The bathrooms taught me more about myself, and I thought I'd write about that.
Harkening back to the rules Amy set for me (no more Container Store, any organizing tool I buy that doesn't work gets immediately returned or donated to charity), I realized there needs to be another:
Get an organizing system to remind myself of what I do have, so that I don't feel compelled to buy more of it because I'm concerned I don't have any.
That's a chore for next month's 30 Days of Organizing, and I look forward to figuring out the best way to keep all that info. For now, I have it in a memo in my Blackberry--I created the memo as I was clearning the bathrooms. But maybe there's a smarter place for the info, so that D can access it, too. If you guys have such a system, I hope you'll share it in comments--maybe you'll shorten my learning curve!
In case you're wondering what made me realize I needed such a system, mostly, it's the number of travel-sized fill-able bottles I discovered. There's little I hate more when I travel than schlepping too much stuff. And if I'm only going for a few days, or even just an overnight, it really rankles to take my full-sized girlie products. That's why there's a need for those travel bottles to begin with.
And then I also need a waterproof, but ultimately removable way to label the bottles as to what's in them (another thing for next month, and I hope you'll share about this, too, if you have a way to do it). Certainly, my brain is capable of filling something and knowing what it is for the duration of that trip. But three months from now? White conditioner tends to also look/smell like lotion after awhile, and I really don't want to put something where it doesn't belong. So I end up buying more empty bottles because I think I have none at home. Yeah, well, clearning today really set me straight on that ;)
So there it is. Over-buying because of a lack of appropriate systems to tell me what I have. That's what I learned about myself during this weekend's clearning.
Oh, and something else. The medical industry really has us all over a barrel. Stuff expires. It does. And it should--especially if it has "active ingredients." But seriously, if you have a need for something--like Bactine, or Neosporin, or Bandaids, or rubbing alcohol, or... well, just fill in the blank with the kinds of stuff you'd find if you went poking through your medicine cabinet, and you don't have kids who are hurting themselves often, then you'll find that you've paid a LOT for what you actually used of the products you bought, before they expired.
I'm sure there's no solution for this, and yet it really bugged me today. It also makes me wonder if the expiration dates really are the dates after which meds become less potent, or if that's something the FDA cooked up to cover asses, and that the medical companies are just delighted to go along with because, ultimately, it means they'll sell me and we'll buy more?
No answers, obviously, just wonderings. Thanks, as always, for reading. ♥
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