Things I learned at the toy store

have you ever worked retail? especially a toy store or store that carries toys?

any store that carries blister pack products that hang on pegboard hook will know exactly what this is. in fact, while i was shopping for them, i took a picture of the item on my phone [yay new smartphone with a screen people can actually see images on] and showed it to retail employees with the question "i know you USE these here, but do you SELL them here?"

Kevin at Office Max is a genius. they don't sell them but he thought about who might and suggested i try michaels crafts in the same shopping center. yup, they had them on an end cap near the framing aisle. weird place, but at least they had them.

sometime last week the hammer hit and i decided i wanted to try to hang things on my pegboard utility wall with adhesive hang tabs. i no longer live down the street from a retail supply store [not sure there's even one in this city] so i started looking online and in local stores. 


it's for the issues like these: you get a package of something and open it and use some of it, but then you have the item without the package and it no longer is convenient to store. things get lost on my shelves. i wanted to hang the liquid nails back on the wall where it's easy to find next time i or my roommate needs it.

yeah, that's what i was looking for!

of course then i got interested in seeing what else would benefit from this treatment. 

like my roommate's dental floss that tends to be considered a cat toys by the resident felines. not anymore!!

the neosporin got the same treatment. both my roommate and i are accident prone and we live with cats, volunteer with cats and she works in a hardware store. the neosporin is a multiple times a day use item, no point in putting it away. now it's easy to find anytime. 

Ode to Broom Clips

 

this is a broom clip. or a "spring grip clip" if you prefer. 

this particular one is also installed with a rubber bumper dot behind it on the bottom, to ensure it stays tilted slightly. you can sort of see the dot at the bottom of the clip in the picture. 

that's because this one is a razor holder on my bathroom wall. the razor isn't tightly gripped by the clip so it needs a little gravitational assist. but the razor had to be moved out of the reach of my bitey cat and this was on hand. much less expensive than a fancy razor holder. sure, it's not the ideal stylish thing, but it works quite well.

last year i picked up a ten pack of these cheap [that includes quality] LED flashlights for camping with some kids.
a few of the flashlights still work and my house tends to have plenty of power outages due to the rural nature of the neighborhood.
so i keep them on hand for emergency lighting.
a ten pack was $10 at Big Lots.
i've seen these lots of places and prices vary but more than $2 a flashlight and you are getting ripped off [if it doesn't have batteries]

one day i had both an LED flashlight and a broom clip on my kitchen counter near each other.
as one is wont to do with sudden impulses, i followed mine and discovered that yes, tiny cheap LED flashlights DO fit in a broom clip.
so i put a couple on the walls near the front door and the kitchen door.
very handy place to have a light whether you are coming home to the power out or need to go outside and chase a possum away from the trash can, there's always a light right there.

hey, let's go back to the bathroom for a minute. speaking of sudden impulses, i got curious as to what else would fit in a broom clip that i could get off the bathroom counter. this is a little glass dropped bottle from American Science and Surplus that i keep tea tree oil in. now it lives on the bathroom wall near the first aid kit, instead of in various places on the bathroom counter where the cats keep knocking it in the sink.

 

next to it you may also see the successful results of my experiment with hanging adhesive tabs, but that's another post entirely

off to the left, out of frame, are the two first aid boxes - they dismount from the wall for emergencies and camping trips.

then neosporin on an adhesive tab, tea tree oil in a broom clip and a little magnetic bar from ikea [oh, ikea, i love you so much] with nail clippers, cuticle tool, comedo toll, scissors, tweezers. in the bottom right corner is my roommate's dental floss that i also stuck an adhesive hang tab on. she may not keep it that way, but i wanted to see how well it held. her dental floss is another thing that tends to get batted into the sink by bored kitties. and at the very bottom, out of frame, is the lint roller on a cup hook.

i tried to get more broom clips at home depot, but they don't carry that kind. they are pretty inexpensive, rarely as much as a dollar per clip, and they usually come in a pack of 4 or 5.
if you want to get extra fancy and spend a little more, they come in vinyl coated but i don't bother.