This past weekend was the "Grand Opening" of The Container Store. If you have never heard of them before, they are a specialty retail chain that sells storage solutions for home and office. The very first Container Store opened on July 1, 1978, in a small, 1,600-square-foot retail space in Dallas. Since then, the Charlotte, NC location, will be the 50th store opening and the first Container Store to be located in Charlotte, NC with several more retail store openings happening nation-wide later in the upcoming weeks and months.
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the grand opening in Charlotte, and let me say, the Charlotte region, knows how to throw a party! The grand opening of the Charlotte based Container Store had some great food, fun games, awesome giveaways, and everyone had a blast!
I am an organizational freak. I'm not always neat, but I am always organized! It is a "must have" quality in the Accounting / Finance world that I work in and I am like that at home as well. So I was determined to go back on Sunday to the Container Store and pick up some products that would help me maintain that level of organization. At first, when I got there, I was a bit overwhelmed. All the products that were available were amazing and I kept finding stuff that I wanted and could use. However, I had made a "MUST BUY" list so I knew that I had to stick with it or else I would overspend. LOL
I started out in the Office section of the store because I wanted the clear acrylic drawers that are so popular with everyone. My goal was to find the really large 5 drawer acrylic box but they only had the smaller 3 drawer version and there were two different types. One of the three drawer acrylic boxes had a silver knob on the front of each of the drawers while the other only had a cut-out for a handle and no knob. I opted for the one without a handle and made my way over to another section of the store.
The Bathroom section of the store houses some really neat ideas for organization. Especially if your bathroom space is pretty limited then this is your go-to place! Anyway, I had wanted the acrylic lipstick / lipgloss holders and the SA had told me they were located there. Again, I found many different styles to choose from which was nice. After much debating I decided on the acrylic 24 slot lipstick holder. It seemed to be the sturdiest of the bunch and I didn't really need the holders that were organizers because they take up to much room. I did buy two of the acrylic 24 slot lipstick holders because I have an insane amount of lipsticks and glosses.
The last item on my list I wanted to buy wasn't anything specific. I just knew that I was in desperate need for some other type of organization. I wanted something totally different than what I was currently using for my makeup brushes. Sure, I could have used cups, empty vases or jars, even pencil and pen holders to store my makeup brushes in, but I was frustrated with that setup. In the past, I've even used the really small gift boxes as brush holders. However, I am either constantly knocking the brush holders over or they are not big enough to hold all the brushes that I need.
The storage container I was looking for had to be large enough to hold a lot of brushes but short enough that none of my smaller, shorter brushes would get lost in it. I wanted to combine everything, but yet, still have individual compartments that I could separate some of the brushes if needed. Well, it took me over an hour but I finally found what I wanted. It is made of really thick acrylic so it shouldn't break or crack. It is large enough that it will hold a massive amount of brushes, and yet, it is short enough that no brushes will get lost either! Oh, and the best part... It is so much easier now to just grab this up with all my brushes in it when I need to clean them! No more toting around multiple containers of brushes when this can carry them all. I consider that to be a WIN!!!
Due to my hectic work schedule right now I haven't organized everything yet. However, I will do a follow up post with pictures that details my new setup using the containers above. Let me know if you would like the measurements and / or sizes of the items and I can list that as well. Or you can take a look at everything on the Container Store website here.
Final thoughts: I LOVE this store! It has amazing stuff and great organizational ideas!
There was one item that I did have on my list but it was already sold out (yeah, I know. Sold out is the story of my life!). It is the acrylic 12-Bottle Spice Carousel. The carousel has 12 containers with sifters, (yes, you know where I'm going with this), that I will be using for my loose powder based makeup items. Mainly face powders but eyeshadows or maybe even pigments. I haven't decided yet but I will definitely keep you posted.
