New Year’s Resolution: Get Organized

I love
the reinvigorated feeling the New Year brings—first the sense of wistful, pleasantly exhausted relief that the
holidays won’t be back for almost a whole year, and then, even in this darkest
of winter months, a sudden burst of energy compelling me to become a better version
of myself.  I assure you, I have many
lofty and challenging New Year’s resolutions, like making a habit of apologizing
without qualification to my husband (I’m sorry I’m totally nagging you, BUT. .
.) as needed.  However, I’m a sucker for instant payoff and I’ve already had a good deal of highly gratifying success with
my resolution to get organized, and without much effort, I might add.  

I am
mortified to admit that I am one of those people whose home is reasonably tidy
upon initial inspection, but my closets and cabinets reveal the true chaos roiling
within.  I’ve waged war on my out-of-sight-out-of-mind
impulse in various ways over the years, winning the occasional battle, but now
I can unselfconsciously report that I have won the war in my kitchen.

Normally
I pooh-pooh the purchase of organizational gadgetry because, in my experience, it’s
a shoe-budget-suck.  It invariably becomes
so much more clutter, destined for the Goodwill pile, or if particularly
pricey, CraigsList or eBay (which makes me feel bad for pawning expensive, useless
junk off on unsuspecting bargain hunters).  However, I have found a super-affordable ($15-$20), can’t
live-without, awesome-for-anyone-from-Manhattan-to-Fresno, organization objet d’art.

It is the Made
Smart Bakeware Holder and it has revolutionized my kitchen and
significantly improved my quality of life. I love this item and what it’s done for my cabinets so much, in fact, that over the last few days, I’ve often stopped by and opened them up for no other reason than to take in the delightful orderliness of my bake and cookware storage.


Embarrassed
by a fevered, clattering hunt for a cake plate whilst twelve of my nearest and
dearest watched on New Year’s Eve, I visited my friendly hometown Container
Store last week in order to skeptically purchase the 4-sort
dividers to organize the cabinet above my refrigerator.  Let me just tell you that these are thin milk
as compared to my babies the bakeware holders, which have grippy rubber to
prevent them from sliding, rounded receptacles to hold circular
and rectangular culinary objects alike, more dividers than the 4-sorts, and are constructed of
heavy-duty plastic that stands up, even, to my much-loved enameled cast iron Le Creuset
cookware. 

The
Made Smart Bakeware Holder is one of those products that is so well-designed
and easy to use that you spend days afterward kicking yourself because they
make your apparently insurmountable project seem ridiculously easy when finally you
take it on.  Organizing the cabinet above
my fridge and my two cookware drawers, for example, took roughly one-year,
three months and, oh, about 15 minutes to conquer.  Check it out:

  Before   After

  Before   After

  Before   After

A place for everything, and everything in its place.  New Year’s Resolution #1, check.  Happy New
Year and good organizing to you, Mamas!

M.