Bed skirts are helpful in hiding objects stored under a bed, and hide the box spring, but what if you either don’t like the look of bed skirts, or in my case, the frame of the bed makes a bed skirt impractical?

Dress up your bed without fussy bed skirts by using a sheet to cover the box spring!

I love our bed frame, but the way it is designed, a bed skirt is too long and hangs below the frame looking messy. 

I was frustrated every morning making our bed with having to tuck the skirt up under the mattress so that it didn’t show below the frame.The sides of the bed, also show a bit of the box spring above the frame.

Today, when changing our sheets, I had an inspiration. After turning and flipping the mattress, which you should do every six months, the bed skirt was giving me a lot of trouble staying in place, and in frustration I ripped it out from under the mattress.Then I sat down on the front porch to drink a cup of coffee and mull over my situation. I didn’t want the box spring to be visible, and I was sick and tired of that bed skirt fighting with me every morning. In the past I had tried using duct tape and packing tape to make it stay in the place I wanted it, but that never lasted more than a day or two. 

We have our box spring and mattress covered to prevent dust mite and bed bugs, so I didn’t want to interrupt the covers by pinning or sewing the skirt to the mattress or box spring.Then I remembered the old sheet set that I keep as an emergency back-up set. Being a sort of wanna be minimalist, I have only two sets of sheets per bed, and keep one old set for emergencies. 

Since I had not needed that 3^rd set in forever, I had recently sacrificed the fitted sheet for my grandson’s Halloween Ghost costume. A worthy sacrifice, wouldn't you agree?

I did still have the top sheet, which I had planned to use as a painting drop cloth. I gave it a try, and I am very happy with how it turned out. Next time I have an old fitted sheet, I will see which one I like better, but this top sheet worked just fine.  I placed it under the mattress so that it covered the box spring, but made sure that it didn’t go below the level of the frame on all sides of the bed. 

Then I tucked it down into the frame.

The old sheet is white, and my new ones are taupe, but with the white background on our quilt, I like the contrast.

After completely making the bed, how does it look?

Many people suffer from dairy and Alpha-Gal allergies, which make it difficult to find and enjoy foods we are accustomed to.The holidays can be especially tough, so this Thanksgiving, I went searching for a pumpkin pie recipe that my alpha-gal allergic husband could eat.He loved it!

This one was a hit for our family. It is delicious and no one would ever know it is completely dairy-free.

I’m sharing it with you in the hopes that anyone with dairy or alpha-gal allergies will once again be able to enjoy pumpkin pie, complete with whipped topping!

Dairy-free Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coconut oil, solid at room temperature

2 tablespoons chilled vodka (optional)

2 tablespoons cold water (or 4 tablespoons if not using vodka)

1.Mix together the flour and salt and put in the fridge along with a fork or pastry cutter for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes.

2.Once chilled, add one tablespoon of coconut oil and cut it into the flour until there are no large chunks. Continue adding the remaining coconut oil this way one tablespoon at a time. Your mixture should look like course meal or course sand without any large chunks of coconut oil.

3.Combine the vodka and the water and sprinkle one tablespoon over the dough. Gently mix to combine before adding a second tablespoon. Continue mixing and adding liquid until the dough starts to stick together and you can press it into a ball. You might not need all the liquid, or you might need more, depending what brand of flour you’re using.

4.To prevent the dough from sticking to the counter, cover the counter with plastic wrap. Place your dough ball on the plastic wrap and knead it a couple of times to incorporate all the loose crumbs. Roll it out to the size of your pie plate then slide your hands under the plastic wrap and flip it into your pie plate. Press it down into the plate, cut off any overhang, flute the edges and prick the bottom with a fork.

5.You can use this pie crust recipe for any pie, not just this pumpkin pie!If you make a pie that calls for a pre-baked crust, remember to prick the bottom with a fork to keep it from bubbling.

Cold ingredients are the key to a great pie crust, and overworking the dough results in a tougher crust. So why use Vodka?There is science behind getting a super flaky crust with vodka; it reduces the formation of gluten and makes the dough easier to roll out, resulting in a flakier crust.

The alcohol evaporates during baking so it doesn’t have a strange taste. However, the vodka is totally optional and this dough will work fine if you don’t want to add it. Just replace it with water and be careful not to overwork the dough.

Pumpkin pie filling

• 3 large eggs
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (or 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree) -- not pumpkin pie filling.
• 1 cup full fat coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pour the filling into the crust and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.Use of a pie crust shield or aluminum foil around the edges will keep the crust from burning.

Cool on a wire rake for 2 hours then serve with whipped coconut milk.I hope you family enjoys this pie as much as we did!The next time I make this, I will take pictures and add to the recipe.

When we first started selling bunk beds, we took potential customers into our children's bedrooms and showed them the actual bed our children slept in.  Consequently, we had to learn some fast tricks for cleaning up the room.  

At first customers would call and make an appointment, so we generally had time to clean up, but when it became common for nearly everyone to have a cellphone, we would sometimes receive a call from someone sitting in our driveway!  Oh My!  My kids and I developed a three-minute drill that would ensure the room was "customer-ready"!

Tip #1  The Bathroom

Do you find it almost impossible to remove all of the hairs in your bathroom?  In our master bathroom, we have white floor tiles, a white pedestal sink, and a white commode. Hairs really show up on white!  I used to wipe, rinse, wipe, rinse, wipe, rinse until I thought I would go mad, and still could never get all the hairs wiped off.

The solution?  A friend who was a professional cleaner for a four star hotel shared this sanity-saving tip:  vacuum the floors and baseboards, and anything else you can reach while it's dry, before you begin to clean.  

It really works!  Take everything out of the room that is on the floor, and vacuum with your upright, then pop on the hose attachment and get in all of the corners -- everywhere you can reach.  

This truly will take less than 5 minutes, but then you can clean quickly without battling the hairs.

What is your favorite bathroom cleaning hack?

An Old Answer to a Modern Problem

Remember the old adage ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’? It is up to us as adults to give kids a place for everything that we provide them so when we tell them to clean up their rooms, they know what we mean, and they can follow our directions. Below are some practical solutions to help you find some room.

In order to help them we must find unconventional or under-used places to put things. Bunk beds, loft beds and trundle beds can offer a great deal of relief to this crowding. These furnishings are not a new concept, yet they are certainly more efficient than conventional beds. They too, are an old solution to a modern problem. Bunk beds and their kin, like bookcases, offer ways to convert horizontal space to vertical and free up huge amounts of floor space.

If stacking your children up in their sleeping arrangement is bothering you, please consider that modern bunk beds and loft beds are far safer than their predecessors. Most countries have adopted standards to make them safe for children ages five and up. Beds sold in the US have to meet federal CPSC guidelines for safety or face huge fines and liability. If that is not enough to convince you, we have six children and they all have slept in, or do sleep in bunk beds. We have never had an accident that is a result of using or sleeping in a bunk bed or loft bed.

If I haven’t lost your interest yet, let’s get back to the subject of finding storage space. You can find extra storage space beneath your existing beds even if they are not bunks. Most children’s beds have around 20 cubic feet of under utilized space beneath them! That is as much as a small closet or a large chest of drawers. You can make better use of this space by putting boxes under there but accessing them and getting the stuff out regularly may be a bit troublesome. If you need a cheap and fast solution, measure the space and go to the local Stuff Mart store and buy as many plastic boxes as will fit in that space (don’t forget your tape measure). Try to make them long enough to reach all of the way to the wall so that you can pull them out from the side of the bed without crawling under there. I would recommend that you remove the lids and put them somewhere else. That way youngsters can get their stuff in and out in a hurry. This space exists under a bunk bed as well. At our website, www.bunkbedsunlimited.com you will find a variety of plans that utilize this space. There are free plans for huge storage drawers that take up all of the under bed space. You can even find a free, easy to build plan for a trundle drawer that allows another child or adult to sleep in the room and it can double as storage. (A trundle bed is a particularly good solution for guests or little ones graduating from the crib that you want to stay close to the floor.)

Loft beds free up the entire space that one twin bed takes and make it available for other furniture like dressers, chests of drawers, sofas, daybeds, futons, desks, dollhouses and the list goes on. Sometimes a loft bed can seemingly work a miracle in an overcrowded room.

For example, let’s take a typical kids room with two twin beds, two chests and toys everywhere. With a bunk bed you can put both beds in the footprint now occupied by one twin bed and neatly tuck away 20 cubic feet of toys in storage drawers beneath the lower bunk. The toys are not out of reach, and if your storage boxes have wheels, the kids can pull them out easily. They now have a place for a lot more of their things.

In addition to the above reasons, there is another point you might want to consider. Kids love bunk beds! Every child loves to climb, and the thought of sleeping above the ground makes their bed just plain exciting. Sleeping can become an adventure. If you are considering buying a bunk bed or loft bed, I would recommend that you not buy the very cheapest thing that you can find. The cheap ones often do not hold up long to the rough use kids put them through. If cost is an issue, or you just want to build something nice as a family project, something durable that lasts, consider the plans on our site. We have some great designs that are easy to build. In addition, we have high quality furniture-grade hardware kits at very competitive prices. You can also just look for ideas here. We even have a triple bunk bed plan that is very easy to build.

In conclusion, when approaching the problem of space in kids’ rooms, arm yourself with the knowledge of what is available and then do some patient planning. You might need to just stand there and imagine awhile. Provide children with a place for everything and then you can reasonably expect them to put everything where it goes. Consider bunk beds, loft beds and trundle beds when you are making your plan, and don’t forget the space under the existing or new beds either. If you provide lots of space for all of their belongings and they still won’t fit, you may need to get rid of some stuff. But that’s the subject of another article.

Looking for bunk beds or loft beds? Ever considered building your own instead of buying them? There are significant advantages to building your own bunk bed, loft bed or even a trundle bed. In this article I will discuss some good reasons that other people have chosen to build their own. If you are the least bit handy with common tools you can undertake the task in a couple of weekends. If not, you may know someone like a grandparent or uncle who can. You might even hire a handyman to do it for you.

You may still be wondering why you would even want to consider building a bunk bed instead of buying one. One of the most common reasons people build their own bunk beds or loft bed is cost. There are many inexpensive wooden or metal bunk beds and loft beds on the market today and they all seem to have one thing in common, low quality. There are also many very expensive brand name bunk sets available that come complete with matching shipping boxes to prove that they are authentic. Some of these are well made and some are not. The low end manufactured bunk beds are typically flimsy and do well to hold up for a few years under constant use. For less than the price of a typical cheap set of beds you can build a very attractive, sturdy, safe bunk bed or loft bed design that will last for many years.

Building a loft bed or bunk bed can be a fun family project. Parents can involve their children according to their age and abilities and make great some really great memories as well as a great set of beds. Grandparents or parents might even consider doing them as a gift for their kids. A gift that is built by a loved one means much more than almost anything you could buy them. When kids are asked about their nice bunk bed or loft bed they will say with pride that "grandpa built it for me" or ”my dad built it and I helped".

Another major reason that people build their own bunk beds is that they can get what they want in terms of color, arrangement and finish. There are many combinations of bunk beds, loft beds and trundle beds that can be made. Check at http://www.bunkbedsunlimited.com to see the many possibilities of what can be done. If you want something customized, building your own is a simple way to get it in the color, design and combination that you want. Perhaps you want to match colors with a dresser, chest, bookshelf, crib or other piece of furniture, you can easily accomplish this by taking a sample of the materials you are using to a local paint store and asking them to match the color for you. Stenciling or painting can also be done instead of a more conventional furniture finish.

Buying a low cost bunk bed may be the right thing to do in some situations. For instance if you only need them for a short time or use them only occasionally the cheap ready made bunks and lofts will probably serve well. It may be building them is just out of the question because of time or that you are just not comfortable with using basic hand tools. But if you can build your own bunk beds or loft beds, the benefits go way beyond just the monetary savings incurred. They can be made to last for generations in the color you want and the variation that you really want.

This is a Stackable Bunk Bed we built from the very same plan that we sell. We took this bunk bed photograph in our store a few years ago with five adults on it. The bed held up well and could have held more weight. The last of our 6 children are still using the first bed that we built over 20 years ago and it is still as solid and sturdy as the day we built it.

If you are looking for a plan to build a bunk bed or loft bed that is safe, can withstand heavy use and last for years, you are in the right place. Our bed plans conform to all of the CPSC federal safety standards.

If you have any questions, email, or call us at our toll free number: 1-877-671-4931

But what about the storage drawers, are they sturdy?

Children can sit in them to play, and teenagers can sit in them to eat lunch (because a teen boy cannot wait until we're finished cleaning to eat!)

And.. a man with two boys can stand in them!

DIY Safe sturdy bunk beds you can build.

1.Oil your furniture. Oil nourishes, cleans, and protects the wood. Furniture that is stained, but unvarnished or unsealed should be oiled every 6 months. A light coat of oil protects it from changes in moisture in the environment, and removes oil and dirt that accumulate. The natural beauty of the wood will glow after being oiled. As you use A/C and heat in your home, humidity levels change and this causes the moisture level in the wood in the furniture to also change. Over time, you may notice warping or cracks in the wood if not protected. What to use? Lemon oil, mineral oil, linseed oil, and orange oil all will preserve your wooden furniture.

2.Polish or wax your furniture. Polish (wax) cleans and protects wooden furniture by filling in cracks and crevices making them easier to keep clean. It also brings a renewed shine and protects against light scratches. You’ll notice that over time, even if you dust regularly, there will be a build-up of dust in the little nooks and crannies of grooves in the furniture. Wax or polish will fill those gaps and make it easier to keep clean. What to use? Any of the major furniture polishes work well, but you can easily use beeswax or homemade furniture polish.

3.Wash your furniture. Yes, occasionally you should use furniture soap in warm water and lightly wash off dirt, oil, and wax build-up. There are many home-made recipes available, or you can purchase furniture soap made especially for this purpose. Afterwards, reapply oil or wax to moisturize and seal the grain.

Solid wooden furniture is a beautiful asset to your home – by taking a few extra steps a few times a year, you will be able to enjoy the natural glow of the wood for many years to come.

3 Organizing tips to get you started:

You want to help your child organize their room, but feel so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start.I have been there many times.Allow me to hand down a few guidelines.

• 1. Keep it short

Avoid the mistake of trying to fix it in one fell swoop.Children (and parents) have short attention spans when organizing.Try breaking it down into small sections and tackling one at a time.Clothes one week, art/craft supplies next week, etc.If you have a weekly cleaning schedule, add 15 minutes to the routine to work on a different section each week.Be sure to tell the children the time and specific goal so they know there is an end in sight.Maintain areas you have organized with a 5 minute daily pickup and weekly cleaning routines.

• 2. Plan a reward

Cleaning to upbeat music played quietly in the background works wonders for us.Having something fun to look forward to when finished is also important.Video game time, playdate with a friend, or ice cream are all great rewards for hard work at the end.I always try to remind them of the coming reward as we work.

• 3.Remember your goals

What is YOUR reason for getting organized?To make cleaning easier?To find what you’re looking for?If your child has allergies to dust mites, then learning to keep the environment allergy-free is an important habit to teach.Everyone’s personal standards are different from everyone else’s.Don’t hold yourself (or your child) to your neighbor or your best friend’s standards.Also, keep in mind that your child’s standards are not yours.Help him (or her) find their own way of organizing, especially as they get older.

What would you add?I’d love to hear your organizing tips!