Homekeeping — Page 5

Do You Have Ironing Disease?

January 2, 2011

‘Cause I do, and I want to know how many others out there I can commiserate with.

At the end of this post, a poll. But first, what the hell I’m talking about.

And good grief, I have been ending a lot of sentences with prepositions lately. I don’t have the energy to reorganize my syntax. Do you have a position on that? Maybe I’ll embed TWO polls, like, crazy.

So, back to my illness. I iron napkins. And sheets. And pillowcases. Sounds like a sickness, right?

RD Husband has been trying to convince me that I should stop. Not only does it take up enormous amounts of time I don’t really have, it ends up backlogging the laundry. Because of the first problem, I often can’t find the time to iron, so I just let the sheets and napkins sit in a laundry basket in the corner of my room for… well, if I’m honest, weeks at a time. Once, I opened up a sheet to iron it and there was a dead spider in it. The spider had actually crawled in there, lived out its entire spider life, and passed on to spider heaven, all before I even got around to ironing. So, it’s a problem.

Let me show you, though, in my defense, why I iron this crap.

First, a pillowcase. Without ironing, the hem is all wonkified. I can’t stand having a pillow under my head when the case won’t lie properly. Exhibit A:

How much better is that second photo? Phew, it calms my nerves to look at its silky smoothness after ironing.

Then, there’s the napkins. Exhibit B:

I know, I know, we’re just going to dirty these puppies up and throw them back in the laundry, but wouldn’t you rather use the nice, flat napkin?

Really, though, it’s about more than the look while you are using the item. A large part of it is about storage. It’s much more difficult to fold and keep neat a wrinkled up piece of fabric. Witness, Exhibit C:

You see how much more organized my napkin drawer looks with the ironed napkin?

Of course, don’t get me started about the sheets. Finally, Exhibit D:

In defense of my sickness and my attempt to moderate it, I will say I don’t iron the entire sheet. Just all the edges. That way, I have even edges to match up when I fold it. How are you supposed to fold the edges together when they are all creased up in a wad? Sometimes, on the king sheets for our bed, I’ll only iron the top hem, because my other pet peeve here is that I can’t stand pulling covers up to my chin with a wrongly-creased sheet. Or trying to make the bed when the top of the sheet can’t even lay flat. Who can do that?

So, dead readers, that is my question to you: who can do that? Do you have ironing sickness?

[polldaddy poll=4325358]

Now, onto the grammar issue:

[polldaddy poll=4325361]

{ 13 comments }

Small Organizing Frenzy

May 1, 2010

Sometimes this happens to me. I get on an organizing frenzy. I’m not sure what usually sets it off, but this time it was Real Simple. That magazine will do that to you.

I was looking at the February 2010 issue (I know, I’m kinda behind on the magazine reading), and I came across this article about 4 women who are crazy organized in one area of their home. I loved them all and kind of wanted to be them all wrapped up into one.

I knew I wanted to start in the kitchen with the spice cabinet, which is a disaster. So I headed out with the 3 year old to the Container Store, which is like heaven, and which is not all that close to my house, so I don’t go there often. I found the containers that this woman uses in her cupboard (would you please click through and get a load of that cupboard? Where on EARTH is her canned tuna? Beans? Can you really put EVERYTHING in these absurdly expensive OXO containers?) and bought a few. I was also looking for a spice rack, and I found JUST the thing in a Rubbermaid wire rack that actually folds forward so you can reach the spices in the back. And I got a little 3 step riser and a plastic container with a handle this is perfect for our vitamins. I’m tired of carrying 7 bottles of various vitamins in my arms; now I can just pull down the container and BAM.

I was so excited about getting it all done before RD Husband got home that I forgot to get an absolute before photo. But I did take one after I’d emptied out all the spices, and then I took a photo of the counter spilling over with said spices.

A jumbled mess of spices, vitamins, and chocolate. Yes, chocolate.

Here are all the spices. I didn’t think I had this many.

You'd think my cooking would be more flavorful.

I wiped all the shelves clean and then realized that this Rubbermaid thing needed to be installed. Like, it doesn’t just sit on the shelf like I thought it did. You have to get real tools and screw it in. This is not my forté.

But I was determined to do it all before RD Husband got home. I read the instructions and actually figured it out. First, you have to install a bracket on the side, and this is sketchy because you have to actually measure with a ruler its correct placement. I am not good at that. Somehow, my measurements always come out wrong. And they did here, too. I followed the directions but their suggested measurement (put the bracket 5″ from the front of the cabinet) did not work for me. So I have two extra holes in the shelf. No big whoop.

I actually used a power tool and drilled 1/8″ holes to get my screws started. And when all was said and done, here’s what I had:

Fab, right?

And see, it pulls down like this:

Ooooh, it's so easy to find my spices!

Now, I will tell you that I was a little disappointed because the picture on the outside of the box looks like this:

Naturally, I assumed that the rack came with all these lovely matching jars, right? Especially for $30, right? WRONG. No jars! Of course, they put that in 6pt on the side of the box. I was all set to transfer all my spices and use the P Touch to label them all. Probably for the best, though, because I do NOT have the time for that. I’ve got 203 craft projects to do, people.

The other shelves got themselves organized, too.

That plastic container with the handle on the lower left is where all the daily vitamins reside, and I think it’s kind of brilliant, if I do say so myself.

I also bought a wrapping paper organizer which is not nearly as cool as this lady’s setup.

{ 3 comments }

Cupboard Cleaning Challenge!

February 6, 2010

The most recent issue of Kiwi magazine poses a challenge to its readers: can you eat through your pantry without going to the grocery store? And I thought, hmmm, can I?

The answer is probably yes, but do I want to? The answer to that, of course, is no. But I did decide to take on a modified version of the challenge: I’m going to cook through our pantry and still go to the grocery store. For the most part, all our fruits and vegetables are fresh, and we go through those every few days. I don’t want to give up on the fresh stuff. The good news, though, is that we will eat through the pantry!

If you are up to the challenge, you can see their suggestions at the Great Pantry Challenge.

So, last night was my first night, and I glanced through the cabinet (alas, I don’t have a pantry) and was surprised how quickly I put something together. Brown rice + Spanish lentils and vegetables (from Trader Joe’s) + steamed broccoli = a pretty decent meal!

You didn’t think it was going to be this easy, did you? When I went to open the Spanish lentils, I realized that it expires June 3. Of 2009. D’oh! So that sent me on a pre-mission to get rid of all the stuff that had expired or that I knew we wouldn’t eat. So, goodbye vacuum-packed brown rice, boxed lasagna and some sort of bean medley.

Now, back to the meal. What to substitute for the lentils? I had a bunch of cans of beans and a bunch of bags of dried beans, including a beautiful heirloom one that I just never got around to cooking. I also dug out a bag of kombu, which I read somewhere is supposed to make the beans easier to digest when you are making them from scratch. And… voila. I’d make the beans (which, incidentally, said on the package did not need to be soaked), mix them in with the rice, and add a can of chopped tomatoes. I’d call it… Brown Rice with Tomatoes and Beans? I need to get more creative on the naming here.

BUT, you didn’t think it was going to be THIS easy, did you?? Those no-soak beans did not cook in the allotted hour’s time. In fact, they took about 2 hours. No worries! I just grabbed a can of white beans when I realized the heirlooms wouldn’t be ready and used that. Still working my way through the pantry. I’m flexible! I think fast on my feet! I’m MacGyver in the kitchen!

Or maybe more like MacGruber, because when the dish was said and done, after a little salt and pepper, it was… bland. Totally edible, but bland. What do I need to add to it, folks? Some herbs? I did sprinkle each portion with freshly grated parmesan cheese, but that still wasn’t quite enough to perk it up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, since I’m trying to learn to cook better.

complete meal: Brown Rice Thing, steamed broccoli and tangerine

So, for my first challenge meal, not too shabby, considering I used up two cans and a good portion of brown rice. I won’t be challenging every night, but you can count on a couple a week, maybe. There’s too many other good dishes I want to make.

{ 12 comments }