Not Better by Design

Last fall, in my husband's ongoing quest to protect me, he purchased a step stool.  He had, on numerous occasions, seen me climb up on a kitchen chair to reach things in my cupboards. In the old days, I guess I was deemed young enough to climb on anything, and my chairs were the old sturdy chrome style that could support me without problem.  But now I have wooden chairs, that sometimes get a little wobbly and need regluing from time to time. Apparently he didn't like to see me climbing on those as I may be getting a little wobbly from time to time myself.

My kitchen is green and white but the stool is red, so I don't store it in the kitchen.  Rather than go and get it, I still drag a chair over to do my climbing.  There was another reason that I didn't use it too. When caught on a chair, and confronted with the question of why I wasn't using the stool, I just said it didn't work for me. 

It was only after preparing for Christmas that I was able to explain that statement to my hubby.  I didn't want him thinking I was looking his gift horse in the mouth. I finally had an example of why it wouldn't work, and decided to demonstrate the problem.

My kitchen sink is built over the stairwell to the basement.  That means there is plenty of room between the sink and the window behind it for a shelf.  I wanted that shelf nice and clean, so I'd have someplace to put such things as pies and cookie platters for my guests, without them taking up all the working space on my countertop.  From the floor, I can reach about half way back, to wash and polish that shelf.  From a kitchen chair, I can reach all the way to the windowsill.  From the new step stool I can only reach as far as I can if I'm standing on the floor, with nothing to climb on.  The problem is in the design of he stool itself. 

The first problem is that the stool goes from it's flat storage state, to an A frame, so the back legs prevent you from putting the steps close enough to the cupboard. There is a cure for that, I know you are thinking, but I'll address that in a moment.  The second problem is that the stool has a handle that, centers itself over the top step, and keeps my knees from going beyond that.  My feet go under it just fine, but the handle holds me back away from what I'm trying to reach. 

Now, I'm sure you wonder why I don't just turn the stool around sideways, so that I can snuggle it up against the cupboard.  I tried that, and I also demonstrated it to my hubby when he suggested it.  Once he saw that the handle had me standing so that my outer foot was not only right on the edge of the step, but actually hanging over the edge, he agreed that he didn't want me doing that.  I'd get busy doing the job in front of me and slip right off that step, for sure! 

I'm sure there will be things this stool will come in handy for, but as something to climb on in my kitchen, I'm better off standing on my kitchen chairs.  If hubby thinks they are too wobbly to be trustworthy, I will remind him that I have a wild assortment of glues available in the basement.

Organized Hoarding

When I first got married I bought a stenographers notebook to write my favorite recipes in.  Over time that filled up and I progressed to a three ring binder.  When that filled up, I got another one, and separated the desserts into that.

The binder system works well because I can keep things more organized by putting recipes for certain ingredients, or types of dishes, together.  Salads, Soups, Chicken, Ground Beef, Crock Pot, etc.  In the dessert one, I not only put the recipes for certain types of things together, but I do it seasonally as well.  Rhubarb, Strawberries, Blueberries and Blackberries, Pumpkin, Zucchini. Chocolate and Lemon somehow don't quite know where to sit in that book so they landed in folders tucked inside the binder cover.

All this makes me sound rather organized, don't you think?  The thing is, I get a lot of women's magazines and when  I see a recipe I like, and I turn down the corner.  That makes them easy to find later, when I'm cleaning out the magazine pile, which happens every 3 to 6 months. Then if I haven't done so already, I pull out the page, if the recipe still interests me. Some of them get weeded out at that point, so that couple of months waiting period sometimes turns out to be a good thing. The bigger problem is that some times there is a magazine with so many good recipes in it, that I keep the whole thing rather than tear out so many pages.  Trying to remember just which book holds the recipe for spaghetti pie, or a certain cookie isn't easy.  The magazines piled up so quickly that it never occurred to me that I could have kept a master list of where to find favorites, like I do with my cook books.  For those I list the recipe and the book it's found in, right down to the page number, and keep it in my main binder. Maybe I'll have to resort to that when I get to the magazine part of this de-cluttering.  But then again, if I keep the magazines, I'm still not throwing out the clutter, right?

Another source of incoming recipes popped up when we got high speed internet, just a few years ago. With that came the ability to sign up for numerous newsletters.  Many of those come with recipes, or links to recipes. I'm always on the look out for something different, especially if it doesn't require me to go out and buy ingredients that aren't already a staple in my house.  I print off several new ones each week and add them to the growing pile.

I outgrew my binders, but I have a red file folder for recipes I want to make, and have not tried yet. The file got so thick that a couple of years ago I created some more files, with categories for Beef, Fish, Pork, Chicken, Pancakes and Muffins, and Pasta, and.....well, once again, I'm sure you get the idea.  One would think I'd be able to find the recipe I'm looking for.

But say I get my hands on some boneless chicken thighs.  I know I have recipes that call for those, and I'd love to find them at times like this, rather than have to do the de-boning myself some other time.  But when I have to sift through the piles to find the required recipe I generally give up and make some old standby.

It's only in recent years that I've had this problem. Last year, when I first thought I'd get this situation under control,  I even created sub folders within the Chicken folder, for Legs and Thighs, Breasts, with and without bones, etc.  But since I still have the tried and true recipes in the folders mixed in with the untried ones, that's not working out as well as I had hoped.  This year I'm going to try to put all the tested and approved recipes in the binders, and get the untested ones out of there. I'm going to get rid of duplicates, though finding 4 copies of one recipe, or even 4 different recipes for a similar dish actually lets me know I must really want to make that.  I'll test those ones as quickly as possible, and get rid of the duplicates, or copy cats.

I made my first stab at all this today.  I chose to start with the Pasta folder.  Maybe that wasn't wise as I kept finding things I wanted to make instead of recipes I didn't mind disposing of.  I did get rid of 20 and file 5 previously tested ones in the binder.  I thought this year, instead of copying out recipes onto lined paper, I'd simply glue them on.  After all, I do have an over abundance of glue in the house.  But the two recipes that were not already printed off the computer were on small pieces of paper, so I ended up copying them after all. So much for saving time with glue.

It was day one. I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go along. Hopefully I'll learn to be more ruthless quickly. If not, I'm likely to replace the few pieces of paper I'm throwing out with even more when I get to the magazines.

I've made a couple of new resolutions:  I will not resubscribe to any of the magazines this year, and I will not print off any new recipes (unless I'm actually going to make that dish that very day). I might even go so far as to cancel the newsletters if I find I can't resist.

Baby steps. One thing at a time. One day at a time. 

Lepage Ultra Gel - Test One

I keep asking people if they have anything that's broken, and nobody seems to....at least not at the moment.  Those who did said they have used Krazy Glue to fix their things in the past.  In some cases that worked, and in other cases it didn't.  I am testing a gel product from Lepage, that might be just what some of those folks need.  Lepage Ultra Gel Control.is a specially formulated rubber toughened instant adhesive that resists impact, shock, vibration and temperature extremes. It is outdoor safe and resistant to moisture and freezing temperatures.
It's good for bonding leather, cork, cardboard, wood, fabric, metal, ceramic, rubber & hard plastics.  Some of these things are usually difficult to stick together because of their uneven texture, or the fact that they may be porous, and would absorb other glues before they have a chance to work.  The gel stays nicely on the surface. You can even apply it to a vertical surface and it won't run, so you can glue things in places where it would normally be a nightmare to even think about trying to stick something..
As a member of The Insiders, a word of mouth advertising network, I was sent a kit and asked to test  Lepage Ultra Gel Control. I was impressed immediately with the size of the sample. They sent me three bottles of the product when I was half expecting a tiny tube.  These bottles come in a patented side-squeeze design for maximum control and air-tight storage. 

 I had two things that had lost the bond between a metal surface and a plastic surface, so today I decided it was time to take this product for a test run.  As I'm a known klutz, and didn't want to take any chances gluing my fingers together, I donned some protective gloves. The applicator worked so well though, that there was not a drop or drip anywhere where it should not have been by the time I was finished.  The bond took place within 15 to 30 seconds. It set within 10 minutes, and will completely cure in 24 hours.  There is no need to clamp anything.  My curling iron and lipstick once again have their plastic handles glued securely in place.

The Insiders also sent me a  something they want me to cut in half and then glue back together again. I'll tell you more about that when I do it.