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?
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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.
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This sweepstakes runs from 5/19-6/13/2014.
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Reader's Thoughts...
nicole dz says
My favorite #LifeHack is having an emergency kit in the car. I even added items to it. I keep it in the trunk and love it.
Jennifer says
My favorite summer trick is for corn on the cob: Wrap the cobs fully husked in a damp kitchen towel, steam in the microwave for approximately 8 minutes, then cut the stem end of the cob off (you’ll need gloves as the cobs are hot) and slide your completely clean corn out. No need to husk and all of the silk is removed. Voila!
Mami2jcn says
tweet–https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/468525882940731392
Mami2jcn says
My #lifehack is getting my 11 year old to do the vacuuming! We just started him on this new chore and it’s been a great help to me.
Rebecca says
Tweeted: https://twitter.com/rebeccamigliore/status/468515302704037889
Rebecca says
I have been keeping a cute dual-walled lidded tumbler on my desk at work – and I have been drinking so much more water!
Bonnie says
I’ve started using e cloths for cleaning. The glass cleaner ones are the best. One cloth to wash, another to polish. Amazingly quick to clean the windows. No windex needed. The clothes are inexpensive and I’ve eliminated a lot of chemical cleaners.
Jenni says
Life hacks? Hmm, I love keeping my cleaning products in an over the door shoe organizer. They are super handy that way. I also am in love with what I call “blue stuff” for stain removal – it is 1 part dawn dish soap, 1 part baking soda, and 2 parts hydrogen peroxide. It works great (just be careful with purple, we’ve had a couple items fade a bit)!
Elena says
https://twitter.com/ElenaIstomina/status/468462726285492226
Kim Porter says
I save our empty toilet paper rolls and use them to keep the long cords of my appliances neatly in place while they’re being stored. Also the empty rolls can be stuffed with the lint from the dryer to make a natural kindling to start campfires.
Elena says
I always have an ice chest with some dry ice and water bottles in my car
Kristie M. says
I bought a clear shoebox for each pair of shoes. I then took a photo of each pair and taped it to the outside of the box. The shoes are organized and easy to find.
Peggy Nagy says
I use the plastic baskets in my fridge to sort things… I also use lazy susans in my spice cupboard for the larger containers… I love this idea for the water bottles I have tried various things but now have turned out well… water bottles still ended up on floor.
Anne Weber-Falk says
Drawers and bins for everything. Lid drawer, towel drawer, bin for plastics and don’t forget to put the lid on it, shelf for cereals, baskets one for gum and candy treats the other for nuts and dried fruits. You get the picture.
Rita T says
I have a front load washer, and buy the laundry soap pods. My 10 and 6yo daughters do their own laundry–2-3 less loads that I have to do each week and they are learning a life skill.
Melody says
My favorite #lifehack applies more in the winter months, but each winter I’m so thankful for it! There are 4 of us in my family. In our coat closet, I have 4 clear storage containers, each labeled with one person’s name. (Scrapbooking stickers with packing tape on top to keep them in place). Each person’s winter gear (gloves, scarves, hats, etc) go in their box. That way, finding your stuff is a breeze.
justme says
I also use an over-the-door shoe holder. I have mine on the back of the office door and store supplies like glue, scissors, sharpies, erasers, crayons, staples, etc. My kids (and husband!) can easily see what they need and no longer rummage through drawers, upending everything. I can easily see what we’re running low on, eliminating last minute trips to the store for projects. Best of all, there are no questions for me about where an item is located!
Juls says
My lifehack is getting up 30 min earlier during the summer months to allow for watering my garden and it’s also calming. However, my lifehack is the wheeled garbage can we upcycled to a rain barrel when our city changed to a services that uses their own. I cut down on the water bill, my thirsty tomatoes and peppers (flowers too) get to drink and it’s neat and clean! The hubs put a faucet on the bottom so I didn’t have to pull those huge buckets up from inside and almost end up bottom over head inside the barrel!
Deitan says
Not sure if this qualifies as a life hack per se, but I stopped buying hand soap long ago. One it is just another expense and something to further clog the cabinets with, and I couldn’t find a hand soap that wasn’t antibacterial :/ So, I just fill my dispensers with – body wash! It smells wonderful, a leetle leetle bit goes a looooong way, and it doesn’t totally dry your hands out! Plus, you buy one soap product for you and your hands. Nodding, nodding, nodding….. I can completely relate to all of the above cabinet, where the heck are the lids, and what in the world is growing in the bottom of that bottle!! Putting a wet lid-closed bottle away really gets my goat :/ What a great solution!
beth says
finally banished all the cleaning bottles from the bathroom – now i just keep a spray bottle of bleach water in there. useful for spraying down nearly every surface in there, and a dead easy way to keep the shower mildew free (just spray down when you’re done showering. love the look of the bottle organizer – could see using that in the linen closet to make it easier for my guys to find toothpaste/shampoo/etc.