That t-shirt drawer is something to aspire to! I have small kids right now -- which makes keeping a house clean feel almost impossible -- so it feels so far away... but one day, I'll get there 😃
Packing is very personal. I'd like to be a quiet advocate for packing cubes/organizer bags for long trips. Each category of clothing gets their own bag. As the trip progresses, the largest bag becomes the dirty clothes hamper and the other clothes can begin to mingle. Yes, the nooks and crannies of your suitcase are empty on the way out, but that leaves more space to fill with souvenirs for the way home.
Oh (clap clap clap) I loved this post, and I LOVE your house, and that skirt's color name is the best: Charcoal Cloud. I have all sorts of ways to sort my way through the day and they're all comforting and efficient. I read this post and thought, "Ah! Like-minded!"
When Marie Kondo became popular, the one thing I took from her was her way of folding t shirts, which looks similar to yours. I don't fold my t shirts into drawers, but my son does, and he's kept it up. His are not as precise, and he folds them so the design shows, but it's still great to be able to see everything at once.
Your disdain for packing cubes made me laugh. I also struggle with them. They’re fine for grouping things, but once you start using individual pieces the system inevitably goes to shit. Socks in shoes can’t be beat.
When I was a kid I LOVED the Dewey Decimal system!! I loved knowing the secret language of it, the orderliness of it and the joy of searching and then finding a book using the code. I loved flipping through the wooden drawers, with their well worn vanilla colored cards. ( FYI- I was the kid who cut school to spend the day at the main branch of the library in Philadelphia. A majestic 19th c. house of book worship)
Oh I so agree with you on packing cubes. The same concept as trash compacters…. 25 pounds of garbage compacted into 25 lbs of garbage 🥴. Shoes, nooks and crannies are essential to carry on travel! Love that I am not alone in my thoughts!! Use the cubes in a hobby room for stuff instead or donate and open up space in your travel drawer!
I'm not so much a keen organizer, but I do like traveling light, the purging season, and having a streamlined wardrobe. Whenever I'm challenged with the task of packing light, I'm practically salivating. The whittling down is rapturous in some strange way. LOVE your house.
An Addition to my former comment: I love the idea of putting t shirts in a drawer horizontally rather than on top of each other. I am going to try to do that. You may have changed my life for the better!
I can't think of any other writer who can or could im sure literally write an account of Paint Drying and make if funny,witty, relevant and totally interesting. I'm not being insulting,plse don't take it wrong,I mean that a writer who can make folding T shirts or sorting clothes hangers riveting,is a writer indeed.
Organizing/tidying mundane objects is one of the joys of life. This may be much too much for you, but have you seen The Home Edit? I enjoy streaming it while folding a giant hamper of laundry; even though the show is completely over the top and full of pricy product promos, I get some great ideas for how to catalog and organize the next nook of my home! I love my packing cubes, but nothing beats the old military trick of rolling clothes and squishing them into all the corners of your suitcase!
As soon as I saw “Aaron Spelling” in this piece, I knew what you were going to say. I remember reading that too and imagining that someday I would have an extra room with a walk-in closet I could make into a gift wrapping room. Now I realize I don’t really want an extra room to clutter and clean. I have a bed in a bureau and the gift wrap fits in the long draw underneath where the bedding is supposed to go.
Totally agree on the packing cubes. Never used them because they just seemed so...inflexible. Plus, aren't they taking up space which there's precious little of when packing?
But OMG -- your section relating having an affinity for creating order out of chaos and writing just slew me. I'm a retired history professor, and that's exactly what I've done with everything I've ever written -- take all the research and somehow craft it into a story that supports a point (aka thesis.) And a lot of my work has focused exactly on how my subjects have made sense of their lives, perhaps especially because I've written mostly about early-modern Englishwomen, and how, despite the considerable limitations placed on them, they nonetheless found the cracks and fissures through which they could exercise their sense of self and express themselves. I've often thought of it as every person being dealt a set of cards upon birth -- the timeless variables of class and gender mixed with those specific to time, place and culture, to which you add the personal aspects of talent, intelligence, looks, temperament, etc. Each individual then has to navigate and negotiate with and through those cards amidst the vicissitudes of historical events to try and create a meaning of her life for herself.
The amazing thing is that, with varying levels of success, they did it -- as do we.
I am JEALOUS!!! That is a beautiful sight!!!!! I’m lucky to have any room on our bed for extra clothes & I have pared down on clothing since no longer working. I want full of closets, with a dressing room in each one. I need a bathroom- hubby does too but he needs a kitchen (chef) so the kitchen needs a pantry as big as it is
MAYBE I could stay organized with all of my wishes!
I lust after the linen closet at the Gamble House in Pasadena, it is as big as my kitchen in this Mid-Century Modern house. Although it does have lots of kitchen cupboards, mostly too high or too deep to be useful, sigh. How about a She shed in backyard, rotate the seasonals.
That t-shirt drawer is something to aspire to! I have small kids right now -- which makes keeping a house clean feel almost impossible -- so it feels so far away... but one day, I'll get there 😃
Packing is very personal. I'd like to be a quiet advocate for packing cubes/organizer bags for long trips. Each category of clothing gets their own bag. As the trip progresses, the largest bag becomes the dirty clothes hamper and the other clothes can begin to mingle. Yes, the nooks and crannies of your suitcase are empty on the way out, but that leaves more space to fill with souvenirs for the way home.
Oh (clap clap clap) I loved this post, and I LOVE your house, and that skirt's color name is the best: Charcoal Cloud. I have all sorts of ways to sort my way through the day and they're all comforting and efficient. I read this post and thought, "Ah! Like-minded!"
When Marie Kondo became popular, the one thing I took from her was her way of folding t shirts, which looks similar to yours. I don't fold my t shirts into drawers, but my son does, and he's kept it up. His are not as precise, and he folds them so the design shows, but it's still great to be able to see everything at once.
Your disdain for packing cubes made me laugh. I also struggle with them. They’re fine for grouping things, but once you start using individual pieces the system inevitably goes to shit. Socks in shoes can’t be beat.
Laundry folding boards are available. Just enter in the Amazon site.
Thanks for your wonderful blog.
When I was a kid I LOVED the Dewey Decimal system!! I loved knowing the secret language of it, the orderliness of it and the joy of searching and then finding a book using the code. I loved flipping through the wooden drawers, with their well worn vanilla colored cards. ( FYI- I was the kid who cut school to spend the day at the main branch of the library in Philadelphia. A majestic 19th c. house of book worship)
Oh I so agree with you on packing cubes. The same concept as trash compacters…. 25 pounds of garbage compacted into 25 lbs of garbage 🥴. Shoes, nooks and crannies are essential to carry on travel! Love that I am not alone in my thoughts!! Use the cubes in a hobby room for stuff instead or donate and open up space in your travel drawer!
I'm not so much a keen organizer, but I do like traveling light, the purging season, and having a streamlined wardrobe. Whenever I'm challenged with the task of packing light, I'm practically salivating. The whittling down is rapturous in some strange way. LOVE your house.
An Addition to my former comment: I love the idea of putting t shirts in a drawer horizontally rather than on top of each other. I am going to try to do that. You may have changed my life for the better!
I can't think of any other writer who can or could im sure literally write an account of Paint Drying and make if funny,witty, relevant and totally interesting. I'm not being insulting,plse don't take it wrong,I mean that a writer who can make folding T shirts or sorting clothes hangers riveting,is a writer indeed.
This is a huge compliment! Thank you!!!
Organizing/tidying mundane objects is one of the joys of life. This may be much too much for you, but have you seen The Home Edit? I enjoy streaming it while folding a giant hamper of laundry; even though the show is completely over the top and full of pricy product promos, I get some great ideas for how to catalog and organize the next nook of my home! I love my packing cubes, but nothing beats the old military trick of rolling clothes and squishing them into all the corners of your suitcase!
As soon as I saw “Aaron Spelling” in this piece, I knew what you were going to say. I remember reading that too and imagining that someday I would have an extra room with a walk-in closet I could make into a gift wrapping room. Now I realize I don’t really want an extra room to clutter and clean. I have a bed in a bureau and the gift wrap fits in the long draw underneath where the bedding is supposed to go.
Totally agree on the packing cubes. Never used them because they just seemed so...inflexible. Plus, aren't they taking up space which there's precious little of when packing?
But OMG -- your section relating having an affinity for creating order out of chaos and writing just slew me. I'm a retired history professor, and that's exactly what I've done with everything I've ever written -- take all the research and somehow craft it into a story that supports a point (aka thesis.) And a lot of my work has focused exactly on how my subjects have made sense of their lives, perhaps especially because I've written mostly about early-modern Englishwomen, and how, despite the considerable limitations placed on them, they nonetheless found the cracks and fissures through which they could exercise their sense of self and express themselves. I've often thought of it as every person being dealt a set of cards upon birth -- the timeless variables of class and gender mixed with those specific to time, place and culture, to which you add the personal aspects of talent, intelligence, looks, temperament, etc. Each individual then has to navigate and negotiate with and through those cards amidst the vicissitudes of historical events to try and create a meaning of her life for herself.
The amazing thing is that, with varying levels of success, they did it -- as do we.
I am JEALOUS!!! That is a beautiful sight!!!!! I’m lucky to have any room on our bed for extra clothes & I have pared down on clothing since no longer working. I want full of closets, with a dressing room in each one. I need a bathroom- hubby does too but he needs a kitchen (chef) so the kitchen needs a pantry as big as it is
MAYBE I could stay organized with all of my wishes!
I lust after the linen closet at the Gamble House in Pasadena, it is as big as my kitchen in this Mid-Century Modern house. Although it does have lots of kitchen cupboards, mostly too high or too deep to be useful, sigh. How about a She shed in backyard, rotate the seasonals.