People Watching at the Container Store

There's more than organization awaiting shoppers at this storage emporium

By Laura Shanahan

"Please use your Hookeez safely. Not intended for filled bags." That sounds like some kind of warning kids' eyes should be shielded from, no?

Relax: Hookeez are reusable-shopping-bag hooks made of recyclable material for the "eco-savvy." What you're supposed to do with these little doohickeys is attach one end to your shopping cart, then slide the handles of your reusable bag(s) through the locking hook, thus freeing your hands as you shop ? pretty nifty.

Find these items, which come in green (but of course) ? a particularly tender shade of leaf green ? embossed with a tree in full bloom, selling for $2.99 per at The Container Store at 58th and Lex.

It's worth it to go for the people-watching alone: Goth teens, drop-dead gorgeous models and just regular ol' New Yorkers trying to organize and make the most of their limited spaces. Yes, there are containers galore, but there are also all sorts of marvelous miscellany, such as the Hookeez.

Here's another example: the collapsible silicone bottle by VIV. If you're one of the countless ecologically minded people swigging from a reusable bottle of water as you make your daily rounds, you know how annoying it can be to schlep the emptied vessel around until you get home. Get this pliable item and your days of bulky empty-bottle toting are over: Its soft body allows you to literally roll up or flatten it, so that it can easily fit into your pocket or into the slimmest briefcase or handbag. Available in a clear body tinted orange or aqua, with matching opaque-color cap, the bottle is $14.99.

Ah, here's a handy-dandy organizer. It's made of clear acrylic and has six compartments: Three are 3 by 3 inches, one is 6 by 3 inches, another is 9 by 3 inches, and the last is 6 by 6. Stumped as to how to fill them? OK, I know you're not, but for those less clever, there's a full-color liner displaying per-compartment suggestions: pencils, paper clips, binder fasteners, a calculator ? and two blank spots that allow even the least creative thinkers to be, well, creative. Regularly $19.99, this item may still well be on sale for $14.99, so best to make haste if interested.

Stadium-style seating for your nail polish? What better way to display all their options for those with a collection of up to a dozen different colors. Also fashioned of clear acrylic, this neat little organizer has two-tier "seating" ? a front row with divisions for six bottles, and a taller back row for six more. Rotate, so that those always in the back don't get mad and hurl themselves onto the stars up front; $7.99, please.

Oooh, so spring-like: the translucent stacking drawers in yummy jelly colors, such as rich raspberry and juicy orange, as well as in beachy ocean-blue, a majestic purple and a sophisticated taupe. They go up to a size measuring just a teeny fraction under 16 by 20 inches (and just over 8 inches high) for $17.99.

What will you put in such a big size? How about everything else you can't resist in this store, for starters?