I use an old three-gallon enameled pail I bought at an auction and an old pot lid that fits on the top (to keep the nosey cats out). It lives either on the floor or on the counter, depending. It's emptied to the compost pile last thing at night when one of us make the rounds to check on things in the barns before bed. In the summer it is sloshed out at the outdoor tap and left upside down to dry overnight. In the winter (does that still happen these days?) it is brought in and left to freeze in the wood room when we bring the last firewood in for the night. During major preservation orgies I use a giant SS bowl (probably 2 feet across) that gets filled to heaping and dumped as needed. My late MIL used a SS pail (with a lid - actually the lid I now use, sans pail; I wonder where the pail went?) for her compost enroute to her chickens. My own Mother used a lidded ceramic casserole as a collection point, dumped every morning after the egg shells from breakfast were added. My compost pile is literally a pile. During warm weather I stick a fork in it occasionally and have at it once or twice per season with the bucket loader to tumble it. Most of the time I just let Nature takes its course. If it gets too big, I just started dumping stuff on the ground next to it. Easy-peasy. Once in a awhile I add the gleanings from the (pet) rabbits' cages to boost the nitrogen component, but that manure (and more particularly, the bunny pee) is too "hot" to add it all the time. Mostly the cage-gleanings go on their own pile that I manage more intensively than the veg. compost pile, which is a totally laissez-affair. Every summer I plan to use saplings to make a nice cage around my veg. compost pile - laid up in a loose log-cabin-like framework. But in two-plus decades here I have always chosen the slattern's approach of just dumping stuff on the ground. That really pleases the skunks and opossums, no doubt. In the end I get nice friable organic matter that I slap around the garden so no evidence of my decades of sloth is apparent. L.

In a previous kitchen I hung our measuring cups from a rotating set of cup-hooks that attached to the bottom of an upper shelf in my baking cabinet. I have know idea where we found it, and we left it when we moved, but it was handy while I had it. I've also tried hanging metal measuring cups on a magnetic strip inside a cabinet door. It was nice, except my magnet wasn't strong enough, and they'd sometimes come clattering down. : / Now I have nifty plastic measuring cups that say Pampered Chef (but I didn't buy them from there) that are colored. I love knowing that the red one is 1 cup, the yellow one is a half cup, etc. They live in a drawer that defies organization at the moment. I long to have my 1/2 Tbsp. measuring spoon again. It was plastic and I got it too close to the stove burner one day. I haven't found a replacement yet.

Well, this issue is a real one for people like me, who have 3 hobo cats who knocked on the door of a 988 SF ranch sans basement and said "There's a sign out in the green belt that pointed this way. It's said around kitty campfires that you are a sucker and will give a good meal." Until now there has been NO PLACE for a litter box that isn't public space. Luckily, 2 of the 3 prefer to "go" outside. One of the side benefits of the conversion we are doing to switch hot air furnace and water heater (which was in the kitchen corner of all places) to a hydronic boiler system is that not only did we lose the water heater, we just MIGHT end up with space left in the furnace closet to put in a litter box and a spot for mops/brooms. Crossing my fingers on that... Otherwise, it's going to come down to some kind of creative solution like those posted here. The truth is, in a house this small, you really can't remove the litter box from the public space. It's all one, in a very zen, simple-living kinda way, I prefer to think. ;) I recently saw a neat kitchen remodel that had integrated a cabinet for a litter box, complete with a cut out of a cat for the entry door. Wish I could remember the link now, that should get people reacting. lol

Hi Cpartist, I have and have read her books - thank you though, she's a great resource. Oaktown - I like drawing floor plans in my spare time and am always looking to make them more efficient sf wise, but without feeling cramped. I also really admire certain ways architects have such as nesting utility/powder spaces together cleverly, stacking washrooms, or otherwise promoting efficiency. I'm mostly interested in urban infill. it's just a hobby for me, I would never turn pro or even show my floor plans to anyone except my husband!