Waste of Space: Organizing Don’ts
As the countdown continues to the most wonderfully exhausting, costly and time consuming time of the year, let us take a moment to reflect upon some of the more ridiculous and useless organizing items on sale that beguile us with their call to efficiency and ease and yet do nothing but empty our pocketbooks and eventually clog our landfills. This season, we beg of you to heed our advice to make life easier, and leaving your purses full.
Battery Organizers. Yes, the drawers which house our batteries are often a bit of a mess, but organizers made to corral these items just aren’t necessary. The easiest way? Use the packs that they come in to organize these little devils. And if this annoys the Classics and Funs among you then use the same small drawers you use to corral spoons and other cutlery. There’s no need for special containers.
Multiple shirt & pant hangers. When I see these I am immediately repulsed. Why? Because you can’t see everything at one glance and its next to impossible to get that shirt or pants off and on easily. Our “close to as one step” rule is at least three steps away. We realize that there are times when they are a necessary evil — no space, no space, no space. But if you haven’t done a clear out in a while then you might have more space than you think. And if you are not a Classic or a Fun then use these pant hangers to store clothes you never wear, because you’ll never wear them if you keep them there.
Pantry shelf step risers. Not to be confused with shelf risers — which are extremely useful in making the most of our of vertical cabinet space by being able to put small plates above big ones and not having to lift said plates to get the big ones out. No we are talking about the ones that are like stadium seating and allow you to put spices and cans so you can see them all at one glance. There’s nothing wrong with this of course, but they take up a lot of vertical AND horizontal space and unless you’re using nutmeg and canned pumpkin every day they’re not very practical. Makes much more sense to use lazy Susans to corral spices and cans.
Yes I have purchased and attempted to use all of these organizational solutions and have failed miserably with all of them. My gift to you this season is my failure!