I've been looking for a storage system, and saw these plastic drawers. They are called Like-It and are from a Japanese company named Yoshikawakuni. You can find a few of their home products in The Container Store. I've waited till around the holiday season for coupons or sales because these drawers a little on the pricey side for me. Since I don't live anywhere near a Container Store I did had to have it shipped to me. The Container Store shipping on these drawers are $9-$10 and you need an order of $75 or more to get free shipping. Getting $75 worth of these drawers seemed a bit silly since the box will have to be huge. The biggest drawer has an additional $2 charge too. So I've only got two drawers to start off with.
These drawers have 3 different width sizes, 2 different height sizes, but the length size are all the same. I got two tall narrow drawers to put beside my desk. I was hoping they would fit my PS4 games, but they are a tad too narrow to put them facing forward so they are just facing sideways in the drawers instead. The length is nearly 18" which is a decent size. The narrow drawers are 6 3/4" wide, but the drawer itself is about 5.5" wide. The medium width drawers are 10" and the wide drawers are 13 3/8" in width. The wide ones aren't that terribly wide. The tall drawers are 11" and the short ones are 8 3/8" in height. The tall drawer itself is 9" in height of storage space. I like all these variety of sizes since you have options that will best
suit what you need, and get your stuff real neat and organized. Sadly the tall drawers don't fit my sketchbooks or art drawing pads on it sides. They are not good for binders either which is a shame. Stacking them on top of each other like in the picture above is inconvenient, so it is disappointing that these aren't tall enough to make them like a filing cabinet. There is an crate bin alternative to the drawers that might fit them, but I'm afraid the heavy art pads may knock the bins down. If I ever do try out the bins that will be reviewed in another post.
What's great about these is that you can stack them. The tops of the drawers are indented in to hold the bottoms of the drawers. There's also the option to pull the tops of the drawers off and you can click them together to make it more sturdy. I have try to pull the tops off, but it is hard. I was afraid of breaking or bending the plastic so I just normally stack them. Not to say that the plastic is weak. Its a lot sturdier than the Sterilite plastic drawers I have. Bugs have been getting in the Sterilite drawers so I don't put much in them. The Like-It drawers is an actual box like container that don't have as big of gaps as the Sterilite. I will have to wait till summer time to see if any bugs get inside. If not than it be great to store out of season clothes in. I have my out of season clothes in those storage bags, and they're not the easiest way of storing them. Heck, I wouldn't mind using them to store my everyday clothes.
Overall, I do like these drawers and do plan on probably getting every size when there's a sale or coupon I can use on them. They're easy to move, and stack them however you like. I'm not a fan of furniture that's heavy so this storage system doesn't look too cheap or hideous that I would feel ashamed if people saw them. I do highly recommend these drawers, and they can fit in any type of room and space size.
The Hyllis shelf is at a very affordable price of $14.99 which is hard for me to resist buying it. It may not be pretty or impressive looking, and it maybe why I never saw it displayed at the store. But its simple design is fine with me. You can spray paint it but I haven't done that to mine. Other than the price, another reason why I like this is that its light weight. I can easily move it and handle it. I don't like having heavy furniture that I need help with. This shelf is also not too tall. Since I'm short as heck, this shelf is only slightly taller than me. This makes putting and reaching things on the top shelf super easy.
While the instructions are super simple, I did have a bit of a tough time putting it together. The shelves have flaps for its sides. They were bent outward so I had to hammer them in more to get the holes aligned better with the holes on the legs. When I first tried to put it together without hammering, it was very crooked and the screws couldn't screw all the way. Even with hammering, the screws did have some difficulty going all the way so I had to hammer the screws in to help it go through. It took me like an hour to set this up and I had help. I wish they made these more perfectly so assembling wouldn't be so troublesome. I didn't have a drill so maybe having one would've saved me time.
This shelving unit may not be the sturdiest thing (its really isn't), I don't have anything that would tip this over like children or pets. Its definitely not something you want to lean against or hold on to if you trip else it would fall over even if it had heavy things on it. I would HIGHLY advise fastening it to a wall if you need it to be sturdy and not fall.
Overall, I think the quality does kind of matches it price, but its not an big issue for me. This serves the purpose I bought it for and that is enough to make me consider buying another one if I had the room for it. Even if the assembly is a pain and its not sturdy, the pros I listed in the first paragraph is good enough for me.
When I went to Ikea, I saw this thing on the display floor and thought it would be perfect to put my Free figmas in. I saw some people make wonderful and creative rooms and homes for figmas on twitter, and it really inspired me. However, the cost to go into that was a little too much. I originally was just going to DIY everything with cardboard, but seeing this from Ikea just made everything easier.
Yes, it is a greenhouse, but who cares. Its in the shape of a house, and the simple design makes it a nice obstruction free view of whatever I put in it. This greenhouse is pretty affordable at $20. Setting it up was pretty easy too, though there was one part that wasn't fitting into the slot. It was an easy fix with a metal file though. The panels are not made of glass, but of plastic or acrylic I really can't tell the difference. The greenhouse isn't 100% enclosed. The base is like a tray and is not attached to the rest of the greenhouse. You can take the rest of the greenhouse off the base, and it doesn't sit flush against the base when you put it back together. Also the opening on the top part of the greenhouse don't sit flush either because of the hinges.
As for size, it is a little tall, but its a pretty decent size room for figmas. I am getting my first 1/6 doll from Azone sometime this year so I will see how that fits in this greenhouse. I think it has great decorating potential. I am too lazy to do it, but I think it be easy to add in flooring and wallpaper. Possibly printed and pasted on cardboard or something and just stick it to the sides. And with the clear panels. it be like actual windows. Again, this thing has lots of potential! I just wanted to share this idea with everyone, and hope maybe I'll see someone do something neat with it on twitter.
I did recently noticed some new things from Ikea too online. One is this doll house shelf that I think has some potential since it has rooms and seems like a decent size. There is also an actual display box with LED lighting. Now these last two products are in the childrens' section and are about $30. I've also seen people use RIBBA wall frames to display things like legos mostly. RIBBA frames only have the depths of 1 3/4" which isn't a lot of room, but there is a new kind of frame I saw called KASSEBY which has 3 1/4" in depth. I could fit miniatures in that. I've seen that people make DIY shelves for RIBBA frames too which is also a neat idea!
Anyways, these are alternative ways to display items without using big expensive shelving units like bookcases and display cases. Its good for those who don't have that much stuff in the first place nor the room for shelves.
The KonMari method believes you don't need any fancy storage goods to store your things. Your house should have every storage you need. Otherwise a good shoebox or any plain box should work fine in storing and organizing your things. The secret is in how your store your things: standing vertically. Very much like how you would store books on the book shelf, you want them standing and on its thinnest side if possible. You won't be able to store as many books if you had them all facing the cover side down or even forward. Having them vertical makes it clear to see everything at a glance.
This part of the method is challenging for me though. I kind of wish the book went into more details in storage.
The first category is clothes. I don't have drawers but boxes and storage bags to put my clothes in. I know its weird, but I do not plan on living here long term. Folding is key to storing clothes. I probably only folded my clothes a handful of times in my life as I find it to be a waste of time. But I've figured that the time that I search my clothes to wear vs the time to fold them for easy picking is probably the same so I might as well fold. I am also too lazy to iron unless it it too wrinkly to go out in. Though her folding method didn't make my clothed wrinkle free, I do notice it makes slightly less wrinkly than usual. Folding took a bit to get use to. KonMari method doesn't have a strict rule to folding other than making a neat rectangle. I was able to get my clothes to fold enough that it can stand on its own when placed on the open side of the fold. I wasn't able to get everything in the box at first, but hopefully I will find a way to get it all to fit or actually get myself drawers.
Books are harder to store than clothes. Mainly because I do not have a bookcase and don't really have room for a one either. Bookcases are also heavy and bulky for a petite person like me to easily maneuver. So all this time I've just used plain cardboard boxes and plastic totes. They are scattered and mainly hidden. Some of the books I've kept are big and thick like my Lord of the Rings book. So I've just put them in boxes again, but they're all in the same spot now. I will have to wait till I finish discarding the remaining categories to have enough space to figure out where their home should be. I might get an actual shelving unit and just use bins or crates like for toys to store them in.
Papers are preferred to be kept to the bare minimum. The KonMari way is the put them into 3 storage types: The must keep papers, papers thats needs my attention now, and others. Kondo says to put each type into one folder or container. Having them vertical is ideal as well, but my desk drawers are not vertical unfortunately. Before I had my papers scattered around in racks, envelopes, boxes, and plastic totes. Now I plan to keep them around my desk since papers are for work so it be better to have them nearby and not hidden to be forgotten again. I do have a magazine box that I can keep the folders vertically in, but I also have a number of bigger paper that I need to find storage for. So far I can only think of the portfolio binders so it will have to do. I have them leaning against my desk legs vertically at the moment but I do plan on getting a bin crate to store them in.
Komono is a big obstacle for storage. Its tough to find a home for these without scattering them too much. When I got to this stage, I had a lot of empty boxes, totes, and drawers. None of which I really want to keep as storage for my items again. I also have a lot of garbage. I've decided to put the majority of my komono items that isn't sorted into a box. The important stuff like cards and passport are kept in one of my desk drawers which also has the other komono items that I use regularly. I have put the majority of my electronics in one spot, and some other sub categories so at the moment things are a bit scattered. Untill I get drawers and/or shelves I won't know where exactly to put them.
Sentimentals are probably the most minimal of items I have. I've put the photos and papers into a clear bag, and since I really don't have a place for them I've put them by the komono stuff. There's also the bulkier items which I've put into a large tote that also has some komono.
So far, I've really failed at this stage. My space hardly looks any different than when I first started, but I think in time it would change. I really do need to rethink how to put things in order. I do plan on doing a continuation post when I do finally get things how I imagine my space to be.
So I've been hearing about this tidying method called KonMari, and you've probably heard of it too. Its from the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. The name of the method is her name shortened together. Yes, this is not an many generation technique, but of one living person who tidied since she was young.
Since it is the new year, this method came to mind and thought about trying it out. Now I'm the kind of person who likes things out where I can see them so its easier for me to find and retrieve. This results in a messy looking space. It may bother people who look at my space, but its fine with me. When I was in college I moved around quite a lot so I had to keep my possessions to as small as I can get so it makes moving easier for me. Now that I haven't moved in some years, I have gained a number of possessions, and not my space has became cramped. While the messiness isn't something that bothers me, the number of possessions I have does. I am lazy so I haven't taken the time to go through all of my possessions in a very long time. I think its time to change that.
I got the audiobook which is probably the shortest audiobook I've listened to so far. Its almost 5 hours long and the reader is quite nice to listen too. Not a boring listen at all! In fact I couldn't stop listening to it. its quite motivating and inspiring. So I highly recommend it.
Her method is quite simple but can be quite drastic. You must first spend some hours, but no longer than a day on just deciding what to keep and discard everything else. She advises on keeping items that spark joy. That is the secret to keeping a tidy home. Getting rid of everything and only keeping items that make you happy. She describes items as if they are alive. That they need to breathe and shine as well as serve you a purpose. She wants you to recognize that items have a purpose on your life and once they served that purpose you must let them go with gratitude. You need to treat items with respect. Having excuses like needing them someday is only to serve to fool yourself since that someday is not going to happen. Forcing the items onto others is also a big no-no.
To start, she advises to go by category rather than by room. This is a mistake that I see in almost every KonMari checklist I see on the internet. I have to admit I did not follow the discarding step exactly. I could not go through my space in one day since the task was rather dizzying to me. But I was determined to keep at it. I didn't start with my clothes first, but I have convinced myself to follow with the category steps.
The clothes were already giving me a tough time. I do not have many in the first place, and some of them I had for a long time. I rarely go clothes shopping either since I only buy if I needed something. I don't find much joy in clothes, but I don't want to end up having 3 tops and bottoms. This may not be the KonMari way, but I've decided to sort them through frequency of use, then sort out which I don't want. So I have 3 piles: ones to keep, ones that I might keep, and ones to discard now. Hopefully I will look through the might keep ones later and further decide those pieces properly. Even though I said I didn't have many, it took me two days to go through them. I was quite lightheaded after I was done. As for storing, I will put that in another post.
Next are the books. There are two types of books I have: personal collection, and ones for selling. Working at home can make this KonMari thing difficult since her method doesn't mention work related items. My personal collection is smaller since they are ones I've had since high school, and had reduce as I moved since books are ridiculously heavy. If there was an ebook or a copy at the library I would go for that instead. The sentimentality outdoes the joy factor making it hard to choose. At this point it makes me a little sad or upset how little joy I have for the items I hold. Yet I did not want to have an empty room in the end. I will probably revisit the sentimental items when I get to that category. The rest of the books were easier to choose since some were reference books I've used like languages and learning guitar. I know I won't ever pick those up again, at least any time soon. Now magazines however is a slight hoarding problem I have. I have saved some old magazines I was subscribed to that have articles or info I was interested in "for the future" and some free booklets from stores. They are mainly recipes that I haven't gotten the chance to try. Of course food would spark some joy so having to go through each issue to rip out recipes and a some other articles took awhile. What I've ripped out was way smaller than the stack of magazines it once was. Not even sure why I kept some of them. A bit of sentimental stuff also popped up, and it was hard not to go through them. I thought I could do papers on the same day, but the magazines took longer than I imagined.
Now papers. I anticipate this will be hard since most of it are notes and handouts from college. Spending so much money on college I find it be a waste to discard them.The KonMari method insists on throwing all papers away. There exceptions to sentimental ones and important ones. But as I go through them I realize how much old stuff I've gathered and haven't thrown away. Looking at my old history class stuff, I realize it is meaningless to really keep these. Sure, I may want to remember some important people I would like to look at again, but the internet would probably give me them and more. Then I go onto other subjects and can't help but see the majority of them to be junk. The amount of papers I disposed of were as much as my clothes.
Komono, or small articles is pretty much everything else so it can be called the Miscellaneous category. This is one I've been wanting to tackle since the start. Unfortunately the previous categories has resulted in a lot of garbage bags that I need more time to get the bags out of the way before being able to tackle this category. Despite doing the previous categories, my space hardly looks any different. I was rather slow in getting into discarding in this category. Not only because of the break I did, but since its also a lot harder to decide what to discard. I've forgotten to thank the items, and also felt some regret in the things I've thrown or going to throw away. I have tools like allen wrenches that I needed only once, but it is tools. Kondo didn't mention of these kind of items that seem necessary that doesn't bring joy so I ended up keeping them. There were also old things I've kept that I don't have any sort of memory other than having it for a long time. This habit is definitely a very hard one to deal with. These things did get dirty that it makes me want to throw them away immediately but the sentimental factor is what makes me hesitate. I decided to take pictures or videos to remember them. They should have been in the sentimental category, but the gross state they were in I had to deal with them right then. If I couldn't take care of them properly up till now why should I even continue? I did take two items out of the trash and try to wash it. In the end, I didn't throw away as much as I thought I would. There are old electronics that I need to recycle, toys that I want to donate when the holidays are near, and stuff to sell. I didn't have as many komono as I thought I did, so I may have to go through them again when I go organize them.
Last category is the sentimental items. Other than the photos, I wasn't sure what other sentimental items I've put off for this category. Not a great start. I have a notebook where I've kept movie tickets, photos, letters, and so on. Not the best archival method. The majority of them are easy to part with since they bring little joy, but others were harder. Photos from school and old friends. Although I don't remember their names or have anymore happy feelings when I look at them, its a bit hard to throw them away. Or papers of old teachers I liked that have encouraging words, but what I wrote back then was too embarrassing for me to read. I decided to keep at least one or two mementos of those teachers, and some highlights of my youth which are mainly field trips, events, and the such. The rest of the book is going to the trash.
Discarding things is both hard and easy. I've discovered a lot old things and had many mixed feelings and memories. If I was Kondo's client I would probably failed since I didn't end up with 1/3 of my original possessions. I still have trash to get rid of and deciding what to do with the empty totes and boxes. I may discard more as I sort through them again while I organize them in part 2.
I've heard good things about natural oils so I've decided to try them out in an effort to use more natural ingredients in my life. I am prone to acne and have hormonal acne so I figure getting tea tree oil would help with that. This NOW Foods Tea Tree Oil bottle is pretty affordable and is labeled to be extract by steam distillation on the leaves. The bottle is 4 fl oz and is glass dark tinted. It does not include a dropper so you will need to get one. I've done some researching and learned that some essential oil products have adulteration and still be labeled as "pure" so gc/ms testing is a way to be sure if the essential oil is of good quality. NOW's organic tea tree essential oil has pass the test, but there isn't a test for the none organic one which is what I bought. The organic one is 1 fl oz for $9 and the none organic is 4 fl oz for $17. Their non-organic peppermint oil did not pass the gc/ms test so it may explain the cheaper price for their none organic oils. In the future I may try both to see the difference, but for now I will just review on this non organic tea tree oil.
I am new to natural oils so I did start off using this oil directly on my skin with just water to dilute it. Tea Tree is an essential oil so it is potent. It took me a bit to figure out a good ratio of oil and water to make it not sting my skin as much. It doesn't sting immediately, but it did after a couple of minutes after applying. I've also used coconut oil to dilute the oil. I apply this to my body and the Tea Tree does help balance out the oiliness of the coconut oil so it doesn't feel like anything on my skin when it absorbs. I use it on my chest and back area where I get acne there too. Also put it on my underarms since both oils are antibacteria so it would help reduce smells in that area. Using coconut oil and tea tree on my face is a double edge sword. Coconut oil is comedogenic meaning it can clog pores. It has a rating of 4 with 5 being it will clog pores. Though there are people that says it does not clog pores so it can be confusing. I say if you are prone to pores getting clogged and blackheads like myself using this may not work for you. Coconut oil does have lots of benefits but its important to have your pores not clogged. I have tried it on my face and the next morning my skin had a rougher texture from blackheads. Using it as a oil cleanser does lessen the rougher texture though I don't have a retinol or salicylic acid product to keep my pores clean and balance out the coconut oil. So I have just stuck with just using water to dilute it.
As for acne, using coconut oil or water to dilute it hasn't made any difference on my face in terms of prevention. I do think its somewhat decent as a spot treatment on the face or at least cleanse the infected area at least. It helped with the healing process. I do think it did help acne on the body. I don't get it as much as I use to.
Since it has antifungal properties I also applied the oil onto my toe nails. They have been cracking, and after a couple of months they stopped cracking and the cracks have finally grown out enough to clip away. I also like to use it to clean and freshen things with like my bed. It may not be a scent that people like, but it doesn't bother me.
Overall, I've found many beneficial uses for this oil even if it didn't help with the main one which is acne. I think this oil is good, but I have yet to try other brands of tea tree oil so even compare it with. For the cheap price, I think its worth giving it a try.
Got one from my mother who has them for years. Its an older model than the one on Amazon but its the same thing. Only different is the design of the drawer handle.
These are closet size storage plastic drawers. The drawers are slightly see through and can be taken out of the frame. They slide in and out pretty easily and smoothly. They sturdiness is not bad! The white frame will warp and lose its shape if heavy items stored on or in it. The ones my mother has have a slightly curved downward so closing the drawers completely, especially the top one, is a pain so I just leave it as far in as it will let me. I don't want to pull the frame upwards or force it in. Wouldn't put anything heavier than about 1 pound on it if you want to keep its shape as new as possible. Otherwise putting heavier items on the bottom drawer is best. The curved isn't even noticeable at first glance. I think its just the top piece that's actually a flat surface that's curved. It is the most flimsy. The rest of the frame seems more sturdier but its not a frame with no walls. What the drawers sit on is a open rectangle with a bar in the middle. I put books on bottom drawer but because of its weight the corners of the drawer sinks into the opening as I push it in. So I have to push it in while angling the drawer up to prevent it from getting blocked.
I'm using it to store some miscellaneous items, but I would like to get one for clothes one day. They're really affordable and does the job!
I bought this locally last year and had it all set up. This was the only ac unit that can fit in my window. It worked great and quickly cooled my room. My room is rather small and gets rather stuffy plus its gets lots of sunlight. Its not loud, but it is noisy. Too noisy for me to sleep through. I have issues with this unit in keeping the temperature at a comfortable level in my room. It makes my room a tad too cold for me even in the low settings. The unit does automatically turn itself off (but leaves the fan on) and then turns back on when the room gets hotter. I dislike this since the noise startles me when it starts back up again. I know its lame, but I dislike it.
An issue I had was that bugs were somehow finding a way in through the unit. By fall, when I took it out to clean it I saw that there was tons of leaves, bugs, and spiders chilling out inside the unit. Really gross. The part of the unit that goes outside has many openings, and only the back has a screen. There are trees and my neighbor's garden outside my window. And we do get storms every now and then. This year I'm taping a cheesecloth over the openings to keep the bugs and debris out. I have noticed that bugs can find its way through the side panels. I used tissues and tape to cover the cracks. My curtains are see through so I had to use cardboard to block the light during the night to keep bugs away. Its not flawless, but its an improvement from last year. The tape will trap the bugs if they manage to crawl in so it will get nasty over time.
The ac did come with a strip of foam to line your window with and some screws. I've already misplaced the screws, but they are flat ended and won't go through your window though they will still dent it.
The temperature settings is odd. There are two dials one is temperature numbered by coolness and the second is modes of fan or cooling on high or low. Personally I only feel two levels of coolness so I find the temperature control is not accurate. On cool mode anything under level 5 just feels like the fan. The noise it makes when its cooling is louder than the fan, and cooling doesn't turn on unless you go above level 5. But it seems to depend on the temperature of the room. On really hot days the cooling starts on level 4 too. The temperature doesn't make any difference in fan mode. The fan helps circulate the air, but doesn't do much cooling. Its definitely better used to distribute the cold air produced by the unit into the room. The cool air is a lot colder than the fan so its a noticeable difference. So far the air smells pretty clean, and hadn't need to clean the filter yet.
For being probably the cheapest ac window unit in the market, this isn't too bad and it does it job. I would recommend it. I will update this post when summer is over.
