Closet Craziness

I moved into my brother's old room three years ago, and the first thing I did was fill the closet with everything I could get my hands on. Then I crammed the nooks and crannies with random little things, like an alien-bobble-head, a mini-dollhouse of pink legos, a UFO landing site, and pictures of Orlando Bloom. Then I shoved a few sparkly ballroom gowns on top for good measure.

I shut the door, hung a pretty picture on the outside, and vowed never to open that closet again.

Three years later, I moved back to America, and, after a week of wearing exactly the same outfit, came to the conclusion that maybe I should unpack my clothes.

I tried various unpacking methods.

First, I kept everything in suitcases on my floor. But, after a few days, the suitcases magically shrank, as suitcases tend to do once opened, and my clothes no longer fit inside. So I took a more artistic approach and left my clothes in piles, on top of furniture, and draped from my bed.

This was... messy.

After a few painfully stubbed toes while trying to navigate the labyrinth of stuff covering my floor, I decided it was time to have a functioning closet again.

Surprisingly, on opening the door, no flying saucers came rushing towards my face, nothing came crashing down on my head, and my pictures of my beloved Orlando had not come to life to stage a coup against the disaster that had taken place in my closet.

I decided to go all Peter Walsh on my closet and emptied the entire thing out... onto my sister's bed.

The result was a nice, clean, empty closet. Which immediately made me want to fill it with stuff.  I resisted, and set about dealing with the mess I had made in my sister's room.

But what to do with all that stuff? I set my eyes on a playpen in the corner of the room, and decided that it would be my "donate" pile. My goal was to fill the playpen with things for charity, and then when it was full, I would take everything else back in my room, close my sister's door, and hope she didn't notice...

At the same time, I worked on relocating things to other parts of the house that really didn't belong in my closet. Okay, that's cheating. I'm a dirty, dirty cheater. Shhh!!

• Hall Closet: Coats and jackets
• Cedar Closet: Ballroom gowns worn less than twice a year, linens and towels from my old apartment (I'm planning on moving to a new apartment in a month or two and won't need them until then)
• Office: Office Supplies, computer parts, printer
• Attic: Legos and kitchenware

Back into my bedroom closet went all of my clothes from the floor, along with a basket of souvenirs from India, a tote bag of my professional organizing supplies, a box of computer/video games, a few board games, and a pretty red box containing my collection of Rubix cubes.

I'm happy to say that my closet is now clean and functional! But I'm still wearing the same outfit everyday. Why mess up a perfectly good look ?

Toothpaste Math

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?

2.

At least, that's about how much patience I have before I shove the entire thing in my mouth and chew it into tiny bits. I guess I'll never really know how many times I can lick a tootsie roll pop.

But, I do know how many times I can use a travel-size tube of toothpaste.

It's 30.

I counted.

For the not-so mathematically inclined, here's what you can get out of your travel-sized toothpaste:

• a month of brushing your teeth once a day
• 15 days of brushing your teeth twice a day
• 10 days of brushing your teeth three times a day

Or, if you are traveling with a friend/partner/spouse:

• 15 days of brushing your teeth once a day
• 7.5 days of brushing your teeth twice a day
• 3.75 days of brushing your teeth three times a day

Or, if you are me and my sister when we were little:

• 2 delicious toothpaste smoothies*

These figures are based off of a .85 oz (24 g) tube of toothpaste.

This means that the average person uses about .0283 oz (.8 g) of toothpaste per use.

Let's apply this to a normal sized tube of toothpaste!

My mom's toothpaste is 7.8 oz (221 g).

So, I could brush my teeth about 276 times with my mom's toothpaste.

Brushing my teeth twice a day, that tube of toothpaste would last me 138 days, or about 4.6 months.

So I only need to buy 2.65 tubes of toothpaste per year.

Too much time watching Extreme Couponing has convinced me that I should stockpile at least 195 more tubes of toothpaste so that I have enough to last me the rest of my life. Better make it 200, in case I need to teach my future children how to make their own toothpaste smoothie...


*I do not advocate using your travel-sized toothpaste to make smoothies containing various leftover cooking ingredients, spices, and dirt. Been there, done that, it doesn't taste good. It probably isn't very good for your health either. Also, avoid drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth, as it tastes almost as bad as a toothpaste smoothie.

St. Christopher's Inn: The Organized Hostel

Some hostels are full of lizards that hang on the wall and watch you while you sleep. Some hostels are full of cockroaches ready to scurry across the floor and touch you at any given moment. Some hostels are full of organizational tools that will scare away all the lizards and cockroaches and leave you will a profound sense of peace and organiziness.

One of the best organized hostels that I've stayed at is St. Christopher's Inn. They've got hostels all over Europe; I'm currently overcoming jet-lag by blogging at 6 am in their Paris location.

Here's my list of the top 10 reasons I love St. Christopher's Inn.

1. The Website

Aside from being super easy to navigate and book online, they also put together a list of local sights to visit and monthly events. If you're new to a city and looking for quick ideas on what to do, this is a perfect reference, even if you're not staying at the hostel. If you're in Paris, like me, check out:

Paris Sightseeing

Paris Monthly Events

2. Under-The-Bed Lockers

Each person gets their own private locker under their bunk bed. These lockers are GINORMOUS and can fit your entire suitcase, along with your backpack, purse, and about a bajillion souvenirs. There's enough space that you can keep all your things controlled and organized if you so desire. Or you can be like me and say "screw you organization, I'm on vacation" and then go buy more souvenirs to shove in your locker. 

 (I'm really not usually this bad, really. I'm just in the process of moving back to America from South Korea, and stopping over in France with all my luggage on the way home. Good idea to lug all your most important possessions through the streets of Paris? Probably not. But at least I can fit it all in my locker...)

On the downside, locks are not included, so bring your own, and make sure it's fairly big since the space between the top and bottom of the locker is sizable. (I've tied my flashlight to my locker to make it easier to open at 6 am when I can't sleep)

 
Also, bring your own travel-sized WD-40, since the lockers also squeak.

3. Privacy Curtains

Snore in peace, and block out sunshine during your mid-afternoon nap.

4. Bed Labels

Who doesn't appreciate a good label?

5. Discount Cards

 You can sign up at home to get a free temporary discount card before you go, and bring it to the hostel for 10% off your booking. (If you only get the real card at the hostel, it doesn't count for the initial discount if you've already made the booking, since you pay for your rooms and then get the card. If you get the temporary card at home first, you can show it before you pay for the 10% off. You can also use the card for 10% off food and drinks, and for all future bookings.)

6. Personal Lights and Electrical Sockets

Located on the wall above you pillow, charge your camera and laptops behind closed curtains, and stay up late reading the latest trashy French romance novel without waking up the other people in your room.

7. The Organized Shower

Hooks to hang your clothes on, a mini-shelf for your toiletries or shoes, a bar for your towel, a partition to keep your things from getting wet, and a real actual door that locks.

8. Free Bedding

It's not only free, but also clean and comfortable. And one less thing to pack in your suitcase! (And if you stay in the girls-only rooms, you get free towels too!)

 
9. Free WiFi

Check your email, post on facebook, update your blog, the possibilities are endless.

10. Toilet Paper 

Happiness is a gigantic roll of toilet paper...

How to Fit a Week's Worth of Clothing in a Carry-On

I am an expert at packing.

My strategy is to pull out everything I want to wear, or that I think looks vacation-ey, and throw it on the bed. Once I've pulled out at least half of my wardrobe, I get out my suitcase and proceed to stuff until my arms get tired. When I realize that it won't fit, I dump it all back on my bed, toss a few things on the floor, and start over. Then I repeat until I can close the suitcase.

This method usually leaves me with an overload of one thing (like, five different black swing dance t-shirts) and a severe lacking of another thing. I recently went to India and forgot my pajama pants, meaning that I spent my nights sleeping in the same jeans that I had just gotten monkey poo all over earlier in the day. I also forgot a warm jacket and spent many a night shivering in cold train stations and envying the local people huddled on the floor with warm blankets. Okay, there were also rats on the floor, so maybe I didn't envy them too much.

I'm apparently not an expert at packing.

But I could be, if I packed smart! Here's a checklist of clothing to bring on your next 7 day vacation:

• 6 tops (Spring/Fall: 3 long sleeve/3 short sleeve, Winter: 2 short/4 long, Summer: 2 long/4 short)
  
• 1 dress
• 1 skirt
• 1 pair of dress pants
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 sweatshirt/light jacket
• 1 pair of pajamas
• 7 pairs of socks
• 7 pairs of underwear
• 3 bras
• 1 bathing suit

Winter Additions:

• 2 pairs of long underwear/underarmor
• 1 winter coat
• 1 hat 
• 1 pair of gloves
• 1 scarf

(For an even better idea, make your own personal list of clothes, print it out, laminate it, and keep it in your suitcase with a marker to check off as you're packing for your next trip.)

So, you get all your clothes in your suitcase and fold them up neat, and it looks like this:

But if you're like me, there's no way it's going to stay like this as soon as you start taking clothes out. Me and neatly folding things go together like orange juice and toothpaste. Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes to the rescue!

For my imaginary 1 week vacation I used 2 Half-Cubes and 2 Regular Cubes.

• Regular Cube #1: Tops
• Regular Cube #2: Dress, Skirt, Jeans, Dress pants

• Half-Cube #1: Socks, Underwear
• Half-Cube #2: Bathing Suit, Bras, Pajamas

And the jacket got thrown on top of it all. I may be organized, but I'm far from perfect.

How to Prevent Fan Death

In South Korea, fan death is a very serious concern. Even the smallest personal cooling device can suck the oxygen right out the room, leaving you suffocating with carbon dioxide poisoning while you sleep. The wild vortex alone that is created during this can cause massive bronchial damage, as well as mess up your perfect hairstyle and change the color of your nail polish. In addition, some fans prefer air-alterations, rather than simple stealing.  These fans chop your precious oxygen up into a million pieces, attach the molecules back together with death extract, and return it to your room while you peacefully dream of sunshine and lollipops.

If you're not toast by morning, the fans might try a different aproach. As you know, fans are the cornerstone of recent AI development, which means that as soon as they see you are asleep, they will lower their own temperature in attempt to turn you into a human popsicle.Then they will pummel your popsicle self with high speed winds until you shatter on the floor.

Today's post will teach you how to avoid fan death with 5 simple ideas!

1. Kimchi Vitamins
2. Cute Socks
3. A Face Mask
4. A Plastic Ziploc Bag
5. An Emergency Fan-Death Kit

1. Kimchi Vitamins 

As you must know, kimchi, the popular Korean side dish, is not only good for your health, but it can also cure all sorts of diseases. Now in vitamin form, you can get the benefits of kimchi anytime! Coming down with a case of swine flu? Kimchi vitamin. Stuck at the bus stop in radioactive rain? Kimchi vitamin. Co-teachers think you're having a bad day? Kimchi vitamin. Got a bad case of fan death? Kimchi vitamin.

2. Cute Socks

Another preventative measure you can take against fan death is the wearing of cute socks. Wearing socks at night will keep your body temperature up and prevent all of the oxygen in your body from leaking out of your feet. As an added bonus, evil vortexes are repelled by cuteness, so the cuter your bedtime apparel, the less likely you are to have your slumber disturbed by those pesky killer fans.

3. A Face Mask

A face mask, popularized by old women on subway trains, are now finding a place in the home. Face masks will keep out death extracts that may be attached to your oxygen, as well as harmful carbon-dioxide and just about everything else in the whole world. Again, it has been proved that fan death risks are greatly reduced with the addition of "cuteness" into the nighttime routine, so be sure that your mask is decorated with an animal face or cartoon character for maximum effect. Also, fans are highly susceptible to style influences, so make certain that your mask is not actually covering your mouth, but that it is resting gently on your chin while hanging from one ear.

4. A Plastic Ziploc Bag

If the above tips don't help you feel more comfortable with sleeping with your fan on, just turn it off! (But make sure that you've removed all batteries from the fan's remote control, as well as unplugged it and smashed all visible working parts with a large hammer first)

To keep cool on a hot night with no fan, stick your pillowcase cover in a plastic ziploc bag and throw it in the freezer before you go to work. By the time it's bedtime, your pillow will be nice and cold!

(Or just throw the whole pillow in there. If it gets melted ice cream on it, just think of it as a midnight snack...)

5. An Emergency Fan-Death Kit

You can store all of the above items in a small plastic bag near your bed, for easy access should you experience any signs of fan death. In case of an emergency, first take several kimchi vitamins. Then put on your mask and socks and quietly approach the fan with your large hammer. If you do several really cool dance moves while moving towards the fan, you will be less likely to be detected and will remain under stealth. Strike quickly while the fan is facing the other way and continue to whack it until it stops moving. Be sure to bury the remaining pieces 10 feet deep in solid concrete to avoid reoccurring attacks that may cause additional fan death. Then, go back to bed and snuggle with your nice cold pillow.

The Organized Classroom

This week I had to give a lecture to new English teachers on how to create lessons, manage your classroom, etc. I put together a slide show of ideas for organizing your classroom too. Here it is!

 

Trouble with Toiletries

The main trouble with toiletries is that I can never remember how to spell "toilet." I always put the "I" in the wrong place, like "toliet" or "tiolet" or "toleit" or  just to be safe "Itioilieiti."

The secondary main trouble with toiletries is that that they don't expire quickly and are such meaningless objects that we don't really think of them when we're going through our emotional purging states. "What should I do with my limited edition copy of Lord of the Rings that my friend gave me even though I hate the picture of Orlando Bloom's hair on the cover? (keep it, but hide it on the back of the bookshelf) What should I do with my mini-puzzle of Orlando Bloom's face? (keep it in a really big box and hide that box in the attic) What should I do with my life-size gigantic stand-up cutout of Orlando Bloom that serves no purpose other than to guard my room while I'm away? (keep it and put it right smack in the middle of my room) What should I do with my small collection of extra dental floss? (umm....keep it?)"

But, I'm moving soon, and it was time to deal with the dental floss. So, emulating my Clean Sweep idol Peter Walsh, I dumped everything from my hall closet, bathroom cabinet, and purses onto the coffee table. Actually it was too big to all fit on the coffee table so some of it went on the floor too.

Extra unopened shampoo, conditioner, soaps, and toothpaste went back into the hall closet for the next teacher that gets the apartment. Things like hairspray, hair gel, and nail polish remover that would too much of a mess to pack went back into the bathroom cabinet for the next teacher. Everything that looked gross went into the trash.

Trash

• expired medicines
• half-used deodorants, shaving creams, and other things that the next teacher would not want to use
• broken jewelry that is beyond repair
• my collection of free samples of lotions, sunscreens, etc.
• makeup over 3 years old (for an exact list of when to throw away your makeup, read Makeup Shelf Life)
• Things I didn't like in the first place.
• Trash

The rest looked like this:

So I dumped out all the bags of stuff and sorted everything into piles:

• Top row: Deodorant, shower stuff (soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, razors), chapstick, lotions (sunscreen, face lotion, body lotion, hand lotion), storage containers/bags

• Middle row: makeup, nail stuff, extra buttons, medicines

• Bottom row: hair stuff, more makeup, jewelry, tooth stuff (toothpaste, floss, toothbrushes), q-tips

Then I went through each pile and thew away things that were on that trash list up top that I had ignored the first time around. Like old makeup. I don't actually wear makeup, but I still feel bad throwing it away.  I feel less bad if it's on an official list with the expiration dates of makeup. Then I tried to realistically think about how many of each thing I really needed. Like deodorant. In countries such as France and Korea, deodorant is a rare commodity, so over the past 3 years I've been stocking up. It's hard to remember that back in America, you can buy deodorant easily at your local convenience/grocery store. Against my better judgement, I picked two, put aside one unopened stick for the next teacher, and threw the rest away. I probably should have only picked one, but I'm headed to France next...and I feel scared.

Then I put it all back in storage containers.

All my hair stuff went into a little purple box that used to hold beads from my magic beading machine when I was a kid.  If it didn't fit into the box, I threw it in the trash can. If you didn't keep your bead box, you can use a non-magical version like this: 6 Compartment Unbreakable Box or Infinite Divider Box.

My jewelry used to be kept in small tins that my brie cheese came in. Dancing competition jewelry (i.e., shiny jewelry that I actually like) went into a small pink case.

The rest went into a plastic bag, to go back into my jewelry box when I get back home. I don't really wear jewelry that much either...

If you care about your jewelry, you might not want to store it in a plastic bag. Try one of the divided boxes mentioned above (to keep things from getting tangled) or a Velvet Jewelry Roll or Jewelry Portfolio.

Next comes the shower and tooth brushing stuff. It all went into a clear plastic case to keep it separate for easy access and to keep it from spilling all over everything in case a bottle leaks. And, it comes with a nice handle that can be hung on an s-hook if you're in one of those hostel bathrooms with no hooks... see my blog entry on packing for a youth hostel .

A small silver case holds emergency essentials like a needle and thread, advil, clear nail polish, breath mints, and a moist towelette. It's called a minimergency kit.

Extra Buttons, safety pins and q-tips went into a divided pill box.

Everything else went into my weekender bag Normally I try to keep EVERYTHING in this bag, and make sure to limit myself to it, but after 3 years of traveling, I just have too much stuff. I'm a bad, bad pack-rat.

Here's what's in it:

• Left-most pocket: Compact Mirror, chapstick, nail clippers
• Middle pocket: deodorant, lotions and creams (in a plastic bag to contain spills), extra medicines
• Right-most pocket: purple case of hair stuff, pink case of competition jewelry, plastic bag of regular jewelry

So, put it all together and you get this:

Tada! Let's look at the before and after pictures one more time!

Before & After

And the dental floss? It may look like I pared it down, but that's a lie. I kept it all. You don't want to make your dentist more angry that he already will be when he finds out that you've been hoarding and not using your dental floss...