The Container Store

Last night, my husband took me to the Container Store. It was one of my favorite dates, EVER.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Container Store is the be-all, end-all of organization shopping. Organization shopping is as therapeutic for me as a hot bath, a long run, or a six pack is for other people. Why, you ask? Because I generally have no control over anything I do at work, or over the people in my life (damn free will) or the state of the world, but I can control how I store my sweaters, where I keep my out-of-season clothing and whether I hang pants lengthwise, by the waist, or in half over a hanger.

To me, nirvana is a home in which everything I own has a home. Shelves for books, wall organizers for mail, hooks for pajamas, a pantry system for dry goods--you name it, I want it. The idea of a closet with enough room for all of my handbags (a topic for another post), scarves, clothing, shoes AND enough space for me to evenly space all of my hangers (a topic for yet another post) is enough to get me all tingly inside. So, when we put in an offer in on a house in which there was not one, but TWO master, WALK IN closets, priority number one for me was to finally design the closet of my dreams.

In the past 11 years, I have moved something like 12 times. It's ridiculous, I know, but I know I am not alone in this---most of my friends have moved as much, if not more. I would start off with the best intentions in each new place---organized closets, cupboards, drawers. And in time, I would realize I needed more shelving or more hooks and by then, it would be 6 months into a one year lease and I just decided it wasn't worth it. But now that I am a for-real grown up, with a for-real house, I can do whatever I want and invest as much as I want because we aren't going anywhere anytime soon. So after years of dreaming about walk in closets, garages and a kitchen pantry of my very own...I finally have them and you better believe, I am pimping them out...

And there is no better place to pimp out your closet than the Container Store. After two hours of working with our very own design consultant, my husband and I walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth shelves, drawers, hanging rods. And a feeling that by customizing our home, we are customizing our life and taking charge of our little corner of the world. We can't control what happens when we walk out the door, but when we walk in---we are in a place where everything is exactly how we want it and where we want it...too bad can't run the rest of the world the same way...

Since we do finally have all the time in the world to get settled in, I plan on savoring every part of putting away my clothes in my new closet and imagine myself spending a lot of time in there, just staring at the wonderment that is organization!!!