The Refill Shoppe

There's a neat store in Ventura, CA, called The Refill Shoppe where they sell reusable items from grocery bags to water bottles and consumables like dish washing soap and shampoo in bulk containers that you fill up your small, reusable bottle from. The idea is that we don't need disposable packaging if there's a place to get refills of your favorite consumable items. I was fascinated by the fact that they sell actual handkerchiefs, especially as my household goes through at least a box of tissues a week.

I love the idea of reducing waste on the front end instead of just recycling all the plastic and glass bottles we get every day to hold single-use items.

Next time you are in the area, check them out. 1068 E Main St. Ventura, CA 93001 - Open Monday through Saturday 10am - 6pm. On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/therefillshoppe

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Post #100

This is my hundredth post to this blog. I started helping you organize about eleven months ago as a way to share things I learned through the course of being a professional organizer with a wider audience. It's been a pleasure to explore my own organizing theories and discuss the theories of other pros in this forum. From time to time, lists about oneself get popular and float around email and Facebook, so here's a list of 14 things (my favorite number) about me to celebrate this blogging milestone.

1. I finally got a label maker for free by redeeming otherwise unusable United mileage points. I haven't used it yet.
2. I love good smelling things like candles and incense and baking cookies.
3. I'm getting married in 22 days. I'm sitting here trying not to hyperventilate at how small that number is.
4. My favorite thing to organize is my bathroom cupboards. I absolutely love throwing out expired/never going to be used/wrong colored stuff.
5. The best thing about owning my own business is being able to take full responsibility for and pride in the work that I do.
6. My three least favorite chores: dishes, dusting, cleaning floors.
7. My three favorite chores: laundry, putting away groceries, putting away dishes. (Probably because everything has somewhere to go!)
8. Best organizing-related book I've read this year so far...this is tough...Throw Out Fifty Things by Gail Blanke.
8. Best non-organizing-related book I've read this year so far...Chocolat.
9. I've made progress on three out of four of my 2010 resolutions.
10. Consumable gifts that are always welcome in my house: soap, cut flowers, Champagne and fruit.
11. I love to dance, bike ride, swim and hike.
12. Publications to which I subscribe: Real Simple, Los Angeles Magazine, Rolling Stone.
13. Three favorite professional organizers at the moment: Brooks Palmer, Monica Ricci, Lisa Montanaro
14. I'm attending two reunions this year: my 10 year high school reunion and (technically not a reunion year for me, as it'll be my 6th, but my fiance's 5th) college reunion. Two more big milestones in a year full of them.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by norwichnuts

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Clutter-free gifts: Consumables

By far the largest category of clutter-free gifts is consumables. These are by and large practical things that are used up over time. They give service and joy to the receiver of the gift, and then they go away, their containers hopefully recycled or re-used. Consumables can be as straightforward as gas for your car, or as luxurious as 80 dollar pomegranate-scented candles for the bathroom. The best thing about them is they have a temporary place in your friend or family member’s life, and they earn that place by doing something useful.

• Gift cards for gas, groceries
• Food, from simple groceries to fancy foodstuffs
• Fruit basket
• Wine, a bottle or perhaps a mixed case
• Mass transit tickets for people who use public transportation
• Of the month clubs: beer, cheese, fruit, wine, bacon
• Home baked items
• Homemade dinners, frozen
• Flowers, cut
• Seeds for gardeners
• Nice candles
• Pet food for pet owners
• Art supplies
• Baking supplies such as vanilla extract, chocolate, sugar
• Toiletries: soap, hair care, shower gel, beauty products
• Stamps and stationary
• Batteries (perhaps rechargeable)
• Cleaning products, sponges
• Candy
• Gourmet ice cream
• Coffee/tea
• For new parents: diapers, wipes, baby food
• For teachers: teaching supply store gift certificate
• Gift card for a place they go to regularly, such as Starbucks

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by MinivanNinja

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com