I use an old serrated steak knife. I work down in the kitchen sink so everything is away from my body. I know what I can do to myself when I get excited or concentrate on something so I play it safe. Always making sure the "cutting" edge is pointed away from me, I stab the milk jug and slice away until it gets around to the other side. Then when I can pry the top off I put the bottom of the carton into the drain, one corner at a time, and "stab and twist" to make a drainage hole in each of the four corners of the bottom. Works for me. Pop bottles the same re: drainage holes, but to cut I smash bottle across, cut a slit at the pinched place (I hope this is making sense) and then cut around with the scissors. Good Luck!

Like this? They're available at your local Smart & Final or restaurant supply store...

Don't buy a set of knives. It isn't a good value, as you'll just end up with a bunch of knives that you'll likely never use. Purchase the knives that you really need as open stock. A good start would probably be a chef's knife (8 or 10 inch, depending on what feels better to you), a bread knife, and a paring knife. Don't buy anything without trying it out. A handle and weight that work for someone else may not feel right to you. I think that quality knives are absolutely worth the money. I'm a sucker for Japanese knives, but there are plenty of good, more affordable options. You definitely don't have to spend a fortune. Check out the Victorinox Fibrox series; quality knives, very moderately priced. Once you get the knives that you need, purchase a storage solution separately, and don't forget to invest in the appropriate honing/sharpening implements, too.

I highly recommend the Brother P-touch. I considered the Casio machien that works similarly, but decided against it bcs the tapes aren't as easy to find. You can find the P-touch tapes tons of places. The labels stick through the dishwasher and freezer (and, I read once in Real Simple, in the oven up to 450 or 500 degrees! though I haven't tried it). They go on smooth and stick really well--no corners flipping up, etc. Yet, they peel off well when you need them to. The labels are clean and easy to read, you can print in a few different sizes, and you can buy many colors of tape. You can even get fabric tape the irons on (haven't tried mine yet). The batteries last quite a long time in it. Its only drawback is that the tape is kind of expensive; there's a way to keep the machine from leaving so much blank at the end of every piece, though--if you get that far and can't figure it out, drop me an e-mail and I'll walk you through it. Brother changes the model numbers of its labelers every now and then, so it's hard for me to recommend a specific model right now--they're all good, equal quality (and they all use the same tape, which it easy to find), We have several P-touch labelers at work, purchased as wildly varying times and with different capabilities, and they all worked exactly the same--quite well. it's just that some machines do more than others (more fonts, maybe, or printing on two or three lines). So just look at the features you think you're willing to pay for. Then, round up just one notch. I've found that I've usually wished that I had that one higher feature (of whatever it is I bought), and that I'd have been willing, in retrospect, to pay for it. The two features I wish I'd splurged for are: -the ability to print two lines -having two different FONTS--there are 6 or 8 different type styles on every machine but that just takes the basic sans serif font and enlarges it, stretches it, or squeezes it. A machine at work has a sans serif font AND a serif font, so you can get a slightly more old-fashioned, fancier look w/ the serifs. I would get the 1950 (65 or so) or the 1960--both are less than $100, and I could splurge on the thing (and would, now that I'm used to having one around). Here is a link that might be useful: Brother's Advisor site to help you pick a model