to get rid of clutter that your little one no longer wants or needs.

Do you know of other baby goods swapping websites? Let us know about those resources in the comments.

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

My daughter will be three next month so we have no need for a baby food organizer at the moment, but I’m trying to figure out when we would have ever needed a mini Lazy Susan for 10 jars of baby food.

The number of months that we fed our daughter jarred baby food went by in a blink of an eye. I don’t recall getting lost in an avalanche of baby food jars. Baby food jars are very tiny and take up a relatively small section of cupboard space. The Baby Food Organizer is just a semi-stylish way to clutter up your counter top with 10 jars of baby food.

The “space saving design” is a little suspect in that it displays the jars in a vertical fashion rather than simply stacking them neatly in your cupboard. What is so space saving about a vertical contraption that may or may not fit in your cupboard?

Thanks to reader Ronise for bringing this unitasker to our attention.