Storage 101: Drawer Tetris

This is part 3 in my organization series Storage 101. If this is your first time reading, you can catch up on the other parts here: 1 2 

We organized drawers in two areas of our house: the kitchen and our master bathroom. 

As mentioned in a the previous blog of this series, my goal was never to have Instagram-worthy photos of beautifully color-coordinated drawers with neatly organized items. I don't believe that is real life. Sometimes, by coincidence, it happens in small quantities. My goal is to create an organized space that is easy to use where none of the items catch when opening or closing the drawer. 

We also did not organize every single drawer in either of these spaces. That was never the goal either. I wanted to organize the drawers which were used the most and with which I was most dissatisfied. This being said, we still have drawers full of random "stuff." I don't have a problem with that because those drawers are not used as frequently and therefore, do not dissatisfy me nearly as much. 

So here's what we did: 

Kitchen:

We organized four drawers in our kitchen. Two of the drawers are for kitchen utensils. One is for eating utensils and the other is for prepping and cooking utensils. The other two drawers are for office supplies. 

Once again, one of the first things I did was measure. I measured drawers. I measured utensils. I measured measuring tapes. There was a lot of measuring. One of the things that organizing companies can do is they buy all sorts of storage sizes and see what works best with the space during the actual install. I...don't exactly have this luxury, so I have to do a lot of pre-work beforehand or risk making multiple trips to the store which is not something I can afford to do right now. 

Then I played around with the storage organizers and looked at what items fit best in each container and basically played tetris. Our original utensil organizer moved to our bathroom and became a drawer organizer there when we moved to the house. We bought a larger utensil organizer for the house. With this reorganization, the larger utensil organizer became the kitchen gadget utensil organizer and the original utensil organizer came back to the kitchen and was reinstated as the utensil organizer.

This utensil organizer was my bathroom drawer organizer for a while
until it came back as the utensil organizer

The utensil holder we bought for the house when we moved in
has now become the gadget utensil drawer.

That spool of string is....22-24 years old. That pencil box is also about 25 years old.
My NASA ruler is at least 20 years old. Who says old stuff has to be replaced?

In our office supply drawer, I am still using small cardboard boxes as drawer organizers because they don't all have to be fancy or match if you don't want them to or can't afford it. The smaller purple one is one half of an old card box. I find that size and depth is great for organizing knickknacks.

Bathroom: 

This drawer was originally organized
using the utensil organizer. I think it looks
much better this way. 

The bathroom was more or less the same process. My original drawer which used the utensil organizer was replaced with rectangular organizers of various sizes. I was able to organize a second drawer as well which used to have no organization and has now turned into my favorite bathroom drawer. One advantage to using smaller containers rather than putting lots of items in a larger container is the items stay put rather than slosh around as you open and close the drawer.

It’s so fulfilling to be able to open a drawer, get exactly what you need, and close it again without displacing the other contents by laws of physics. 

If bathroom drawers had favorites,
this would be mine.

If Clea and Joanna saw the way I organized my nail polish, they’d probably cringe and die a little on the inside. But here’s why I chose to do it this way:

1. It saves space  

2. I don’t have that many so I know all my colors by the tops of the bottles.

They would probably recommend storing them in a way where you can view the bottle from the front instead of from the top. Aesthetically, it looks better, and you can create their quintessential color-coordinated look. However, that wasn’t conducive to my space because I wanted efficient, convenient storage. As mentioned before, this works for me because I only have 13 bottles of nail polish. 

I bought these containers from Amazon and reused some other ones in various drawers because that was the cheapest way to do it. However, buying from Amazon always involves a bit of risk because you can’t see what the actual product is like until it arrives at your house. And although they have a pretty good return policy, it is time consuming and does involve dropping it off and waiting for your refund. 

One thing I discovered is the containers I bought are not straight down the sides. They taper inwards so the bottom dimensions are smaller than the top dimensions. This made storing some things slightly frustrating because despite measuring, I didn’t account for tapering. 

These are the small details on why one container can cost $1 a unit and the very same size and material will cost you $6 a unit elsewhere. Some of the drawer organizers I bought came with metal feet which gave the container a more weighted, sturdy feel. Others felt like I could snap them in half if I handled them improperly. 

All containers are not created equal. Shop smart. 

Stay tuned for next time: The Master Closet

Mamalogues: Reminiscing

All the snow this week in Texas has brought back memories of a time when I lived in one of the coldest cities in the world. I didn't choose to live there, but being assigned to a school in northeast China was a chance happening. In 1st grade, I remember reading an article about the ice hotel in Sweden, and I thought it would be really cool to sleep on a bed made out of ice.

Well, I didn't actually sleep on a bed of ice, but I was practically walking on ice for six months of the year.

Visiting the ice festival back in 2013.
I wanted to hug some ice.

Getting this much snow in Texas has been a first for everyone in my family. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed herself and spent at least 1-2 hours outside playing everyday. Yes, even when it was 6 degrees outside. I reluctantly went outside as well to play with her and actually had a little bit of fun myself. Although I consider myself a true adult and have fully immersed myself in the world of adulting, I did gain a new insight on snow: true powdery snow has the consistency of damp sand. It doesn't pack well which makes building snowmen very difficult, but has a therapeutic feel to it when picked up and fluffed between the hands. 

The snow, however, inspired me to revisit my memoir I wrote about my year living overseas. I haven't read it myself in many years and decided to take some time and reread it. 

Once upon a time, I had time to write, edit, and self-publish my own book.
Now I just read picture books to my kids. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Reading it this time was a little different because the memories felt more faraway and distanced. If I didn't know any better, it was like I was reading someone else's retelling of their experience overseas. Many of the memories, had I not written them down at the time they happened, I would never remember. Some of the memories bring back clear mental images after reading. I can still remember the faces and names of certain students. I can still remember my apartment number, the floor plan, and the layout of my furniture. 

But a lot has changed.

For starters, I found a lot more grammatical and writing errors. A little background information. When I wrote my books, I would write it, create the book, and order one copy. After that copy arrived, I would reread it and mark corrections in the book. Then, I would go back into the program and make all these changes before bulk orders to share. As I read, I found a lot of errors I still missed as well as some stylistic changes I would change if I were to write it again. I'd like to say despite not utilizing my English potential to its fullest, my writing today is still better than it was eight years ago. 

Secondly, the person I am has changed. I think that's to be expected and beneficial. I'm almost eight years older than I was when I completed the book and my roles as a person have changed. I am now a wife, mother, and still a teacher, although not of English. I read a lot of anecdotes where I wanted to react differently to the situation. But alas, I was not that person eight years ago and reacted the way I did. 

Ironically, I'd like to say my Chinese has gotten better, especially in regards to speaking. True, I am not immersed in the language and do not see Chinese on street signs or store labels, but by speaking Chinese to my daughter and reading Chinese children's books, I am using it almost 100% of the day. I did not do this in China as I had American teammates as well as English classes to teach. 

Reading my old memories made me realize more clearly the extent of what I experienced.

1. There are a lot of creeps out there, and I encountered quite a few. I didn't realize how many awkward moments I actually experienced until I reread the stories I wrote. And these are only the ones I wrote down. 

2. I experienced a lot of cultural confusion. I was neither fully American nor fully Chinese, and being in China exposed a lot of it. There were many times when it made me confused or angry. 

3. Chinese people didn't know how to treat me - they couldn't treat me as fully American and they couldn't treat me as fully Chinese. This put them in a sort of limbo, caught in the middle. And if it wasn't that, they'd flirt with me because I was a special kind of "exotic."

4. I had more culture shock in Thailand than China.

If you were one of the lucky few to receive a copy of this book, thank you for showing interest in a very special year of my life. I hope it was able to provide a fresh perspective and some interesting memories for you to partake in. I do miss writing the way I used to, but I know this time of my life brings me other responsibilities and tasks. Perhaps someday, I will get to bind my writing between covers again. For now, you can read about my life happenings here on the blog. 

Forever Valentine

This is our 7th Valentine's Day together as a couple. Technically, I sent him a quick-sketch Valentine the year I was halfway around the world, ironically living in a very cold city with snow and ice for six months of the year. I spent part of it at an airport during an overnight layover and gave up a few hours of sleep to send him some messages. 

Without realizing it, I misnamed my own bear.  Kudos if you know what his name is supposed to be.
We joke that this was the beginning of the end of my love for bears.

He sent me a cute drawing back.

I got a heart! And...this was the beginning of my love for penguins.

I turned our goofy drawings into keychains 🙂

How did you guys meet?: We first met at a friend's birthday party. We briefly met each other and then that was the end of it. So we thought. I ran into him by chance a few months later at a friend's apartment complex, and then we figured we may as well be real friends so we friended each other on Facebook. :) 

First date: Unofficially, we had dinner together with just the two of us 9 years ago. A friend was supposed to join us, but he couldn't make it last minute. I asked him if he was okay just having dinner with me, and he said he was okay with it if I was. 

Officially, I flew to Houston the summer I came back from China and we had our first date as a couple. 

How long have you been together? 7.5 years!

Married? 6.5 years!

Age difference?: 1 month and 20 days

Who was interested first?: Me

Who is taller? He is.

Most patient?: He is.

Most sensitive?: Me, although he can be about certain things.

Loudest?: Probably me. But I think our daughter actually wins this one.

Most stubborn?: We're both pretty stubborn....but probably me.

Falls asleep first?: It depends on the night. Most of the time me.

Cooks better?: Me.

Better morning person?: I've exponentially gotten worse as a morning person and he's gotten quite a bit better. But I still function better in the morning.

Better driver?: We're both pretty good.

Most competitive?: Me?

Funniest?: We're both pretty funny in our own ways. Who do you think?

Where do you eat out most as a couple?: I can't remember the last time we ate out as a couple...😢

Who is more social?: Me.

How long did it take to get serious?: a few months? 

Who picks where you go to dinner?: We both do. 

Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong?: He does. 

Who wears the pants in the relationship?: We both do about different things.

Who has more tattoos?: Neither.

Who sings better?: Probably me.

Hogs the remote?: We're good at sharing.

Spends the most?: It evens out in the long run. Neither of us really spend much. 

Did you go to the same school?: Nope.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled as a couple? Romania!

Who drives when you are going somewhere together?: He does.

My forever Valentine 💖

    

Storage 101: The Pantry

This is part 2 of my Storage 101 series. If you missed part 1, you can catch up here.

Disclosure: I'm not about the beautiful Instagram-worthy photos. I'm about real life and telling it/showing it like it is. Take it or leave it. 

There's a house one street over from our house which we put an offer on when we were buying houses. At the time, I really wanted that house for two main reasons: 

1. It had a walk-in pantry.
2. It had a utility room sink.

Not having a utility room sink doesn't affect me much after all. Washing paint brushes in a bathroom sink isn't ideal, but at the end of the day, having running water in a basin is pretty much all the same. Not having a walk-in pantry on the other hand has often made me sigh.

Our pantry, although not a walk-in, has space. It's two sets of cabinets, one on top of the other. In total, we have less than 40 cubic ft of space. After having kids, our pantry was starting to look disheveled with all the snacks and cereal boxes piling up on top of each other.

This was our pantry before I went through and redid it.

By no means is this on the extreme messy spectrum. However, it could have been much better.

One problem we've always had is not being able to see things in the back of the pantry. The space itself is quite deep which is a good and bad thing. Good: it can store a decent amount of stuff. Bad: you can't see it all. Unfortunately, the solution is to not use about 9 cubic feet in order to maintain visibility throughout the space. So if you do the math, that only leaves approximately 30 cubic feet of usable pantry space. That's a little larger than the size of an average refrigerator in 2021. 

I took my storage inspiration from The Home Edit and used clear storage bins to organize our pantry. We bought wide and narrow containers and mixed and matched as needed. It just happened to work where two rows of shelving were the same height as the bins so we could maximize the space.

I had a lot of fun unpacking our entire pantry and rearranging/reorganizing the space. I also followed the rules where most used items are accessible at lower parts of the pantry and/or kept in the front of the space. I tried to move as much of the unused items to the top of the pantry and in the back of the shelves. To be honest, we just need to get rid of more things, but I can't bring myself to yet and we can still afford to store it without creating a mess. Taking from Marie Kondo here in not having to trash everything but simply keeping them stored well. 

Simply more joyful to look at.

After organizing the top half of our pantry, I decided to tackle the bottom half as well. This space is where we store larger pantry items as well as the "value size" refills for various items: cooking oil, rice, bulk cereal, etc. 

A big part of utilizing the space well was removing our paper towels. I'm not going to lie. We had over 12 rolls of paper towels stored under there. When we were a married couple without kids, this worked okay. Now with two kids and a lot of snacks, we needed the space. 

One afternoon, we spontaneously came up with the idea to reuse an old organizer I bought while in college and hang it in the garage to store lightweight paper items, ie: bulk paper towels.

I covered up one of my garage masterpieces, but I'm okay with that.
And no, we did not hoard paper towels. I bought one bulk pack back in 2019.
In February of 2020, I used a free coupon to get another bulk pack because
that's when the coupon was expiring. We use paper towels really slowly.
None of this was related to Covid.

This freed up SO much space. 

As far as organization, I knew I wanted to keep half of the space tall to store our 50 lb bag of rice* and stackable boxed goods. The other half, I wanted some shelving to store round jars and other shaped containers. Originally, I reused old diaper boxes turned on their side to create grid boxes so I could map out what kind of shelving I wanted. This worked out so well I ended up keeping them permanently. Diaper boxes are really sturdy. 

Our lower pantry. 

*Fun fact: Between my husband, my daughter, and myself, we ate over 100 pounds of rice in 2020. 

The storage bins for our pantry reorganization did cost quite a bit, but everything has a designated bin and it has stayed relatively organized. Even three months after our initial cleaning and reorganizing, everything has generally stayed neat and tidy.

We even replaced the batteries in our puck lights so we can see into it at night!

This is how our pantry looks like 3 months after the initial reorganization.
Everything has generally been maintained. No, this is not a staged photo.
It was taken one morning before the kids woke up on a whim.

Maintenance is a key aspect of organization which often gets overlooked. Sure, it may look prim, proper, and clean upon its initial organization, but the true test is whether or not you can maintain it. Our pantry? Yeah, it's definitely been maintained which proves two things:

1. The organization system works.

2. Everything actually has a place.

Next time: Drawer Tetris

Mamalogues: Free-Range Children

Recently, we started something new in our house: we don't make our toddler sit and eat in a high chair for 1-2 meals a day. Why did we do this? Because it took her so long to finish her meals in the high chair and we were having more behavior issues in the chair than out.

So we changed strategies. We let her run around, play, whatever she wants essentially, except she can't touch my piano while she's eating regardless if she's touched food with her hands or not. And the results are pretty drastic. Meals in the high chair would last 1-2 hours because it took forever for her to sit still and finish her food. Free-range meals would be done in 30 minutes to an hour depending on which meal it was. Everyone was overall more pleased with the situation.

Why wouldn't they be? We all want our free-range chicken. It's more humane. The chickens are happier and healthier. And the meat tastes better. Not that we're going to eat our children (we are NOT eating our children), but letting her run around freely while eating has led to more successful meals in our house. 

Apparently, more of my mom friends have been allowing their children to do this. I clearly missed the memo as I thought kids should eat in their high chairs and then be freed when they finished. Maybe this is why my childhood was "unhappy" and I had negative food associations for a very long time. That's another story. 

So now we let her roam around the house while she eats. We let her play outside in a tent or sit in her jeep. We let her sit on the stools at the counter. We let her sit in her learning tower and eat. It's fun, she's happier during meal times, and I think she actually eats more.

My free-range child 💕

Anyone else out there raising free-range children? 😃

Storage 101: Blind Corners

This is the first part of my 4 part series. To read the backstory on how we started reorganizing around our house, click here.

We have two blind corner cabinets in our house. We never used them efficiently from the start, but we never really had a reason to need to. Until we did.

For those of you who aren't familiar with blind corner cabinets, they are cabinets with a "blind" corner. Essentially, it's a cabinet, but then either to the left or the right, there is extra room but unaccessible straight from the cabinet door. If you're a visual person, I've created a nice diagram. 

This is exactly like one of our blind corner cabinets. The blind portion is almost exactly the same size as the area straight ahead of the cabinet door. So we were really losing out on half of the space of the cabinet by not using it properly.

In 2020, we gained lots of small kitchen appliances and kitchen gadgets as well as upgrading some to nicer/more permanent options.

1. We got an immersion blender, and to be exact, it was winter 2019 when we received it. It had no permanent home in our kitchen so it sat in the box on top of the refrigerator next to other miscellaneous items with no permanent home for almost a year. Using it was pretty precarious and we caused a few avalanches.

2. We bought an electric griddle. This griddle is advertised to store vertically in a slim space. However, the cabinets in our kitchen came with a shelf in the middle to create two tiers so this was impossible for us. The griddle is 15"x19"but none of our cabinets have a 15" height clearance. We attempted tucking it into the space between our cabinet and our refrigerator, but this caused more problems because we didn't want the kids to find it or it to scratch against anything. So we were forced to find a place to store it flat.

3. We upgraded our colanders. We had a set of three with stainless steel mesh, but over time, I realized stainless steel mesh was not my preference. We bought another set with perforated stainless steel which we absolutely love. I'm not going to get into the differences between the two here, but if you don't know the difference and you're curious, google them or send me a message and I'll tell you all about them! We didn't get rid of our old ones because sometimes I need more than one strainer in a large or small size, so it helps to have multiples. 

4. We got a kitchen scale. I. Never. Knew. How. Much. I. Needed. One. These things are amazing. I can weigh my baby food in exact portions. I can measure breastmilk and use a bottle without measurements on the side. (1 ml = 1 g) I know exactly how much my meat weighs when I vacuum seal it to freeze. I can double check the accuracy of weights from grocery delivery services. And I haven't even mentioned that I can bake with extreme accuracy! Can you tell how much I love this kitchen scale? And it was a gift!

We were able to store all of this in the existing space in our kitchen cabinets AND make everything more accessible. How did we do it?

We installed blind corner shelves in one of our blind corner cabinets.

I've looked these up for years. We looked into Shelf Genie. I googled different types. I looked up DIY videos and how-tos to get ideas for what people did with a tight budget. Nothing seemed to fit what I wanted to do so we put it off for a long time. Then back in 2020, when all this organization began, I decided it was time to purchase blind corner shelves and install them for my birthday present. 

This is the model we purchased. They're manufactured by Rev-a-Shelf.

Before buying them, I did a lot of homework, the main thing being measuring. We measured everything. I measured cabinet heights, cabinet lengths, cabinet depths, small appliance heights, pot heights, cutting boards, baking dishes. I measured a lot. Why? Because installing these shelves would involve rearranging pretty much every lower cabinet in our kitchen. 

And they're not cheap. 

There was one thing I couldn't measure and had to take a gamble on after purchasing and that was the space I would lose due to installation. Because this shelf rolls in and out on a track, it needs a few inches of height for installation. Nothing I read online in product descriptions stated this important piece of information. Our cabinets had double shelves so it was extra crucial this would work. 

So I gambled.

After they arrived, that was the first thing I did. I set up the track on the kitchen floor for a mock install, had my husband hold the shelf in place on the track because nothing was secured, and measured the height I would lose from the track installation: 4". 

4" is huge in the construction world. In this case, it meant my original storage plan of what I was intending to store on these shelves had to be scrapped and redone. Otherwise, we were going to be returning the most expensive birthday present of my life. 

So we went with plan B. And it actually worked out better than I thought it would have. We managed to rearrange all of our things, store the four extra kitchen purchases in our existing space, and make everything more efficient. 

We were so pleased with the way this turned out, and using these shelves is actually a lot of fun. The gliding is extremely smooth, and it really does live up to its name: "The Cloud." 

Now, you may be wondering how this can be more efficient since the shape of the cabinet is a perfect rectangle, and the shelf resembles nothing like a rectangle, which means you are losing out on square footage of storage. This was my conundrum for a long time which is why it took me so long to make the purchase. 

The answer is twofold. Yes, you are losing out on square footage because storing items directly into the cabinet and packing it in like tetris is the "best" way to use the most space. No, you are not losing out on efficiency because I can locate items located in the very back of the cabinet on this sliding shelf and take it out without displacing any other items in 10 seconds or less. This is impossible if I had crammed everything in like tetris: I would be left unpacking the entire cabinet to locate something in the very inside. Their design is the most efficient at maximizing the storage and maintaining maximum efficiency in an effortless way. 

My blind corner no longer disappoints me, but instead, brings me joy when I slide the shelf in and out.

When we have more time to complete DIY projects again, we can attempt the other one. I have an idea in my head, but it's not perfected. Anyone want to help bring my idea to life?  😀

Next time: The Pantry

Storage 101: The Catalyst

Spending an increased number of hours at home this last year made me realize how dissatisfied I was with a lot of our storage and organization solutions. We've made do for the last 5.5 years in our house, but this past year was a big breaking point for us because so much of our time was spent inside at home, so it unkindly revealed parts of our storage that were not working. 

Now to understand me, you have to realize, I grew up "wrong" in a way when it came to storage and organization. My mentality up until about....last year was paying for bins, drawers, containers to store your stuff was "wasted" money. It was always seen as more useful to spend the money on actual items of use instead of something to organize the items. Sure, we bought shelves and drawers to organize, but that was where it ended: shelves and drawers. What we needed to learn was how to organize the actual shelf or drawer.

Which leads me to two of the big names in storage and organization: Marie Kondo and The Home Edit.

In 2019, we watched Marie Kondo's series on Netflix Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. It was entertaining to watch and resulted in us refolding all of our T-shirts to stand up. That didn't last and my t-shirts reverted back to the old way I'd been folding them for the last 15 years. In 2020, we watched The Home Edit. I was again inspired to reorganize after watching their techniques. My home reorganization has been a blend of both techniques and mentalities. 

Fun fact: Marie teaches her kids how to be tidy and keep things neat. I aspire to do that, too.

What I took from Marie Kondo:

- Sparking joy: There's a lot to be said about this mentality. I'm not going to get into the spiritual details she includes in her cleaning mantra as I don't agree with them entirely. However, I do agree that there is a sense of joy that comes from a well-organized space. Clean lines and organized containers which are visually appealing bring a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment when the contents are used. 

What I did not take from Marie Kondo:

- A lot of her folding methods to organizing clothes/sheets/towels involve folding on a flat surface. This is hardly possible for me because I don't have a flat surface to fold my clothes. Half the time, I'm folding laundry while my kids are playing. This means I have whatever sofa space is not covered by toys and books. I don't fold clothes on the floor because 110% of the time my floor is not clean enough for me to want to fold clean laundry on it. Therefore, I will pretty much never use her folding methods. Even as a short person, I fold everything standing up.  

I never understood how "house goals" could be a thing until I watched this series. 

What I took from The Home Edit:

- Using clear storage bins you can see through is extremely valuable despite the cost. The mantra "out of sight out of mind" is very true. We do not think about the things we cannot see and those are the items most often overlooked when it comes to storage. Think about your pantry or food storage. Chances are, the things you can't see are the items which expire and go bad. 

- Organization has to suit the daily needs. Frequented items need to be easily accessible. Just because you have 50 cubic feet of pantry space does not mean you can use the whole space because nothing located in the back will be easily accessible if you stack the front all the way up.

What I did not take from The Home Edit:

- Color coding items. They organized books and board games by color. This does not speak to me at all as a person. Does it look cool? Yes, yes it does. Is it functional for what I want when I organize books or board games? No, sorry.

- Labeling: I don’t label my bins. Being clear already, I can see what’s inside and know what the intended category was when I created it. Even if it’s not clear, I can tell what was intended to go into it to begin with. 

Why We Did It:

1. Being inside all the time meant little bits of disorganization and mess left us very unsatisfied and annoyed.

2. It was the cheaper option to maximizing space. We're not moving anytime soon. We're not undertaking any remodeling additions or layout changes.

3. We have the means to. I know not everyone does, and believe me, we've been there and done that when we reused old boxes and cardboard containers to create space dividers and organizers. I actually still do in small amounts. There's nothing wrong with creating DIY organizers. Does it look as nice? No, it doesn't. Does it save a lot of money? Yes. If that's where you are in your life stage, there's nothing wrong with organizing with what you have. 

The Spaces we Organized:

- Kitchen Cabinets

- Pantry

- Master Bathroom Drawers

- Master Closet

- Hall Bathroom Drawers

Follow along as I unpack the spaces we organized and how we did it. 

Part 1: Blind Corners