Organization Quest

Creating a Quick, Organized Day Pack of Travel Essentials with free GWP Bags

On a ride from central Cappadoccia to the area airport a few weeks ago, there were exactly four people in the van: Alpay, me, and a woman and a man we hadn't before met.  The guys cordially nodded  and proceeded to ignore eachother for the ensuing 45 minutes, going so far as feigning sleep to avoid engaging in conversation, while within minutes the woman and I had exchanged names, histories, and email addresses, looked inside eachother's purses, and offered to share snacks.   

Perhaps because my own mother's purse was Strictly Off-Limits, few things are as gratifying as looking in another woman's purse--with permission, of course.  On the ride to Kayseri, when the woman opened her bag to offer me some nuts, I commented on how organized her bag looked.  In the habit of tidy people everywhere, she was happy to show off her tricks and opened the bag right up, the better to examine the contents, which we did, piece by piece. Of the things I noticed right away:  there were no loose items at all--not one.  Everything was in its own little a bag or case or canister of some sort--passport, sunglasses, cell phone and ipod.  Even her lipgloss was stowed away in a little bag of travel essentials, which is where I got the idea of creating my own travel essentials bag with one of the free gift-with-purchase bags I'd brought along. 

Contents of my essential pack from top left: ibuprofen, 2" x 3" notebook, pencil, hand sanitizer, tissues, moleskin (to cushion blisters), wallet with cash, ID, and credit card, hand wipes, epi-pen (for allergies), (free, GWP) lipstick, ponytail holder, sun block, bandaids, and mirror/bronzer.

It all fits nicely in a little clutch.  After pulling this together, I was ready for anything!  And my bag was a lot tidier, too.

  

Taming Travel Chaos with Free, GWP Bags

There is something about the term "Gift With Purchase" that shorts all my circuits.  Who can resist those cute little bags full of free goodies?  Nevermind that the bags are often cheap plastic things that you would never, ever actually use as a clutch as advertised.  It's free!

Well, sort of.  You do have to buy product--usually to the tune of $20 bucks or more--to get the gift with purchase bag.  But the upside is that you do get exposed products and colors you might not otherwise try, and the gift usually comes with at least one or two neutral stand-bys everyone can use, which explains why I haven't had to actually  buy mascara, clear lip gloss, blush, or make-up remover in years. 

Still, there is the question of what exactly to do with an ever-increasing supply of little vinyl bags.  Happily, there is no shortage of ways to get some actual use out of them. As I recently realized, GWP bags are especially helpful for taming travel chaos.  Here are 8 ways we put GWP bags to use on our trip to Turkey:

#1: Organizing Vitamins, OTC Drugs, and Prescriptions
It's handy to have one place for pills and medications.

  

#2: Stowing Feminine Protection Products
If you've been following the Quest, you might recognize this bag from my medicine cabinet makeover.

#3: Pen Storage
Handy even if you don't feel compelled to travel with a handful of fountain pens at any given time.

  

#4: Cotton Balls, Q-Tips, and Cosmetic Rounds
I've found that cotton balls, Q-Tipsand the like have a tendency to get yucky if stored with makeup.  While you can use a ziplock baggie in a pinch, baggies tend to tear and give out over a number of days of heavy-duty travel.  This bag is also suitable for around-town essentials, i.e. ipod, credit card, and gloss. 

  

#5: Camera and Camcorder Bag
This is one of my favorite bags--and probably the most unusual: there are two compartments to the soft-sided, square-shaped bag: one large and one small.  The large side provides storage for our 35mm camera, while the small side is big enough for the camcorder.  Perfect!

 

 

#6: Binocular Bag
The original bag for the binoculars didn't fit as well as this freebie bag!   

  

#7: Travel-Size Soap, Toner, and Cream Organizer
This is probably closer to what the GWP bags are intended for.  I've found that this square-shaped bag, which has a three-sided zipper, is particularly useful for cleansers and face creams, as it lays flat on a hotel room vanity or counter and makes it easy to keep everything in the bag making it easy to pack up and go.

  

#8: Organizing Spillables
This is one of the most useful GWP bags I've gotten:  a heavy-duty plastic bag that's ideal for storing all kinds of spillables like perfume, large toner bottles and the like, minimizing potential breakage catastrophes. 

  

Tomorrow: creating a quick, organized day pack of travel essentials with free GWP bags.

Storing Not-in-Use Pet Toys and Supplies

Like any good auntie, my sister has sent first Mau-Mau and now The Boys toys Toys TOYS every year. There is the rat-on-the-stick; there is the laser-pointer; there is any number of stuffed mice and catnip pouches and fuzz balls and toys that bounce on an elasticized string.

After Mau-Mau Kitty passed last year, I thought maybe I should gather up the toys and retire them after many honorable years of service. Before I could make up my mind to do so, we adopted the kittens who loved those toys and set about chasing, hunting, and tearing them up with great joy and abandon.

But saving the old toys hasn't prevented buying new ones. Snapdragon likes Da Bird; Lickity likes sparkle balls.  They both like ostrich feathers.  And so in this way, the living room has come to resemble the type of toy-filled obstacle course usually associated with people who have quintuplet toddlers.

What's a fur-mom to do? 

A while back, I hit upon the idea of alternating cat toys, the way designers in fancy magazines advise you to alternate accessories to keep things fresh.  The problem, for us, is where to store the toys, as we have so very little storage space and so very many stuffed mice. 

When I took Lickity to the vet a few months ago, I put a blanket and one of his favorite toys in the carrier and realized:  THAT'S IT!!!  Since we so rarely use the carrier, it's a great place to store cat-related items. The carrier is easy to find, and by designating it as the official cat-stuff-storage box, it's easy to find the supplies, too.  No more digging under the bed!  No more rummaging through the closet! 

There are so few clear victories in life, but surely figuring out the perfect place to store crinkle balls and kitty nail clippers counts as one of them.

 
Above: the cat carrier as perfect cat-stuff  storage. Below: inside the box.

Re-Thinking Conventional Food Storage for Diet-Friendly Results

My best friend once told me that my refrigerator kind of freaked her out.  It wasn't a cleanliness issue; rather it was my disregard for conventional rules about what-goes-where. Case in point:  I've never understood the whole "crisper" thing for storing fruits and vegetables.  Haven't refrigerator designers ever heard of the old adage "out of sight, out of mind"? Or maybe refrigerator manufacturers are in cahoots with the convenience-food industry; I wouldn't be surprised if Dateline or 60 Minutes  end up doing an expose showing the CEO of a major appliance maker dressing down product engineers for making the designated vegetable storage area too accessible.  "If someone wants an apple, make 'em work for it," is what the appliance magnate will be caught saying on the grainy undercover video tape.

If you're on a diet, the last thing  you want is to be on your knees, struggling to open a cheap plastic drawer so you can to dig through a cluttered, uninviting mess only to find a poor, bruised-and-battered plum crushed at the bottom of an 8"-deep heap of fruits and vegetables. If you're going to eat healthy, then you gotta make it easy, folks.  I may walk a mile in a thunder storm (or more likely: whine and plead until Alpay walks a mile in a thunder storm) to get my favorite double-chocolate muffin, but if I'm going to be good and have a few lousy celery sticks, I better be able to grab them without a lot of drama.

Happily, making good-for-you food inviting and accessible is easy; it just takes re-thinking where things go and how things are stored in the fridge.  We use a variety of bowl for this purpose--small ones for quick snacks like cherries, figs, cut vegetables, and cucumbers, which we eat Turkish-style (peeled and sprinkled with salt and fresh lemon juice, sliced length-wise almost to the end,then wrapped in a napkin so you can holdand eat it like an ice-cream cone).  For vegetables that are more often used as ingredients--onions and peppers, eggplants and tomatoes--we use a large, shallow bowl (see photo at the beginning of this post).  And what about the awful crispers?  Actually, we've found them to be very useful for storing fresh, loose-leaf spinach, which has a tendency to wilt and get yucky if stored in plastic bags.  We just wash the crisper drawer and lay a paper towel on the bottom, and fill with a quantity of spinach that would do Popeye proud.

 

Waste Space or Storage Opportunity? You Decide!

Some of you may recall the post on how I was able to store a huge amount of camping and outdoor gear in a 4", floor-to-ceiling gap in the Master walk-in closet between the wall and the end of a PAX shelving.

On an adjacent wall in the same closet, I installed a cabinet last month when I was going through my mid-winter-renovation revelry.  The cabinet itself is 30" high, 18" wide, and 12" deep, which I use for storing cleaning supplies.  The top of the cabinet is recessed by about 2", leaving an 18" wide x 12" deep x 2" high space that surely I could fit something . . . but inspiration has yet to strike.  Since it's sort of out of the way, anything that requires easy-access is out of the question.  It's also semi-humid being next to the bathroom, and so anything heat- or moisture-sensitive should be avoided.  Any suggestions on what I could put here, Questers?

 
Above: the cabinet in question.  Below: a close-up of the potential storage wonderland!

Minimizing Packaging Clutter by Archiving Product Information

With a 17-foot closet and, truthfully, not all that many clothes, it was a mystery as to how, exactly, my closet was always stuffed to capacity.  True, I'm a bit of a paper-keeper. I have boxes and boxes of nearly daily journals dating back to, let's see . . . 1974.   Still, I could never really account for the sheer volume of stuff I had until I dismantled my closet a few years ago and realized that empty boxes accounted for a a huge percentage of the stuff taking up precious room.  They weren't  storage boxes, either, but packaging from products I'd bought: camera box, computer box, the box that my cookware came in. 

In the past, I've found that I have, in fact,  needed some crucial bit of information--a lot number or Universal Product Code (UPC)--that's on product packaging, which is why I developed the habit of keeping such things. Since I don't need the actual box per se, but just some of the information on it, I realized that I could just cut the UPC or any other important information from the box and file it away.  In this manner, I've freed up what must be hundreds of cubic feet of space, and it's a lot easier to find the information in a file than tearing through an (overstuffed) closet, searching for a specific piece of packaging.  Just be careful when cutting those boxes, folks.  We don't want any more xacto knife accidents.

Storing Nostalgia Items

When we moved into our first rental home, my parents sent me my boxes and boxes of stuff that had been taking up room in their garage.  "That was the best money I ever spent," my Dad told me, repeatedly. 

Throughout my parents various moves, there had been garage sales, an auction, boxes lost by a moving company, and just plain old fashioned parent-induced clean-outs.  This is to say, I had no idea what I would find when my mother called and reported that all of my things had been shipped out.

When I got the stuff, there were exactly three things that I desperately, desperately hoped to find:

1. My journal from the time I lived in Paris;
2. My saddle which took dozens of (painful) hours the winter I was 14 to break in; and
3. Snowflake, a little white dog with gold heart necklace, whom I got in first grade and was my favorite stuffed animal of all time

There were 42 boxes, most of them, admittedly, full of junk: high school newspapers, college textbooks, tights from 1982.  Yes, folks, I did and continue to have a bit of a problem.  Anyway.  The saddle was easy enough to find.  The journal, sadly, never showed up.  Near the end of the initial sweep through the boxes, Snowflake was nowhere to be found, either.  I made myself open up the last of the boxes and there, in the second-to-the-last box, was the familiar white faux-fur and little gold collar.  I almost cried from the sheer joy of finding her.

Years later, she remained in the same box in which she'd been sent, which was usually relegated to an upper shelf in the closet.  This seemed a shame, but I couldn't think of a good place for her, as we have so little space. 

At some point, I bought nesting hatboxes that I couldn't resist, but whose functionality eluded me once i brought them home.  I tried storing table linens in them, but  . . . nah, it was too much of a pain to unstack the boxes open them all.  It didn't work with accessories, either.  The shape wasn't right for papers.  Art supplies might dirty up the delicate paper finish.  And then I realized: it was the perfect place to store the few favorite stuffed animals, games, dolls, and toys I'd kept from my childhood.

The stacked boxes make a great little side table in my study, providing a much-needed flat surface next to my tiny drafting table.  It's also, indeed, the perfect space to store for my childhood treasures, keeping them tucked away but more accessible than they were on a hard-to-reach closet shelf.  On cold, rainy days, or when I'm feeling sad or weighed down with adult responsibilities, It's nice to be able to lift the lid of the top box and see my precious Snowflake nestled against her friends.  Picking her up and stroking her fur brings back happy memories that always makes me smile.

Snowflake

Safe Storage for Flash Drives and Camera Cards

While Lickity Split maintains a stable of "girlfriends" including  a sheepskin throw, my most expensive water color brush, and a fuzzy beige pillow whose corner he nibbles while compulsively kneeding with all four paws, Snapdragon prefers light-weight, aerodynamic projectiles he tosses in the air and bats around with abandon. Which is exactly how Alpay's flash drive got smashed to smithereens last fall.

 
The culprit, and for once it's not Lickity Split. 

It would be a funny story if Alpay still didn't feel the ramifications of the lost data, which included project work, valuable correspondence records, and a spreadsheet of our checking account transactions.  It took hours upon hours to untangle the account information, but what really hurt was the significant amount of creative work forever lost.  While there are data retrieval services available--OnTrack is one with a solid reputation--the cost can be prohibitive.  In the case of our flash drive, for instance, the quote ranged between $2,300 and $2,800 to retrieve the data on it--needless to say, well more than the $60 or so we paid for the actual flash drive.

Alpay made the painful decision to let the drive go and rebuild anew. The take-home message:  back up your data, of course. But we also learned the importance of safe storage for electronic data devices.

We no longer leave our flash drives--or our camera cards, for that matter--laying about, where they are vulnerable not only to the whims of kittens but to beverage spills, misplacement, and our own clumsiness.  Keeping the principle of scale in mind, a former pen box provides just-the-right-size storage for our small data devices. 

 

What To Do With Pretty Odds and Ends? Create A "Treasure Box"

Alpay and I love to collect things we find in nature: small shells and stones, interesting twigs, sea glass.  Most often, the collection lasts a season and then I "retire" it back from whence it came, although occasionally I've kept some things for scrapbooking purposes.  There is, however, a small cache of favorites that have outlasted the season in which they were found.  What to do with such  small bits and pieces of things that don't have a ready home?

Recently I thought of the jewelry box my sister had growing up.  My sister had covered it in wallpaper, I think--although it may have been contact or wrapping paper--and it was a glory to behold:  gold-and-cream on the outside, it had a multi-layered interior holding all kinds of pretty, shining, special things.  When I was 8, I fell off my bike and had to get stitches.  This was still in the day of house calls, and while we waited for the pediatrician to arrive, my sister went to her room and came back with the wonderful box, which she let me hold.  While it took about ten years for the scar to fade, I'll always remember that box, and the anticipation of opening it up--with permission!--to gaze at the treasures inside. 

I decided to make my own "treasure box" of things that make me smile.  It keeps my small collection tidy, and is just something fun to open when I need a little lift.

Interior lid of my "treasure box"

Double-Duty Storage

Vases and pretty bottles have an opportunity to serve double-duty as decorative items and storage containers.  I loved the colored glass bottles, below left, when I first saw them, but was stumped as to what I could do with them.  Eventually I decided to decant essential oils in them--so much prettier than the original packaging, below right.

    

I ended up with a ton of aqua-marine colored glass pebbles, after using them for a class art project. They're useful when arranging flowers and I love the color, but didn't know where I'd be able to store several quarts of of pebbles.  Then I realized: why take them out of the vases at all?  They look pretty and it's functional.  Perfect! 

Tiny Containers = Enormously Useful Storage Solutions

Okay, I know; it was supposed to be storage week not storage 2 weeks on the Quest. But what can I say? I'm on a roll.  Next week we'll dive into a brand-new topic: organizing technology.  You know, computer stuff, digital cameras and camcorders and their accessories, knowing what cables go with what and keeping cords tidy.  But first we have a few more topics to cover on the storage front.  How about this one:  teeny-tiny storage containers.  I'm talking about something you can hold in one hand and cover with the other--that small.  What purpose can such small containers serve?

Tiny wooden boxes, egg holders, even film canisters, are enormously useful containers for storage.  The key here, as mentioned in last Thursday's post, is one of scale.  Very small objects--like ponytail holders, eyelets, or camera cards--that might get lost in a large container are perfect candidates for small container solutions. 

A few years ago I bought a bunch of small circular boxes, like the one above and below.  I think I paid two dollars a piece for them.  They quickly became indispensable storage for loose change, safety pins, and earrings:

I've also found old film canisters to be useful for all kinds of things.  I especially love how portable they are: small enough to easily fit into a pocket, purse, or the glove compartment in the car. One of my favorite uses for film canisters is for quarters I keep in the car.  But with the recent 400%+ increase in the cost of metered parking in Chicago, I may have to switch to a larger container for my car quarters.

How to Fit As Much As Possible In A Given Space: A Step-by-Step Example

When you utilize the Just-The-Right-Fit storage strategy, you'll be amazed by how very much you can store in the smallest spaces.  Take this example:  Here is an empty shelf in one of our 19" PAX units.  After measuring the biggest item we had to store there--the picnic basket--I adjusted the shelf for 12-1/2" of vertical clearance:

 

While centering an item on a shelf looks attractive, you get more storage mileage when you push an item all the way over to one side as I did with the picnic basket above; this gives you the biggest possible space to store items alongside the first item.  I was able to fit in two cookie tins to the side, followed by another sizable basket full of infrequently-used computer cables:

   

I then fit a box on top of the picnic basket.  This was tricky, because in order to fit the second basket, the handles of the picnic basket had to be raised, thus restricting what could go on top of the basket.  After experimenting with several boxes, I found one low enough to fit. Satisfied that I could fit everything I could on top of the picnic basket, I found a small bag of embroidery floss that fit nicely on top of the second basket:

   

A cookie tin fit nicely on top of the front half of the second basket.  Then I began to fill the wedge to the right of the picnic basket, starting with a box of candles:

   

There was still room for even smaller boxes:  a Chinese scroll that's currently rotated out and some rarely-used incense:

   

I was able to fit a couple boxes of holiday cards on top of the cookie tin, and there was enough room in front of the picnic basket to accommodate a good-sized box of bath supplies:

   

There was room for two small wooden box on top of the bath supply box.  I'd tried to fit both of these boxes on top of the picnic basket in the fifth picture above but both were too bulky to fit in that spot. 

     

Assessing the space, I found I could fit another box of holiday cards on top of the wooden boxes and and a smaller holiday box to the side.  I then finished up by tucking a tiny box in an available crevice.

   

Not bad for a space that's only 19" wide x 22" deep x 12-1/2" high!

Give Me An Inch (Or Two) And I'll Show You What You Can Do With It

Yesterday we saw just how much sports and camping equipment could be stored in just 4 inches of space.  But what if you have only a couple of inches to spare?  Can anything be done with just an inch or two?

Before installing the closets a few years ago, I carefully noted what exactly needed to be stored and took measurements accordingly.  Once I fit in the main items for which I'd planned, it was time to get out the tape measure again and note just how much extra room I had--an inch here, a couple inches there.  Then I assessed everything that still needed homes. While it may be fairly easy to find a place--any place--to just shove things into, one of the main principles of organizing is finding the right place for things, so you can find things quickly and easily, so things don't get damaged, and so the items you frequently use are in easy reach. 

I found the perfect place to store one of my favorite board games, for instance, after discovering a little over two inches on an eye-level shelf in the front hall closet:

 

Another example: We have various large sketchbooks, over-sized manila envelopes, x-rays, and MRI films, none of which can be bent.  But where to put them so they're accessible when we need them (which isn't often) and won't get damaged?

I found the perfect place: there is 2-1/2" between the bottom of a 39" PAX unit and its lowest drawer--plenty enough to store all the over-sized and rarely-used flat items.

 
Above:the crack below the lowest PAX drawer.  Below:the notebooks, over-sized envelopes, x-rays, and MRI films stored there.

 

Below: view of items stored in the space.

Storing Sports And Camping Gear In 4 Inches Of Space

I'm a big believer in making use of waste space--those odd little places that take up room but are too small or too awkwardly-shaped to do much with, at first glance.  The 4" of floor-to-ceiling space we were left with after installing four, 19" IKEA PAX units in the master closet is an example of such a space.  What can you possibly do with a space like this?

Above: the 4" area between the wall and last IKEA PAX unit in the master bedroom.

In figuring out storage solutions, sometimes you start with the stuff; other times you start with the space. In the case above, the unplanned gap practically begged for creative solution as to what to do with it. 

Obviously, this isn't the place to store craft supplies, jewelry, or cosmetics.  But why, exactly, is that? It's a matter of accessibility.  Sure, you could store a boatload of craft items in this area, for instance, but what would be the point? Can you imagine what a nightmare it would be to dig through several feet of itty-bitty parts to find embroidery floss, embossing powder, or tubes of watercolor?

Once I realized that the space would most suitably work for large items that could be easily identified, I  assessed my storage needs and that the space was perfect for storing sports and camping gear:

Above: The stuff:  skis, poles, kite, backpack, fishing rod and reel, and net. 

I started with the skis, because their length made them the trickiest to fit in the space.  I placed them on the floor at the very back, then fit in the backpack next to the skis on the floor.  From there I fit in the kite, the fishing net, and the ski poles, adjusting things as need be.  I finished up with the rod and reel, which is also the item that Alpay uses the most.

 
Above: The stuff in the space (Snapdragon not included)

When It Comes To Storage, Think Outside The Box

I once had a roommate whose mother was an organization genius, and she took my friend to task for not utilizing the room in her shoes when packing for college.  "You pack socks in shoes," her mother said.  "Everybody knows that." 

In fact, I didn't know that then, but I've remembered it ever since.  So last summer when the 12-compartment sock drawer I designed for Alpay started to get a little over-loaded, I took my friend's mother's advice and was amazed I could fit six pairs of winter socks into a pair of snow boots, thus freeing up a good quarter or more of the space in the sock drawer.

You Don't Need Special Containers For Attractive Storage

 

You don't need special containers to store stuff; almost any hollow object can do the job.  The trick is finding a container that's the right scale for what you want to store. In the example above, decorative pots work great for storing bath supplies.  Below: a small Turkish tea glass is just the right size for storing these whimsical ceramic tea spoons, which had a tendency to break when stored with regular cutlery.

Quick Tip: Store Items According To Function

 

A twist on keeping like with like is storing items according to function:  if you're an infrequent tea drinker, you might put tea bags in a tea pot, or stow picnic gear--napkins, blanket or spread, containers, disposable plants and cutlery--in a picnic basket.

Storage Strategy 101

Creating practical storage solutions is a bit of a balancing act: functional and attractive options are, of course, ideal, but the sheer volume of stuff can make such a model a pretty tall order. While I'm adept at using every square inch of storage space available, such an approach can actually create more chaos in the long run if an entire closet has to be dismantled to get at some needed supply, thus the need to develop a comprehensive storage strategy.

First and Foremost: Toss As Much As You Can

I know: you don't want to hear that.  Believe me, neither do I. And yet, it really is so much better to have the things that you really like, need, and use organized and on hand, rather than to hoard a quantity of stuff that doesn't really suit you or serve a function in your life. Getting rid of anything lightens the load--whether it's packaging, old clothes or files, outdated electronics or broken appliances.  Donating just a few books can make a difference; as we'll see later in the week, even 2 inches of space can be utilized for storage. 

Utilize "Just The Right Fit" Arrangements

In business, there's a concept called Just-in-Time inventory management, the idea being that you order exactly what you need rather than order a surplus that has to be stored, maintained, and may spoil, expire, or get damaged before you get a chance to use it.  The concept of taking what you need--and no more--is one I think of whenever I'm setting up a new storage space.  Whenever I get new shelves or a new piece of storage furniture, for instance, I take the inside measurements and note any adjustable parts.  I write this down and bring it with me when I go shopping, so I can be on the lookout for containers that will be an exact fit, which is how I found the awesome sea grass baskets like the one pictured above.

When it comes to shelves, the more adjustable the better, in my opinion.  I've re-configured the chrome InterMetro shelves in my study on numerous occasions to fit ever-evolving storage needs.  

Keep Like With Like

A key distinction between merely cramming a space to capacity and creating a logical what-goes-where system lies in keeping like items together: tools with tools, holiday stuff with holiday stuff, etc.  Designating specific areas, whether a box or storage container, a closet, or a room, for any given category of things takes the guesswork out of putting things away: you figure it out once and for all and then you're good to go.

Make It Convenient

Keep the items you use the most on hand and within easy reach. In general, the optimal height for storage is between your knees and shoulders, so reserve this area for the things you use the most often.  The next step is to identify those items you don't anticipate needing anytime soon: holiday or seasonal stuff, nostalgia items, etc. and designate out-of-the-way places for their storage.

I've found that it also helps to label boxes, drawers, and shelves with a key word or phrase to help remember what-went-where.  This is especially helpful for the items deep-sixed in the back of a drawer or on a high shelf.

 
Above:inside the sea grass basket is all the non-digital camera stuff--cases, lenses, filters, portable tripod and more. As photography is one of Alpay's hobbies but he's more inclined to digital photography at the moment, we keep the gear accessible but on slightly less-than-prime shelf at ankle height.

This Week On The Quest: Finding Room When You Have No Room

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about finally putting away all the extra cookie tins from my cookie extravaganza in November.  I'm sure many readers were puzzled as to why this was such a big deal, and why it took me months to to do something about it. How hard could it be to put away a few cookie tins, for goodness sake! But you see, that's the problem: when you live in a condo, with no basement, no attic, no shed or garage or cellar or carport or storage area, the only storage you have is what's in your place.  And that's not very much.

I did end up finding a place for all the tins.  It required a bit of finagling, but in the end everything was as neat and tidy as can be.  In the process, I started thinking about how to utilize space to get the most out of it.  This is the one area of organizing that I actually excel in:  I know how to pack stuff in, believe me.  So I thought this week we'd go over tips and techniques to make use of every spare inch you have.  In the process, we'll explore double-duty storage solutions and consider the possibilities of even the smallest containers.  We'll also touch on storing sports and camping gear with you-gotta-see-this pictures, and I'll walk you through my own process of maximizing space so that you will never look at four--or even two and a half--inches the same way again.