Good things...some "me" items

I rarely buy things for myself anymore...mostly because I don't really "need" anything. But I splurged last week, and bought 3.5 "me" things (one of the items was kinda for the boys, so I am only giving myself half of it). All of these items came from issues, problems, frustrations I was having. And I think they will all be very useful.

We have lived in our rental house for almost a year. Our house has one of the least functional kitchen layouts, and least amount of storage space I have ever seen. I finally got around to organizing it a few weeks ago, and upped my amount of useable counter-space from 6 inches to 12 inches. I needed a spice storage solution. I bought these old Pepsi crates at a local antique shop for $7 a piece. And then I bought some cool spice jars and labels from a store called storables.com.  I am sure if you had nice handwriting (I have handwriting that rivals a 5-year-old's) you could make your own. But I love the uniform look of this. I did end up making a few of my own labels for "spice mixes" like lemon pepper and pumpkin pie spice. The labels came with some spices I had never heard of like mace, marjoram and chervil. I just cut those off, and wrote the spices I wanted. 

Next on my "me list" was a step-stool. I am very short...almost 5 feet. And have never owned a step-stool. After having to store things I need regularly in our horrible kitchen up high, I decided it was time. I almost broke my neck a couple times climbing up on the counters to retrieve a baking dish. I got this foldable stepstool from Storables as well (they have other colors, but black sounded classic). I like it because it folds for easy storage when I am don't need it, and has a non-slip surface. The boys like it as well : )

Finally here is the one that is 1/2 for the boys. We had an explosion of sand toys, and a bag that was impossible to get all the sand out of. So I found a flexible laundry basket for sand/pool toys. I had looked at all the local stores and couldn't find what I wanted. Found this one at Storables as well (I promise I didn't get paid to write this)! I like that I can just rinse this off, and shake it out after a day at the sound. It is flexible, so you can hold it with one hand. This is the medium size, but they also have a large size, and a kids size that would be perfect for small toys or book storage!

So there it is! Items for me  : )