We have all clicked on that article “10 Organizing Products that will Change Your Life!” It holds so much promise. Who isn’t looking for solutions to make their lives easier?
But does anyone actually use them? We’re not asking sarcastically as if we already know the answer. The truth is, we can’t quite figure it out. We do know that for every household purge we have conducted with clients, we have found some “magic organizing solution” that the person bought with high hopes that it would change their lives too.
Before getting into specifics, let’s make a distinction between organizing products and storage solutions. It should be said that we fawn over a clever storage solution. A basket that is both toilet paper holder and cute storage bin? Yes! Color-coded tupperware that locks together? Um, you got it. A spice rack to die for? Give it to me.
Organizing products are a different category. They are tricks that allow you to skirt the effort needed to complete a simple household task. Or, a product that gives you the appearance of uniformity. But whether or not they provide a qualitative improvement is, of course, up for debate.
Houzz.com
Pliio: Pliio is a filing system for your clothes. The first stage has you folding your T-shirts around a rectangular card, so that your folded item is compact with tight corners. You can either “file” the neatly folded T-shirt into a Pliio filing box, or pile them on top of each other on a shelf.
The Pliio promises to let you “fold quickly and easily, keep drawers and shelves organized, put laundry away effortlessly, [and] maximize storage space.”
Thoughts: This seems like it would slow me down. Folding laundry is time consuming enough without having to find a card for each item and fold around it. Plus, you don’t need a card to create a filing system for your clothes!
Xangar : Xangar clips promise to save you from messy, overlapping clothes hanging in your closet. They are plastic rings that sit between your hangers, creating about and inch or two of space between your hanging clothes.
xangar.com
These are particularly baffling, as they seem to only lend the appearance of uniformity to a hanging closet.
Maybe this is the organizer in us, but if your closet is so packed that your freshly pressed clothes are getting wrinkled while hanging, I’d have to ask you the following questions. Are you wearing all of these clothes? When getting dressed, are you skipping over 40 outfits to get to the one you have in your head? Are you utilizing all of your storage possibilities?
It might be time for a closet purge. Interested? Learn more here.
Food Savers and Slicers: A banana shaped banana saver? A tomato shaped tomato saver? We’ve thrown a million of these out. Use a regular, more versatile piece of Tupperware, or a reusable ziplock bag. Voila!
amazon.com
As for speciality slicers, our great exception is the apple slicer. I love uniformly sliced apples. That being said, if your drawers are filled with pineapple and mango corers, cherry pitters, strawberry decapitators, banana slicers and others, you might be able to free up some space by using a knife. Watch a quick tutorial on YouTube and you will be a fruit-slicing expert in no time.
We want to hear from you! Do you use any of these products, or similar ones? Just because it doesn’t work for us doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for our readers. Post a comment and tell us about your organizing products!