Raspberry Iced M

I took a look around my house today and realized that my job has blessed me in ways I haven’t yet acknowledged publicly.

To meet me in person is to also meet a woman taunted/plagued/irrationally irritated by minor inconveniences.

A box or drawer that won’t pull out easily.
Needing – but not having – a ponytail holder handy and ready for use.
Clutter in any confined space.
Losing my keys.

All of those things will throw me into an internal rage. And I’ve spent the last year collecting things, and setting up my home, in ways that prevent those types of inconveniences.

Below is a list of my top 10 “life hack” purchases.

1. A king sized comforter. That might not seem like a huge deal to some, but let me clarify. I sleep in a queen sized bed. By myself 5 nights a week. On the weekends, though, my 6’3″ husband sleeps beside me. And while we have utilized the same bed for the entirety of our marriage, my husband – perhaps in his old(er) age or maybe in congruence with his cancer diagnosis – has become cold-natured – and by default – a “cover hog.” The decision to upgrade to a king comforter resolves two issues – one, it keeps me from freezing at night on the weekends, and two, it keeps my husband alive and breathing and not punched in the face. By me.
2. A “drink fridge.” We have a small refrigerator. For food. But I quickly learned that trying to stack drinks into that tiny fridge was creating major issues. I was one dropped jar of pickles away from losing it. So I invested in another refrigerator that holds nothing except our family’s beverages. It’s 7 cubit feet and sits beside my husband’s gaming desk. My Dr. Pepper. Energy drinks. Lemonade. In one place. And away from my already-crowded food fridge.
3. Along those same lines, a nugget ice maker. This was technically a “preference” purchase, but because the three people in my house use Stanleys, we are in constant need of ice, and the little ice maker in our little fridge can’t keep up. Our new counter top ice maker turns out 44 pounds of pebble-like ice per day. Totally worth it.
4. A storage building. I am beginning to realize that it’s not really about the size of the home…it’s the amount of clutter. I have a very full closet in the spare bedroom of our house that desperately needs organization. Christmas decorations, out of season clothes, random tech equipment, books, boardgames. We outgrew it pretty rapidly, and yet I am not willing to part with anything being stored. So we invested in a 12×24 storage building in hopes of moving the clutter so that I am not tripping over things. And realistically, we shouldn’t outgrow a building that large.
5. “Extra” sets of various things for ease of access. I bought a separate set of make up for my purse, so that I can do my make up in the car on mornings when I am running late. A pocket Bible which stays in my purse at all times. Chapstick. Nail clippers. Phone chargers. There are 5 tvs in our house. There are 2 electronic calendars, 2 wall calendars, and one paper calendar scattered throughout the house. I don’t have time to be wandering around looking for things. Having multiples is my way of solving that problem.
6. My Kindle. To be fair, my husband bought my Kindle for me for Mother’s Day, and I didn’t think I would like it. I’m a paperback girly. But since I never decide what to read until moments before I open a book, a Kindle is helpful, because all of my interests are available in one central location. The charge lasts forever. It doesn’t hurt my eyes. And it’s easy to shove in my bag when I leave the house. I love a hard copy at bedtime, but for travel? The Kindle.
7. Organizer bins. Under every cabinet and on most shelves of my home, there are clear bins which separate “like” items. One stores my nails in a bathroom cabinet. Another organizes all of our medicines. I just bought several more so that I can organize my chip/bread cabinet. I despise counter clutter, and I want things put away. Using these bins is a great way for my boys to find what they want without asking me.
8. A bowl. To that end, my husband has a bowl. It’s green. It is his bowl. It is reserved for his wallet, keys, pocket knife, loose change, work badge…anything he needs to unpack when he gets home from work. Granted, getting him to use it has been a struggle, but the question, “Where’s my wallet?” is asked a lot less today than it was before the bowl was acquired. So…I’ll take it.
9. A bigger trash can for the kitchen. Even as a family of 3, the standard 13-gallon trash can wasn’t big enough, and we were going through a bag of trash a day. Our house is far away from the main road where the trash is collected, and my husband is not in a physical position to walk to the end of the driveway and back, let alone lugging trash on the walk. So I bought a restaurant/commercial sized 30 gallon trash can, which doesn’t fill up for a few days, thereby cutting trips down the driveway down by half.
10. My husband’s wheelchair. For a few months, errands were very difficult, as my husband couldn’t stand for longer than a few minutes without experiencing pain. And neither a walking cane nor a heavy wheelchair did the job. So back in June, we spent quite a bit of money on a lightweight electric wheelchair. It’s 40 pounds. Compact. It has a back up battery. It goes 15 miles without needing to be charged. It’s easy to load and unload from the car. Now, going shopping, getting through an airport, standing in a long line, and sight-seeing…it’s all breezy. Worth the investment, I’ll admit, despite my initial protests.

Honorable mentions: A foldable/portable cup for my purse on days I forget my Stanley when leaving home; a foldable/portable Bluetooth keyboard for working on the go; pouches to keep my purse contents organized; a jewelry organizer/mirror combo so that all of my accessories are easy to locate; and a Scentbox subscription, so that my husband and son can exercise their respective needs to smell delicious, for a fraction of the price of every cologne brand that interests them.

What’s the one thing in your house that saves your sanity? I want to know.