Considering submitting to NPR, but don't even know if they let people read these things anymore.... Also, seem not to submit anything ever, so here it is ...

I've just discovered the Container Store and am so tricked out in silver mesh boxes, CD wallets and magazine files that the only thing I can't contain is my joy. The two-story San Francisco location, one of about 30 Container Stores in the U.S., is an oasis of order and efficiency in these disorderly times. It's also the perfect retail therapy for retail therapy. How better to quell the anxiety suffered by constant consumers than to provide systems for making sense of even the most impulsive buy? The right container can transform clutter into order and order into art in mere minutes. For instance, with the crafty purchase of just a few sleek display cubes, you can transform that heap of dusty tchotchkes into a gallery-ready display. And that stack of sticky yellow magazines in the corner that smacks of packratism? No problem! Just pop those crumbly rags into hermetically sealed bags, slide them into svelte avocado magazine files and voila! No longer a sloppy porn hoarder, you're now a collector of vintage erotica. The store's current sale tagline, "Shelf Help," is no idle threat. In an age in which clutter signals nascent mental illness, the Container Store is here to hold and to heal you. Though like any good business, they make sure you'll keep coming back for more. And if you're a rube like me, you may even find yourself buying stuff simply in order to contain it--nothing extravagant, just little trinkets here and there--a flotilla of miniature devil ducks, for instance, or oversized index cards in a rainbow of colors. Truth is, without my monthly pilgrimage to the Container Store, chaos is come again, and I am lost.