My Little Projects

I think I could set a record for the number of bags and cosmetic bags I own. AND I just got rid of a whole bunch of them last summer when I moved to Seattle. The amazing thing about this is that I have hardly bought any of them - many have come from "bonus days" at the cosmetics counter at Marshall Fields (yes, I've had them since all since then). These bags are more challenging to organize simply because of their shape and size. I have areas for all of them, but it's hard to keep them in their proper places and get to them easily. I've got myself quite a few projects that need organizing.

I could also set a record for the number of travel toiletries I own. And don't even use. Unless I'm going camping. They take up a lot of space and are really annoying to store. My solution was this: use some of my cosmetic bags to store the toiletries. I stored all the little shampoos and conditioners together, the lotions in one bag, the toothbrushes and floss and toothpaste from the dentist in one really large bag, and body washes in another. Now that the cosmetic bags have more of a purpose I stored them in the linen closet in the bathroom on a shelf.

Other ideas for storing travel toiletries would be in a bucket or basket, or a set of small drawers in the linen closet for very easy access. I love the idea of using fancy boxes (perfume boxes, etc) to store these items in as well.

Back to my enormous bag collection... When I speak of bags here, I'm talking about any kind of bag you can think of - beach bag, workout bag, ski bag, duffel bag, backpack, messenger bag, etc. I was getting sick of sorting through all of my bags to get to the one I wanted without messing up the whole pile so I knew it needed a change. I used to use the largest bag to store all of the smaller bags - but I don't really recommend that unless you never use the largest bag. It gets quite annoying to have to sort through the bag and then find a spot for the smaller bags when you need to use the largest bag.

My new solution is to arrange the larger bags (duffel and ski bags and backpack) on the top shelf of my closet, then stack some of the smaller bags (messenger bags, a few beach bags) on top of each other. For the remaining bags (mostly beach bags) I hung on hangers. This goes for some purses too (use nice hangers!). It allows for easy access without messing up the whole stack of bags. It's a win-win situation!

And I have to put this in here somewhere... whenever I get low on a supply or food I write it on my list (grocery/Target/Costco all have their own lists) and buy a new item BEFORE I run out. That is the system around here. Lo and behold last night I needed a AA battery and WE WERE OUT. I NEVER run out of things. I didn't even KNOW we were running low! And now we have zero AA batteries. Needless to say I was not the one who used the last of the batteries. I wish I knew of a service that would pick up some batteries at Target and bring them to me at midnight when I needed two.

I've had a great weekend of little organizing projects, so far...