I Want That, and I Want That, and Oh, Wow, I REALLY Want That!

The Container Store. I guess, to those of you who don’t have one near you, or those of you who abhor shopping, those words don’t mean anything. And maybe if I had one, here in Waco, the draw might not be as strong, but almost every time I go to Fort worth, (or Austin or Dallas, or any other place that has one), it’s often (no, not absolutely always, just pretty often) on my list of places to go. It’s a store that sells goods that are designed to help you be/become organized. And it’s fabulous!!

When I walk through a Container Store, I just feel that “I can be organized. I can have control of all parts of my life. I can do this!”  And I’m bad about going there, even when I don’t have something in particular I need to purchase. I’m willing to just walk up and down the aisles and find something that I need very badly to help me organize my house, my garage, my room, my stuff, my life. And there’s always something I want. Not necessarily something I need, but always something I want. And that’s the problem.

When I went last week, there were some soft-sided round bins on sale. Ooh, I said to myself. These would be great to hold the stacks of yarn in the closet. And they would have. But, those stacks of yarn are already in some containers–a couple of cloth bags, a large wire basket, a couple of smaller plastic bins. Not particularly cute, but they’re quite functional.

I must be better about saying no. MUST be better about saying no. I walk away from the darling bins.

I also walk away from the shelving, rods, wire drawers, in the closet organizing section. I want to completely redo all the closets with this stuff. I love this stuff. But, really, all the closets are fine. And the displays and photographs of highly organized closets using these wonderful things are approximately the size of a bedroom in my house (and honestly, wouldn’t that make a great closet). I suppose that some folks actually live in houses with giant closets like that. Not I.

But last Saturday, I truly did have a reason to go. I was looking for something that I thought might exist (but rather doubted). All the small spice jars on a round turntable in a kitchen cabinet keep toppling over. I wanted a turntable that had sides, so the small jars wouldn’t keep falling out, back into the cabinet corners, and clogging up the turntable’s turning. But, those sides couldn’t be too tall, or you couldn’t get the jars out easily. I understood that potential problem, but the system I have now is making me crazy.

Of course, what I wanted didn’t exist, at least not there (and really, it seems like every thing that could possibly be made for organizing kitchen cabinets is there). But, I did find a spice jar holder that has three little drawers and each draw pulls down. I stood and compared the narrower and wider sizes, worked the sample, and bought one.

Then, oh, no! I walked around. I found an over-the-door towel holder. At Thanksgiving, there will be five extra people in the house. My towel system in the past has been to point everyone to the location of towels in a cabinet. Then the used towels just stack up and get hung all sorts of places. A year or so ago, I found one hanging on a hook behind a door in the guest room, about a month and a half after guests had gone. This towel holder seemed like the solution. I put it in my basket next to the spice holder

Oh, I remembered. I wanted a couple of additional hooks for the nice Elfa hanging system in the garage. I put those in the basket. And then I went to the gift wrap department to look for some wrapping paper to use as end papers for a book I want to make for Sunday School. I wanted something cute and something that was good quality paper. I found the perfect thing.

I walked all around the store (well, partly because I was looking for the rest room). I did not get nice hangers for some clothes. I did not get cute doodads for Christmas stockings, because really, I always spend too much on last-minute things, and I’m trying not to do that this year. I did not get some cute new woven bins for my closet that would have looked so great, but REALLY I have all the bins I need, and they are perfectly doing the job that needs to be done (holding the lint removers, holding the insoles, holding the scarves). I did not buy anything else. But I wanted so much more.

Losing self-control leaves you as helpless as a city without a wall.
Proverbs 25:28 (Contemporary English Version)

I have a real problem at Wal-Mart, where the baby clothes are right by the grocery aisles. I try hard to turn my head away from the cute, cute, cute things that I think Baby Peter might need. Or that I might want to buy for him, whether he needs them or not. I’ll start thinking of that head-turning as protection (from high credit cards bills) for the city of my life.