Downshifting to the slow lane

Yes, I have to admit that I am still working too hard on slowing my life down. Coming from the mid-west and having been raised to work hard and then work harder, it has taken me a long time to wrap my brain around the concept of slowing it all down.

But adjusting to the new economy, and the new norm of "less is more", has become something for me to practice as well as preach. So, I've been investigating the slow living movement and I can tell you about some of the things I've found...

Rightsizing, downshifting, downsizing, slow living, and simple living are terms most often used to describe the idea and process. Amazon carries a heap of books with these titles. I've a read a few. Or more actually, browsed a few - who has time to read a WHOLE book? Real Simple leads the pack of subscription magazines. But I've given up magazines in favor of computerized reading.

I've scoured the internet and come up with a few interesting sites and blogs, but I find that blogs start and then drift off never to be posted to again. My favorite so far is Simpleorganizedlife.com . There are plenty of organizing blogs, but this one covers more than just being organized.

If you've found anything interesting on these subjects, let me know and I'll check them out and report back, as soon as I get a minute...

Kitchen drawers

It's perfectly okay to use drawers in the kitchen as you would a pantry shelf. This kitchen has more drawers than cupboards and no pantry area at all. So using the drawers for food storage makes sense.

To keep like items together and bags of grains from spilling, I used plastic containers as drawer dividers. An airtight container is used to hold crackers and cookies that would get stale if left out in the air.

Cars + summer heat = danger

Tragically, last week a four month old child was accidentally forgotten in the back seat of a car all day and died from heat exhaustion. Last month a police officer left his police dog in a car for a few hours and sadly, the dog died. We simply can't say this often enough, but cars and heat are a terrible mix for any living thing left inside, even with windows left slightly open.

Apparently child deaths have increased since front air bags were introduced and children had to be put in the back seats of cars. Here are some suggestions for reminding yourself that your child is in the back:

1. Put the child's toy in the front seat next to you as a reminder they are in the car.

2. Put your purse, briefcase or jacket in the back seat of the car so that you have to go back there before you lock the car up.

3. Tie a ribbon to your steering wheel.

4. Take a photo of your child and sticky back it and put it on the dashboard whenever the child is in the car.

Don't take your dog in the car with you on errands in the summer.

Bathroom clutter

Q: Help! My bathroom is a cluttered mess. Too many products and not enough space for them all. I am especially unhappy with the way the top of the toilet looks with stuff all over it. Can you offer any suggestions?

A: Yes, I can! I have mentioned bathrooms before and how I deal with them as both a private and a public space - as in a one bathroom home (see 12/15/07 post under home living + staging). It is important that you be comfortable in your own bathroom, but equally important that your guests feel comfortable there. So, I'll break this question down and deal with it in separate posts. First let's tackle the top of the toilet.




Personally, I've never been a fan of using the top of the toilet for storage. However, I've come to terms with it in my own bathroom. Depending on the type of lid you have on the toilet, you may or may not be able to use it - some lids are not flat or they have the flushing button in the middle of the them. If you can use your lid, then I highly recommend using an attractive tray or basket to contain all the items and products that must live there.

In addition, I try and use only products with attractive bottles and labels whenever I possibly can. You could also transfer products into attractive bottles, pump or spray containers purchased from Bed, Bath and Beyond or The Container Store. Just be sure to put a label on the bottle so everyone knows what's inside.