let alone many guns which would necessitate an entire rack.”
I have a bit of a makeup problem in the sense that I have many pouches, cases, and other containers devoted to the convenient storage thereof, but relatively little makeup to store in them. I have, at last count, two eyeshadow compacts, three individual eye shadow discs, four lipsticks and two eyeliner pencils. I also have a tube of mascara coming on order from Avon. All of this fits pretty handily in one of the drawers of my Sterilite three-drawer organizer that mainly houses my formidable hair-clippie collection. For while I am lackadaisical about the facial spackle, I’m probably overly enthusiastic about hair ornaments.
Anyway, as I was saying in my excessive and prolix way, I have a lot of makeup pouches and suchlike and not a lot of makeup. So I like to make use of the shit I have around, and I have a specific and minute mania for organization. On the macro level, I am a chaotic slob, but on the micro level, I can be quite organized if the resources are right and the stars are aligned.
Recently, I took it upon myself to organize my backpack.
I have a tendency to carry entirely too much crap in my backpack, so I decided to weed it down to the essentials, then package them up conveniently, so that anything else rattling around in my bag could easily be identified and eliminated when and as necessary.
I solved two problems at once, too; I put to use some of the unused makeup bags that had been floating around, and I got my backpack into pretty good order.
I really like Clinique’s Black Honey “Almost Lipstick” tinted lipgloss. It is the bim-bomb-diggedy. A while back I bought a new tube of this wondrous goo because I’d used up my previous one, and they were doing some sort of promotional deal where they threw in this little zip bag with some moisturizer samples in it. I wasn’t especially swayed; I’d just as soon stick with my Aveeno “Positively Radient” which is way cheaper and also sunscreeny, but I thought the bag was kind of cute…it even has a bicycle on it! It now houses my first aid supplies, comprising a small ziplock full of assorted band aids, another containing aspirin and advil, a travel bottle of hand sanitizer, a few tampons, toothpaste, tooth brush, safety pins, pocket knife, and citronella oil.
The little clear-and-aqua windowpane check bag dates back to my highschool days; I used to use it to carry shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant for Gym class. Now, it is full to the gizzard with inner tubes for any bike I could conceivably find myself riding. The other bag is The Prettiest Toolkit Ever! It has rhinestones on it.
It had originally contained some lavender scented bath products and one of those fluffy shower-gell-puffer-things. The bath products have long since been enjoyed, and the fluffy puffer thingy has been destroyed by the cats. Now, this handy-dandy little bag contains patch kits, tire levers, a crescent wrench, some Tri-Flo oil, a multitool, and yet another road tube.
It’s so much easier to find stuff when I need it, and I’m finally getting some good use out of these little pouches.
And now on to my next fab re-purposing.
I found a Caboodles the other day. About a million years ago, when I was in Junior High in the early 1990s, these things were considered the schizznit. Many of my girlfriends had them, to better store and tote their stashes of Scrunchies and Love’s Baby Soft. I never had one, preferring my hot-pink-and-teal Gitano overnight bag for such duties. All the same, I recognized the general niftiness of these glorified, color-coordinated tackleboxes.
Anyway, the other day I was taking Ruby on her daily run, and we were trolling the back alleys of the West Bottoms (lots of things to sniff and piddle on) when I spied something hot pink that looked promising. Lo, it was a vintage Caboodle!
I couldn’t really conscience leaving it there in the alley behind 
“>the very private club so I dug around in the trash heap a little more, found a piece of coaxial cable, and tied the Caboodle to my package rack. I wasn’t 100% sure what I’d use it for, but it was too good of a bit of detritus to pass up.
Well, when I got home with it, I realised that it would be way better for storing my thread than the old Searsonite travel case I’d been using:
Plus, also, this Samsonite-knockoff smells strongly of vitamins. I guess the previous owner used to store their iron pills and other nostrums in here.
When I got done sorting, de-tangling, and re-winding, this was the end result. Highly satisfying, and now I can find pretty much any color I might have occasion to need. Whoot!
Now I need to find a good use for the old blue case that smells like vitamins. I’m sure it will come to me eventually, and in the meantime, it stows nicely under the futon in my office.
