Hello, hello! How are you guys doing? How is the new year treating you so far? It’s been a complete whirlwind over here and I promise to fill you guys in on the fun when I have a minute to catch my breath. I had hoped to be back to regular blogging this week but a lighter few days of work for Ryan earlier this week inspired our family to take an impromptu trip that delayed everything so I am popping in today with a blog post I started working on last week that I never got around to sharing. Today, in lieu of my usual Things I’m Loving Friday post, I’m sharing things you’re loving and diving into some of your favorite finds from 2024!
The beginning of a new year is always when I try to spend a little more time diving into the analytics behind this blog to see what blog posts you like to read, what recipes you like to make and what sort of product recommendations jump out at you most. Last week I shared my Top Blog Posts of 2024 (recipes + random blog posts) and today I’m popping in to share some of your favorite finds in the home and kids categories.
Your favorite home items were all across the board and included everything from our beloved Walmart cane cabinet (a fav two years in a row!) and a travel-size white noise machine to non-toxic cutting boards, my beloved gentle-pressure sleep mask and some home organization and cleaning favorites.
When it came to kid-friendly favorites, you guys loved some of the boys’ go-to travel toy favorites, beginner chapter books and pool toys as well as wiggle cars, quiet-activity entertainment finds and more.
Keep on scrolling to see your top 10 favorite home and kid-friendly finds!
Top 10 Home Finds of 2024
A small but mighty find, this mini white noise machine blew me away this year and I’m so glad it seemed to do the same for so many of you! While I stand by our Dohm white noise machine as the best white noise machine on the planet (I love that the sound comes from a real fan and not a recorded track), the fact that Dohm doesn’t make a mini version for travel (their mini version is NOT mini) led me to discovering this tiny little gem of a find. The price point is incredibly reasonable ($11.99) and it charges quickly, plays all night long (and then some!) and works incredibly well for a travel-size noise machine. It’s also quite powerful and can get very loud, especially for its miniscule size. I only wish I would’ve known about this thing when we were in the thick of the baby days because it would’ve been clutch for on-the-go naps and travel with babies and toddlers. For now, I’ll just keep it in mind as a throw-in go-to baby shower gift idea!
Shop it here: Mini White Noise Machine
Brace yourself because I am going to sound a little dramatic. I finally found the cutting board of my dreams in 2024 and, by the looks of it, many of you did, too! So why is this cutting board so magical!? To start, it checks every single box I’ve had on my dream cutting board checklist for years. Truly! It’s freaking fantastic for a myriad of reasons: 1. It’s non-porous so it does not retain smell or flavor from foods (Wanna use it to cut garlic? Go ahead! Onions? Sure!) 2. It’s non-toxic and made with paper composite material. 3. It’s dishwasher safe hallelujah amen 4. It’s knife-friendly aka ridiculously durable 5. It’s ultra thin making it a dream for storage. I have the smaller size, larger size and the mini size (perfect for slicing up a single apple) and love them all with a little too much intensity. They’re the BEST.
Shop it here: Epicurean Cutting Board
I love that this cane storage cabinet was a favorite for so many of you guys because we have two of them in our house and, aside from being beautiful, they’ve been incredibly useful. I was concerned the color would be too orangey-yellow when I took a chance and ordered them online but I was pleasantly surprised by a finish that looked more like white oak in person. (It is also available in black.) The price point is amazing and they’ve been such a great home find for our family. My sister even ordered two of them after visiting us because she liked them so much and I copied her and began using them to store craft supplies, puzzles, melty beads, books and games for our boys to easily access.
Shop it here: Walmart Cane Storage Cabinet
I’ve been using my NodPod Gentle Pressure Sleep Mask every single night for more than a year and it’s safe to say I love this thing. I know this might sound dramatic, but I truly believe it is changing my sleep for the better. When I’m done reading at night, I lay this eye mask over my eyes and something about the light pressure on my eyes and temples is incredibly soothing. I’m a slide sleeper so the design of the eye mask concerned me but it stays in place enough for me to fall asleep and must just slip off on its own when I toss and turn in my sleep, though I’ve never woken up in the night when it falls off. While it’s great for falling asleep at night initially, I really fell in love with it for middle-of-the-night or way-too-early wakeups. The pressure seems to be some kind of wonderful magic that rests gently enough on my eyes to feel relaxing and help me fall back asleep. (They claim it’s the “3-minute effect” and that within 3 minutes, the pressure from the NodPod uses “deep touch stimulation” to calm and relax the central nervous system… I believe it!) I’m not claiming it’s some wonderful cure for insomnia (I’m not sure anything could’ve helped me when I was struggling so bad with sleep during pregnancy) but it has been one of the best discoveries for my personal relaxation and nighttime sleep in a long, long time. My mom swears by the one I gave her for Christmas a year ago, too!
Shop it here: NodPod Gentle Pressure Sleep Mask
I ordered these pouches back when I was determined to organize our electronic junk drawer. It was a mess and took me forever to find simple charging cables, ear buds, portable fans, extension cords, etc. There had to be a better way! Thankfully these mesh pouches were the answer and allowed me to easily organize electronics of varying sizes. Most importantly: The drawer has remained organized ever since I tackled this project with these mesh pouches over a year ago! (Note: I used this label maker to easily create the labels for the pouches.)
Shop them here: Mesh Pouches
One very random thing I love about traveling with friends is discovering new-to-us finds that another person or family loves using in their day-to-day life. (The Tangle Teezer brush was the best find of my girls’ trip to Scottsdale!) When we were in the mountains with friends over the summer, as I was helping with the dishes, I noticed these semi-rough cloths in the kitchen sink. There were no other scrub brushes or sponges to be found. So I began using the Skoy Scrub dish scrubbers to clean our plates, pots and pans.
I very quickly understood why they were a favorite with our friends! They were effective without scratching the surface of the pans we used. They never smelled and were easy to clean — we just popped them into the dishwasher and they came out as good as new! (Bonus: They’re sustainably made with remnant cotton fibers from the toweling industry and a non-toxic hardener.) I ordered a four-pack for our family from the mountains and have loved using them to do our dishes all week.
Shop them here:Skoy Scrub Dish Scrubbers
Is this what being an adult is like? Freaking out over box cutters? I’ve always used a pair of scissors to break down our boxes but when I was at a friend’s house and she had a package arrive and quickly broke down her box with a crazy-looking tool, my interest was piqued. Since I felt like I was ruining some of our sharper, nicer scissors, I figured a legit box cutter might have a place in our home and ordered the same one my friend loved. Who knew I could love a simple household tool so much!? It glides like a dream and easily slips right through the toughest packing tape. Even Ryan commented on how it was a solid purchase and one we never knew we needed.
Shop it here: Box Cutter
Blank Slate is a 10/10 game with the easiest learning curve! We fell in love with it after playing with friends and have recommended it to so, so many people since. It’s always a hit and is one of those rare multigenerational games that is fun for participants of all ages, as long as they can read and write/draw pictures. We played it at my mom’s 70th birthday party and I think almost everyone ordered it after the party!
Shop it here: Blank Slate
These gel pens were 2023’s #1 favorite item and they’ve proven popular in 2024 as well, and with good reason. Once I discovered TUL gel pens (thank you, Ryan’s coworker for bringing them into our lives!), there was no turning back. They write like a dream and have basically ruined me from enjoying any other pen. They’re even worthy of gifting, they’re that good.
Shop them here: TUL Gel Pens
This handy little bag is a game changer for anyone out there who constantly washes sports bras and bralettes with liners inside. If it drives you crazy to have to stuff the liners of your bras back into them after every wash, this handy bag will make you a little too happy! It keeps the liners safely tucked inside sports bras and bralettes (and even lined tank tops!) and is a small thing that makes laundry a little less miserable in our house.
Shop them here: Honeycomb Mesh Laundry Bags for Delicates
Top 10 Kid Finds of 2024
Think Simon of our youth but in cube form and with even more memory games! This was a birthday present for Chase this year and he absolutely loves it. The compact size makes it perfect for travel!
Shop it here: Light Up Memory Cube
We first discovered Press Start! graphic novels when Chase was in first grade. When I volunteered to read with kids in his class, I am not lying when I say 95 percent of the boys in is class came up to me with a Press Start! book from their classroom library in their hands to read together because they were all absolutely obsessed. These books are some kind of magic for kids, especially reluctant readers, and seem to absolutely captivate them.
One important disclaimer: They’re kind of annoying to read as an adult. Well, Ryan doesn’t think so but I don’t love reading them aloud because of all the thought bubbles (I prefer the seamless flow of a more traditional novel) BUT for kids reading alone, they’re an absolute dream and hold their attention so, so well. Anything that gets my kids to park their butts on the couch and excitedly dive into a book is a WIN for me! Chase (9) and Ryder (6) both adore them and they’re the books they both reach for to flip through before bed more than any other books we have in our house. (Owl Diaries is another winning series!)
And for anyone looking for additional young reader chapter book recommendations, you may find a few of our boys’ favorites here: Favorite Chapter Books for Young Readers.
Shop them here: Press Start! Book Set (Books 1-5)
We first discovered these easy-to-ride cars through Chase’s preschool when he was 2 years old. All of the kids were obsessed and the fact that we now own three of these bad boys should tell you that this is the kind of toy that stands the test of time. Chase, Ryder and Rhett love riding these cars all over the place and especially enjoy flying down the hill at the top of our street on them now that they’re all a bit older!
Shop it here: Wiggle Car
Now that we’re in “phase two” of parenting kids (meaning we don’t have to be on top of the kids all the time), our world is opening up a bit and it’s been so fun! Our big kids are wonderful swimmers and really enjoy playing in the pool for hours. We’ve found a few pool time favorites over the years and two things they reach for all the time include reusable water balloons and their watermelon ball toy. The water balloons are self-explanatory (they just fill up with water and you can use them again and again) but the watermelon ball toy blew them minds last summer. It’s weighted with water and allows them to pass the ball and bounce the ball under water. It’s also the toy that seemed to make other kids at the pool immediately gravitate toward our boys since they all thought it was so cool!
Shop them here: Reusable Water Balloons + Watermelon Ball Toy
My mom put these cubes in the boys’ Christmas stockings in 2023 and they’re something I keep in my “travel toys” box to save for travel because they never cease to entertain them! They’re a better fit for our big kids (ages 6 and 9 — though I think the sweet spot is 8+) and they love transforming the cubes into a million different shapes and designs.
Shop it here: Shape-Shifting Cube
Diamond painting stickers were one of our big kids’ favorite quiet activities this year. They’d make various diamond sticker creations while listening to music, an audiobook or a podcast and had fun sticking their creations on their Pokemon binders, school folders, their friends’ birthday cards, etc. (If you have Pokemon lovers in your house, our boys especially love the Pokemon stickers!)
Shop them here: Diamond Painting Stickers
The small, easy-to-clean snack containers I use for the big kids’ school snacks every weekday. They easily fit a whole clementine, a bunch of berries, peach slices and other yummy snacky finds!
Shop them here: Stainless Steel Snack Containers
A genius invention, perfect for kids who are always losing marker caps. We have two packs and they’re the markers our boys reach for above all others.
Shop them here: Crayola Clicks! Markers
The ultimate find for Hot Wheels lovers! When I tell you this was the hit of Christmas last year, I mean it! It’s also a toy all three of our boys continue to play with all the time.
Shop it here: Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage
I adore The Circus Ship and love that this book made this list! It’s a book all three of our boys love and ended up being the book Chase chose for me to read aloud to his class two years in a row for his birthday. It’s a big hit among the 4-to-8-year-old crowd and, as a parent, it’s one I enjoy reading because the story is clever, the rhymes are great and it includes a tricky page where kids have to locate a bunch of different animals at the very end of the book which always keeps them engaged. It’s an under-the-radar gem!
Shop it here: The Circus Ship
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2025-01-10 06:09:23
