How Do You Organize Your Kitchen?
16 years ago
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- 16 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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How do you organize your 'green' containers?
Comments (8)Hi Gayle - thanks for your thoughts. :-) I'm a "less steps" person, so I really need solutions that don't require taking trash or anything from one room to the other...ie, bathroom stuff stays in the bathroom until it goes outside, kitchen stuff stays in the kitchen until it's disposed of, etc. I do need those visual reminders out and "in my face", or I forget. Too much other stuff going on, I guess. I want my compost crock on the counter so the stuff in there *can* start to rot/mold before it goes out...it will be better food for the worms that way. So I did buy a crock with a filter in the lid that will look nice on my counter, because I want the compost materials sitting out (I would have had to buy something anyways...we don't drink coffee here, and don't buy anything that comes in a plastic container large enough to make a good compost collection bucket). If I don't see it, I won't use it, with the exception of the metal and plastic collection cans under the sink (because they'll be right by the garbage can, so if I go to instinctually throw something away, those bins will be right there. I put all food scraps down the disposal now, so the crock will remind me not to do that anymore. :-) Stuff that can't be composted in the bathroom includes toilet paper wrappings (the plastic outter wrap), bandaids, gum, q-tips (plastic "stick" - we'll buy differently next time), cotton ball bags, used razor blades, nail polish bottles (no glass recycling here), and items used to remove nail polish (sponges rife with nail polish remover...don't want that in my compost). And yes, I really am too lazy to carry that stuff all the way to the kitchen garbage - less steps equals less time spent shuttling "stuff" through the house. I'm all about making things as easy on myself and efficient as possible. :-) My magazines and "leftover" paper will be recycled, but a lot will be shredded for the compost pile. I have that pretty much figured out though - a box in a kitchen cabinet right under where we go through the mail. I will be emptying it regularly though...I have a different box for papers "to be filed" or that I might need. I'm a catalog junkie - and we do get a lot of junk mail, plus the paper daily. I'll probably need to do two paper boxes...one for the compost, and one for the recycling, so I can add the paperboard to the compost box (our recyclers don't take paperboard). All paperboard boxes (like the ones we get holding cases of cans from Costco) will be broken down and composted, so that's no big deal. I don't buy much processed foods either - but the costco canned fruits/veg all come in paperboard. I think I'll just get a smaller trash can for the bathroom to label "compostables" for the bathroom counter (there's a good spot for it right under the medicine cabinet), and then two more bins for under the kitchen sink for collecting cans and plastics, respectively. That should take care of it, I think...won't know until I try it for awhile. It's a lot to get used to - not throwing out a lot of stuff that we normally would, but infrastructure makes all the difference for me with new habits, so I just want to make sure I have a good basis to work from. :-) Does anyone out there have those triangular bins that fit four in a square, and pull out from a kitchen cabinet? I've been thinking that might be a good way to organize my collection bins under the sink......See MoreHow do you organize all your ideas?
Comments (21)Wow! You have lots of really good ideas. Some of you seem a little overwhelmed, like I am! Too many good ideas (and getting more every day), not enough time! Luvs, I never thought of actually sitting down with a cup of coffee and looking through my Christmas files (duh) prior to the Christmas shopping season (although most of what I buy is second-hand still there's more selection nearer to the holidays)... Karen--you can fit all your Decor ideas in ONE file???! Dreamgoddess--I love the idea of having all my jottings in one notebook--but once I turn the page the old ones are gone from my memory! You probably (undoubtedly) have more discipline than I have... OA--I do something like you do with the recipes but I use scrapbook software. I'm pleased with that because I can add text and the software treats it like a graphic--lets me move it around, put it on top of pictures, etc., but it still stays editable for when I spot a typo (very irritating to me) or want to rearrange the page. You can also add arrows or circle items in the photo or illustrations, and fancy them up if you want. I save the pages to .jpg files after I'm done. Then I can just view them with the Windows viewer. The disadvantage is there's no way to sort them or search them. I have to put them all in individual folders like Christmas, etc. If I want to have an index I have to make one in Excel or some such. I love the idea of putting all the things for each room in their own boxes. We will be moving into our new home this winter and as I unpack (my very disorganized) moving boxes I'll keep that in mind. Have to go get tons of plastic bins... Minnie tx--Yes. I've organized my articles like that in the past and there's nothing like thumbing through those nice page protectors--makes your pictures look even better. But I have SO MANY! Once I almost completed a system like that and I had 21 3-ring notebooks full and more coming all the time. I've weeded out since then (HAD TO!) and of course since I was younger there's many more formats--dvd's (stuff I recorded off HGTV, for example), Internet downloads, how-to videos on the Internet, of course digital pix that I sneak sometimes in stores, etc. So much mixed media! dd50- you've hit the nail on the head! That's me, wandering around the store, getting ideas, and wondering if I already have the stuff at home. After this over-budget house is finished, I'm not going to be able to afford buying (even something cheap) twice! neesie--DH uses a pencil and notepad for anything he wants to remember, and it works for him, but he's an engineer. They're BORN organized. lynn--I scan pix from magazines and catalogs too (they can sure mount up). But your system sounds so organized. I just finished culling about 300MB of graphics files duplicates that I had propagated all over the disk. BTW, make sure you all have backups. DH made us a little network with a big hard drive so we can back up to it. But if you don't have that, I like the little thumb drives--I got a 4 GB one for Christmas last year. That holds a lot of files! THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS! Seems nothing is perfect. As I mentioned, I'm using scrapbook software which makes graphics and text very easy to handle (OA--if you want "freeform" pages the scrapbooking software is better than a database like Filemaker. Databases usually require you to have your data in fixed format (which you define). For example, at least when I was using databases, you would have to define the number of pictures you could allow in each record. Of course, databases may be a lot fancier now, but their search-sort functions should require some rigidity in the format of each record.) What I really need to find to augment this is a calendar-shopping list-inventory program that takes all those ideas in my brain and makes them usable! - Magpie...See MoreHow Do You Organize Your Spices???
Comments (42)I keep most of my good spices on three little shelves inside the door of my freezer. Onr shelf has 7 spices that I ALWAYS use when I'm cooking Italian - thyme, oregano, sage, fennel seed, savory, marjoram, rosemary. I just used them tonight. Yanked them all out, took 1 tsp of each and added to the pot and put them back on the same shelf. I made indian curry for lunch. I just started this new little shelf - has curry, garam masala, mustard seeds, cardomom pods, cumin, coriander, cloves and cinnamon. (still need to buy asafoetida.) Numbers are marked on each label since it is not so easy as 1 tsp each. Guess I need to start a "Mexican". May use some of the duplicates. Yes, I have duplicates. I have bottled up in a ziplock bag and stored at the back of the fridge. I have a standard spice cabinet where I keep cheaper spices such as Adams or McCormic. Not too many of these. The ones I freeze are all organic with no preservatives....See MoreHow do you organize your recycling? (Pics?)
Comments (34)We live in the country, too. There is a weekly trash pick up service in our area, but we don't use it. It takes us a month or two to fill a single 30 gallon trash bag. When one is full, I take it to the trash & recycling drop off and pay a by-the-bag fee that is probably one tenth the cost of the pickup service. I have made a concerted effort to stay off mailing lists, and we still get plenty of junk mail, which we shred. We have poor soil, so the shreds get sprinkled wherever we need the organic matter the most. I'd rather compost than burn. Yeah, I admit, sometimes it looks like confetti on our lawn, but the lawn is getting thicker! We compost vegetable scraps from the kitchen, autumn leaves, etc. As for cans and bottles, we recycle everything possible. Only non-recyclable plastic and meat bones find their way into our trash can, even with all the decluttering I'm doing with the help of FlyLady. Household items that are useful to someone else go to the Re-Use It Center, or I Freecycle them on the front porch. At first, I used a couple of cardboard boxes for the recyclable materials. But leaking liquids made them messy. So I replaced them with clear plastic bins that could be washed. I measured the shelf in the garage where we keep the recycle bins. I went to two or three stores that had a good selection of plastic storage containers. I used my measuring tape to be sure that whatever I got would fit into my space. I only need two boxes. One is for styrofoam, which shares space with a bundle of #2 & #4 plastic bags. (The bags are easy to pull out at the recycle place.) The other box holds cans, recyclable plastic & glass, which is how my local recycle place wants everything sorted. I also got a smaller box with a snap-tight lid. The mice chew aluminum foil and make a mess, but with the lid, I can keep foil out in the garage with the rest of the recycle stuff. When I have trash and/or recycling, I drive it over to the place which is also conveniently near some of the stores I need to visit anyway. I can combine my errands and save gas. It works out well for me. MaryLiz...See More- 16 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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