The year I was born, Jackie Kennedy Onassis was working as an editor at Doubleday. I like to imagine that she sat down at a formidable dark-wood desk every morning, crisply dressed, and worked her way through manuscripts in silence, marking them up with a blue pencil, and that every afternoon at five pm her assistant knocked on her office door bearing a glass of perfectly chilled chardonnay.
Publishing was no longer quite so glamorous by the time I showed up. Neither, in fairness, was I.
I had interned at the merged Bantam Doubleday Dell in high school. I worked for a subsidiary rights coordinator and spent most of my time editing down cover copy into smaller and simpler segments, suitable for non-native English-speaking agents and scouts, for the rights guide. Twice a week after my last class ended, I took the subway to Times Square, hunkered down in an unused storeroom qua office, and typed happily away.
I was really in it for the book room: a bedroom-sized storage closet, crammed with metal shelving set in narrow aisles, with extra copies of books jammed in every which way. “Take whatever you want from there,” said my frazzled supervisor as she rushed by. She didn’t have to tell me twice. BDD published genre fiction, and piles of it. I stocked up on my beloved science fiction, piles of paperbacks with gleaming robots and ringed planets crowding the covers.
I piled up new fiction in hardcover—Hardcover! Unimaginable luxury!—and squirreled everything away in my bedroom. The next year, I passed that internship along to my camp friend Arie with tips on which managers to ask for interesting work, and painstakingly described directions from the elevator to the book room. No fool he, he came prepared with an empty backpack.
I got my first job out of college at Bantam Dell, which had just cut off Doubleday as a stand-alone imprint, on a different floor of the same building. We shared the building with BMG, and every now and then as you passed the cargo entrance, a giant garage door would roll up and a limousine would glide smoothly out. Once, I caught a glimpse of Michael Jackson’s drained face and tousled hair as the window rolled up. We loved those celebrity sightings but thought of them as taking place in another world; as entertainment went, books were the slim-margin, grubby, ink-stained stepchild to the real work of the building.
I worked for a gorgeous, energetic romance editor named Kara, only a few years older than I was. She’d picked me out of a pile of equally eager, equally unqualified bright-eyed, bushytailed English majors because “I saw you used to work in a bar, and I figured you’d be fun.” We quickly became friends and went out to author lunches and book parties as often as I could convince her to take me along. Her mother, a fierce, tiny Italian woman from Scranton, would call multiple times a day with questions and commentary; once, I had to stick my burning face into Kara’s office and say, “Listen, I’m sorry, but she’s asking—I would never ask otherwise but—OK, I’m just going to say it—your mom is in Banana Republic and wants to know what pants size you wear.”
“Oh my Goooooood,” she groaned. “Just transfer the call.”
I knew it would be years before I was allowed to acquire any books of my own, and I was perfectly happy just being in proximity to books, typing up marketing plans, writing rejection letters, sending authors flowers on publication day. Once a month, the company ordered all the assistants pizza and we sat in a conference room for Slush Lunch, a beloved tradition where we opened all the unsolicited submissions we’d received from hopeful authors who hadn’t managed to snag the attention of a literary agent. Most were just terrible, but there were enough doozies—prison mail (so much prison mail!), synopses scrawled in crayon, tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories, occasionally packaged in actual tinfoil—to keep us in material.
Romance writers like to have industry people speak at their conferences. Savvily, the southern chapters of the Romance Writers of America hold theirs in February. I made far too little money to take a proper vacation, but I spent many weeks in those first few winters holed up in janky Holiday Inn conference rooms during the day trying to look older than I was, and carousing drunkenly in the hotel pool at night with whatever assistant literary agent they’d brought down. The luxury of staying in a hotel—A hotel! In my own room!—just floored me. I shared a three-bedroom in Astoria with two beloved friends from summer camp, and I was grateful for the quiet.
Leaving for parts south also gave me some breathing room from my mother’s increasingly frenzied calling. I didn’t have a cell phone yet, and when I traveled I felt the lighthearted, childish glee of playing hooky; I was beyond where she could reach me. She raged upon every return—why hadn’t I given her the number of the conference organizer or hotel security, what was wrong with me—but I was finally beginning to fully accept that her demands were bizarre and that I wasn’t the problem. The boulder was off my chest. I still listened to the voice mails, tears of atavistic fear rushing to my eyes when she screamed, but I could also choose not to return them.
The fear wasn’t entirely unwarranted. Something was changing with her. She was losing what little filter she’d had. My mother ran on pure vengeance, and age—hers or mine—hadn’t slowed her down. When we fought, she would show up in the lobby of my office building, threatening security until they called me down. How a small woman with a heavy Queens accent managed to bully large, burly men into compliance, I don’t know. But she did it. I would go down just to keep her from screaming the doors off. The last thing I needed was for my publisher to pass by and notice a resemblance. Far better to hustle her out the chrome revolving door, muttering apologies just to shut her up. I despaired of ever being fully out from under her thumb.
One spring evening, I was standing in a supermarket aisle debating the relative merits of two shapes of pasta when my brand-new Razr flip phone rang. I wedged it between my shoulder and ear. “Hello?”
The other end of the line was silent, and then there was a sniffle. Then a keen. “Elizabeth…” Her voice trailed off. I groaned inwardly. It was Tranquilizer Voice.
“Hi, Mom. What’s wrong?”
Another sniff. “Oh… you know. This is a hard time of year for me. I miss my mother, Elizabeth.” Her mother was forty years dead, but every spring the grief came back as fresh as the first.
“I know, Mom. I’m sorry.”
“I think she must be lonely, all by herself down there in her grave. Don’t you think she must be lonely?”
I paused with the winning box of penne suspended above my basket. This was new.
“I. I mean. I don’t think her soul is still there, Mom. I’m sorry, I know this is hard, but she’s not in there anymore, you know? It’s just her body.”
That was a mistake. She wailed anew, and a woman walking by looked over her shoulder. I grimaced apologetically and turned toward the shelf with my shoulders hunched.
“Are you OK?”
“Well!” She seemed to gather herself. “I have an idea, Elizabeth. I think I know how we can fix this.”
I did not like the sound of that “we.”
“I know you don’t want children. I know you don’t. But, listen—hear me out. You could have a stillborn baby, right? You could do that.”
I boggled, silently.
“And then—you see, this is brilliant! We could put the baby down in the grave with her, and she wouldn’t be lonely. They would both have company. And everything would be alright.” A beat passed, and she said, more gaily: “Well, just think about it. Think about it. Call me back.”
She hung up, and I stared around the store with bugged-out eyes as other people went about their shopping, blissfully untroubled by the image of an arthritic elderly woman digging up her mother’s grave by moonlight, a small bundle tucked under one arm.
I went home and opened a bottle of wine and watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and tried to pretend that Joyce Summers was my mom. As coping mechanisms go, I highly recommend this. As she got older, I liked to half-joke—gallows humor being a helpful crutch—that it was getting harder and harder to identify if any given act of shittiness was her dementia, her eccentricity, or just her being a garden-variety asshole. She had never had a firm hand on her temper, and with age she no longer seemed to even try to manage it, screaming red-faced at the slightest conversational hiccup. She also started to lose track of what she had done and when.
An obsessively careful record-keeper and the source of my habit of paying bills immediately when they arrived, she forgot to pay a $14 AmEx bill. When the next bill came with a late payment fee, she called the bank screaming furiously—How dare they, didn’t they know her history as a stellar, upstanding customer?—and refused to pay the bill at all. The next month came with another fee, with a percentage of the whole charged as a penalty, and she threw it in a drawer. The next month came, and then the next. The bill rose more than a thousand dollars over that $14, and the credit card company called me, the rep’s voice unctuous and faux-concerned—Didn’t I want to pay her debt for her? Wasn’t it the right thing to do?
I hung up on them.
Against the terms of her lease, she housed Columbia grad students and young office workers in the apartment’s two extra bedrooms. They weren’t allowed to have guests, and had to put up with her peculiarities, but for nominal rent in a twenty-four-hour doorman building half a block from Central Park, they paid up without a peep. Many of them were international students hungry for a connection of any kind, and years later, I am still in touch with many of them: the woman from East Germany who told me stories of life behind the Berlin Wall, her family of four sharing their four allotted bananas per year, grateful her father didn’t like them so they could split his; the gay Argentine man who found New York much more libertine than Córdoba; the teacher from Istanbul who wrote to me in horror every time he saw a parallel between Trump and Erdoğan (he wrote often).
Something was changing with her. She was losing what little filter she’d had. My mother ran on pure vengeance, and age—hers or mine—hadn’t slowed her down.The bright side of her ever-slipping control was that she started telling me things she hadn’t meant to. Most of them meant nothing: the names of men she’d dated in high school, trips she’d planned on taking. One afternoon she insisted on taking me out to lunch, and we sat at a sidewalk table outside a sushi restaurant. She puffed furiously while thumbing the menu. I had taken to buying her cartons of Marlboros from dubiously legal websites at cut-rate prices; the packages arrived weeks later stamped with customs marks from former Eastern Bloc countries. I hated being her supplier, but also knew things went better for me when she had nicotine to keep her calm.
“Ma’am,” said the meek waitress, “I’m so sorry, but you can’t smoke out–”
Mom turned her most terrifying gaze on her; the blue-steel barely-contained-rage glance over the bifocals. “Young lady,” she bit out, “I have been smoking since before your mother failed to shut her legs for your father. And I don’t intend to stop now. I want the tempura. Elizabeth?”
She pointed her menu at me. “Sushilunchspecialthankyou,” I rushed out. Mom took my menu, slapped it together with hers, and handed the two over. The waitress caught my eye, and I mouthed I am so, so sorry as she backed away, shaking her head.
“Get her,” Mom said cheerfully. “Telling me to stop smoking. Oh! I’m seeing that hypnotist again, though. He’s helped me quit before.”
“A hypnotist?” I said. “Like, with a pocket watch and a waistcoat?”
“No, no,” she laughed, shaking her head. “He’s a psychologist. You remember, I was seeing that David Kagan, but he gave up! He told me he couldn’t do any more for me. Borderline isn’t curable, he says. I think he’s just lazy.”
“Wait, what isn’t curable?” Her eyes flashed and she drew herself up.
“Nothing. You mind your own business, Elizabeth. No one asked you.”
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Excerpted from Never Simple: A Memoir by Liz Scheier. Published by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright © 2022 by Scheier, LLC. All rights reserved.
]]>These organizing hacks have been used in my home, so let’s check in to see how they are holding up!
To create this purse organizer, I found a pot lid organizer in the kitchen section of the Dollar Tree. I had seen this all over Pinterest at the time, so wanted to test it out.
I found that it totally worked for thicker purses. And if I doubled the clutch purses into one divider.
Because this lid organizer was raised, it didn’t last the test. I had to swap it out for something without a raise. I ended up using a bin to store all my clutches and a different bag organizer for my larger purses. The space I have to store these items isn’t that big. So making sure I use every available space is key.
So the lid organizer to store purses totally works, as long as you have the space for it!
For the card games, I used pencil bags I found in the school aisle at our local Dollar Tree.
They were perfect for storing card games. The kids loved them. And they were easy for them to open to get the game out to play.
The problem was, I only got 3 zippered bags. And when I went back, they were out!
I ended up using some photo organizer boxes to store other games. But the zippered bags were perfect for cards! I just wish I got more.
The doll clothing stored in a bag, was absolutely brilliant for preschool kiddos and the doll clothing.
I had a hook in the playroom for the clothes to go when it was time to clean up. And cleaning up was the easiest because we threw things into a bag.
As the doll clothes got smaller, and basically tripled in quantity, we swapped the bag for a bin.
But the bag is still in use today! Just for other things like a tote bag for dance!
When I was searching the Dollar Tree for organizing items, I found these bins in the bin aisle. And I immediately fell in love with them because they were flexible but solid.
I thought it would be a great idea to have the kids put all their clothing in the bins. So when they put away their own laundry, things went faster.
The laundry did go faster. The kids were able to put their clothing into the baskets as quickly as they wanted to.
But the durability of the baskets didn’t last.
This was my most disappointing Dollar Tree purchase. They didn’t last with the wear and tear from the kids.
While they looked cute, the handle broke almost instantly. And the holes on the basket started to break.
Using the baskets for clothing is still strongly recommended. Just not these particular baskets.
So did my easy organizing hacks from the Dollar Store actually last?
I have to say I think the ideas lasted, while not all of the products did.
I still use a purse organizer, but not the one I purchased from the Dollar Store.
The bags for the games is still in use. I just wish I purchased more.
Doll clothing has changed, so our storage options needed to as well. The bag is still going strong, just not as a doll clothes holder.
And the baskets for the kids’ clothing did not last at all. I had to buy new ones that are more durable, since the Dollar Store bins didn’t last.
The post How Did These Dollar Store Organizing Hacks Hold Up? appeared first on The Organized Mama.
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Have you wondered if there are more storage options in your home? We want to maximize our storage options with value, function and flair. The value of additional storage is to easily access what we need and have a home for all items. It is most functional when we use additional storage in an area where those items are needed. Of course we want an attractive option with flair. Check out these 15 ways clever ways to be more organized and functional with the space you have.
A note of caution before we proceed. Having more storage space is not license to over purchase. Keep in mind realistic amounts of purchases with respect to your and your family needs. It’s tempting to over stuff our space so refrain from creating a difficult to access amount of items in your home.
There is a lot of wall space in your home and your garage. Use taller bookshelves, add additional upper level shelving, and use over the door storage to add storage options.
Group items you use together in the space these are used. When grouped together, you can consolidate the amounts in a clear container.
You can store items that you need less access to in less accessible spots. Use shallow, under the bed storage with wheels or shoe organizers under your bed for additional storage. Add flair with a decorative basket for upper store.
Use furnishings as storage. Think ottoman with hanging files, dresser as gift wrap organizer, or closet as an office space.
Use dividers in spaces to create function and access. In your junk drawer have slots for each item stored there. In a room, use a screen or an IKEA bookcase as a room divider and storage.
Decant into your favorite glass container or use a favorite tea tin as storage in your spaces. These items turn visual clutter into attractive, functional organization.
Segment spaces in a drawer or a room by thinking about zone options. A zone is a space or area dedicated to one use, within the space itself. A kitchen is a great example with the zones for prepping, cooking, serving, and containing leftovers. By adding specific zones, you are grouping items you use together.
The back of any cabinet or closet door is great to add storage with either a shoe organizer or rack. It makes access super easy for any items. Use cabinet doors to store towels, paper towels or rubber gloves. Use any closet storage for toys, grooming items, jewelry or any small items.
It’s not a luxury to hire a professional organizer, closet designer and/or installer for your home. It adds value to your home sale which sells your home quickly. You will enjoy your closet, most especially your primary closet, with more space dedicated to your personal needs. Professionals come to your home with ideas you can implement on your own.
Look around your space and see where you can add a little more storage with these clever ways to add homes for all your items.
The post 9 Ways to Maximize Your Storage in Your Home appeared first on Ellen's Blog, Professional Organizing for Kingwood & Houston.
]]>So what does all this have to do with creating a home office for two? A few years ago I created a workspace for myself for the reasons above. I installed a faux brick wall, built a desk, and added some storage underneath. It was exactly what I needed during that time. Our home has a little hidden gem of a mother-in-law suite which is where my workspace is. But this also goes to show how anyone can create a workspace using a single wall. Which after the year 2020, that’s what a lot of us had to do and possibly still doing.
This brings me to the office refresh that happened in March of last year. With Ryan officially working from home until further notice, he also needed his own designated workspace. Keeping the brick accent wall, I sold the desk we built. It was a decent size but wasn’t practical for both of us to use and get work done.
The most affordable and best temporary solution was buying two of the same desks. We utilized the same corner of the room to create our workspaces. Ryan’s desk went against the faux brick wall and mine was placed in front of the arch wall. With a lamp placed in the corner and a rug large enough for both desks to be on, it was such a great solution with working from home. But remember, it was supposed to be temporary which is why it was worked until it didn’t.
Fast forward to a year and a half later and Ryan’s permanently working from home with his job. Having a home office for him was no longer temporary. This is amazing but there were a few things with our workspace that just wasn’t working anymore as an office for two. For one, our storage situation with our work materials and office supplies was a hot mess. We were using a smaller bookcase/shelving unit and items were placed where they could fit on the shelves, were not organized at all, and had a lack of actual storage containers. Ryan’s manuals and books for work were also stacked on the floor next to his desk. Certainly not ideal.
Even though we both love working from home, sitting right next to each other was difficult at times with zoom meetings, taking phone calls, and our chairs colliding anytime we both slightly moved back. This means change number three to our home office needed to happen for our updated and current work situation. And that’s exactly what I did today!
The goal was to create a more functional, organized, and aesthetically pleasing workspace. I don’t know about you, but I thrive in environments like that. To accomplish that, my to-do list consisted of creating a better storage solution for office/work materials, get everything organized and manageable, find a new spot for Ryan’s desk, and a few other visual changes with paint, a new rug, and a few decor pieces.
Using a shelving unit I found at IKEA, I knew it had to go against the faux brick wall due to the size. This single shelving unit is to hold all of our work and office materials in a single spot without it being overwhelming like before. But before anything went into place, I painted the brick wall in Cloud White by Benjamin Moore. It’s my go-to creamy white. This helped to soften the space a bit and allowed the wall to work with the shelving unit vs competing with it as a focal point.
As far as the organization for our office and work materials, I picked up several different storage solutions from IKEA in my color scheme of black, green, and wood tones. This made it very affordable with how much I was going to need. I used baskets, boxes, green tin containers, and a few other storage solutions. I’ll link everything at the end of this blog post so you’ll know everything that I used.
The large green tin containers are what I placed our pens, pencils, and permanent markers in. This makes it so easy to quickly grab what we need as we start to work. The smaller tin containers hold the electronic items that we use at least weekly. Things like camera remotes, earbuds, external hard drives, and a few other smaller gadgets.
The wicker basket holds the large electronic items like my camera, camera lenses, microphone and a Gimbal. All of the cords for these electronic items are all in one of the black boxes while the other box holds my various paint fan decks. These boxes hide the not so pretty items that I use almost daily while still being able to easily access them.
For all of our loose paperwork, notebooks, manuals, invoices, and other important documents, the 4 magazine holders neatly organize and store those items. There’s one for Ryan’s engineering manuals, my course manuals and paperwork, notebooks, and an empty one for when we need it. Our printer paper is placed in the two-tiered wooden tray while the extra ink for the printer is in the small basket with a lid to the right of it.
The wooden box at the top that resembles an old sewing box, holds all of our small office materials. Items like sticky notes, paper clips, felt pens, business cards, index cards, extra scissors, and a few other items. It can open right on the shelf without us taking it off since the two top halves fold outwards to the side as it opens. The cutest little box and Oliver already wants one of his own.
On top of the shelving unit, an IKEA tablet/phone holder gives my iPad a designated place and the vase is being used to hold my favorite pair of scissors and my glasses. Both are things that I reach for daily. Other than that, artwork, decor, potted plants, and lighting were added to make our workspace an extension of the main part of our home. It makes it very inviting, enjoyable, and comfortable to be in.
The lights are plug-in lights which are perfect for a space like this. Once attached to the wall, they can move up and down and left to right. They can also detach from the plate secured to the wall and can clamp onto a shelf, lamp, etc. They’re pretty amazing and give the workspace a cozy vibe when on.
With everything in place and organized, it’s a huge improvement from the smaller bookshelf that was our situation before. This has created a way for our work and office materials to be and stay organized, easily accessible, and a drop zone for items when needed.
Now, for the part of the office you’re probably wondering the most about: where did Ryan’s desk go? To the left of my desk and down the wall a little bit! It fits perfectly between the two windows on the wall and he instantly gained a view to outside versus looking at a wall when working. Do you see the banana trees right outside the windows? A pretty cool view if I must say so myself.
The map from the brick wall now hangs above his desk, one of our favorite rugs placed in his new workspace, and most importantly the room to work without us bumping into each other. And in a way, he has gained additional workspace if needed with the media console on the wall to the left of him.
These changes of making our home office function better for the two of us is already making the biggest difference. We don’t come in stressed or overwhelmed now that everything is neat and organized, we can take phone and zoom calls without the other person having to leave the room, can focus more on our work, we’re excited to head back here and it makes it 10x easier to go between our work life and family life. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we switch or tweak our office to make it work for us, but for now, it’s exactly what we needed to successfully continue working from home.
If you’re wanting to try something similar in your home for your workspace or spotted an item or two you’d love for your existing one, here are the links to everything we’re using:
Desk
Ryan’s Rug
Liz’s Rug
White Desk Chair
Gold Knot
Faux Plant
Black and White Artwork
Face Artwork
Shelf Brackets for Wall
Large Shelving Unit:
Magazine File
Storage Box with Lid
Basket
Small Green Metal Box
Large Green Metal Box
Basket with Lid
KLÄMMEMACKA Desk Organizer
Letter/Paper Tray
IKEA 365+ Clear Jar
Black Wall Light
Throw Blanket
Flower/Plant Prints
Mobile Phone/Tablet holder
Vase
The post Creating a Home Office for Two appeared first on Within the Grove.
]]>Before you begin any bathroom organizing project, you have to declutter! In the video above, I walk you through how to declutter a bathroom so you can have ample storage space!
When it comes to bathroom storage ideas, you are going to need under sink storage. But how can you get that space tidy? By using expandable shelf organizers!
I have more tips for how you can do that in this post.
It is no secret that I love using drawer liners to keep things in place my cabinets and drawers. And it is no secret that I find ways to decorate with shelf liners as well. But did you know that shelf liners can actually protect your cabinets? Seriously!! Shelf liners have many purposes, and protecting under bathroom sinks is probably the main reason I use them so much around my home and my clients’ homes. Which is why lining your shelves and drawers with shelf liner like Clorox brand Easy Liner, you are going to keep things tidy in your bathroom! You can read more tips here on how to line bathrooms.
When it comes to beauty products, there are many different ways to store them. You can use drawer organizers to keep your beauty products tidy in your drawers. Group the items together in the drawer organizers. I love using the new drawer organizers from the Onyx collection, exclusively at Ulta Beauty! These organizers come together in a pack of 3. But they are 3 different sizes so you can really get those different sized beauty items organized in your drawers.
You can also store beauty items in turntables. The turntable from Ulta Beauty is perfect for all your beauty products. There are dividers inside the turntable, making it easy to store items inside cabinets. I have more tips for how to use the turntable for bathroom storage ideas here.
The MadeSmart Turn It Organizer from The Container Store is my favorite bathroom storage for your hair dryer, brushes, and curling irons! I use it in my bathroom along with all my clients!
When you are limited on drawer space in your bathroom, you are going to need products to create storage without taking up much space! Which is why I love using products with drawers to help you keep things organized, like make-up or beauty products. You can read more tips on how to do that here.
The back of the bathroom door makes for great storage in small bathrooms! Attach hooks or bars to hold towels if you are limited on wall space. I love these basket and towel holders to help with towel storage.
I love using trays on top of the counters. It is a rather easy fix to keep your counters looking tidy, while still keeping all the necessities out!
Figure out what products you need out and which can be stored in a drawer. Then find a tray that fits both the space and size of the products you need out. This way you are only buying something that is the perfect size for your space!
Sometimes the easiest way to organize is with smaller bins. Try using stackable bins to keep your stuff organized either out on the counter or under the sink like these.
These bathroom ideas with storage are sure to help you get things organized. Pick the ideas that will work for you in your bathroom. Test out and see how it works, then tweak what you need so that you are sure to have ample organization in your bathroom!
Some links may contain affiliates.
The post 10 Insanely Easy Bathroom Storage Ideas appeared first on The Organized Mama.
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