I am "Tote"ally Grateful

I have spent thousands of dollars on totes in my life. We used to have a dirt/cement cellar that opened to the outside when we lived back east so everything down there was in bins. We got some biting bird mites years ago and I thought we had bed bugs. Here is a post where I talk about it in more detail and what we did to combat them.  Here is another post where I mention it.

I spent at least $1,000 on clear sided bins due to thinking they were bed bugs. I put EVERYTHING we didn't use daily in the bins and put thyme oil and ground thyme and tea tree oil on cotton balls and then sealed the edges with tape and stuck them in my yard and hot suburban for a long time so that the heat and oils would kill them. 

Over the years, each daughter that has moved out, has taken those clear plastic bins and moved their stuff to college etc in those bins. They like those bins because they can see what is in them and they stack VERY well with the lids on and off. My garage has many still in there with the girls stuff in them waiting for them to need the items again. 

Each time they move, their new place may already have a toaster oven, can opener, blender etc. So, until they marry, they won't always need that type of thing so it is stored. 

When Princess Three left for college. I had about 8 types of bins that we were going to use but they wouldn't stack so when she would move to different places at college, she wouldn't have them as she didn't have room to store them so I would have to take them home. I went out again and purchased another hundred dollars in the clear stackable bins. 

She still didn't have as many as she needed when we moved her to her new apartment and it got a bit messy. I have started getting Princess Four ready for college and have three or four bins of stuff already but they are all sizes and shapes and aren't see through. I thought that I would need to get her some clear totes before she leaves next fall. 

I was at Walmart the other day picking up bananas and on my way to the register, they had a cart FULL of the clear bins marked half off the lowest clearance price. That made the bins $2.00 each. Normally, I paid almost $6 each tote. 

I grabbed the cart as quickly as I could as one woman had just taken two and headed to the checkout. I took the ENTIRE cart to the checkout. A woman walked that way once I was in the checkout and I overheard her asking where the clearance totes were.

There were 8 more bins than lids. I asked if they would be willing to go and see if they could find more lids or see if the white bins had extra lids in case someone that bought the clear bins took the colored lids rather than the white lids. 

The manager called back and guess how many lids they found? Yep, 8 more lids. I got 25 bins at $2 each. You can see where they rang some of them up at the original price of almost $6 on the receipt. Even on sale, they are usually 2 for $11ish

I will probably have just the perfect amount for all of Princess Four and Five's college clothes, pans, kitchen and bath stuff. It is SO much easier for them and me to have the unified bins and LOVE that I can see what is in the bins without having to label them or open them. They just stack the bins in their closet at college and use the top open bin as their laundry basket.

These totes are tinted but still see through. You can see how well they stack and since our "bug" problem, I am a tote queen! I had such a HORRIFYING time with the bird mites that I am OCD when it comes to bugs. If it is in a bin, they can't climb into it or out of it due to the slick sides. After the hell I went through for that year, I think they are well worth the price.

It is so wonderful to me that when I ponder on something I need, my Heavenly Father tends to send it to me in a way I can afford. I would have been happy with some used bins like them and even at the second hand stores, those bins are $4 each. I have NEVER seen them for $2 anywhere and I had just been down in Princess Fours closet thinking I needed to get some clear totes this week. It happens to me weekly that I need something and He provides it. 

I am SO blessed and now Princess Four and Five are as well but they may have to share a few with Princess three who has the least amount and probably needs a few more.