Organization maeven
Mar. 14th, 2005 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageThis morning I was emptying the dishwasher when I reached up into the storage-container storage cupboard in order to put away a bowl. I pulled down the stack of bowls in which the clean one belonged - and about six assorted types of plastic dishware fell on my head.
So, like any disorganized person on a holiday with nothing in particular planned for the day, I decided it was time to do something about my frustration and reorganize my storage-container storage cupboard.
First, some history.
My great-aunt, my maternal grandmother's elder sister, has sold tupperware for as long as I can remember. The very first items in my hope chest, after I started collecting fine china for it, was overflow from her stock. It was usually given to my grandmother, who had not the heart to refuse it (nor the desire for the recriminations that would follow - her sister is an expert guilt-tripper)and she started passing it on to her children and grandchildren. My mother decided she couldn't use a lot of it, so it made its way to me.
I never got any complete, stackable sets of tupperware from this deal. Aunty Fufi (childspeak for Ruthie) doesn't work like that. No, she passed on isolated pieces and their lids, and nothing else. I have individual bowls, each about a two-cup size, in a total of seven different, mutually unstackable styles. Several of these have more than one lid for the same bowl.
In addition to mismatched tupperware, I have remnants of three different sets of mixing bowls, only one of which was new when I got it. There are the ziploc, gladware, and no-name brand storage containers in four sizes and styles each, many of which are stained from being put in the microwave with tomatoey stuff in them. (Male readers take note: spaghetti sauce stains plastic containers.) Last but not least are the tupperware containers designed for specific uses: a butter tray, a cheese storage box, a shaker for parmesan, small spice containers - you get the idea.
I got up on a dining-room chair and took everything off even the highest shelf. Elizabeth decided she wanted to see what mommy was doing, and dragged her folding camp chair that says, "Tot spot" on it, out to the sink so she could stand on it. I gave her two containers I knew had no lids and let her play in the sink. I spread this bounty on top of the stove. (For those of you unfamiliar with my kitchen, there is so little counter space that the stove doubles as a counter most of the time.) I organized the stuff I knew I had lids for, then moved on to the stuff I wasn't sure of.
I sorted every last container, and I streamlined. If it didn't have a lid, I threw it in the recycling bin. If it did, I found a way to stack it and a place to store the lid that would be obvious even to the husband in a hurry to empty the dishwasher.
At the end of an hour, I had a neatly-organized cupboard, with one stack of ziploc etc. containers that fit exactly right on the middle shelf, and other containers organized by frequency of use.
I surveyed my handiwork, and found it good. Then I looked around at the rest of the kitchen. I figured out that there were three, expensive plastic storage containers being used to store - you guessed it - cheap plastic storage containers or their lids. Also, there were several ziploc etc. containers in the sink waiting to be washed, which would ensure that the neat stack would be too high to fit on its shelf. I had organized the container of lids, but there were a number of lids in behind where it was, beyond where I'd looked, that were still to be dealt with. Some of these no longer had containers - I'd thrown them out, thinking I had no lids.
So what does the queen of vacation organization decide to do about these new challenges to her title?
She gives up and decides that dancing around the living room to the music of Cole Porter, with a series of different stuffed animals as chosen by the resident toddler, is a much better way to spend the morning.
So, like any disorganized person on a holiday with nothing in particular planned for the day, I decided it was time to do something about my frustration and reorganize my storage-container storage cupboard.
First, some history.
My great-aunt, my maternal grandmother's elder sister, has sold tupperware for as long as I can remember. The very first items in my hope chest, after I started collecting fine china for it, was overflow from her stock. It was usually given to my grandmother, who had not the heart to refuse it (nor the desire for the recriminations that would follow - her sister is an expert guilt-tripper)and she started passing it on to her children and grandchildren. My mother decided she couldn't use a lot of it, so it made its way to me.
I never got any complete, stackable sets of tupperware from this deal. Aunty Fufi (childspeak for Ruthie) doesn't work like that. No, she passed on isolated pieces and their lids, and nothing else. I have individual bowls, each about a two-cup size, in a total of seven different, mutually unstackable styles. Several of these have more than one lid for the same bowl.
In addition to mismatched tupperware, I have remnants of three different sets of mixing bowls, only one of which was new when I got it. There are the ziploc, gladware, and no-name brand storage containers in four sizes and styles each, many of which are stained from being put in the microwave with tomatoey stuff in them. (Male readers take note: spaghetti sauce stains plastic containers.) Last but not least are the tupperware containers designed for specific uses: a butter tray, a cheese storage box, a shaker for parmesan, small spice containers - you get the idea.
I got up on a dining-room chair and took everything off even the highest shelf. Elizabeth decided she wanted to see what mommy was doing, and dragged her folding camp chair that says, "Tot spot" on it, out to the sink so she could stand on it. I gave her two containers I knew had no lids and let her play in the sink. I spread this bounty on top of the stove. (For those of you unfamiliar with my kitchen, there is so little counter space that the stove doubles as a counter most of the time.) I organized the stuff I knew I had lids for, then moved on to the stuff I wasn't sure of.
I sorted every last container, and I streamlined. If it didn't have a lid, I threw it in the recycling bin. If it did, I found a way to stack it and a place to store the lid that would be obvious even to the husband in a hurry to empty the dishwasher.
At the end of an hour, I had a neatly-organized cupboard, with one stack of ziploc etc. containers that fit exactly right on the middle shelf, and other containers organized by frequency of use.
I surveyed my handiwork, and found it good. Then I looked around at the rest of the kitchen. I figured out that there were three, expensive plastic storage containers being used to store - you guessed it - cheap plastic storage containers or their lids. Also, there were several ziploc etc. containers in the sink waiting to be washed, which would ensure that the neat stack would be too high to fit on its shelf. I had organized the container of lids, but there were a number of lids in behind where it was, beyond where I'd looked, that were still to be dealt with. Some of these no longer had containers - I'd thrown them out, thinking I had no lids.
So what does the queen of vacation organization decide to do about these new challenges to her title?
She gives up and decides that dancing around the living room to the music of Cole Porter, with a series of different stuffed animals as chosen by the resident toddler, is a much better way to spend the morning.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-14 05:41 pm (UTC)For both organization and dancing.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-14 10:22 pm (UTC)We would make a FORTUNE if we could come up with a way to organize and store that @#$()& stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 12:18 am (UTC)*beats head on wall* NOOOOO!!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 12:50 am (UTC)(Tupperware for the storage of Tupperware for the storage of...)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 01:10 am (UTC)BTW plastic stained by tomatoey sauce?
try a solution of denture cleaner eg Steradent.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 01:18 am (UTC)They still sell it, all right. So far I've managed to avoid hosting a show.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 01:38 pm (UTC)It works well with a badly stained mug that has been scoured (all the little lines in the ceramic YAY) but you need to rinse well. If it wasn't safe how could you put your falsies in your mouth afterwards?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 03:45 am (UTC)