For many years I have struggled with a deep dark secret. The stuff in my fruit and veggie drawers in my fridge rot. No matter how hard I work to use it all up, stay on top of it and clean it out, I invariably end up with something rotten in one of those drawers. Strawberries are one of the worse. A container of strawberries seems to last maybe 4 days if I’m lucky. After that they get mushy spots and then mold starts to grow. I desperately need to have a variety of fresh fruit around to encourage healthy eating so I’m not going to stop buying strawberries.

I decided to try the OXO Good Grips Greensaver. This plastic container has a removable basket in it and a carbon filter that absorbs the ethylene gas that causes produce to rot so quickly. I was amazed to find I can keep strawberries twice as long in this container – at least a week. Because of that, I highly recommend it, with a few caveats.

First of all, I bought the small size and it doesn’t hold an entire container of berries. About 5-6 won’t fit in it. The lid is also deceptive since it is a thick lid and takes up space inside the container, so I always misjudge how much it will hold. The other downside is you have to replace the carbon filter every 90 days. OXO lets you sign up on their site for reminders about that if you wish.

Once my filter runs out, I am contemplating buying either a bigger size or switching to a different product that can just be placed in the drawer itself and will reduce the gas inside the entire drawer, such as these BluApple filters. But I’m completely sold on the carbon filter concept.

For many years I have struggled with a deep dark secret. The stuff in my fruit and veggie drawers in my fridge rot. No matter how hard I work to use it all up, stay on top of it and clean it out, I invariably end up with something rotten in one of those drawers. … Read more →

Half the world read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo before I got around to it. I might have been late to the party, but I still have a lot of thoughts about this concept.

I found the book to be kind of puffy – lots of filler and not a lot of meat, but it sounds like her follow up title will offer more specifics which I suspect a lot of people will appreciate. It’s one thing to tell people to organize things, but another to actually show them how to do it.

Some of the book feels a bit woo-woo, but I found that there were some concepts inside the woo-woo I could get on board with. Kondo talks a lot about getting in touch with your belongings. She wants you to thank them for what they’ve done for you, offer them appreciation and respect, and think about what they might need (space, a new home, etc.). It sounds a little silly since that pair of pants you’re putting away is not an animate object, but I do appreciate the idea of treating objects with respect. This is a very Japanese approach and something we encountered a lot on our trip to Japan. While I don’t think my belongings have feelings, it’s true that if you treat the things you own with care and thought that they perform better (are easier to find and don’t get broken or damaged). You also will like them more. I find that if you fill your home with items that have been thoughtfully and carefully culled and arranged that your home begins to feel neater and more controlled.

One of the basic tenets of the book is that to sort things you’ve got to sort everything in one class, so she says to get ALL of your clothes out and sort through them all, discarding some and keeping some. It’s actually very true because you can’t see what you have unless you assess it all together. I did this with my clothes and did a huge purge.

I was struck by her advice to only keep things that bring you joy. This isn’t completely practical because the pooper scooper we use in the dog yard does not bring me joy, but it is a useful tool we need. However, this is a way of thinking I’d actually been applying for a while without realizing it. Slowly over the years I’ve been weeding out things in my house so that I only keep the items that have meaning to me. I’ve gradually replaced all the wall art with paintings we’ve bought on our travels. Nearly all of my “stuff” is now either family heirlooms, items that have a special memory associated with them, trip souvenirs, or items for a specific holiday. While some of the framed art I decorated with when we first bought our home were nice enough, the items didn’t resonate with me in the same way items I’ve bought while traveling do and so I’ve slowly gotten rid of them. I’ve done the same thing with clothes. I was hanging on to items that “could” be useful but in truth I didn’t really like. Wearing them didn’t make me feel happy, so I stopped keeping them.

The impetus to get things organized so you can see them and find them is a good one.  I  have found it to be true that once you really organize something you don’t ever have to go back and redo it. The only exception to that I can find is our pantry. It’s just not big enough for all the things I need so every time I get it nice and neat it falls apart into a disaster within about a month. Kondo would say that means there are things in there I need to get rid of but despite my purges, I’m unable to get it down to a small enough size so that the space works. I found it hard to get a lot of things organized in my home until my oldest moved out and I suddenly had a lot more closet space. You also need to have time to organize. I feel as though I was never really able to get organized until my kids were no longer little. When they were small and we were both trying to be good parents and work full time, there were not enough hours in the day to do more than the glaringly obvious things that needed to be done around here. Once they got older and I had more time, organizing became easier for me.

One thing I am struggling with is that I have some family heirlooms that I just don’t care for. They aren’t displayed, but they are stored in boxes in our basement. It is hard to give them away. It’s one thing to give them to another family member, but harder to just donate them. I agree with Kondo though that keeping these items stashed away in a box is not a good use of them, yet I’m still struggling with the step of just giving them away. I’m rationalizing it by saying my kids will be getting married and starting their own families in the coming years and maybe they or their spouses would like some of it then.

My favorite organizing tip in the book is about storing clothes in drawers like you would file folders. Fold things and place them upright in the drawer like a folder. This way you can open the drawer and see every single item right in front of you. I did this with my jeans and yoga pants and it’s a system that is working well for me. I love being able to pull the drawer out and know exactly what I have to choose from.

If you’ve read the book, what did you think of it?

Half the world read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo before I got around to it. I might have been late to the party, but I still have a lot of thoughts about this concept. I found the book to be kind of puffy – lots of filler and not a lot of … Read more →

I remember first seeing thin velvet hangers (you know the hangers I’m talking about – they are super thin covered in velvet) during one of my surreptitious visits to the QVC channel. (Once in a while I just like to see what they are selling! I’ve gotten a few good gift ideas by doing this). I have to say the presentations about these hangers turned me off.  They would show a closet overflowing with clothes then compare it to a closet that clearly had less than half of the same items hanging on the new super thin hangers. I snorted in outrage and changed the channel. It was pretty obvious the hangers were not creating a lot of change.

One of the most crammed closets in our house is the coat closet in the front hall. In fact, when guests come, we just lay their coats on the hope chest in the hall instead of trying to make room in the closet. Moving coats in that closet is an athletic event. You have to lean in, insert half of your body between two coats, then lean with all of your strength to get them to scootch over. We often cannot find the coat we need simply because they’re all falling off the hangers and smushed in too tightly.

After my parents came for Thanksgiving and getting their coats hung up was an Olympic event, I decided something had to be done. I really looked hard at what was happening in that closet. With four people, four seasons, and a daughter with a wardrobe hoarding problem (said in my most loving tone), we have way too many coats. I was able to weed out a couple to donate, but there is really no real thinning out to be done. Then I noticed that almost all of the coats are on big wooden or plastic suit hangers. The fat ones – at least an inch wide and if you take into account that they are curved, they actually take up several inches each. I started wondering if replacing these hangers could make a difference. I’m not going back to wire hangers and while we have some white plastic tubular hangers around I decided to try the new thin velvet hangers.

The package of 50 arrived from Amazon and the box was pretty small for 50 hangers. I got to work swapping them out. I was impressed. They are super thin. The velvet means nothing slips off of them.

They did make a difference in our crazy closet. No, it did not make it appear as spacious and empty as the QVC presentations imply. They make it easier to move the coats across the rack and now we can definitely squeeze in a couple more for guests more easily. I felt more organized with these in place – everything is uniform and it is easier to move the coats around the closet. The bottom line is if you have too many clothes in too small a space this is not going to solve your problem. It will however make it a bit easier to move things around and will give you a little extra space, particularly if you are replacing big nasty hangers.

I did break one hanger as I tried to reach around to squeeze the last coat in the very back of the closet. It just was not willing to bend to get there.

I’m going to buy another box of them to use in my clothes closet mostly because I just like them and they will prevent things from slipping off the hangers. I don’t have a ton of big fat hangers there, but these are thinner than the ones I am using now so it will give me some space.

Have you tried these hangers? What did you think?

I remember first seeing thin velvet hangers (you know the hangers I’m talking about – they are super thin covered in velvet) during one of my surreptitious visits to the QVC channel. (Once in a while I just like to see what they are selling! I’ve gotten a few good gift ideas by doing this). … Read more →

I’m lucky in that I have an large upright freezer in the basement in addition to the side-by-side fridge in the kitchen with a freezer side. I keep most long-term things in the basement. I use the upstairs mostly for breakfast things, ice packs, nuts, and vegetables. It doesn’t sound like much, but lately it has been a jumbled mess. Which has led to people in this family writing things on the shopping list that I KNOW we have. I couldn’t stand it a moment longer and I emptied the whole thing out.

Up until now things sort of got stashed wherever they looked like they would fit. I sorted everything into piles on the counter: vegetables, nuts, ice packs, meats, gluten bread and gluten-free bread. I purged some old stuff and I consolidated everything. Instead of 20 plastic bags with one bagel in each, I combined them into several ziptop bags. I did the same with the nuts. Then I took a hard look at the shelves and baskets and decided what would best fit where.

I got my trusty PTouch labeller and put a label on each shelf and basket so that no one could wonder where they would find what they needed and also so there could be no shoving things in randomly.

So far the system is holding up and it’s making my life SO much easier!

I’m lucky in that I have an large upright freezer in the basement in addition to the side-by-side fridge in the kitchen with a freezer side. I keep most long-term things in the basement. I use the upstairs mostly for breakfast things, ice packs, nuts, and vegetables. It doesn’t sound like much, but lately it … Read more →

Before

Before

I have been fighting a losing battle with the linen closet for a while now. It was so full that it didn’t seem to matter how much straightening I did. Towels, sheets, blankets and tote bags were falling out all over. I spotted some Space Bags while at Marshall’s a few weeks ago and couldn’t get them out of my mind! Finally I went on Amazon and ordered a set. I got 5 jumbo, 4 large and 2 medium bags, as well as 3 of the roll up bags for $34.

Space bag pre-vacuum

Space Bags are heavy duty plastic storage bags you vacuum the air out of. They compress things down, making them easier to store. The roll up bags are meant for travel – you remove the air from them by rolling them.

The bags were easy to use. We filled them to the fill line, zipped them and then held the vacuum hose to the nozzle in the bag. It sucked the air out and quickly compressed the bags down. It was actually quite amazing how much space we saved – it reduced it by about 2/3, which is a significant difference when you’re tight on space!

We used 4 space bags and have tons left for future use. They were very easy to pack and shrink. They’re waterproof and reusable and also airtight. It’s a great solution if you need to store something in an attic or basement. I can also see using these to

Space bag after vacuum

store winter clothes if you are pressed for space.

The bags solved my closet problem. I had lots of blankets, comforters, mattress pads, pillows and sheets that we don’t use but I can’t bring myself to get rid of. No one likes flannel sheets, but I keep them thinking “What if we lost power for a week and were cold?” I also can’t help but think that my kids will soon be going out on their own and they will want to have extra blankets and pillows, so it seems like a waste to get rid of them!

As you can see, the space bags made my closet much easier to organize. The things we don’t use are now in the bags, compressed down and completely contained, leaving room to neatly stack sheets and towels we do use. Nothing is falling off the shelves and I can see everything now.

I did do a little purging. We donated some of the tote bags I always seem to have too many of, as well as two pillows. I had been hoarding those plastic zipper

After!

bags sheet sets come in, but I threw out a ton of those. Now that I have Space Bags, I don’t need them.

After!

I have been fighting a losing battle with the linen closet for a while now. It was so full that it didn’t seem to matter how much straightening I did. Towels, sheets, blankets and tote bags were falling out all over. I spotted some Space Bags while at Marshall’s a few weeks ago and couldn’t … Read more →

I got my ears pierced the summer before 6th grade. It was a big deal since my mom didn’t have pierced ears. I can still remember the earrings I got: they were gold with a center that looked like a pearl. That was more than 30 years ago. A girl collects a lot of earrings. And unlike clothes, they don’t take up a lot of space, you don’t change size, and there’s no reason not to keep most of them. I have culled some out of over the years, giving them to my daughter or to charity. But I still have a lot. My storage solution for earrings is very inexpensive. Buy cheap plastic divided boxes – the kind used for fishing tackle. Take the lids off. Glue them together and put them in a drawer. Presto.

If you don’t have 30 years worth of earrings, you could keep one pair in each compartment. I have a few pairs in each, but find it works well and makes it easy to find what I’m looking for.

I got my ears pierced the summer before 6th grade. It was a big deal since my mom didn’t have pierced ears. I can still remember the earrings I got: they were gold with a center that looked like a pearl. That was more than 30 years ago. A girl collects a lot of earrings. … Read more →

Before #1

I’ve won one storage battle. The kids’ bathroom has a little narrow closet I use to store medications and supplements, as well as first aid supplies and any potion or lotion you can name. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to this stuff. While I do regularly purge and toss expired prescriptions, I have managed to gather a pretty large A to Z collection of vitamins and supplements as well as OTC meds. The ones that are taken regularly live in a drawer in the kitchen. The rest were in this closet. Yes, it was ugly. I am loathe to throw them out since we seem to cycle back through ailments pretty regularly. However, even though I KNOW I have, say, ginger, or stinging nettle, I’m usually damned if I can actually find it when needed. I’ve been saying for a long time that what I need is a supplement library, where I could store everything alphabetically, so that I could find it when I need it.

It occurred to me that although this closet is tiny, the

before #2

shelves are set in pretty far and there is room to put shelves on the backs of the doors. Genius moment. I Googled to find shelving.  Here is what I  ordered from DrawerSlides.com. It was hard to find shelving narrow enough for this tiny door, so these were a bit pricey. We ordered three of them so we could outfit the door from top to bottom.

We installed the shelving (simple job with a power drill) and I got to work. First it was time for another purge, so I sorted through everything and filled a garbage bag. Next I organized supplements and OTCs that we would be mostly likely to use on the door. This was a challenge since some of the shelves were not very wide. I had only three shelves that would hold big bottles.

I organized it in roughly alphabetical order so I can find things. The shelves are so narrow that there is just one row per shelf, so there’s no chance of anything getting lost. Then I organized what was didn’t fit on the door. Prescription meds went into one plastic bin. OTCs went in another. Big bottles stood on shelves. First aid supplies went into two smaller plastic boxes.

After

I also tackled the job of the top shelf of this closet which holds extra shampoo (people and dog!) as well as sunscreen and bug spray. I tossed a lot of almost empty bottles and used a plastic shoebox to put all the sunscreen together in one place so I can just pull it out instead of rummaging in the closet for it.

Total time for this project: about an hour. Total cost: $90

Satisfaction level: Priceless!

I’m so happy with how this worked out that I’m ordering more of this shelving to put inside a similar closet in the master bath.

Check your house for backs of doors where you can add some extra storage. I’ve done this in my pantry. The doors under your kitchen and bathroom sinks are usually a good spot to add some extra storage if you don’t have a closet like this!

I’ve won one storage battle. The kids’ bathroom has a little narrow closet I use to store medications and supplements, as well as first aid supplies and any potion or lotion you can name. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to this stuff. While I do regularly purge and toss expired prescriptions, … Read more →

Getting your pantry/food storage organized can be a challenge. Sometimes it’s just a matter of purging and moving things around. But honestly, for most of us, it’s about making better use of the space. And that means you need to invest in a couple of inexpensive products to make it easier to see and store things. Here are my favorites:

• Under-shelf racks. These essentially add another shelf and it’s much better than stacking things, trying to balance them and having them tumble all over the place.
• Wall or door-mounted shelves. These allow you to use space you didn’t even know you have. Use spice rack size for small items and wider shelves if you want to store canned goods.
• An elevator. A graduated stepped shelf that you set on an existing shelf allows you to finally see what’s behind everything! You’ll no longer buy duplicates of black beans and tomato paste because you’ll finally be able to see what you own.
• Plastic shoeboxes. I love these to store bulk bags of spices I buy from Penzey’s, to keep all the individual size canned fruit packages from rolling around, and for tea and drink mixes. I also use one for my collection of sea salts. They’re easy to take in and out and keep all those little things organized.
• Square glass storage jars. These are my pick for storing baking goods, cereal, pasta, and other products. Because they’re square, they stack and fit together. Glass contains no harmful chemicals and they are see through, so you know exactly how much you have left.

The glass jars are the most expensive items on the list. You can get everything else for $50 or less. I suggest gradually replacing your plastic with glass over time. You can find many of these are discount stores like Walmart or Target. Amazon is a great online source. The Container Store also have a lot, but their prices tend to be a bit higher.

Getting your pantry/food storage organized can be a challenge. Sometimes it’s just a matter of purging and moving things around. But honestly, for most of us, it’s about making better use of the space. And that means you need to invest in a couple of inexpensive products to make it easier to see and store … Read more →

Previous wrap storage

I started the New Year out with some organization projects.

My pantry is always an ongoing project. Last year we put shelves on the inside of the door. I kept my food

New wrap shelf

wraps there (plastic, aluminium, parchment, etc.) but they often come flying off when the door moves. So yesterday we installed a shelf just for them inside the pantry, inside the wall it shares with the kitchen (so you have to go in and look behind to see it).  This not only contains the wrap and prevents it from falling on my head, but it also opened up two whole shelves for me on the pantry door. I moved rice, broth, and pasta sauce to take up the space. It’s given me some breathing space inside the pantry itself.

In other organizing projects, I did all the filing that had piled up and put away some paperwork for finished projects. Then I did a major sort of books. I have a huge collection of textbooks I use for some textbooks I co-author and I went through those and purged the ones that are now old. I also went through my regular bookshelves and got rid of some duplicates of my own books and created a giant donation box for the library.

I sat down with my cooking notebooks and filed all the recipes I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed from web sites in the past year. While I was doing this I made a list of some to try, so I’ll have some dinner ideas for the next week or so.

I started an accordion file for travel information I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed. I used my P-touch to label each section and then filed it all alphabetically.

I still need to pull out all of the bills and receipts from my files and get them organized for taxes. It’s a job I don’t look forward to at all!

I started the New Year out with some organization projects. My pantry is always an ongoing project. Last year we put shelves on the inside of the door. I kept my food wraps there (plastic, aluminium, parchment, etc.) but they often come flying off when the door moves. So yesterday we installed a shelf just … Read more →

My husband was recently out of town for 10 days. Being a single mom kept me busy, but I found the evenings and weekends very long. I used this time to tackle some home projects. I cleaned out the fridge and pantry. I cleaned the inside of the dishwasher (possibly the nastiest job ever). I put away the Halloween decorations and got out the Thanksgiving decorations. I washed the duvet cover. I grocery shopped. Several times. I decided the dog was no longer going to be allowed to eat poop outside, which meant he could only go out on the leash. You get the picture – it was a long 10 days.

A job that needed doing was my top desk drawer. I spend most of my time at my computer desk and my regular desk is mostly for storage and stacking. The only time I use it is to write bills. As a result, the center drawer was a hodgepodge of notepads, pens, paper clips, old insurance cards, rubber bands, and a few treasures. I tackled it on a Sunday afternoon, first emptying everything out.

I tested all the pens and threw out those that didn’t write (a surprising number!). The remaining pens went into two narrow plastic organizing trays.

I threw out the numerous business cards that were lurking. I purged the notepads tearing off pages that had been written on and throwing out those that were crumpled, ripped, or useless (like the pens, there was a surprising amount of junk). I did the same with the post-it notes. I stacked the notepads and post-its in an organized way so I will be able to grab them when I need them.

The paper clips were sorted by size (big and little) and placed in two paper clip holders (after I undid the paper clip necklace a child made at some point). The binder clips were placed at the front of the drawer. The rubber bands were removed and put in a plastic bag in another office drawer since I never use them. I gazed longingly online at some cute ways to organize all of this, but I don’t have room in my drawer for china teacups, muffin tins, or pottery bowls. The most efficient use of space was boring office paper clip holders!

I realized I have not one, not two, but three staple removers. Those got tucked in the front corner. I also have two rulers, which fit nicely against the front of the drawer.

I did discover a couple of treasures: several of those pennies you flatten in machines to be souvenirs of places you visit. I came across a wooden coin from a horse riding stable we visited in Colorado. And a very weird strand of beads I got as a product sample once: it’s supposed to be used a fertility/cycle tracker with different colored beads for different parts of the cycle. That one got stuck in another drawer: maybe someday there will be grandchildren who will want to play with some colored beads. I found the instruction manual for my office phone – maybe I can finally figure out how to change some of the settings!

I think I will now finally be able to find a pen, post-it or paper clip when I need it without a lot of digging.

My husband was recently out of town for 10 days. Being a single mom kept me busy, but I found the evenings and weekends very long. I used this time to tackle some home projects. I cleaned out the fridge and pantry. I cleaned the inside of the dishwasher (possibly the nastiest job ever). I … Read more →