Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Summer Organizing

At Costco yesterday, I was enticed into purchasing the newest copy of Real Simple Magazine. With a cover article entitled “Easy organizing – 99 affordable ideas” who could resist? I was hopeful to motivate myself to do the all important and extremely necessary spring cleaning I’ve been putting off, so I excitedly cracked it open and began to page through it. After a few bunny trails down Jennifer Garner’s make up recommendations and the perfect menu for a garden party I finally found the article I was looking for. Low Cost Organizing! Here is a sample of the "helpful" tips I read…

1 – "Repurpose colorful ribbons from gifts to tie around bed sheet sets so that they don't stray."

  • Are they serious? I have 2 kids, 2 dogs, a husband and a business to run. I don't need to decorate my linen closet - I need a bigger linen closet with a lock so that I can shove more stuff in it without worrying that it spring out and assault my family and any friends that come over.

2 - "Repurpose ice cube trays in your desk drawer as organizers."

  • Can I repurpose the ice trays to gag myself with instead? How many times in my life do I have to read this stupid idea? Who are these people with thousands of tiny things rolling around in their desks? Paperclips, pushpins, I’m out!! Where can I buy giant ice trays to organize the kids and the dogs in a drawer? KIDDING!!!

3 – "A wine rack might store magazines and news papers."

  • What?

4 – "Stash a flashlight in your lingerie drawer and it will be easy to tell the black tights from the navy ones."

  • If I’m digging through my drawers for a pair of tights in the pitch black of night - color coordination may not be my biggest problem.

5 – "Ensure that your favorite purses remain free of dust and within easy reach by arranging them in a 10 compartment polyester hanging handbag organizer."

  • Finally! This is great advice! I plan to use it to convince my husband that I really do need to buy 9 more purses.
OK – seriously I know we can do better than this. I really am ready for a little spring cleaning. I’d love to hear some practical BUSY MOM organizing ideas that are tested and actually work for all you pros.