October 7, 2026 by suzanne day by day

Satisfying Project: Device Garage

Our kitchen has a lot of pleasing features, but right up near the top are the two appliance garages. One of them holds our toaster, air fryer, and seldom-used Ninja Creami. The other has been serving as a junk repository for the past three years.

Until now.

I’d originally designated “clean the appliance garage” as a chore Carla could take on to make extra money. However, Carla lacks both the time and the motivation to tackle such a task, and it continued to irritate me on a daily basis. So I tackled it.

I started by getting rid of: random boxes no longer holding their original contents, old school papers, old receipts, expired coupons, broken crayons, and an empty tape roll.

Then I relocated: an old laptop, several cords with no discernible purpose, recipes, sparkly ribbon, the handle to the ice roller I use for my feet, and a mini humidifier I no longer use.

It took an hour, maybe two.

And now look at the garage!!!

It still holds an assortment of useful things: rubber bands, permanent markers, a variety of tapes, a box cutter, notepads, tape measures, the remaining pair of scissors from what I swear was originally a three pack, coupons, a giant bottle of Purell with which my husband and I refill our smaller car bottles of Purell, spiral cat toys, our Bug Guy.

It also still retains some echoes of its previous contents, storing what I might call “valuable junk”: business cards I will possibly only review the next time I tidy this cupboard, a box FULL of pencils, a baggie full of the things that one sometimes finds and cannot identify, a timer I use maybe three times a year, and some wooden dividers that belong to our flatware drawer but have no place in the current configuration of said drawer.

The purpose of this particular appliance garage, beyond providing room and board to the aforementioned household detritus, is to serve as a home for my child’s laptop, iPad, and Switch. Aside from Very Specific Exceptions, I do not allow her to use those devices in her room, and I expect them to live in the garage when they are not expressly in use.

Right now, they sit in a little heap. This works just fine, but I kind of want them to have their own storage space. Partly because I like things to Look Organized, and partly because I have a vague unfounded worry that it isn’t good for their longevity, to sit on top of one another all the time.

If you search for “device storage,” you will find things like this. And this is FINE. But I want something that orients the devices horizontally rather than vertically. Why? Nobody knows. I just do.

Such a thing is surprisingly difficult to find. It dawned on me that I don’t need something specific for devices; we already have a way to plug each device in, and there are only three of them, so I can’t imagine the cords getting terribly tangled. I realized that what I was envisioning was really one of those filing stands that people put on their desks to sort ingoing and outgoing mail.

Less difficult to find, but surprisingly expensive.

This one is okay, but it seems overly expensive for what it is. I also sort of worry that it might tip forward with the weight of the laptop?

This one is cheap, but it’s also quite boring, and its sturdiness is questionable. I suppose a device shelf that lives inside a cupboard doesn’t have to be nice looking.

In terms of utilitarian sturdiness, this one gets high marks, but it is definitely too expensive for what it is.

I like this one, and I don’t think it would tip over at all. But it’s a little bulky for something that will live inside a cupboard.

Suffice it to say, I have not purchased any sort of device holder. YET.

Sometimes I charge Lenny’s robot ball (which is technically part of this toy) in the garage, which gives him extra justification for checking things out.

Some questions for you:

Do you have a storage garage in your house? If so, what does it store?
Where do you/your family members keep devices when they aren’t in use?
How long until this tidy space devolves into squalor once more?

December 20, 2025 by suzanne day by day

Turns Out I Have a Few More Random Topics in My System

One of my worst habits is picking up my phone when I wake up in the wee hours of the morning. Last night, I opened up my email to see a 30% off offer from Athleta, which is irresistible because I love their athleisure. (I still don’t know if it’s pronounced Ath-leh-tuh, like “lettuce” or Ath-LEE-tuh, like “athlete.” I want very badly for it to be the latter, but I don’t know.) I already have so many pairs of high-rise leggings, but they are so comfy… and maybe one more pair would ease the emptiness in my soul, especially in the dark green, and especially if I also get this matching sweatshirt.

Okay, I’m just kidding. My soul is full of (mainly) love and light. But I do sometimes get into that mindset of This One Specific Thing Will Fix Me.

Speaking of which, I cannot stop thinking about this sweatshirt.

I saw it in person when I was doing a little light shopping with a friend while our kids were at an event. A person in my circle happened to be in the same store and was chatting with us while I perused the clothing. When I held up this sweatshirt and said, mostly joking, “I think I need an après ski sweatshirt,” she said, “No, no one needs that.” in what I can only call a Tone of Intense Derision. DO I need this sweatshirt? No, I most certainly do not. And yet my reaction to her comment was one of visceral opposition and defiance. I managed to tamp it down in the moment – again, I do not need this sweatshirt – but I still want the sweatshirt, and more so after I was scolded about it. It’s probably not financially wise to buy things out of spite, though.

You know what is the opposite of spiteful? Holiday cards. How about that masterful segue, huh??? I have said it many times but holiday cards are my favorite thing about the season. I would forego all gifts in a hot second, but I would never want to give up exchanging holiday cards.

It is quite difficult to get a photo of my cards while still keeping everyone’s faces anonymous. So you get to look at this adorable Christmas dogs card while kind of getting a *feel* for the cards on my wall.

This year, there seem to be far fewer cards on my wall than in years past, when they have wrapped around the entire perimeter of the kitchen. This is slightly concerning. Obviously my main worry is that I have been blacklisted from people’s holiday card lists, for reasons unbeknownst to me. When the more likely scenario is that a) cards are expensive and b) stamps are HELLA expensive and c) Thanksgiving was late this year, so I think some people are late in sending out their cards. I only just got my last few cards into the mail yesterday, so I clearly don’t have a leg to stand on. More cards will arrive, and I will leave them up until my husband gets annoyed enough by their presence to badger me into taking them down.

His big concern with my tendency to stick cards on the walls is that the sticky tack I use won’t come off. I have always pooh poohed that fear because it always comes off. But… last year I may have left the cards up a wee bit too long… and some of the sticky tack may have pulled off a wee bit of paint. Whoopsie. This year I am using a different brand, one that is also nearer the grey of our paint.

If you were concerned that my husband’s stocking was going to be woefully empty compared to everyone else’s, allow me to lay your fears to rest. Last night, we went to Barnes & Noble on our date night, as we do, and he spent a long time examining this book. He doesn’t usually read books in print, because of limited time, but he was seriously considering this one. It has an intriguing premise, and it’s smallish (just over 200 pages) and it has a visual element that is unusual and appealing. He looked it up on Goodreads and told me that the author’s previous book was more highly rated, but, alas, not available in the store. So during my middle-of-the-night non-sleeping, I ordered the previous book for him, along with a book of dad jokes (he’d also spent quite a lot of time lingering over a dad jokes calendar, and he loves telling dad jokes, and this book can be delivered before Christmas so it was an easy add-on). Now I am REALLY DONE BUYING THINGS.

While a lot of people, I expect, will spend this weekend baking wonderful treats and going to holiday parties, I am planning to spend my weekend TIDYING. The Christmas decor, which I love, is already beginning to close in on me. There’s the tree, which takes up space, and the necessity of moving one of the armchairs into the piano room, which makes that room crowded (there’s STILL an old couch in there as well) (also we got a concrete coffee table for the sunroom and that’s in the piano room too). Plus there is detritus on every surface – like a tin of peppermints from someone at my husband’s office, and the replacement Hanukkah pajamas I mentioned in my last post, still in their bag, and a plate of Christmas cookies, and some gift receipts, and a winter-themed tie someone gave my husband, and the two holiday letters I received from friends that I have read but am not ready to discard yet – in addition to the normal random assortment of glasses and water bottles and cat fur and tweenager flotsam and mail. Of course, there are also BOXES EVERYWHERE (the instant I break down a box and put it into the recycling bin, another box appears) because the cat loves boxes, and he also loves the brown packing paper that comes in the boxes (his version of “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things” would just be “brown paper packages, brown paper packages, brown paper packages” on repeat), and he loves to leap on the packing paper and tear it with his teeth and leave little crumbs of paper everywhere.

The Instagram algorithm, intuiting my Christmas claustrophobia, served me a video of an advice vlogger answering someone’s question about Christmas with her mother-in-law. The gist was that the writer-inner’s mother-in-law had decreed that Christmas was over at noon on Christmas Day, and so promptly at noon she started putting away all the Christmas décor, and insisted the writer-inner help. It took them five hours to put away all the ornaments and lights and the tree, and the writer-inner was upset that THAT was how she’d spent her first Christmas with her new husband and his family. She was anticipating the same thing this year, and wanted help from the advice giver.

Oh, how deeply do I empathize with the mother-in-law! I, too, reach a point at which I am simply Done with Christmas, and when I get there, I want it all to be whisked away immediately. This is one of the reasons that I refuse to decorate for Christmas before December 1. I want to enjoy the decorations, not feel stifled by them. I do typically leave them up until at least New Year’s Day, though. Even if I’m gritting my teeth by the end.

By the way, the advice given was a) see if you can change the holiday arrangement so that you spend Christmas Eve with the in-laws and Christmas Day with your family, rather than swapping every-other-Christmas Day with each family and, if that’s a no-go, b) simply agree that Christmas ends at noon on Christmas Day, and depart the in-laws’ house at that time. I don’t know about how this would go over with your family, but I just cannot imagine doing either of these things with my family of origin or my in-laws. Our families don’t even swap Christmases that often! But if we did, the swap would need to be Exactly Even. And I also cannot imagine simply opting out of what sounds like a family tradition of putting Christmas away, even if it SUCKED. But then again, I am not always the greatest at setting boundaries so maybe the advice giver has it right.

Anyway, I am going to spend this weekend tidying as much as I possibly can (GOODBYE, latest crop of boxes!), and doing laundry, and giving myself a clean-if-cluttered slate from which to begin two weeks of family togetherness.

I am also going to try out a new hair crème, which I discovered after Instagram presumed (rightly!) that I would be interested in something called “glass hair.” None of my efforts at improving my skin with expensive products have worked, but surely I can have the hair of my dreams if I just buy This One Specific Hair Crème. (I had a gift card.)

December 11, 2020 by suzanne day by day

Satisfying Project: Craft Cupboard Cleanout

Time kept slipping past, and I kept feeling completely AGAINST decorating for Christmas. Yet I knew that decorating would a) allow me to check off another box on the ol’ To Do List and b) might help rachet up the level of holiday cheer around here. And I DO like to decorate for Christmas, preferably before Christmas Day arrives. Yet… another day would pass, and I still couldn’t bring myself to decorate.

Finally I figured out what my issue was. My house is a MESS. There are boxes everywhere (neither my husband nor I can bring ourselves to throw away any of the 15 perfectly good boxes we have received from various companies and relatives; it is the pickle jar situation all over again) (do you ever receive a box that is a certain or unusual shape and size and find yourself thinking, “Oh, THAT is a GOOD box.” No? Just me?) and the detritus of my holiday card mailing project was strewn all over the kitchen table and Carla’s LEGO advent calendar (which is darling, by the way; one of the items she opened is a tiny LEGO hamster!!!) is set up on the island, and all of this accumulated junk has prevented me from doing my normal weekly cleaning of the downstairs. And I just COULDN’T BEAR to a) add more clutter to the clutter or b) put up hard-to-clean-around decorations on top of ALREADY DUSTY surfaces. I just couldn’t do it.

So! In a burst of cleanliness, which we have learned never to ignore lest they disappear and never return, I sprang into action! I hauled the vacuum up from the basement! I got out the dusting materials! I moved all the boxes into my office, which is Box Storage Central and I hate it but what can you do. (I even managed to recycle a box! No – TWO boxes!) I consolidated all the holiday card stuff and moved it up to my husband’s office. I wiped down the kitchen table.

Once I had ~~cleared~~ limited the clutter, I could begin a Regular Clean, which includes scrubbing the sinks, wiping down counters and cabinets and appliances, dusting, and washing/vacuuming the floors.

And then I had to stop, because construction paper was hanging out of the bottom of the white craft cabinet in the hallway. (I specify white because we have a greenish piece of furniture in the kitchen that is ALSO a craft cabinet. This will become relevant shortly.) I unwisely pulled on the scrap, and more construction paper followed it onto the floor, along with some bits of cardboard, a few googly eyes, a feather, two colored pencils, an empty Ziploc bag, and a small piece of pipe cleaner. Sigh.

Well, cleaning the craft cupboards is completely unnecessary to being able to do any other cleaning, and yet I have been meaning to do it, and Carla was upstairs occupied by Virtual School, and I KNEW it would feel good once it was done. So I dove right in, Internet. Just plugged my nose and leapt right on in there.

I was so intent on diving right in that I forgot to take a Before Picture of the white craft cabinet. I guess here is a photo of the right side cleaned out but the left side in progress.

Please believe me when I say that both sides were CRAM JAMMED with crap when I first began this project. This is already IMMEASURABLY more tidy. Not just immeasurable because you have no starting point against which to measure it.

And here are two photos of the cabinets (and floor) mid-clearout.

*I am deeply concerned about that orchid* up there on the left. But I have no ability to repot it, and it already rebloomed one (TWO YEARS after it first bloomed) and so I keep hoping in a very Jurassic Parkian manner that life will find a way. Oh right, the mess. *SO MUCH crumpled construction paper!*

*Construction paper cellophane wrap and paper scraps and half-colored coloring pages and bits of string and an ENTIRE PAD of white drawing paper with purple scribbles on each page.*

Carla supposedly keeps construction paper in these cabinets, but I found that she was also using it for storing… other things. (See above RE: googly eyes, pipe cleaner bits, string, etc.) So I remedied that right away and now it only holds paper or paper-adjacent items: cardstock, watercolor paper, etc.

*I took this photo after I had started decorating for Christmas.*

I threw away a LOT of Projects, which always makes me feel bad. And then I was left with a bunch of things that still needed homes, like a bunch of markers and a bag full of pompoms and googly eyes. Things that belong in the OTHER craft cabinet.

Onward, to the green craft cabinet!

*Looks unassuming, doesn’t it? Although that little corner of white paper peeking out hints at the chaos within.* Note the boxes on either side: the left side box has wrapped presents in it, and is destined for the post office. The right side box is actually two Amazon boxes tucked into one another, waiting to be shifted to my office and then, hopefully, into the recycling. (We all know they will end up in the basement.)

Now, brace yourself.

This is how it looked to begin with. Your classic Monica Geller’s Closet situation, amirite?

*I bet you had no idea one small piece of furniture could contain so much debris. And yes, those ARE a random scrap of green paper and the plastic top of a pen package stuck to the door.*

It took a surprisingly long time to divest the cabinet of its contents.

Like, over an hour just to REMOVE things, let alone do any organizing.

Carla is, it turns out, extremely skilled at stuffing a piece of furniture more full of things than its creator could possibly imagine.

One might think that it would be good parenting to have CARLA come and clean out this cabinet. After all, it is her domain. Everything inside it is for her use, and it falls under her management, day-to-day. So you might think that it would be best if she were involved, both in undertaking and understanding the amount of work required in cleaning it, and in reorganizing it. And of course you would be correct. BUT Carla is incapable of throwing things away. (With box and pickle jar hoarders for parents, it’s so very hard to understand WHY she is this way.) Discussing whether to throw away every single scrap of paper would, I’m sure, have resulted in many tears and plaintive bargaining and extreme desolation. So I did it myself and I am fine with it.

*Barely half way done. And a garbage bag is already full to brimming.*

Surprising findings: a spoon that I’ve been looking EVERYWHERE for, a Tupperware container, the instructions to Carla’s Snap Circuits kit, three pairs of scissors, two small silver washers, a nut (the hardware kind), and many, many pens.

I threw out several containers of very dry, crusty Playdoh. I threw out many broken crayons (I know there are creative people who would turn those broken bits into Something but I was in purging mode not creative thinking mode, and I did not want to get derailed). I threw out a bunch of parts to old Kiwi crates. I threw out the trunk and wrappers from Carla’s arts and crafts supply library; none of the supplies were IN the trunk or wrappers but were instead strewn about the rest of the cabinet. I threw out SO MUCH CONSTRUCTION PAPER. In one burst of creativity, Carla had masking-taped blank pieces of perfectly good construction paper to one another. Many, many pieces. For a while, I tried to remove the tape so she could put the paper itself to good use, but during my clean out I just THREW IT AWAY. I also bought a brand new pack of construction paper earlier this week because I am an enabler, apparently.

I threw out even MORE projects. I did it swiftly, lest Carla come downstairs and cry over the ball of scrunched up masking tape coated in purple glitter or the little baggie filled with foam-and-googly-eye monster faces. I do feel bad about throwing away her creations – I DO. She is SUCH a creative kid and I love watching her come up with ideas. Sometimes, she’ll just decide to like, make a costume. “I’m making bunny costumes, Mommy,” she’ll inform me. And then she’ll create little bunny-paw gloves and littly bunny-ear headbands and fluffy tails and carrots and we will put them on and hop around for awhile. It’s darling and she is wonderfully adept at turning paper and tape into recognizable and wonderful things. (The bunny costume was near the bottom of the bottom shelf; it went into the trash.) (I’m not heartless; I gave the bunny costume a fond and wistful look as I was sweeping into the garbage bag.)

But she has so very many creations. And many of them go into the craft cabinet to be forgotten forever. Others are half-finished, or half-conceptualized when she shoves them into the cabinet.

Some of the projects, I just don’t understand. For instance, there were at least three baggies full of scraps of paper. That she had cut, painstakingly, into bits, for some unknown purpose, and then stored carefully in a baggie for future use. And I just… threw them away.

*Cabinet fully cleared, and most of the throw-away-able stuff is now thrown away. Please note I have had to upgrade my kitchen-size garbage bag to a heavy duty 33 gallon lawn and leaf bag.*

We had a bunch of activity books in the cabinet and I was really able to pare that down. I got rid of a long abandoned puffy sticker play set, and a three-quarters-used create-a-face sticker book, and a hardly worked-on First Grade workbook. There were even a couple of things that she had never once opened and has since outgrown, like a paint-with-water book and some of those awesome mess-free glitter project books, so I put them in the donate pile. (I had forgotten about the puffy sticker play sets and the mess-free glitters things – man, we bought a LOT of those for a LOT of years; they were always a big hit and good for many hours of quiet play.)

There are a lot of books remaining – coloring books, which she seems more into now that she’s a little older (even though the activities strike me as a little young for her), and books of mazes, and books about how to draw animals. Maybe now that they are easier to see/access, she’ll use them more often.

Finally, I was able to fit (nearly) everything into the bins that were not really fulfilling their purpose. Ever the optimist, I labeled the bins for ease of maintaining order. I wiped down the shelves of the cabinet, put the books and bins back in, taped a few colorful items I couldn’t bring myself to throw away onto the doors, and voila!

*How long will it stay this way? Stay tuned to find out…*

Let’s look at the before and after, shall we?

After the cabinets were tidy — whose cleanliness, again, was 100% not necessary for me to be able to do my other cleaning — I was able to do a nice thorough cleaning of the downstairs. And then I felt ready to start putting up the Christmas stuff.

But, even if it wasn’t necessary per se, it was still VERY satisfying.