Operation Organization: Real Simple Solutions

November 27, 2007 at 9:22 pm | In Home, Ideas | Leave a Comment
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The latest book I turned to for organizational advice was Real Simple Solutions. It looked pretty neat but I was not expecting to learn so many cool things. Seriously, this stuff is groundbreaking! More than 180 pages of home (and office) making gold. It has information on everything from how to stock a pantry, how to set a table, and how to load a dishwasher, to how to stock your office desk drawer, how to paint a room, and how to properly hang lights on the Christmas tree. Other people may know how to do these things perfectly, but so far in life, I have been mostly haphazard. So this book is really for me! It is also veritable treasure trove of handy dandy tips and tricks on cleaning, dressing, eating, entertaining and decorating. All of that in just one book. How great is that?

Some of my favorite ideas:

  •  Cut pizza with a pair of scissors so you don’t have to keep cutting back and forth
  • Freeze aloe vera gel in ice cube trays for sunburn relief
  • Keep tall boots upright in the closet by putting a one liter plastic soda bottle inside
  • For extra cooler space, fill up the washing machine with water and ice to keep beverages cold 
  • Avoid nail holes in the wall by hanging pictures with velcro
  • Remove pet hair from upholstery with a damp rubber dishwashing glove – the hair will cling right to it
  • Use Lifesavers to hold birthday candles in place

Now all I need is some tips on organizing books about organizing!

Operation Organization: Good Things for Organizing

November 14, 2007 at 10:39 pm | In Home, Ideas | Leave a Comment
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I didn’t know a thing about Martha Stewart (except for the jail thing) until I started getting Martha Stewart Weddings before I got married. From that I learned:

1. Martha Stewart is a genius.

and

2. Martha Stewart must spend every waking moment on some sort of art or craft to get all of this stuff accomplished.

Now that I know she has whole books dedicated to nothing but organizing and housekeeping, I figure she just doesn’t sleep at all. But I am glad because Good Things for Organizing from Martha Stewart Living has some ideas I would never have thought of to get my living quarters in order. Of course, this book is a little sophisticated for me, considering I live in a hotel and not in a forty-seven room mansion near the World’s Largest Flea Market. My Spice Apothecary and my Potting Cupboard will just have to wait. However, there are a few things in the book that are both ingeneous and simple enough for even someone like me to employ:

  • Kitchen Towel Hooks – sew a loop of twill tape onto your dish towels and hang them on hooks mounted on the side of a cabinet to dry
  • Under Shelf Rolling Pin Storage – Hang rolling pin on brackets under a utility shelf so it doesn’t take up too much room in your kitchen drawers
  • Makeup Towels – have dark colored towels embroidered with the word “makeup” so guests won’t mess up your nice white face cloths with their day-old lipstick
  • Folding Fitted Sheets – I still can’t do it, but at least this book has step by step directions with pictures so I can practice
  • Secure Trash Bags – Hold bag in place in the trash can with metal binder clips (office supplies are so versatile!)
  • Boot Tray – Put a cooling rack over a cookie sheet for your wet boots to dry on

When I finally get my house complete with attic, garage, and laundry room, I will try our the rest of the tips (including hanging a ball from the garage ceiling down to your windshield so you know exactly where to park), but, sadly, you might have to wait just a bit longer for that. Until then I will amuse myself with metal binder clips, and dreams of ribbon boards, thread racks, and a fully stocked desk in every room.

Commencing: Operation Organization

November 5, 2007 at 7:31 pm | In Home, Ideas | Leave a Comment
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My husband has a job that requires that we move a lot. So far this year we have moved from Massachusetts to New Jersey, then while in New Jersey we have moved from a corporate apartment to a hotel, back to the apartment, and back to the hotel. Our scheduled move to Baltimore in November has been postponed until after the New Year, so now, as the New Jersey job is winding down, we are waiting to see where our next destination will be. The Southern states are looking like a strong possibility (yay, warm winter!), but we probably won’t know until the very last minute.

In order to be prepared for a moment’s notice move, we spent a good part of yesterday overhauling the storage space we have been keeping most of our stuff in since moving into the hotel (please note we knew about a day and half before we left that we had to be out of the apartment, so a good portion of our belongings were thrown into trash bags or half-torn boxes from Amazon). Five Rubbermaid tubs later, the storage unit was a work of art. I wish I had my camera because it was a beautiful sight to behold.

Sadly, after collecting a bunch of cool stuff from the bridal shower/wedding, we still have about two Ford Explorers worth of boxes to move, and we only own one Ford Explorer. To condense a little bit more, we bought a bunch of Space Bags. These are the bags you pack and then vaccuum all the air out of them, so your clothes and blankets and junk gets shrunk down to about 1/3 of it’s original size. Mr. Andrews was skeptical, but I have to say, these little things have revolutionized my luggage! Five suitcases, a duffle bag, a laundry basket, and a hamper’s worth of clothes have been sucked down to the size of just three suitcases (and, okay, a bag for Goodwill). Simply amazing! And really, kind of fun. I think I’m going to be able to just get rid of the other two suitcases, one with a broken zipper and the other with a broken handle. Hooray!

Because I am clearly so thrilled about this tiny little organizational miracle, I am really pumped up to get more organized throughout my life. Up to this point, the only skill I have really aquired in that department has been reducing the millions of magazines I subscribe to down to a managable level by tearing out the articles I want to save and stuffing them in a huge three ring binder. Other than that, nothing. To remedy this problem, I am picking up a bunch of book on cleaning, sorting, storing, solving, organization, and time management (I told you about the book problem). The first one is Good Things for Organizing from Martha Stewart Living. I have only flipped through it so far, but I know it will be good because I already want to move into a big old farm house and have an armoire in my mud room (Only Martha could make a person feel reasonable saying something like that)! There are a few others from Martha Stewart, plus a couple from Real Simple that look promising.

Being able to actually find the stuff I own – revolutionary!

Save the Nun/Author/Archeologist, Save the World.

November 4, 2007 at 2:06 pm | In Ideas | Leave a Comment
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How come, when asked about who their heroes are, everyone automatically says their parents?

Is this just something you do because it’s the right thing? Because you don’t want your dad – who took you on all those fishing trips and taught you to play catch - to know you really look up to Barack Obama or Axl Rose? (And is your dad using his retirement time to troll around MySpace to find out?) Or does everyone really still want to be exactly like their parents, even when they are approaching 25, 30, 40? I mean, I understand you had a great childhood and everything, but you were raised by a librarian and and accountant who have never set foot outside of the town in which they were born. There’s nothing in you that yearns to be a Mother Teresa or an Ernest Hemingway or an Indiana Jones instead? Really?

Maybe I am just cynical, and most parents really are that great. I hope so. But if that is the case, I propose that we just agree that all of our parents are awesome, and then list someone else in addition to Mom and Dad as a hero. Maybe someone who is a little more interesting and enlightening to our innermost hopes and dreams? Like on Wheel of Fortune, where they just started giving the contestants R, S, T, L, N & E, so they can pick some different letters. That is what we should do with heroes. Pick a P or an O, people. Just to mix it up.

I absolutely love my parents. They are great people who have both achieved and overcome a lot, and they taught me much of what I know. Of course I look to them for advice and direction. But I am also my own person, and I have goals and aspirations that are different from theirs.  This is where I seek out another hero.

I love love love Oprah Winfrey. I am not ashamed to say it. This is a woman who created an empire out of absolutely nothing, and uses all of her power to improve the lives of other people. She teaches us how to do the same, and she’s entertaining to boot. This is what I ultimately want to be. So now you know I look up to my parents and Oprah. See how much more interesting I am now? Predictable, yes, but still kind of interesting.

Visionary

November 3, 2007 at 10:23 am | In Ideas | 1 Comment
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Mr. Andrews and I watched The Postman the other night, and it reminded me of something: I need to get LASIK eye surgery.

I’ve worn glasses since I was ten, when I had to hold books up to my nose to read them, and contacts since I was 14, when I couldn’t do a double turn in dance class without my classes flying across the room. I don’t find it too much of a hassle, other than in the middle of the night when I can’t see the alarm clock without squinting and leaning out of bed to a point where I almost fall on the floor.

A few years ago, I committed myself to getting LASIK, and even started saving for it with my job’s pre-tax medical expenses account thing. Yet, I never made the appointment, and all that savings went to waste. I am not squeamish about much, but the human eyeball is my downfall. It seems just a little too squishable for something so important. Poking holes in it, or shooting lasers at it seems dangerous and rather foolhardy. I like having vision, as low quality as mine is. I feel like having a little is better than having none, and even though everyone I know has had it done in like five minutes and can now see with the acuteness of Superman, I am still afraid to risk it. I already have no sense of smell – going down to three senses would be decidedly inconvenient.

My one final motivation for getting the surgery is this – there seem to be no optometrists in post-Apocolyptic America. The few folks that do wear glasses have frames that don’t fit, and the glass is cracked and dirty. Clearly, Lens Crafters is no more. Not that I ever really fear the end of the world. I am a nervous person, but I’m not that nervous. Just in case, though, you know, I’d want to be prepared. I don’t think I could stand up to the looters, or diabolical soldiers, or nuclear radiated Zombies quite as well half blind as I could if I could see. So LASIK is back on the table. It never hurts to be ready.

Beckler River, Washington

November 2, 2007 at 9:59 am | In Ideas, People | Leave a Comment
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Chill

October 30, 2007 at 2:25 pm | In Ideas, Things | 3 Comments
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I am an uptight person.

Okay, that might be an understatement.

I am quite possibly the most uptight person to have ever existed in the world. Ever. I am that annoying person who brings a hard and fast intinerary on vacation, who finds an activity that looks like fun and then reads three books on how to do it before proceeding, who looks at you with a disdainfully puckered pout when you meet me ten minutes late. It takes me a while to recover from changed plans, wrong turns, anything botched. I am unreasonably competitive, so even calm and peaceful activities like golf and solitaire make me crazy, and I hate crowds, so the beach and the movies are only good if everyone else isn’t getting their leisure time there, too. I am in a constant state of stress, even when I’m just watching TV. I’m not actually sure why anyone hangs out with me. I am really no fun.

So, now I am on a mission to relax. I realize this is probably counterproductive. The word “mission” doesn’t really inspire visions of lounging in a hammock drinking lemonade or floating on a raft down a peaceful river to the soothing sounds of the junebug. But mission is all I know. So I am forging ahead to find as many methods of relaxation as I can, and hopefully one will work, so maybe I can live a forge-free life after that. My list so far includes:

*Yoga – Seems like everywhere I go these days, people are touting the benefits of yoga. My balance isn’t the best at this point, I hold my breath when I concentrate, and a good portion of my anxiety is probably left over from a decade of traumatic dance classes (Vaseline on the teeth to make us smile, an entire year of bloody knees from a particular move in our “Everybody Dance Now” number, students who didn’t return for another year being declared dead by the teacher), so I wasn’t sure if this was an activity for me. But I kept being attracted to it and I have to say after just a half an hour of yoga I was mellowed out, and I slept really well that night. Definitely something to continue with.

*Meditation – I downloaded some guided meditations to put on my iPod, and as long as I can find a place where my dogs won’t climb all over me, I seem to be helped by them. It takes me a while to be able to totally focus on them (I have a mind that loves to race) but they are pretty long so I do I have time to get into it. Plus Dr. Oz has meditation as part of his anti-aging diet, and I’ll try pretty much anything that I see on Oprah.

*Going Caffeine Free – I have to admit caffeine isn’t the best thing for me. It makes me jumpy and if I drink it after 4pm I can’t fall asleep until 2 in the morning. But I have relied on it for a long time to wake me up (Mountain Dew for breakfast is a long time staple) and keep me up. My first days of trying to break the habit have been foggy with fatigue and a little grumpy. But I shall press on.

*Lighting Candles – I’m not sure if this actually helps, but candle light is pretty and it makes me happy when the house smells like vanilla. Happiness can’t hurt in a quest for calmness.

Good start, right? Soon, I will hopefully be cool, calm, and utterly peaceful. Anybody got other relaxation tips? Please let me know! I need all the help I can get.

Traditionally Speaking

October 25, 2007 at 2:32 am | In Ideas | 3 Comments
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Recently, I have become obsessed with family traditions. Ever since I got married, everything I do seems so much more significant. Suddenly, instead of being a random person just bopping around, minding my own business, I have a sense of legacy. Even a simple trip to the supermarket has new weight for me, as if in sixty years I’ll be sitting around the fireplace like, “Back in 2007, your Granddad and I were at the Stop & Shop when…”, and this story may determine the trajectory of my entire line of ancestors for all eternity. This actually doesn’t scare me, as I may have thought it would in the past. I am really kind of excited to have that kind of potential impact on the future.

I am eager to start some new traditions in my marriage now, that can then get passed on to our kids, and future generations of the Andrews family. I had a few things my family did every year, like getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve (my mom was still doing this one as of Christmas ‘06); decorating the Christmas tree while dancing to holiday albums by Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, and Hanson; visiting Six Flags every summer with my cousins; and eating Chinese food while playing Trivial Pursuit on New Year’s Eve. Mr. Andrews had one or two, like getting a balloon and a chocolate chip cookie cake on his birthday. I like these (especially the pj’s!), but I want more. I’ve been trying to think up some new ones on my own.

Since I love and adore Christmas and we have no ornaments for a tree of our own, I have started buying them when we visit places – one on our Honeymoon, one on a random trip to New Hampshire, one in New York City if I ever remember to get one while we are there! – and I think I want a tradition where we always buy a Christmas ornament souvenir on vacation. Then we can have a fully decorated tree and be merry all year long!

Roadblocked for anything other than this one and only creation, though, I searched “family traditions” on Amazon, and bought the most comprehensive-looking book: The Book of New Family Traditions by Meg Cox. It was a good choice, let me tell you – I could be awash in a different traditions whenever I felt like having one (there’s even an idea to celebrate A.A. Milne’s birthday is in there). Most of the suggestions are for families with children – and there are many I will be using! – but there are a few I think we can implement as just husband and wife and not feel too cheesy. A Thanksgiving box, for example, used to store your lists of what your are thankful for, seems doable for adults, and even Halloween Gloom dolls, where you stuff the head of a homemade rag doll with paper containing your bad feelings and complaints, and then throw it into the fireplace, seem intriguing and kind of theraputic (what can I say? I’m morbid).

So now I have a very good start on this family tradition thing. Now I just need a bigger family!

Notes to Self, From the Future

October 25, 2007 at 1:23 am | In Experiences, Ideas, Places | Leave a Comment
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The summer between my first and second years of graduate school in South Carolina, I lived in Los Angeles with my classmate, Miss Smith. This was her first time even living out of her mother’s house, never mind all the way across the country, and by July she was utterly homesick. She decided to go home, and I was left on my own until August (which I’ll admit was not horrible, considering we had rented a one bedroom apartment). Thanks to the miracle of Instant Messenger, my iMac and my alone time gave me ample opportunity to better get to know Mr. Andrews, who up until this point had been nothing more than a classmate, albeit one I had a secret crush on. He was in South Carolina, gathering up shopping carts across a steaming Walmart parking lot for a living, which allowed him to save up enough money to come visit Hollywood (and me) at the end of the summer.

We had such a good time that week –  visiting Dodger Stadium, attending a taping of The Tonight Show, witnessing a valet crash an Escalade on Hollywood Blvd seconds after being handed the keys,  and, oh yeah, getting tattoos – that he decided to scrap his plane ticket home and drive back across America with me. After a quick trip up the PCH to visit his brother in San Francisco, Mr. Andrews and I had embarked on our first joint cross country roadtrip (there would be many more to come).

Our first night going east, we stopped near Salt Lake City at a deserted campground in the mountains. It was unimaginably beautiful, and as we sat in our little Kmart tent, we got philosophical. Who would have thought, we mused, as we sat in Research class as strangers, that one day we’d be camping out in Utah together? With tattoos! Unbelievable, we said. Never would have imagined it.

This became a running gag along the rest of the trip. Who’d have thought we’d be buying sweatpants together in Laramie, Wyoming? Who’d believe we’d be eating late night dinner at a Perkins in Kearney, Nebraska? Who’d imagine he’d show me my first episode of The Sopranos in Jeffersonville, Indiana? Not us, that’s for sure.

Once we were home and back to being grad students, we spent the especially excrutiating moments in our Fall Semester classes passing notes to one another. Where do you think we’ll find ourselves next summer? In Spain, getting lip piercings. In Moscow, watching Sex and The City dubbed in Russian. In a Airstream, on Mars. It was a fun way to distract ourselves when Creativity class was stifling our creativity.

Last night, before we fell asleep, Mr. Andrews and I were reminiscing about our grad school days. We touched upon on our note passing habit when Mr. Andrews stopped to exclaim with not a little bit of shock, “We’re married now!” I had to agree I had felt just as freaked out when we brought up the subject.

“What if we had put that in a note?” he mused, “In five years, we’ll be married.“

“We should go back in time and pass it to ourselves,” I said.

“We’d never believe it.”

And yet, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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