A Minute for Mom: April/May

By Robin Salts Beckett

 

If you ever get a minute for yourself, this is what we think you should do with it!

 

• Do you ever look around your living room, maybe even your entire house, and think, HOW did it get this bad? WHEN did I begin thinking that toys scattered from wall to wall was normal? The other day our family cat got up from his nap and pawed across the floor with a sucker stuck to his fur. I had to laugh. Poor kitty had to walk around all day like that.

 

Cleaning with kids is easy in theory, difficult in practice.  If you’re like me, those previously high standards slip slowly until you realize you’re watching “Hoarders” on television while being surrounded by your own episode.

 

I’m still pretty hooked on “Hoarders” (watch, if you can stomach it, at 9 p.m. Mondays on A&E), but a new show has come along that sheds my mess in a better, more pro-active light: “The Amandas.” The show is on at 10 p.m. on the Style Network — a suitable station, because this glam group does its dirty work while decked out in the latest fashions and 4-inch heels.

 

Led by style maven Amanda LeBlanc, these “ultra-organizers” turn plain craziness into crazy-amazing spaces. Want to know how to organize a pantry? The Amandas will show you. Stuck with a chaotic closet? They’ve got that, too. And, of course, there’s always a little drama to keep it interesting. The only problem is that “The Amandas” is on right after “Hoarders.” When am I going to clean my own house?

 

• So an enduring obsession of mine lately is rainbow anything. There’s something about the vibrancy of those bright, stacked primary colors that’s just thrilling, even though I’m not 11 years old anymore.

 

I’m constantly looking for ways to incorporate rainbow into my world (that’s why, in fact, these pages are so colorful). After watching all these makeover shows, I thought I could tackle a couple of “to dos” at once: organize my closet, donate all the clothes I don’t wear and … wait for it … color-code the clothes that remain. I was so excited at this brainstorm that I did the whole project during one lunch hour.

 

I used to have everything in my closet arranged by type: all skirts went here, pants there, etc.  I still have them in that order, but within those groups they now are organized by color, starting with black and spanning through white, brown, pink, red, blue and green.

 

You know what? It actually helps me get an outfit together. And I love staring at it. While I watch “The Amandas,” of course.

Filed under From the Mag, Things To Do