Disclosure: This post and giveaway are sponsored by JCPenney. All opinions and ideas remain my own.Is there a mom alive who doesn’t simultaneously love and despise reusable water bottles? Water bottles have saved me from the horror that is watching my children try to drink from public drinking fountains without contracting the plague more times than I can count. I love them so much that each person in my family has at least two to their name: one for using plus one in the wash. Even I have a couple of them: one for home and one for barre and Pilates classes at the studio. But OH MY WORD, the clutter.
They have fallen on my head after rolling off of the top of the refrigerator (bad place to try to keep them, FYI). More than one has clanked and slammed down the stairs to its untimely squished death after a storage basket upended because kids were wrestling near it. I shoved them all over my kitchen counter waiting for the insides to become bone dry after a trip through the dishwasher because I have a serious fixation with not putting a lid on a wet bottle. No more wire hangers? No. I’m fine with wire hangers. No more wet water bottles with lids in place so they can fester and grow bacteria ever! And I’m not going to even TRY to count how many water bottles have been retired because their extra proprietary, funky shaped lid went missing in our black hole of a kitchen catch-all drawer.
I tried everything I could think of to organize them: wine racks, shoe holders, laundry baskets, and even -out of sheer desperation- plastic grocery bags hanging on hooks inside the basement stairs. Every one of them failed because of one major flaw: nothing had a place where we could store the odd lids and still actually see them. Every one, that is, until I found this Michael Graves Design Over-the-Door Basket Organizer from JCPenney. There are two main differences between this bad boy and an over-the-door shoe organizer.
- The nifty mesh pocket at the top lets you drop in the un-matched lids or tops or straws for the water bottles and still keep a visual on them. No black hole happening there.
- The baskets (or shelves) hold everything from small 1-cup water bottles to the largest canteens (in the top basket) and everything in between. They even hold our 1-liter Sodastream bottles neatly.
To say that I’m a fan of this basket organizer is to put it mildly. I recommend it to all my mommy-friends who have been overrun with water bottles.
MAJOR BONUS: The kids can find their own water bottles and lids for all their summer excursions into the great wild that is our backyard or the playground or picnics or bike-riding with friends, or…or…or… You get the idea. Summer just got a little easier.
Giveaway
The good folks at JCPenney have kindly offered a $100 JCPenney gift card to one lucky Foodie with Family reader. You can use it to grab a water bottle organizer, er, Over-the-Door Basket Organizer and still have enough left over to grab some supplies to make your summer fun! How do you enter? It’s simple! Tell us your favourite #lifehack in the comments below: what tricks do you have that make your life a little easier?
Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
- Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
- Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
- Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
- For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 5/19-6/13/2014.
Be sure to visit the JCPenney brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
Reader's Thoughts...
Anne says
I tweeted about this excellent promotion:
https://twitter.com/NotherAnneOther/status/476885138035707904
Anne says
My #LifeHack is that I use a spreadsheet to keep track of recipes I’ve made, which cookbook or notebook it’s in, how well we liked it (yes, with a star rating!), and any changes I made to the recipe as written. It makes it so much easier to find a favorite recipe!
Dario says
when weather permits i open my mail outside so junk mail goes right into the recyling bin and doesn’t pile up in the house
Daniel M says
clean something in a room every day
Mallory W says
I keep my calendar on me at all times, it helps when trying to make last minute plans, or plans with friends when out and about. I also love to use a backpack as our diaper bag. It has been a HUGE help to just carry on my back. peacenrknrll@yahoo.com
Kimmy Ripley says
I keep track of my to-do list on my phone. I set alarms for important events.
Mihaela Day says
I created a schedule that fits our needs and I stick to it.
Madeline says
Tweet link: https://twitter.com/shala_darkstone/status/476553169129205760
Madeline says
My favorite summer #LifeHack is to plant lots of veggies in our garden because then I can’t help but plan meals around them and I eat a lot more healthfully!
Tammy says
My favorite lifehack is now that summer is here I use a muffin tin for condiments when BBQ’ing. You can put pickles, ketchup, mustard, olives, onion slices all in the cups and clean up becomes so much easier!
joe gersch says
clean 5 minutes each day so it is manageble
Denisse says
give everything an assigned storage space or get rid of it
Kristin says
Tweeted https://twitter.com/kristinnw/status/476449836783644672
Kristin says
I like to do certain things each day so that I’m organized and efficient and not trying to tackle too many chores at once.
Margaret says
My life hack: At the end of every month, I fix birthday, anniversary, or occasion cards for everyone in my family and friend who has a birthday is this month. I date each one right below the stamp when they need to be mailed to arrive in time.
Lisa Jones says
My favorite life hack is putting pop tabs on hangers to hang more hangers off of! Its really a great space saver and with three kids we need all the extra space we can get!
Allie says
plan ahead for cooking & meals! no one is happy when they are hungry! it is a good idea to be well stocked with simple meals
talliana says
tweeted https://twitter.com/talliana1/status/476386234764623872
talliana says
I have a large family planner showing the next four months on it. if anything is coming up all each person has to do is write it down on the appropriate date so we all know what is going on. I also keep a small personal planner for doctor/dentist appts #lifehack
Erica C. says
I cut-up fruit and veggies and separate into servings so they are easy to grab throughout the week.