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:
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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
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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.
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...
Jaclyn Reynolds says
I use essential oils for cleaning and personal care.
jennifer says
i have a box that is supposed to be used to store tea bags that i use to store nutrigrain bars. they are easy for the kids to see and pick the kind they like.
Celia says
I separated my measuring spoons and hung them on hooks on the inside of one of my cabinet doors. It’s super handy and saves me from searching in a drawer for the spoon I need.
3petitsprinces says
One of my greatest time savers is having two laundry hampers–a white/light colored one for lights & black/dark one for darks. No more separating!
Susan Smith says
https://twitter.com/susan1215/status/470304331548602370
Susan Smith says
I use baby wipes as eye makeup remover and to clean with.
Heather Hicks says
I reuse paper bags from the grocery store by placing them under my daughter’s highchair when she eats to catch any dropped food. Easy cleanup!
cole says
I use dryer sheets to ditch hair frizz
Seth says
My most-used #lifehack is using paper grocery bags to wrap things that I send in the mail, rather than buy bubble packaging for example. It saves money and recycles.
ktr says
My life hack is we found a metal shelving unit that I believe is supposed to be used as a short of decorative book case. The shelves are metal slats so there is a space between them. It works great in our mud room/bathroom to put boots on. Most shoe organizers don’t accommodate tall boots and the slats allow any mud on the boots to fall to the floor after it has dried. Then all we have to do is sweep underneath the rack and the mud is cleaned up.
latanya says
https://twitter.com/sweetums82/status/469963829141856256
latanya says
I use dryer sheets as air freshners in my car
Rebecca Graham says
I freeze grapes to use as ice cubes in my drinks to keep them from being watered down.
erica says
I use baby wipes as eye makeup remover
Stephanie says
i like to reuse bags
Lisa Brown says
tweet https://twitter.com/LuLu_Brown24/status/469516626174705664
Lisa Brown says
My summer #LifeHack is to attach many of my plants and summer garden to a drip system so i don’t have to run out and water constantly.
Lauren E. says
My fave #Lifehack is to freeze coffee in cube trays so I dont water down my coffee when making iced coffee
amanda whiltey says
i like the lifehack about using a soda can tab on a wire hanger to hang a second one. i also like using a pants hanger to hold up a recipe while cooking.
Mary says
This is so awesome, Rebecca! I need one of these ASAP, and I don’t even have a door to hang it on. I need to figure out some wall space for it.
One lifehack we use all the time is to keep all the kids shoes in a basket by the back door. As soon as the boys are in the house, they toss their shoes into it. No searching for lost shoes, no stray shoes floating around the house.