Take advantage of the time delay features on dishwashers and washing machines to get chores done when hydro rates are low, but you’re busy with more pressing matters — like homework, bedtime, or reading a good book.
Archive for Kitchen
There seems to be no shortage of ways to store spices. Among the most common are the carousel, the magnetic board, the bulk purchase in a baggy, and the store-bought jars that land on a lazy susan or wall mounted rack.
What happens when you don’t have the space for a sprawling display of your spices, or simply prefer to keep them out-of-sight and away from the heat of your oven? If you are forced to store your spice bottles in a manner that obscures the label, it can become time-consuming and frustrating to pick up each bottle, turn it around to see the label and return it to its rightful place, only to repeat the exercise with the next bottle. To save yourself some time, try labelling the top of the spice jar. It’s unlikely that the sides and top of the bottle will be hidden at the same time. You’d be surprised how easy it is to pull out a basket of spice bottles, scan the homemade labels on the top and find what you’re looking for.
I baked a cake for my husband on Father’s Day. I’ve had the recipe since 2003; it’s the first time I’ve baked the cake. Fortunately, it was delicious and will be made again. Two weeks ago I baked some oatmeal cranberry muffins. Horrible, squishy, chewy little lumps. Muffins into the green bin; recipe into the blue bin. This is especially disappointing because I’d had the recipe since 2000.
In my defence, my recipe hoarding began long before I was a Professional Organizer. I’ve learned a bit about my own behaviours since then: If I don’t make a new dish soon after acquiring the recipe, the likelihood of my ever making it diminishes with each passing day.
I have a great system for storing my recipes and fortunately, each piece of paper takes up no more than 1 mm of space. Fairly unobtrusive. But regardless of how little space my recipes need, there’s no point having a folder full of paper I will never refer to. My system is rendered ineffective if I don’t maintain it. Establishing the system is the first step. Using the system is the second. But step three, ongoing maintenance, may be the most important of all.
So, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be getting reacquainted with the contents of my recipe folder. Old favourites will be returned to their labelled pocket. Recipes that intrigue me will be tried and judged. And those that make me think, “well, maybe . . .” will be immediately discarded. Because if I’m still on the fence, I’m never going to make it!
Have you ever looked at something, without really seeing it? I recently discovered that our dishwasher has a Delay button. We’ve had the dishwasher four-and-a-half years. It wasn’t until reading the manual that accompanied my mother’s new dishwasher, that I even realized dishwashers have a Delay button.
I’ve heard of washing machines having a delay feature. While I marvelled at the idea when I was first aware of it, I quickly started to wonder how that would be useful. Now that Time-of-Use (TOU) billing has been rolled out by my electricity provider, I get it. The benefits are two-fold: I can load my dishwasher after dinner, but set it to run when the lowest rate is in effect and I no longer wake up to a dishwasher full of dirty dishes, because I forgot to press Start before going to bed.
Mornings are better when I can focus on the things needed for that day. Who wants to start their day washing dishes that should have washed themselves, while trying to get breakfast on the table? There just isn’t enough time for that in the morning.
Zoning does not pertain to city planning alone. This term is often used by interior designers when trying to delineate functions within a multipurpose room; the same concept can be applied to organizing. And guess what, you’re doing it. You may not realize it, but you’re zoning.
Manufacturers of kitchen appliances and accessories make zoning suggestions. The presence of a dairy compartment, crisper drawers and meat drawer are examples of zoning. If you use a cutlery drawer insert to separate the knives, forks and spoons, you are following the principles of zoning. Whenever a large space has been divided into smaller spaces, each with an intended function, zoning has occurred.
To achieve order and improve efficiency throughout your kitchen, continue zoning. With assorted containers and a bit of analysis it can be done. The greatest challenge will likely be indentifying your zones. Try these on for size: snacks, breakfast foods, hot drinks. Then keep on going. All items that belong within a category should then be placed together on a shelf or in a container. There are no right or wrong categories. It’s just about you, the contents of your kitchen and how you and the people you reside with use the space.
A meeting with a colleague ran overtime on a Friday afternoon a couple weeks ago. As I dashed out the door I said, “I hope dinner’s ready when I get home”. Unfortunately, that’s not how it played out. I arrived home to discover our fridge sitting in the middle of the kitchen. Our four-year-old fridge had died.
We learned that General Electric (GE) had identified a defect with the motherboard. The only course of action was to replace the part. Ironically, our nearly-fifty-year-old GE fridge at the cottage is just fine. (Please don’t tell the energy police we have a fifty-year-old fridge.)
So we spent an hour shuttling the contents of our fridge to the overflow fridge in the basement. I also spent about 20 minutes emptying jars and bottles. I probably threw out $50 worth of sauces. Some were the mainstream grocery store items that I got tired of and never noticed were way beyond their Best Before date. But there were lots of dips and marinades purchased at trade shows, markets, or from independent grocers. These gems don’t have a BB date displayed.
It’s really worthwhile to check for a Best Before date as you take an item from your grocer’s shelf. Worst case scenario, check when you’re unpacking your groceries. If the manufacturer hasn’t suggested an expiration date, grab your permanent marker and write the purchase date on the container. Not all foods get green and fuzzy if left in the fridge too long. If you can reference your purchase date, you’ve got a good jumping off point to determine if the food in your fridge is safe.
It seems that no matter what the publication, the first thing I look for is the recipes. I will admit that while leafing through the latest issue of Chatelaine I made the shocking discovery that I had flipped to the recipes, before even realizing they were launching their clutter-busting series. But I digress . . .
Magazines remain my number one source for new food ideas. Only when I’m really desperate will I go online to scout out a new dish. What can I say? I like paper. But what I don’t like is to have piles of magazines taking up what little living space I share with my family.
So, if I like the newly tested recipe, I will immediately tear it out of the magazine and file it away. I’m partial to the accordion folders, but am discovering that many people prefer to stash their recipes in a three-ringed binder. An added benefit of this storage method is that you can use sheet protectors to house the individual pages. Then splashes and sticky finger prints can easily be wiped away without compromising the integrity of your recipe.
Have you ever found yourself trying to access or put away an item only to find yourself frustrated or irritated by the process? I had this experience just this morning putting away the clip closure from a now empty bag which I had discarded. I went to the drawer to the zip lock bag where the clips are stored. I opened the bag tossed in the clip and closed it up. Then I wondered,
“Why does this need to be closed? Do I think the clips are going to wander around the drawer when not in use and not be there when I want them? Why can’t I just toss them into an open container and skip the opening/closing process?”
And why not? Does organizing have to be complicated or frustrating? No, it does not.
Open storage is great for tossing and dropping when the contents are not likely to wander around, when you might want to see the contents. The container doesn’t travel – like a lunch box would – and the contents can’t move on their own. Open storage is great for children and teenagers and anyone else in the toss and drop stage of life where opening and closing items are additional stages of organizing that will be missed at the expense of the item being stored. Think of toys on a shelf for children or a teenage girl’s clothes in open sliding baskets rather than a cupboard. It is also great for a storage container that you can’t see – such as the clips in the kitchen drawer.
Closed storage is best for when the items can get out by themselves – think of pulling the flour off the shelf and having it spill on the floor if the storage container is not closed. It is also good for protecting the contents, like the flour, from dust or other dangers. Closed storage is also good for just getting rid of the visual noise or the sight of the item being stored. Think in this case of putting a lid on a decorative box of children’s toys that are kept in an otherwise elegant living room or reducing the visual noise of a box of spare computer cables in your office.
Closed storage is harder to get into – open storage is for grab, toss and drop activity. What’s in your home or office that warrants change?
