Contain Indy

If you live in Indy, you may have heard- the Container Store is finally here! If you’ve never been to one, you might not know why this is a big deal. If you’re familiar, well, then, you aren’t reading right now, you’re shopping.

Last week I had the opportunity to have lunch with some of my favorite people and tour the Container Store, all 25,000 sq ft. That evening, I attended the Preview Party, complete with live band, dance floor and 2000 of the Container Stores biggest fans.  It was a lot of fun, really overwhelming, and really left me wanting to reorganize my entire house. October 6, 2011 will forever be known as “Container Store Day” in my book.

The Container Store generously sent me home with a bag swag and I thought it would be fun to take some before and after pictures to demonstrate how useful their products really can be.

Exhibit A: The kids’ bathroom caddy. Ack.

Before: The basket actually held everything from toothpaste to a measuring tape, to hair ties.

Before
After: This Turbo Organizer has a spot for exactly everything that actually needs to live in that space nothing more, nothing less. I want one for our other two bathrooms now!
After
Exhibit B: Organizing the family calendar
Before: The back of my kitchen door is magnetic, so I use a couple of magnetic clips to hold papers I’ll need for the week. I only have two clips.
Every time I need a paper, everything else held by the clip falls to the floor!
After: The Container Store sent me home with four mega-magnets with hooks. Now there’s a magnet for coupons, tickets, school and etc. I’m still using the clips as well, and I’m not sure that it looks better, but things are a LOT easier to find!
Sorting the papers I need each each week by topic make things easier.

There are more goodies to put to work- I think the FlipFold  might have to be it’s own post. I find it oddly relaxing to fold my shirts like they do at the Gap.

What do you need help Containing? Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure the Container Store Indy will have an answer for you!

(Top photo courtesy of Angie Six, local blogger and Container Store enthusiast!)

Somebunny Followed Me Home

I’m not exactly sure how it happened.

I was standing at the Fox’s school, waiting for him to come out on Friday afternoon, when an announcement was made- Freckles, the class bunny, needed a home for the weekend. Some how, this weekend was overlooked on the sign up sheet, and Freckles needed a place crash for the weekend.

I looked off into the parking lot.

One nanny said no for the family she picks up.

I looked down at my shoes.

One mom said they were already signed up for the following weekend.

I looked up- and people were looking at me.

“Um, I guess we can take the bunny. What do we have to do?”

“I’ll email you an instruction sheet! Let me go get the cage and the tote!”

The cage fit in the trunk of the van perfectly.

Rabbits don’t actually make any noise (more on this to come in upcoming post).

Their poo is small & non-stinky.

They don’t eat much.

But still. There was pressure.

There was pressure to be sure that Freckles was returned in the same condition (plus clean cage) on Monday morning.

Could we do it?

BgK and I, at times, doubted ourselves. We used twitter to enlist a professional in case we needed him.

Thankfully, all went well. We did learn a few things however:

 

That said, it was a fun weekend, and really not a huge inconvenience. And there were some adorable moments:

 

I’m pretty sure it’s moments like this one that keep Freckles welcome on the preschool circuit. Even if he did chew our wireless router/modem power cord on his way out the door this morning.

Well, That Was Fun

Have you entered a time warp? No, no, you haven’t. There really was a post up last two weeks ago, all about what you don’t need to put into a storage unit.

Last weekend, however, this little blog was hacked, and it’s been restored to mid-August. Michelle: 1, Hacker: 0.

Anyway.

I’ll put the storage unit post back up, and maybe, just maybe, write a post or two for September.