Do I Really Need This??

 

I enjoy reading what other people think I do or do not need in my home or life. Marie Kondo I am NOT. Some of these points I agree with, though.

 

Most of the stuff that applied to me was in the kitchen—

 

All those plastic bags from the store!! Yes, I was guilty of this, but I DID reuse them as liners for my waste baskets. Now that you have to pay for the ones you use at the store, I bring my own bags and buy liners for the waste baskets.

 

Past their prime spices. I did go through mine some time ago and got rid of most of them. My main spices now are salt, pepper, celery salt, garlic salt and seasoned salt. That seems to cover it all quite nicely.

 

Mismatched Tupperware. I was brought up to reuse the empty margarine tubs, cottage cheese tubs, etc. I got a nice set of generic containers with lids many years ago and use those along with the containers that lunch meat comes in. When they start piling up, I do a purge and keep only the ones in good shape that have matching lids.

 

The microwave??!? Seriously? The article says the stove/oven does the same job without taking up valuable counter space. Most homes now have the microwave above the stove, but mine is on the counter. I use it ALL THE TIME!!! Especially in the summer when I don’t want to heat up the whole house.

 

Specialized cleaning solutions. This one I fully agree with. A good all-in-one cleaner will do just about any type of cleaning you need. I also use Bar Keepers Friend. That stuff is amazing.

 

About the only things I could really go through and downsize is the number of mugs and glasses we have. Obviously, all the cat themed ones stay…

 

The rest of the suggestions were pretty much common sense. Wire hangers from the cleaners. Old magazines. Dead plants. Old electronics. Half-used cosmetics that have dried up or crumbled. Pens that don’t work anymore.

 

The only thing that is still a painful thing for me is: BOOKS!! I LOVE my books!! I have gone through several purges in the last few years though. I try not to buy new ones. But it’s hard…

 

More Life Hacks

 

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about life hacks before, but don’t remember when. I always enjoy reading about the various ‘hacks’ I run across. There are several “What I wish I knew before I was 30” kind of articles. Some are plain common sense and some are unique to me. Here’s my offering this time around…

 

Seal a Ziploc bag with a straw. I’ve done this for YEARS. We now have a real sealer for prepping our stuff for the freezer, but for small packages, the straw method is fine.

 

Powdered sugar is regular sugar blended. I learned this a long time ago from one of my cookbooks. I rarely use powdered sugar and this is a good way if all you’re using is a small amount.

 

Roll the lemon and then pole holes to squeeze for juice. This one was new to me. Makes sense. When I was a kid, we’d roll an orange around and then cut a small hole in it to suck out the juice. Then we’d cut it open and eat the pulp.

 

Rinsing the nozzle on a can of whipped cream. Seriously?? It’s supposed to ensure that mold doesn’t grow in it between uses. If we EVER get canned whipped cream, you can be sure that thing is emptied LONG before it will grow mold…It MIGHT last for an entire pumpkin pie, but I wouldn’t bet on it…

 

You can change which way the refrigerator door opens. I learned this fairly recently. I had never even thought about if before because I’ve never had a problem with the direction of any fridge I’ve had. When my dad was briefly in an apartment while my mom was in a nursing home, his tiny kitchen had a fridge that should have opened from the other side. Had no idea it could be changed or we’d have done it.