So, what do you think about the Man Cave phenomenon?
Because all of the sudden, it’s everywhere. Last week I was in Hobby Lobby, and they had this whole Man Cave section. There were dark brown plaques proclaiming MAN CAVE! and Rules for Man Cave and even some kind of fake deer antlers. Which, actually, doesn’t seem that manly.
House Hunters is now all about the Man Cave. It seems to be on every man’s Must Have list. “A place where I can watch TV undisturbed.”
At our old church, our paster once ridiculed Man Caves from the “pulpit.” He pointed out dads shouldn’t need a space to hide from their family…they should be leading it.
But even M, who does lead our family, values his time to zone out and watch TV after the family has gone to bed. Maybe the Man Cave does fulfill some need men have to recharge in their own time and place.
All this to tell you about my Mommy Cave.
When Nate moved upstairs in August, we had an extra bedroom downstairs.
You know what else we had downstairs?
Stuff. Everywhere.
Backpacks, lunch boxes, forms due yesterday, birthday party invites, school uniforms either needing washing or wearing, hole punchers, staplers, kid art projects either destined for the wall or the wastebasket, and phone messages.
I know you can totally relate.
So, as you know, all this STUFF wasn’t just clutter, but the cogs propelling our lives. For our household to run efficiently, we needed space to see the stuff, store it, and spread it out.
Enter the family office, organizational hub, changing room, heartbeat of the house…
Or, as it could be called: a Mommy Cave.
Because at the same time Nate was moving upstairs, M was working from home more and needed a little less of this STUFF in his real office.
Naturally, I was all over heading over to IKEA for some self-assemble furniture and matching desk chairs. Then heading over to The Container Store for organizational solutions costing more than I spent on organizational solutions my whole four years of college. But–oh, my goodness–so cute and so practical.
Pretty soon we had a Mommy Cave, complete with hooks and file folder systems, wall calendars, and a big communal computer.
By the way, on the blueprint of our house, this room is called Maid’s Quarters. So funny and so true. It’s telling my Mommy Cave is right next to the laundry room, the kitchen, and the bathroom where the kids take their nightly baths. Maid’s Quarters, indeed. There’s always a household task at my fingertips.
Now, if Hobby Lobby would only make a cute sign for my door.
