We have had the kid’s shared room “split” for about a year and half now. We used the Elvarli shelf from IKEA in our desire to make it look as much like a Vitsoe system as we could. I wanted to report in on how it has been working for us.

Beach House, shared kids roomAlison MazurekAugust 3, 2026ikea, room dividers

Packing for 3 weeks in Europe

We spend 3 glorious weeks in France, 3 nights total in Paris and a home exchange just outside of Aix en Provence. We packed quite light for a family of 4. We knew we would have a lot of city days walking 20-25,000 steps a day. We also would be lounging by the pool and beach and we knew we were walking into a heatwave.

A Landline for the Kids

We recently got a landline phone for the kids. We are trying to keep our kids off smartphones for as long as possible (wish us luck as we head into highschool!) . And I say this without judgement for parents that choose to give their kids phones. As Amy Poehler says, “Good for her! Not for me”.