Sitting and shopping - What's New?

* Some people love prowling through stores--antique shops, mass merchandisers, boutiques, department stores ... it doesn't matter. Others shudder at the very prospect. The latter, however, are missing out on the thrill of the chase--finding just that perfect item, spotting something they never even thought they needed or wanted, and/or indulging themselves in a bit of impulse buying. If only they could accomplish this without having to venture forth from their homes, search for parking Spaces, fight the crowds, be aggravated by uninformed sales help (if they can even find them), fume at long lines at the cash register, etc., etc., ad nauseam. Well, if they were on as many catalogue mailing lists as we are, they wouldn't have to. They could just sit back, browse to their hearts' content, place their order for whatever interested them, and await delivery. (Oh, yes, did we mention having to lug home purchases among the non-joys of shopping?)

Recently, we put our feet up and riffled through the pages of a pair of catalogues from Brookstone, Nashua, N,H. Its regular version was, as usual, full of interesting products, but its Hard to Find Tools one proved the most fun. There was nothing in either we had to have, but, as it turned out, there were many things we wanted to possess. We ultimately whittled the list down to four--each disparate, without any connection to each other, but that struck some vestigial chord in our dormant shopping DNA.

After all, how could we resist the multibin organizer ($149.95) with its three rows of three open cubbies each, ideal for tucking away shoes, small items of clothing, knickknacks, magazines, or whatever our imagination could conjure up. With an overall dimension of 27 1/2" wide x 11 1/2" deep by 26" high, it can be tucked into garages, laundry rooms, walk-in closets, hallways, or, with its smart oak or mahogany finish, be displayed in any room of the house. Moreover, since it's stackable, one can wind up with 18, 27, 36 ... bins if there are enough odds and ends to fill them. Stack them up in a walk-in closet, for instance, and there is instant organization where there once was a chaos of footwear, purses, hats, etc.

Now that we had the house well-organized, what about the garden? As much as we enjoy puttering around it, at the end of the day we are confronted by myriad tools that have to be crammed back into the garage, storage shed, or wherever else we can stuff them until they're needed next, meanwhile trailing dirt, mud, and other detritus in from outside. Skimming through the pages, we soon found the Garden Tamer ($14.95), a molded polypropylene triangular organizer designed to be mounted in a corner wherever these items are to be stored. Assorted holes allowed us to insert up to 14 long-handled items like rakes, hoes, weeders, etc. through them vertically so they stand straight up. Hand tools can be suspended from a trio of pegs mounted on the front leg of the triangle, while smaller items can be stacked along the tray-like edges. The triangular configuration mounted neatly into the corner (hardware included), taking up a mere 17" along either wall, so everything was compactly stored away.

Feeling exceedingly virtuous now that everything was tucked away neatly, we turned to the grill to prepare dinner. Since our exertions had been such that we deserved making this chore easy as well, we whipped out our newly acquired Grill Alert Talking Remote Thermometer ($75), stuck the stainless-steel probe into the meat, set the temperature for rare, clipped the receiver to our belt, and went to relax on the chaise longue. Once the internal temperature we desired had been reached, the wireless transmitter politely said, "Your entree is ready," and we went to take dinner off the fire, cooked exactly to the degree of doneness we had specified.

To toast all our wondrous new possessions, we opted for a bottle of wine and, utilizing our new Connoisseur's Wine Opener ($35), popped the cork, With the Teflon-coated corkscrew worm anchoring the cork firmly without crumbling it, the lever action of the handle removed it cleanly and effortlessly. Salud!

For these and literally hundreds of other delightful items from the Brookstone catalogues, shop online at www.brookstone.com or call 000846-3000.

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