CONVERTING CHAOS INTO ORDER Part Three

Author Essie Feldhacher

I love plastic, airtight, snap-lock tubs. And I remember when they were ‘invented’. But then, being born in the 4th year of the Baby Boom Generation, (1946-1964) I recall when a lot of items people take for granted today came into existence. For Yours Truly, among the most appreciated – the vast selection of plastic storage tubs. To an appreciable degree plastic tubs freed me from cardboard boxes, which Erma Bombeck once upon a time wrote a hilarious column about regarding women ‘hoarding’ boxes in all sizes and shapes.

When I was growing up in the 1950s, if a youngster was sent to “fetch a tub” parental explanations weren’t in order. There was the metal wash tub, or the cast-iron porcelain veneered bath tub to qualify. Since the bath tub, claw-footed or built-in was solidly moored, logic dictated one was expected to retrieve the wash tub – fabricated from graniteware, copper, or tin. This mainstay ‘tub’ served many duties aside from holding laundry water. These almost indestructible metal containers were also used for harvesting produce from the garden or orchard and many work-related tasks, but also served a purpose for entertainment. A wash tub was part of a home made kitchen band, and during hot summer months, on a blisteringly warm day, could be filled with water and we kids took turns immersing ourselves to “swim” and cool off in the dear multi-purpose tub.

Most people did not have a lot of material “stuff” back then. Wardrobes were sparse, as was the amount of individual footwear. People lived by the basics at that time – which could very well be a harbinger of things to come in the future. There have been marvelous items manufactured – that at one time people had to craft at home – or purchase from a neighbor or small town business person. As a society we’ve been spoiled by the wealth of items to pick from at the local retail establishment. (A small percentage of citizens bother to sew their own clothing, for instance, considering it easier and cheaper to buy-off-a-rack items made in Third World Countries.)

Way-back-when cabinets, drawers, cupboards and closets tended to contain possessions quite well. And if there was a need to “store” items, they were usually packed into cardboard boxes, hauled to a basement (if you were lucky enough to have one, and a dry one at that!) or were stashed in the garage or small wood-shed type outbuilding. Those who stored items in boxes had to basically commit to memory what was in the box or write on it with a lead pencil or ballpoint pen or drizzly India ink. I’m so ‘long-in-tooth’ – age 60 – that I remember when Magic Marker Brand permanent markers were invented, basic black only, often used for creating posters, but made labeling and identifying boxes of plunder a lot easier.

Boxes–while better than nothing–were aggravating to use for storage, as they were of differing sizes and widths, they were not air tight, and summer humidity was not kind to the cardboard. Plastic garbage bags to line a box and protect the items within cardboard weren’t really invented yet, not as we know them today.

For the first twenty years of my life – the above was reality!

The second twenty year segment was better. Many things were invented like Tupperware – nifty stuff but very expensive – and it became obvious that women liked the sales parties hosted by females who invited their friends to purchase “burping” plastic items to store and preserve household items. Eventually manufacturers’ (like Rubbermaid) began to emulate with retail shelf location that resulted in ease of direct acquisition for families with Federal Reserve Notes to spend. Even so, the Tupperware Generation’s assortment was a wee bit limited and pricey for a future tub junky like me.

The most recent twenty year segment of my life has created an absolute bonanza of storage items – some designs much better than others – and some brands a great deal cheaper to acquire than their competitors’. At present time, there is something to store almost…anything…if you put thought and usage needs into containers when making selections, and are willing to spend the money necessary to purchase stacks of nested tubs and store things accordingly, your life and home can be revolutionized.

Initially, back in the mid 1990s, I stored in a minimal manner purely for convenience and orderliness. Frankly I was wearying of Dear Husband (DH) coming into the house announcing he needed something around the farm, and inquired if I had any idea where it was located. See, we have work benches, we have wooden tool drawers, but even if tools were initially put away with an intention of neatness, rat-through-a-drawer-on-the-run and it is soon wily-nily and…potentially even injurious. Hunt down a box knife in a drawer also containing tin snips, side cutters, and other such work-related bric-a-brac can result in serious cuts. Or, a locked and jammed drawer, if, in trying to shove it closed, something pops out of place and rises up to jamb against the cabinetry resulting in increased angst and irritation. The same prospect resulted when DH came in to request a livestock care item – perhaps not used frequently – but invaluable when needed without time lost searching.

I knew I had to do something!

My maiden attempts began when I saw a new item “shoebox” size plastic clear tubs with snap on lids at a Dollar General Store, designed to store footwear. I picked up a half a dozen, returned home, and “organized” the workshop a bit. These tubs were an ideal size to organize small tools. One for hammers, another for screwdrivers, one for bungi cords, another for boxes of screws, an additional one for the little plastic boxes and plastic tubes of small nails…another for tape measures and fold up rulers.

Before I knew it, I was out of tubs and realized I still had a lot of organizing to do! The next time I returned to town, I went to the dollar store – and that day bought them out – suspecting that they were going to soon consider me The Tub Lady. I wasn’t organizing shoes, left foot and right, in neat pairs. Naw…I realized I was Organizing My Very Life!

Initially I laid tubs out, open, with the lids beneath the tub, on the work bench for ease in grabbing an appropriate little implement, when done, tossing it back toward the tub. I did, however, soon motivate myself to go to the computer and typeset labels, using 36 or 48 font size, for legible reading. I discovered quickly that it was easier to identify the tub I was seeking when I had a descriptive word to focus on and wasn’t reduced to scanning contents to see what a tub actually contained. I cut the labels into rectangles and affixed them to the ends of the boxes with clear strapping tape.

I soon saw that converting order chaos into order in the garage and outbuildings could also work in-home. I realized it would require hard work initially, but eventually would free up a great deal of time. I’d always liked the concept my hairdresser had once told me: “Learn to work smarter – not harder” and I’d opted to try to live in that manner.

DH thought that I’d gone quite nuts with “this tub thing”. But my needs were no longer being met with tubs…I needed shelving, also. In fact, a lot of it! To my rescue came the plastic snap-together shelving units suddenly available as an alternative to bolting together metal shelving. I bought one lone unit…but even as I paid for it and wrestled the big box into the van, I had a feeling it was going to become an addiction, too. Dear Hubs just shook his head when he saw the plastic four-tier heavy utility shelf I’d positioned correctly and then pounded together (with the force of a rubber mallet from the HAMMER box) to construct it with as much surety and stability as possible. I’d positioned it against a bare wall in the utility room – with room for two or three more units if it worked out in reality as great as it had been conceived in my imagination.

My shelves and tub system began in the Good Ol’ Days when life was serene and we didn’t face all the specters we do nowadays, so it was basically just a personal improvement project. With dedicated efforts, I’d gone from EVERY drawer in the house and out buildings seeming like a “Junk Drawer” to having NO Junk Drawers. Bit by bit items were sorted by category and weren’t a mishmash of handy possessions. Actual drawers now contained the most frequently used items. To maintain that, I refrained from tossing items into a drawer to get things out of sight, or because I hadn’t a clue what to do with them, and instead promptly marched them off to a tub, or tossed things into a little basket that could be used to contain varied items as I made-the-rounds and redeposited them in the correct tubs on a put-away-mission.

After having a go at it in the garage and machine shed, as I entered the fray of some serious and heavy duty home-canning, I purchased more tubs. Anyone who has read about addictions is aware that it tends to start with light ‘abuse’ the small-time behaviors. Well, that was my experience, and soon I moved from the shoe-box size tubs to the next larger size.

Canning rings were no longer stored in a basket we’d once received containing overpriced fruit in a Christmas gift pack. Nope! They now cleanly resided in a mid-size snap lock tub with a label, protected from dust and humidity. Handy items like tongs, jar-mouth funnels, a box of stretchy juice straining tube material, an extra gasket for the pressure canner, even the plug-in timer went into another tub with an appropriate label lovingly prepared and affixed. I’d discovered some of the wonderful Mrs. Wage’s packets of canning mixtures when they hit the market – and racked them up neatly in another tub – so I could riffle through them like one’s fingers-did-the-searching in a library card catalog, and I could find what I sought. Also, it helped me keep track of the inventory so I could purchase additional stock in anticipation of garden produce. Jelly making preparations went into another tub. My system made the hard work of canning a great deal easier. I’d fetch in the tubs when needed, preserve canned goods, and then replace the items in the appropriate tub and stow them on the shelf-space allotted for my canning equipment. It was NICE not to fight canning tongs and equipment all year long as they took up kitchen drawer space for seasonal use.

More tubs – and my sewing notions were in order.

After that, additional tubs and my art supplies, and those for the grandchildren, were in order.

Tubs were a great way to store light bulbs. Computer programs. Shoe care items. Cleaning cloths. Items required for electrical repairs. A tub for chain saw materials. A roomy place to store packets of garden seeds. Another tub for car care items – fuses, cans of air conditioning refills, ice scrapers, tube patch, rearview mirror affixing equipment – items that can become so easily mislaid if not kept in a categorized tub for easy location.

I continued with this reorganizing routine – steadily, seriously – intent on “progress not perfection” while realizing that Rome Wasn’t Built In One Day.

At that point in time there seemed to be no sensation of a need to rush; I felt that I had all the time in the world. Then about two years prior to the Crash of Autumn 2008, it dawned on me that regardless of what many believed, I sensed there were tough times ahead. Due to a business relocation and new friendship with our in-coming strip mall neighbors (a resale shop) I learned the nuts and bolts of how they did business, and also fell into an interesting “ministry” of sorts providing for the needs of others – when times seemed good! – that gently put my feet on the path for now, when times are bad, with a seeming promise ‘twill get even worse (which will be addressed in an upcoming segment.)

Life is frequently a learning experience, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time refining my technique and my system. Face-to-face I have shared this with quite a few people, including one young housewife who swears that my educating her about my system “saved her marriage” because clutter was taking a toll on their relationship. I went through some major trial and error aspects, and as a result, have done some “trailblazing” and can prevent others from taking the same detours on the path to better organization.

Fortunately, the suppliers of these tubs by finessing their manufactured lines, have assisted mightily by continually, it seemed, offering tubs in an ever-increasing and very pleasing assortment of sizes and shapes, many with removable lids, others with hinged lids that are ideal for some items.

In addition, as there became more demand for tubs, and more manufacturers moving into that area of production, the prices became more competitive. Suitable tubs can be found not only at Mart-type stores, but Dollar Item Retail establishments, Hardware and Farm Supply Stores, and nowadays even in Pharmacy-based businesses like Walgreen’s. Keep in mind, however, that it requisite to shop for the best price, for where you acquire tubs can result in major savings. Walgreen’s, for instance, sells the exact same brand and size tub for over seven dollars, while Family Dollar Store offers it for half that amount. Once crude hit $147 a barrel, because plastics are a derivative of oil, prices increased, while the strength of the fabrication material declined, but many prudent storage materials can be “gently used” for many years to come if handled with care.

I am quite “smitten” by the Sterlite Brand tubs, available from many retailers. Sterlite tubs (and I opt to use clear ones, not the colorized plastic) stack beautifully, they are small enough so they aren’t ungainly, but roomy enough to store “like” materials and items and tools, and come in an array of convenient sizes. For me, the older I get, and upper body strength isn’t what it used to be, I try to employ user-friendly small to medium tubs due to weight load limitations with an eye to how many can be stacked atop one another on plastic utility shelves to get the most from space available to organize prudent storage. Alas, to acquire tubs for that purpose almost requires that one purchase tubs new, for these type tubs aren’t easily acquired on the secondary market.

There are larger tubs, from roomy, to big, to oversized/humongous, which serve other purposes when placed in a basement, storage shed, or out-building for the preservation and protection of useful items. A person can save a great deal of money purchasing these storage tubs on the secondary market.

We’ve discovered it was possible to purchase like-new tubs from our resale shop vendors in the same complex. Many persons brought in their consignment items in cardboard boxes, or slung over their arms, but others lugged in tubs of merchandise, and when told they could return later to collect the emptied-out tubs, they shrugged it off. They were abandoning the tubs as they were willing to mentally discard often quite valuable items if they happened to not sell in six weeks’ time so they’d get a check in the mail. Often they seemed caught in the throes of newly freed up space – unaware they were mentally programmed to purchase more and more replacement ‘stuff’, and even buy brand tubs in which to store it, for they couldn’t be troubled to make a side-trip to retrieve the monetary value they’d already invested in substantial plastic ware items! After emptying the tubs the resale shop owners could do with them as they desired – use them – or sell the excess – and we were very enthusiastic buyers!

Interestingly enough, it seems the easy-come-easy-go persons who are those most likely to walk away from possessions, and in my opinion, you may’s well…benefit…perhaps purchasing on the secondary market on-the-cheap what your tax dollars helped another person to purchase in the beginning!

My system works best with tubs. But it IS possible to at least begin using cardboard boxes, if your financial situation is such, in these ever worsening times, so that investing in tubs just isn’t a realistic option. Cardboard boxes when sold by outlets that offer cardboard boxes for retail sales often come close to prices realized for plastic tubs. Therefore, dumpster diving for cardboard boxes is the cheap answer. For my ‘ministry’ uses I periodically made-the-rounds, dumpster diving with impunity to attain boxes of the same general sizes and shapes. Dumpsters behind liquor stores and cigarette outlets can be a major mother lode. These don’t work well for tools and similar items, but they can serve very, very well to protect and preserve items needed for when TSHTF, and lining them with trash bags, and stacking on snap-together plastic shelving can be a major boon for little economy outlay.

When typesetting labels to use for cardboard boxes where distracting printing, barcodes, and other inking can cause visual overload, I tend to go to labels of 48 font, even 72 size type, and I print out one label per page of computer copy paper, insert into plastic page sleeves (available in the office supply section at Wal-Mart and others stores) and affix the 8-1/2 by 11 inch large label to the box, strapping down the edges of the plastic page sleeve with transparent tape. These boxes, which can suffice instead of purchasing tubs for storage, are then more easily identifiable due to the white-space around the printing that helps one focus for easy location of specific items in storage.

Related posts:

1. CONVERTING CHAOS INTO ORDER Part One
2. CONVERTING CHAOS INTO ORDER Part Two

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Authors, Essie Feldhacher, Preparedness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.