The blog that turned me (and likely thousands of others) onto blogs was Design*Sponge. I remember a very specific feeling I had nearly every evening sometime around 2005 or 2006. I would come home from work, turn on my (giant) computer, wait for it to “warm up” (or was it dialing up?!) while I made a quick dinner, and would pull up Design*Sponge and feel, likely for the first time since art school, that I was back with my people. One of my favorite columns, and one I still thing about today, was called Small Measures. I remember looking forward to it because it offered tiny solutions to make life awesome. It’s where I was introduced to DIY cleaning products, learned how to make simple syrup, and a long long list of all the things one can do with baking twine. I suppose today they would call these life hacks, as the purpose was, I always felt, something that brought a smile to my heart and (a slightly elevated) ease to my life.

I think of those two words, “small measures”, all of the time here in Sweden. There are so many small, thoughtful touches everywhere to make life a little more convenient, or to help things run more smoothly and efficient. A quick example: there are signs printed on the floor as you wait in line to check out at the supermarket, asking you to turn the barcodes on products towards yourself on the conveyor belt. The checker isn’t spending time hunting for the barcodes, and the line seems to move at a rally nice pace.

There are many of these small measures I see daily making life with children a little easier, as moving through life with infant seats and strollers and diaper bags and all the things that come with it, as we all know, makes for a couple cumbersome years. At museums, for instance, I have noticed parking areas for prams (strollers), and signs stating you might inquire at the information desk to borrow a baby carrier if you don’t have one.

At playgrounds, many have little red houses, some no bigger than a shed, some a little larger, filled with sand toys, bikes (trikes and balance bikes and everything in between), stilts, balls, etc for all the children to play with. Isn’t that brilliant?! It’s like going over to someone’s house who doesn’t have kids and find they have brought out their legos from childhood because they knew your kid would love to build with them. In the red houses, it seems everyone has the responsibility to put things back when they leave, and we have noticed in the evenings that the little red houses get locked up and take a rest before another day.

Many times during any given week, we talk about things we have run into that take quite a bit (or hours worth) of research or translating to figure out. It can get tiresome, and certainly annoying, to need so many manuals just to get through an average Tuesday. We always remind each other “it’s just different” here. It’s not worse (than what we are used to in America), just different. (Except for the internet. That is definitely worse, but not the story here.) In this case, though, these small pops of joy, these small measures, different definitely translates to better. More stories of small measures to come, there are many, and I’m excited to say that I’m sure we haven’t even scratched the surface.