When Your Kids’ Bathroom is Also The Guest Bathroom

 

Any time we talk about our house and future projects, it only takes five minutes for Bart to start pacing around and saying, “Well, if we knocked this wall out and moved it out another ten feet” or “well, if we moved the master bedroom downstairs and turned the current one into a bigger family room.”

I’m always the wet blanket that says something like, “How about we just paint instead?”

My interest in any sort of major remodeling is zero; I’m happy with the basic layout of our house.

In fact, my only real complaint about the design of this house is that there is no dedicated guest bathroom or powder bathroom.

Both of our houses in North Carolina had a little bathroom and it was nice to know it was pretty much always clean because it didn’t get used often.

This house, however, does not have that. The only bathroom that is really accessible to visitors is also the one that serves the girls’ bedrooms.

Which means, it is used dozens of times a day, the bathtub has a nice collection of bath toys, and it’s a constant battle to stay on top of the kid hand-washing (e.g. soap bubbles everywhere and water all over the sink and mirror) and tooth paste smears.

Not to mention the fact that Ani has recently discovered her glow-in-the-dark pajamas, so she loves to stand on the counter under the lights to charge up the glow paint, then flip the lights off and dance on the countertop so she can watch the cat or skeleton dances in the mirror.

Probably most entertaining and decorating magazines don’t recommend little dirty footprints on the counter as a special welcoming touch for guests. I guess I’ll have to start my own hospitality column.

Add all that to a baby in diapers, and you need a few secret weapons to keep it looking somewhat presentable.

The BEST weapon would be a housekeeper that came daily, but I don’t have one of those (heck, I’d settle for one who came ever).

Second best is the new Munchkin STEP Diaper Pail. This is Munchkin’s newest diaper pail and it is ridiculously amazing.

I love that it doesn’t scream DIAPER PAIL and the sleek stainless steel accents are a nice touch.

And, most importantly, it keeps the guest bathroom smelling fresh, thanks to the Arm & Hammer® lavender-scented baking soda.

I knew my friend Miranda had this same diaper pail so before I got mine, I asked her how she liked it and she said, “It actually makes me want to postpone potty training a little longer. I love it that much.” Now THAT is a review.

Munchkin also plants a tree for every diaper pail sold (their tagline for this program is “We’re on a mission to reduce gassy emissions both inside AND outside the nursery” which makes me laugh).

I’m a big fan of all of Munchkin’s products – our bathtub is full of their clever bath toys (especially the bath crayons, which my girls are nuts about) – and this has been the perfect addition to our bathroom.

Now if they’d just invent a toothpaste that disappeared if it was smeared on the counter.