Precious and I headed out to the store the other day. I had a very short list of things for which I was searching. Among the items was a storage basket for Deus Ex Machina. He has been working on this project, and he's in the production phase, which means he has a bunch of materials for making this product he has engineered. Unfortunately, the way that he was storing said items was ... well, kind of messy, and kind of in the way, especially if we intend to put up a Holiday tree, which I do ... intend to do.
My plan was to get a basket to stash his stuff, which could, then, be stored under the bench at our dining room table (where he is doing most of his work anyway). I've probably mentioned it before, but we don't have a lot of storage space in my house. We don't have very many closets, cabinets, drawers, or nooks. So, I use baskets, a lot. Not only are baskets wonderful for taming miscellaneous clutter, but they're also kind of cute and fit with my overall "functional homestead" decor.
So, we headed over to the Christmas Tree Shop, which is right next door to Michael's. I figured one or the other place would have what I was looking for.
The Christmas Tree Shop, sort of, had what I was looking for. They didn't have any baskets, but they did have cloth storage boxes - 2 for $9.99. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but with no other good choices, I grabbed the package of two and headed for the cash register,
But, then, we saw the LINE! There were two registers open with a line that wended its way in a zigzag through the store, 30 FULL carts deep in BOTH lines.
Have I mentioned that I hate waiting?
Precious, who usually likes to shop, took one look at that line and channeled me.
"That's a long line," she says.
"Yep," I replied.
We decided that nothing we were holding was worth that wait, put our stuff back, and headed next door to Michael's.
We walked through the doors and were immediately struck by the empty shelves. It was surreal. The last time I saw shelves that empty was the toilet paper aisle at Hannaford from March to June 2020.
Undaunted, we continued on our mission to find a storage container and headed more deeply into the store. After the third lap around the store, I had to admit that there were no baskets. Wait. What? There were no baskets? Michael's always has baskets and boxes, and cute little storage containers. Always. I was shocked and disappointed.
And we left, empty-handed ... again.
After that, we were done and headed back home, defeated.
But I think, if I had bought something that I didn't really want, I would have been more disappointed in having spent the money.
The truth is that times like these are good for me, because they remind me that I, usually, have the skill, knowledge, and ability to make my own whatever it is that I'm looking to buy. Baskets are no exception.
In fact, a few weeks ago, Deus Ex Machina and I spent a lovely Saturday morning at a basket-weaving workshop where we learned to make baskets out of Bittersweet, which is an invasive vine here in southern Maine.
And because I'm not a Marie Kondo convert, but rather a very skilled prepper, I often have the supplies on hand to make exactly what I need - or, as we were reminded in the workshop, I can usually find what I need, in this case, by going out in my yard and cutting back some invasive Bittersweet vine.
For Deus Ex Machina's storage basket or box, I wanted something square or rectangular rather than circular. So, the basket weaving wasn't my first choice.
After I couldn't buy what I wanted, my plan was to repurpose a cardboard box into a storage container that didn't look like a cardboard box.
When Precious and I returned home from our failed shopping trip the other day, I found the perfect box. My plan was to cover it with fabric. Then, I remembered that we had some twine rope. I don't even recall where we got it, or when. I'm pretty sure that it's been stored under a bed or on a shelf for the half of this century. I found it, today, stashed in our under-the-bed drawers.
We also have a hot glue gun, because while I'm not terribly crafty, we did homeschool, which means I have a lot of craft supplies and tools.
And so, using what I had on hand, I made a storage container. It's lined with one of Deus Ex Machina's holey polo shirts, because I often keep old clothes, too, which eventually become something else - like rag rugs, or quilts, ... or the lining of a box-turned-basket.
Including the cost of the glue sticks for my hot glue gun, my homemade basket only cost $2.
This similar basket at IKEA is $12.99.
By making my own, I saved $10.99.
And the hour I saved by not standing in a very long line to purchase something that would only sort of do what I needed, I spent being creative, and I probably saved a lot more, anyway, because the reality is that I would have probably made a few impulse purchases while waiting in that line.
Sometimes I get annoyed when the clutter starts to overflow my living spaces, but in the end, I know that I can never fully embrace the whole Marie Kondo lifestyle, because while that rope didn't give me any particular joy until I used it for something I needed, the storage basket I made, DOES give me a great deal of joy. It's functional, and it's pretty. If I had taken MK's advice, I wouldn't have been able to make that lovely container.
For me, there has to be a balance of keeping vs. throwing away, because sometimes deciding that an item is not worth keeping based on whether or not it "brings joy" in the present, could result in a missed opportunity for joy in the future.
