Author Archives: Ria Loader

About Ria Loader

Author, Artist, Maker, and Publisher. I worked as a Senior Design Manager at Microsoft for 16 years. My passionate hobbies include illustration, writing books, cooking and making. I also like to tell stories about my fictional friends - I love the alchemy of cooking and the art of making jewelry and perfume.

Organizing the car

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There seems to be a heck of a lot of stuff that accumulates in the car. Recently, I decided to get a new car, so I took inventory of the stuff I turfed out of the old car as I was doing so. Wow, was I surprised. There was an accumulation of towels, umbrellas, survival gear, clothing, cans for recycling, cds and miscellaneous paperback books. And in addition, these collections of things:

Jackets and wraps
I’m sure there’s a good reason for having 3 winter jackets, a summer sarong, and 3 pashminis in hatchback section of my car. However, I feel it takes preparedness too far to add in shorts, a halter top and 3 summer hats in the middle of winter.

Shoes
Ugh boots, two pairs of sandals, one that I’d forgotten I had, and a pair of flip flops that I only wore to a gym that I haven’t had a membership in for two years.

Hardware
There were two hammers, a set of screwdrivers, a rubber mallet, and two fix-a-flat cans, a big ball of twine, 2 rolls of duct tape, bungie cords (2 sizes), and a set of tent stakes, along with a lantern and 3 flashlights.

Cups, mugs and picnic gear
I found no less than 6 travel mugs, all thankfully empty and pre-washed. That was a relief, I can tell you. A set of plastic tumblers, picnic blanket, fold up sit-on-the-ground seat with a back, folding chair and a couple of gallons of water.

At this point I feel compelled to say that I do not have kids, and was not carrying about any of this stuff for anyone else. It was simply the detritus of a year of being prepared for various eventualities that, well, didn’t. Eventuate that is. It took six bags to carry it all into the house and fully a month before it got sorted into laundry, kitchen, and other sundry piles for putting away.

Organizing the new car
For the new car, I got myself a couple of those cloth square baskets with flat bottoms, so at least the car and emergency stuff has it’s own place. And there’s even one with a garbage bag in it for collecting empty drink cans.

Am feeling so much better about both the new car, and the organizing I got done. There are no longer any strange sounds as unknown, and heavy, objects roll about in the back area of the car when I take a curve too fast. Now I can just enjoy the ride.

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3 steps to sorting

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How to get started on dealing with household mayhem

It’s after the holidays, and your chum’s house looks like a tribe of Ewoks collaborated with a dervish of devils to make a mess that rivals a teenager’s room. What to do if you are called on to help sort it out? I’m not suggesting your own house is in the same state, though if it is, you can follow the same steps below to get started on organizing it. Our place tends to wax and wane, depending on where we are with projects, travel, and visitors; during the week, jackets and bags get dropped in our offices, and need to be sorted on the weekend and hung up again. We could just put stuff away as we come into the house, but where’s the fun in that. Colorful piles of stuff make the place look lived in, and happy.

Step One – go to the dollar store and get a batch (12 or so) $1 laundry baskets
This is the sorting mechanism – they’re a good size, have handles, and nice open tops. You can also use boxes if you have empties on hand. The container wants to be about 2 x 3 feet and shallower than it is deep.

Step Two – put 4 baskets/boxes in each messy room, in the middle, and label them. Add one big black garbage bag. Here are your categories for a general rough sort for the room.

  • Keep – you definitely want the stuff you throw in this basket
    (good electronics, clothing, gifts, unopened candy, bills to pay)
  • Recycle – someone wants it, just not you
    (include regular recycling like bottles, plastic, wrapping paper as well as old monitors, cords, CDs, old dish sets)
  • Shred it or file it – important paperwork, paper stuff
    (magazines, catalogs, letters, cards, memorabilia, medical records, taxes, paid bills, contact info, business cards, research materials, photos etc)
  • Undecided – we’ll make a call on this later
    (it might be something you want, or it may be stuff you’re not ready to let go of, shoes and clothes you don’t wear, misc stationery, left overs from projects, half a ball of yarn, old nail-polish, messenger bags you are not currently using, plastic cups, cutlery, colored napkins from a theme party)
  • Black bag – toss it out – it’s garbage!
    (open bag of chips, cookies, clothing labels, trash of any kind)

This rough sort has the benefit of reducing the piles of stuff to manageable chunks, and the trash gets taken out to the bin right away. I take the regular recycling to the recycle bin, and the other stuff goes into bags for donation to good will, PC recycle and so on. The paper takes a longer time to sort, so putting it all together means I save time and avoid being distracted by it while clearing the larger room.

Step Three – move the baskets out of that room

  • Clean the surfaces of the room with surface cleaner and paper towels
  • Sweep, mop or vacuum the floor
  • Only return the stuff to that room that will live there from now on

Socks refute quantum rules

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There must be some previously unheralded universal constant – one that says socks are the only thing in the universe that can defy the rule about quantum entanglement. Socks start out in pairs, and are worn in the same pairs. Quantum physics ought to dictate that the socks remain entangled, however, they keep disappearing in the dryer. Moreover, single socks that I’ve never seen before in my life keep appearing from the dryer at the end of the laundry cycle.

I even tried folding the sock tops together, and then tried putting them in a mesh bag. Sadly, none of these strategies has worked.

I have a tentative theory about dryers generating tiny wormholes that only attract socks; and in some parallel universe, the missing pair joins the universes together. Or perhaps it is a prank by Pixel, the cat who walks through walls. Unfortunately, this does not help me wear matching socks in THIS universe. I give up; from now on, all socks will be black socks, and the same kind. That way when they do not match up, I will not feel such a disturbance in the force.

It’s hard to stay organized across parallel universes, but I’m going to keep working on it.

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My favorite comment is from Ashley:
No no, it’s the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two identical fermions may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. In this case, no two matching socks may occupy the same place simultaneously.