very simple

On Friday, Apartment Therapy announced the opening of Crate and Barrel Junior, otherwise known as CB2. Like them, I’m pretty lukewarm about the whole thing after viewing the site (and I love Crate and Barrel). Just a few items:

Blank CD’s with cases for $3.50? I could buy a spool of 50 CDs and make my own labels for about the same amount of money. And in this age of digital music players, isn’t it a little late to start trying to make CDs a vanity item?

I actually bought one of these cases when they were an impulse item at the MoMA design store (down the street from my office). They’re neat in concept but horrible in execution. They leak (horrible if you actually want to carry one in your bag for emergency use), The rubber padding (ostensibly to seal it so that it wouldn’t leak) was inferior – mine actually fell out in less than a month, and they’re actually impossible to clean, because you can’t open both sides far enough at the same time – you’re constantly having to close one compartment in order to open the other (annoying), and the labels aren’t clear enough – I was constantly putting the wrong lens in the wrong side (and subsequenly in the wrong eye). Not to mention that one of my lenses actually ripped after getting caught in the hinge AFTER I closed the case (it got shaken around a bit when I put it in my bag after a trip to the eyedoctor). None of this stuff has ever been a problem with a traditional case.

I might actually consider ordering some of their bedsheets, if only because the bright colors would go pretty nicely with the Swell stuff I bought at Target ages ago, but really, I could just as easily get bright sheets at Target, and for probably less.

It just seems that furniture design wise, they’re trying to go after the Ikea market, but Ikea is cheaper, and tchochke wise, they’re copying a range of other, less-expensive stores.

So, this morning I decided it would be a really good idea, since I actually have free time this weekend, to clean out my closet. The problem? I’m now halfway done, and all I want to do is take a nap. And for me, "halfway done" means I’ve emptied out the entire closet, and now every piece of clothing I own is sitting on my floor.

I did manage to fill 10 big black garbage bags with clothes and shoes. That is so scary to me. Thank god my cleaning lady comes this wednesday. She’s going to absolutely hate me.

This did give me an opportunity to take a little trip over to the Container Store, a place I’ve been studiously avoiding until now because I know exactly how I get when confronted with organizational nirvana. I just bought one of those elfa drawer things, which was the perfect size for the alcove at the back of my closet. I never seem to have enough space in my dresser, so I thought this could help take some of the pressure off.