The other day we stopped by The Container Store to shop for trash cans.
Yes, I have reached the point of my life where I think a trash can is something you shop for.
While there I saw they are having a 25% off Elfa sale. We’re having another baby and I totally want to Elfa up another closet. It was a little tough to acknowledge that I’m already well over my home furnishings budget for the year. This is in fact A Year No Closets Will Be Organized. In previous years I did my office closet and the toddler’s closet.
If I’m being honest with myself, it’s not the closet that’s the problem. My office closet is in desperate need of purging crap. The toddler’s closet is in better shape but it still needs some attention. No amount of objects from The Container Store will save me from the fact that I am indeed a slob.
This Liz Lemon quote from 30 Rock spoke to me:
“I went to the new flagship Compartment Store on 5th Avenue and I’m going to get my life in order. There’s a stacking thing to separate your junk mail from your humidifier catalogs, a thing you stick on your laptop that hold your keys, a round plastic deal that holds your shoes with a pocket for a photograph of what shoes are in there. I’m going to become wonderful. It’s a new beginning, like a phoenix rising…”
While shopping for a trash can I saw a variety of Other Objects that promised to make me less of a miserable disorganized slob. I am so disorganized I lost my to-do lists. That’s right. The first item on my new to-do list is to find my old ones. It was tempting to buy into the world of color coordinated stacking boxes. But I resisted. I looked at trash cans, didn’t see any I liked, and limited my purchases to a dish rack, laundry basket, and a festive collapsible ottoman. Ok so I went in for a trash can and came out with $150 worth of totally unrelated other things, which is definitely not winning. BUT AT LEAST I DIDN’T BUY A CLOSET, RIGHT? Also did you know that SimpleHuman makes an $80 dish rack? We went with the cheap bamboo one, but the SimpleHuman dish rack has 337 reviews and 4.5 stars. I’m curious what dish rack bliss feels like, but not $80 curious.
Anyway, I didn’t find a trash can I liked. I wanted one that had recycling and trash together, but all the ones that looked nice took special liners I’m not willing to pay for. So we got a normal step trashcan and I’m just gonna stick a blue bin in the laundry room.
And while we’re on the topic of mundane stuff, these are hands down the best dish mats:
You can find them on Amazon in a variety of patterns, and they’re super great.
I hate to admit it, but I have the Simple Human dish rack *and* the trash container. My husband bought the trash container, though. Like you, I wasn’t willing to pay for the special liners, but apparently he was. If it’s any consolation, the recycling portion fills up so quickly it’s almost useless.
That IS a consolation!
Ok so I have to know, is the dish rack everything you hoped for and more? Or is part of you like “wtf I own an $80 dish rack?” Admittedly a big part of the decision to go with the bamboo was aesthetics. Plus they fold up and store easily when you want to use the dishwasher instead.
The trash can we ended up going for is still SimpleHuman, but it has the little hole in the back of the can where you can shove the excess trash bag, allowing you to use normal bags.
I really like the dish rack. It’s got a lot of nice features like a section for clean knives and the plastic water catcher can be elevated on the side farthest from the sink so water drains into the sink instead of festering like it would with more conventional dish drainers.
I use the hole in the back of the can for the recycling portion because I couldn’t bring myself to buy two different types of special liners. I have trouble getting it tight enough, but it doesn’t bother me enough to pay for the special liners. If you do decide to pay for the special liners, the Simple Human website was substantially cheaper than Amazon.
Hah, I just realized that independent of Lindsay the two things I like about the dish rack are exactly the same!
So yeah, I have that Simple Human dish rack. I did a ton of research before we got it. Luckily, it was on sale at BB&B AND we had a 20% off coupon so it came to around $45 with tax. I was much happier with that than the normal price. That said, the fact that I don’t have a rubber mat under it (like we did growing up) that got slimy or icky is awesome. Plus the bamboo knife holder saves my nice ceramic knives (I love to cook & they can only be hand washed :().
I’m totally surprised by how many people (ok, 2) cite the knife holder as a benefit! This is boggling to me because I have never left a knife on a dish rack. The thought actually makes me twitch a bit. After using a knife I hand wash it and then immediately dry it on a kitchen towel and replace it in the knife block. In my world knives only have two states: in use and in the block. Y’all are blowing my mind!