Category Archive

organization

Embracing and hacking the laundry piles with (of course) baskets!

I have had many clever and functional Ikea storage solutions gather dust because I can’t help but let my clothes pile up on the floor. So when I moved in with my boyfriend I knew I could’t let stuff pile up, but I also knew I would never be able to fight my piling ways forever. So just like you do in any relationship, I compromised with myself. I bought cheap hampers to separate my clothes into contained pile — keeping them clean and within reach.

How scheduling saves our super-busy, polyamorous, multi-household family

How scheduling saves our super-busy, polyamorous, multi-household family

Sharing lives can get messy, emotional, complicated, and exhilarating (and sometimes all in 20 minutes). It’s extraordinarily nice to, once a week, have a time set aside for the exclusive purpose of figuring out the logistics.

Going old school with my recipe book boosted my cooking confidence

What do I do with new recipes that I dig and want to save for later? At first there were just a few, printed out or ripped from a magazine, and shoved unceremoniously beside the cook books. But I became bolder, and the stack became less practical. Then I had a basket-free “baskets!” moment.

Time management as an art project

With some nudging from my therapist and support from my husband, I finally managed to get on top of things. My to-do list has gone from “deal with three years of back taxes” to more mundane stuff like “clean up the dried paint in the bathroom.” I used a handful of different strategies to gain control, which I’ll detail in a sec, but the biggest key to staying motivated has been to turn it into something like an art project.

Stylish rolling bags to lug around your daily necessities

In my new job, my office is in an inconvenient location, and I don’t like to drive from building to building around campus. Consequently, I find myself lugging quite a lot of stuff around with me throughout the day: books, papers, laptop, regular daily stuff. That’s why I’m hoping for suggestions from Homies. Does anyone have suggestions for stylish rolling bags to lug around my daily necessities?

Baskets! The final missing piece in my quest for a simple home-cooked meal plan

I had a “baskets!” moment about … baskets. A while ago I mapped out a basic cooking roster for my partner and myself, based on our schedules. Then I got thinking about how I’m going to make sure we actually use all these ingredients so I don’t have to scrape them out of the vege drawer in a month’s time. Also how to make this easy for us both…

My favorite tips for creating the online calendar system of your dreams

For years, I insisted on using a paper planner to keep track of my schedule. When my husband finally convinced me to try Google Calendar instead, I was an instant convert. Now I’m a flat-out evangelist. For my fellow schedule-lovers, here are some of my favorite tips for creating the online calendar system of your dreams…

Where to store your always-in-use items in the rare moments they’re not in use

I have a few things that always seem to be in use, like my laptop, mobile phone, and a jug I use all the time. The sensible-to-me place for these things is wherever I am right now. Which is fine, except when people come over I don’t have anywhere to put them. What solutions do my Homies use to store these things that are “always” in use, without giving up valuable space for the odd times these things need put away?