Sometimes I, and I am sure all of you, have great plans to get things done, but something keeps us from it. Sometimes it is the fact that some things we have to do are just plain disgusting to do or we don’t want to do them for some other reason. All of this leads to tasks being put off.
We had mice in our kitchen a few years ago and I have not finished cleaning up from them. Yes, a few years ago. I may or may not have mentioned this before. We had an exterminator come in and deal with them. I pulled almost everything out of the cabinets under the sink a month or so later and either soaked items in bleach and water mixture or tossed them. I did the same with the 2 small drawers we have in this cabinet area. I never got to the small cabinet below these drawers and the bread drawer next to them. Since the bread drawer was where we found the mice, I have not really been able to deal with it.
My husband told me that he when they had mice at the place he worked, clean up had to be done be done with bleach and water mixture wearing disposable plastic gloves and masked while they did it. This is part of what slowed the process down, in addition to the gross out factor of what I had to do, I have a problem with a face mask as I am small boned (fat, but small boned) and the masks do not fit me correctly. So I dealt with the mask for as far as I could back then and then stopped. I kept planning to get back to it.
In the interim the cleaning supplies which had been stored under the sink (and the containers were soaked in the bleach/water mixture when they were removed) and replacement purchases since, have been stored in 2 stacked cardboard boxes in our craft studio off the kitchen. (A lot of items were just thrown out if we deemed them too far gone to keep or easy and relatively cheap to replace.) The boxes long ago collapsed on each other leading to disorganization in them and there is less than a foot of space to walk between the boxes and furniture in what is a tight room. The studio was in the middle of being put back together from the bed bugs in 2009. This project had been stopped as we needed to replace a dresser used for storage and could not find one the correct size. Of course as soon as we found one, the mice came to visit. So the studio organization cannot be finished until the mice clean up is done. Sound familiar?
Last fall I went looking online to check about cleaning up after mice and found that the government instructions are to spray the area and items with Lysol. No mask needed. So I did that. I sprayed the 2 cabinets and the 3 drawers. A week or so later I went to work on the drawers. I pulled out the top small drawer (and I do mean small) and cleaned it with bleach and water. I had new shelf liner to put in it. I looked at the drawer and was still grossed out by the thought of putting my dish towels in the drawer (which is what was stored in this drawer before) even sprayed, cleaned with bleach and relined. I looked at the drawer and realized that it was just a small box with a front to match the cabinetry attached to it and that the front had not been exposed to the mice as it sat outside of the box front and the cabinet front. The drawer was also old - our house was built in 1949 and since then the cabinets were recovered and had new doors/drawer fronts put on, but the insides were the original cabinets and drawers. The wood the drawer was made of was definitely showing its age. Husband, in addition to other crafts, does woodworking and I suggested to him making new drawers, as it was a only a question of making boxes and attaching the decorative fronts. He looked at what I showed him and agreed. So we made new small drawers for and replaced the 2 small drawers using the old fronts. In the spring we plan to do the same with the bread drawer. We need warm enough weather for the finish to be applied and ran out of time. So, I now have a drawer for my kitchen towels again and no longer have to keep them in the studio and have them in the way there, as well as again having a drawer for a few of my lesser used kitchen tools. But that was where I stopped, short on time during the assorted holidays and, to be honest, avoiding what was a disgusting job.
Well, last week I decided it was time to stop putting the project off. I opened the doors to the cabinet under the sink and looked. There were 3 bottles of floor cleaner for the flooring that we had on most of the first floor of the house, 2 boxes of matches and a zipper bag with wicking for decorative oil lamps (for use in blackouts). I put the aluminum pan I had used before for soaking in the bleach/water in the sink and soaked the 3 bottles and washed them clean. I dried them with paper towels and set them on some newspapers to finish drying. I tossed the matches - cheap enough to buy new ones and how does one wash a cardboard box? I then tossed the bag that the wicking was in and put the wicking in a new bag. I, of course, wore disposable plastic gloves for all this. Now all was done under sink except the big job.
Yesterday, Tuesday, I finally did the job I had been putting off. We had previously organized the cabinet by putting a 2 wire drawer unit in a year or so before the mice and I did not want to take it out. I planned carefully. I put newspapers on the floor to hold the pan with bleach and water (in between using this disposable plan I keep it inside a knotted closed plastic kitchen size bag). I put newspapers on the floor to hold other items I needed. I pulled 10 sheets of paper towels off so I would not have to touch the roll while working. I brought the kitchen garbage pail over and opened it. I had disposable plastic gloves. I then mixed the bleach and water and sat down on the floor to start work.
I started with the pipes inside above the floor of the cabinet and then went on to the inside top edges of the cabinet and the walls of same. I then started at the back of the side of the cabinet which does not have the drawers, working my way forward cleaning the floor of the cabinet. It took several passes of cleaning in each area I worked on to make sure it was clean. I then ran out of paper towels. I took my gloves off, careful not to touch the outside of them and set them on newspaper. I pulled off another 10 paper towels, got my gloves back on without touching the outside and went back to work.
This was a little harder. I had to pull out the drawers to wash them and I also had to wash their frame and I did not want to deal with removing the drawers from the unit. With the drawers pulled out as far as they can be I had to reach around them to reach all of the floor to clean it - again repeating until I was sure it was clean. While working around the drawers I found a ripped open pack of mouse poison from the exterminator and picked it up with a paper towel and threw it out, then went back and cleaned the area of any leftover poison a few times using a clean paper towel each cleaning.
When I was done I threw out everything except the pan from the bleach - I still have items to soak in it - and put it back in its knotted closed plastic bag. I took the garbage bag out immediately to the pail and it will be picked up tomorrow at the regular pickup. (Of course I immediately put a new bag in the kitchen pail.) I left the cabinet doors open to let air in to help dry the floor. A major job that has been put off is almost done - and the worst part of it is what is done. Well, except for the overwhelming smell of bleach and Lysol which is still dissipating.
I am going to line the floor of the cabinet with shelf liner. It was never lined before, but I decided it needs to be done now. I actually was thinking of doing this tonight, but then remembered that I had not written a post for tonight, so I will get to it next week - I hope. I will then put back the cleaning items I have. It will be much emptier in there than before. I will also buy a new small plastic tray for the top drawer in the cabinet as I used to keep my sponges and such that are in use in a similar one - then the area around my sink will be a bit clearer.
Getting a job done that one did not want to face is an accomplishment and I am glad to have the worst of the job done. That leaves the small cabinet under the drawers to do and the new drawer to replace the bread drawer to make.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
GET YOUR MEDICATIONS ORGANIZED TO SAVE YOUR (OR SOMEONE ELSE'S) LIFE
Now a serious subject in organizing. Prescription and over the counter medications. They can be dangerous if not organized and taken care of. Note that I have no medical training and that nothing is to be taken as medical information - just how I deal with and make sure our medications are organized and safely stored.
We have no children and none come in the house, so we do not have to worry about children getting their hands on medications in our house, but if you have children who live or come into your house make sure that all medications including over the counter ones are in a location that children absolutely cannot reach. This includes any “day of the week” boxes and children considerably older than you might think. Don’t forget to make sure that pets also cannot take your medications. In medications all things are better safe than sorry.
My husband and I each have several conditions which we take medications for, on an ongoing basis. When husband was diagnosed and given his first pill - he was to take it daily - I went out and bought a day of the week box. I told him that I would put his pills for the week in the box on Saturday nights for him. He insisted that he did not need one. I pointed out to him that sooner or later he would be unsure if he had taken his medication and we would be able to tell by looking in the box - otherwise we would have to know when he started the bottle of pills and then count the remaining pills and figure out if there was an extra pill. This was much simpler - and it works.
Over the years we have progressed to a day of the week box for each of us in our bedroom for morning pills, a day of the week box for each of us in the kitchen for our lunch and dinner pills, and a day of the week box in the kitchen for husband’s bed time pills. That’s 5 separate boxes all together. They are generally filled Saturday night for the coming week - sometimes on Friday if we know we will be home extremely late on Saturday night. I also note any pills which need to be refilled at that time. (If you don’t renew your pills, you can’t take them.) Your doctor and the pill bottle should tell you when to take the pills and if they are all taken at once or spread over the day. It is urgent to take them as you are suppose to so that you have the correct amount of the medication in your bloodstream. Too much could have serious problems. Too little may be of no value. Generally pills which are taken over the day are taken when you are awake. For example, “take every 4 hours” does not usually mean that you need to wake during the night to take a dose - but check with your doctor if you are not sure. I have found that generally pills such as this are intended to be taken over 12 hours - such as every 4 hours,4 times a day or every 6 hours, 3 times a day.
Most of our prescriptions these days come in a 90 day supply - a big bottle for some of the larger pills to deal with, especially if one of us takes multiples of the pill during the day. So I have kept a 30 days supply bottle for each pill and count out a 30 day supply from the 90 day bottle and keep it in the matching 30 day bottle. NEVER HAVE AN UNMARKED OR MISMARKED BOTTLE OF PILLS OF ANY TYPE. One time we had a problem in which what we knew should be full 90 bottles of pills only had 60 days worth. Since then I make a line on the lid of the 90 day bottle each time I take out 30 days worth of pills, so if I run short I know that something was wrong.
Always know what pills you and any one else in your house whose pills you are responsible for are taking and what dosage they are. (One time instead of blood pressure pills I was given an asthma inhaler, major problems would have resulted if I had not immediately known it was wrong.) Know what the pills look like. When you get the pills from the pharmacy - by mail or in person - make sure the name and dosage of the pills are correct, as well as the count on the bottle. Also know and check if your medication is “ER” - extended release as same is different than the regular version of the same medication. (Never cut an ER pill - or any other for that matter - unless you check with your doctor or pharmacist. ER pills are generally in a outer shell which dissolves over time dispensing the medication into your system a certain amount at a time.) Then open the bottle and make sure the pills look like they should. If they don’t bring them to the pharmacy or call the mail order pharmacy and check that the pills are correct. We check our pills before we leave the pharmacy section of the store. If you are taking generic medication the brand can change and the pill can be different in appearance. (One of husband’s pills changed from orange to green with a change in brand.) NEVER ASSUME THAT PILLS THAT LOOK DIFFERENT THAN LAST TIME YOU TOOK THEM ARE THE SAME - ASK.
I know you have heard this before - take your medications as you are told to and take the full amount you are suppose to. If you are told to take a medication for a certain period take it for that period. If you are told to take all the pills in the prescription - take all the pills according to the instructions. If you are told to take the pills and renew the prescription - do so. Stopping some pills just because you feel better can result in your condition getting worse and with others stopping pills all at once can be a problem if you have to taper off the pill. Never give your medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms.
If you are taking pills “as needed” watch the expiration date and dispose of the pills after the expiration date. The current recommended method of disposing of your past due or unneeded pills is to crush them and add them to something someone would not eat - the garbage in general, kitty litty, coffee grounds. It is no longer recommended that you flush the pills down the toilet as water supplies are being contaminated by same.
I keep our 30 day supply bottles of pills in one of my kitchen cabinets - the bottom shelf of the already mentioned cabinet left of the sink. I keep our 90 day bottles in the medicine cabinet of our downstairs bathroom which has no shower or tub. It is recommended that medications not be kept in a bathroom with shower or tub as the room gets steamy and it is not good for the pills. If you have children - remember - make sure the pills are locked in someway to keep them out - small children might think it is candy (never tell a child that your medicine or the child’s medicine is candy) and an older child might be looking to take your medication to get high. Check medications to see if there are any special conditions that they must be kept under - say a certain temperature range.
Over the counter medications are real medications and have side effects. Always check the side effects before buying OTC medications and make sure that they do not interfere with your prescriptions medications - call your pharmacist or doctor if you are not sure. OTC medications should be disposed of, as above, when they go past their expirations date.
Now, we want to have the same OTC medications upstairs and down. I keep the old bottle when the contents are used up or disposed of and redate it with the date of the new bottle. I only do this with the EXACT same medication. I then put half of the new bottle in the old bottle. I put, for example, aspirin in the aspirin bottle and write on the new expiration date. I would never put Advil in an aspirin bottle. Be very careful if you do this. Don’t buy more than you can use before the expiration date, unless it is the smallest amount.
It is urgent that medications be stored and taken properly and kept safely away from children and pets and anyone else who cannot be trusted not to take them - on purpose or by accident. If your medications are not organized and properly stored the wrong pills might be taken, the pills might be taken at the wrong time or in the wrong number, the pills might be taken by the wrong person, you might run out of a vital medication, you might stop taking pills too early or take them too long or too much. Check your prescriptions now and make sure they are correct and set up to take correctly. Dispose of any prescriptions or OTC medications which are no longer needed, used, or past their expiration date. Medications used properly improve or save our lives. Medications used incorrectly can have the opposite effects and can be catastrophic.
We have no children and none come in the house, so we do not have to worry about children getting their hands on medications in our house, but if you have children who live or come into your house make sure that all medications including over the counter ones are in a location that children absolutely cannot reach. This includes any “day of the week” boxes and children considerably older than you might think. Don’t forget to make sure that pets also cannot take your medications. In medications all things are better safe than sorry.
My husband and I each have several conditions which we take medications for, on an ongoing basis. When husband was diagnosed and given his first pill - he was to take it daily - I went out and bought a day of the week box. I told him that I would put his pills for the week in the box on Saturday nights for him. He insisted that he did not need one. I pointed out to him that sooner or later he would be unsure if he had taken his medication and we would be able to tell by looking in the box - otherwise we would have to know when he started the bottle of pills and then count the remaining pills and figure out if there was an extra pill. This was much simpler - and it works.
Over the years we have progressed to a day of the week box for each of us in our bedroom for morning pills, a day of the week box for each of us in the kitchen for our lunch and dinner pills, and a day of the week box in the kitchen for husband’s bed time pills. That’s 5 separate boxes all together. They are generally filled Saturday night for the coming week - sometimes on Friday if we know we will be home extremely late on Saturday night. I also note any pills which need to be refilled at that time. (If you don’t renew your pills, you can’t take them.) Your doctor and the pill bottle should tell you when to take the pills and if they are all taken at once or spread over the day. It is urgent to take them as you are suppose to so that you have the correct amount of the medication in your bloodstream. Too much could have serious problems. Too little may be of no value. Generally pills which are taken over the day are taken when you are awake. For example, “take every 4 hours” does not usually mean that you need to wake during the night to take a dose - but check with your doctor if you are not sure. I have found that generally pills such as this are intended to be taken over 12 hours - such as every 4 hours,4 times a day or every 6 hours, 3 times a day.
Most of our prescriptions these days come in a 90 day supply - a big bottle for some of the larger pills to deal with, especially if one of us takes multiples of the pill during the day. So I have kept a 30 days supply bottle for each pill and count out a 30 day supply from the 90 day bottle and keep it in the matching 30 day bottle. NEVER HAVE AN UNMARKED OR MISMARKED BOTTLE OF PILLS OF ANY TYPE. One time we had a problem in which what we knew should be full 90 bottles of pills only had 60 days worth. Since then I make a line on the lid of the 90 day bottle each time I take out 30 days worth of pills, so if I run short I know that something was wrong.
Always know what pills you and any one else in your house whose pills you are responsible for are taking and what dosage they are. (One time instead of blood pressure pills I was given an asthma inhaler, major problems would have resulted if I had not immediately known it was wrong.) Know what the pills look like. When you get the pills from the pharmacy - by mail or in person - make sure the name and dosage of the pills are correct, as well as the count on the bottle. Also know and check if your medication is “ER” - extended release as same is different than the regular version of the same medication. (Never cut an ER pill - or any other for that matter - unless you check with your doctor or pharmacist. ER pills are generally in a outer shell which dissolves over time dispensing the medication into your system a certain amount at a time.) Then open the bottle and make sure the pills look like they should. If they don’t bring them to the pharmacy or call the mail order pharmacy and check that the pills are correct. We check our pills before we leave the pharmacy section of the store. If you are taking generic medication the brand can change and the pill can be different in appearance. (One of husband’s pills changed from orange to green with a change in brand.) NEVER ASSUME THAT PILLS THAT LOOK DIFFERENT THAN LAST TIME YOU TOOK THEM ARE THE SAME - ASK.
I know you have heard this before - take your medications as you are told to and take the full amount you are suppose to. If you are told to take a medication for a certain period take it for that period. If you are told to take all the pills in the prescription - take all the pills according to the instructions. If you are told to take the pills and renew the prescription - do so. Stopping some pills just because you feel better can result in your condition getting worse and with others stopping pills all at once can be a problem if you have to taper off the pill. Never give your medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms.
If you are taking pills “as needed” watch the expiration date and dispose of the pills after the expiration date. The current recommended method of disposing of your past due or unneeded pills is to crush them and add them to something someone would not eat - the garbage in general, kitty litty, coffee grounds. It is no longer recommended that you flush the pills down the toilet as water supplies are being contaminated by same.
I keep our 30 day supply bottles of pills in one of my kitchen cabinets - the bottom shelf of the already mentioned cabinet left of the sink. I keep our 90 day bottles in the medicine cabinet of our downstairs bathroom which has no shower or tub. It is recommended that medications not be kept in a bathroom with shower or tub as the room gets steamy and it is not good for the pills. If you have children - remember - make sure the pills are locked in someway to keep them out - small children might think it is candy (never tell a child that your medicine or the child’s medicine is candy) and an older child might be looking to take your medication to get high. Check medications to see if there are any special conditions that they must be kept under - say a certain temperature range.
Over the counter medications are real medications and have side effects. Always check the side effects before buying OTC medications and make sure that they do not interfere with your prescriptions medications - call your pharmacist or doctor if you are not sure. OTC medications should be disposed of, as above, when they go past their expirations date.
Now, we want to have the same OTC medications upstairs and down. I keep the old bottle when the contents are used up or disposed of and redate it with the date of the new bottle. I only do this with the EXACT same medication. I then put half of the new bottle in the old bottle. I put, for example, aspirin in the aspirin bottle and write on the new expiration date. I would never put Advil in an aspirin bottle. Be very careful if you do this. Don’t buy more than you can use before the expiration date, unless it is the smallest amount.
It is urgent that medications be stored and taken properly and kept safely away from children and pets and anyone else who cannot be trusted not to take them - on purpose or by accident. If your medications are not organized and properly stored the wrong pills might be taken, the pills might be taken at the wrong time or in the wrong number, the pills might be taken by the wrong person, you might run out of a vital medication, you might stop taking pills too early or take them too long or too much. Check your prescriptions now and make sure they are correct and set up to take correctly. Dispose of any prescriptions or OTC medications which are no longer needed, used, or past their expiration date. Medications used properly improve or save our lives. Medications used incorrectly can have the opposite effects and can be catastrophic.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
A PROJECT THAT TOOK DAYS INSTEAD OF AN HOUR DUE TO DISORGANIZATION
My husband got a loom for Christmas. It is not a huge one, but it is 32 inches wide. It is something he has wanted for decades. He was willing to give up a trip he loves in early December to cover the cost. He has had small hand looms in the past, but never one big enough to make more than a potholder or thin strap on.
He was very anxious to get it set up and use it, which we can all understand. We set it up a couple of days after Christmas. He will be using it in the living room or dining room due to logistics in the house. It was set up in the living room as due to a piece of furniture - a DVD chest he made - being displaced to the dining room from the living room so the Christmas tree would fit in the living room, so there was no room in the dining room. Due to the Christmas tree, there was not really enough room in the living room either for the loom, but there was more room than in the dining room.
The easy way to set up what is called the warp (the threads that one weaves the other threads - the weft - through) for this type of loom is to set up a short wooden dowel in a device which clamps onto a table or other flat surface. This is done so that the distance between a certain part of the loom and the dowel is the amount of warp needed to work with, plus extra for needed waste. Husband moved a coffee table out of the way (too low to use) and brought up a tray table. He set up the dowel clamp on the tray table and we went to work warping (putting the warp on) the loom. I had to help him for this part as it is easier with two people. It went surprisingly well and he was subsequently able to make a nice 2 foot long piece for a table or a bureau.
What does this have to do with organizing? I am getting to that - already there was a problem with space due to displaced furniture and Christmas tree. I would have waited until it was all cleared up a bit, but I understand him wanting to go forward right away after decades of anticipation.
After the success of the first piece he waited until the Christmas tree was down (he did encourage me a bit more than usual to get it done) and stored away before attempting a second larger piece. We started warping the loom last Sunday using the same tray table. We were not so lucky this time, perhaps because this piece was to be wider and longer and therefore pulled more on the dowel, the tray table fell over, the dowel assembly fell apart and all of the loops knotted together on the floor. We tried for some time to sort them, than gave up and cut them off the loom.
In finishing up setting the downstairs of the house back from Christmas, I then put, among other items, the DVD chest back where it belonged. He had the idea to open the front of the chest and attach the dowel to the top of it - it is a very heavy chest and could not fall over. We got about 75% of the way through the warping process and the dowel assembly fell apart and ended up back on the floor.
We were able this time to sort some of the loops apart, reattached the dowel to the DVD chest and started again. Same problem. Husband was frantic and ready to sell the loom. We managed to get the loops untangled from each other by sheer stubbornness on my part and ordered take in for dinner as it was now too late to cook.
Husband had a new idea. He brought up a foldable worktable from the basement with a long dowel which he put the through the opening of the worktable and clamped the table closed around it. We started again. Now, thinking ahead, we stopped each time we had a group of loops around the dowel and tied the loops together. This way if we had a problem, we would not lose all of the work we had down to knotting together of the loops. (All of the loops are to be knotted together anyway when they are finished.) We finally got all of the warp threads on to the loom.
After we gave up on using the tray table husband took it to use to hold the items he needed to do the warping on his end. They were loose on the table and were over and under each other. He also could not reach the table from where he was. I moved the table closer and sorted the items out a bit.
So, what have we learned about organizing from all this -
1 - Don’t rush doing things until the space you need is ready. (Much easier not to climb around Christmas decorations.
2 - Have the right equipment - until we had the right setup for the dowel we had a problem.
3 - Keep the tools you need where they can be reached and organized - the table close at hand and the items sorted for ease of access made the job much easier.
4 - If it is possible, protect the work in small groups (tying groups of thread loops together as we went in the final attempt) to prevent bigger problems.
5 - Don’t give up - persevere.
Oh, there was one other problem which arose from losing the warp so much. Yarn is sold is what is called “dye lots”. Two units of the same type of yarn in the same color might be slightly off from each other as each time a “lot”of yarn is dyed it comes out slightly different from all other “lots” of that yarn in that color. It is just that each time dyeing is done it is slightly different. So yarn companies give each “lot” a number (or letter and number combination). When we started he had enough yarn to make both the warp and the weft of the piece from the same cone of yarn. We lost yarn when we had to cut it off the loom. He no longer did. Luckily I was able to find some more of the yarn with the same dye lot marking today. So, plan ahead for the unexpected. If I had not found the matching cone of yarn today, he would have had to use a different yarn from a different “lot” for the weft (the weft is the bulk of the yarn needed). This would not have been a problem as it would have been all of the weft done with the other “lot”, but that would have left him with 2 unusable amounts of the yarn from the 2 cones. Now it matches and can be added to the started cone.
Do you have a problem with starting projects without preparing properly or without having sufficient room to work properly?
As a side followup note - today I brought the drinking glasses which I had taken out of the kitchen cabinet and I donated them to Goodwill. A job started and finished.
He was very anxious to get it set up and use it, which we can all understand. We set it up a couple of days after Christmas. He will be using it in the living room or dining room due to logistics in the house. It was set up in the living room as due to a piece of furniture - a DVD chest he made - being displaced to the dining room from the living room so the Christmas tree would fit in the living room, so there was no room in the dining room. Due to the Christmas tree, there was not really enough room in the living room either for the loom, but there was more room than in the dining room.
The easy way to set up what is called the warp (the threads that one weaves the other threads - the weft - through) for this type of loom is to set up a short wooden dowel in a device which clamps onto a table or other flat surface. This is done so that the distance between a certain part of the loom and the dowel is the amount of warp needed to work with, plus extra for needed waste. Husband moved a coffee table out of the way (too low to use) and brought up a tray table. He set up the dowel clamp on the tray table and we went to work warping (putting the warp on) the loom. I had to help him for this part as it is easier with two people. It went surprisingly well and he was subsequently able to make a nice 2 foot long piece for a table or a bureau.
What does this have to do with organizing? I am getting to that - already there was a problem with space due to displaced furniture and Christmas tree. I would have waited until it was all cleared up a bit, but I understand him wanting to go forward right away after decades of anticipation.
After the success of the first piece he waited until the Christmas tree was down (he did encourage me a bit more than usual to get it done) and stored away before attempting a second larger piece. We started warping the loom last Sunday using the same tray table. We were not so lucky this time, perhaps because this piece was to be wider and longer and therefore pulled more on the dowel, the tray table fell over, the dowel assembly fell apart and all of the loops knotted together on the floor. We tried for some time to sort them, than gave up and cut them off the loom.
In finishing up setting the downstairs of the house back from Christmas, I then put, among other items, the DVD chest back where it belonged. He had the idea to open the front of the chest and attach the dowel to the top of it - it is a very heavy chest and could not fall over. We got about 75% of the way through the warping process and the dowel assembly fell apart and ended up back on the floor.
We were able this time to sort some of the loops apart, reattached the dowel to the DVD chest and started again. Same problem. Husband was frantic and ready to sell the loom. We managed to get the loops untangled from each other by sheer stubbornness on my part and ordered take in for dinner as it was now too late to cook.
Husband had a new idea. He brought up a foldable worktable from the basement with a long dowel which he put the through the opening of the worktable and clamped the table closed around it. We started again. Now, thinking ahead, we stopped each time we had a group of loops around the dowel and tied the loops together. This way if we had a problem, we would not lose all of the work we had down to knotting together of the loops. (All of the loops are to be knotted together anyway when they are finished.) We finally got all of the warp threads on to the loom.
After we gave up on using the tray table husband took it to use to hold the items he needed to do the warping on his end. They were loose on the table and were over and under each other. He also could not reach the table from where he was. I moved the table closer and sorted the items out a bit.
So, what have we learned about organizing from all this -
1 - Don’t rush doing things until the space you need is ready. (Much easier not to climb around Christmas decorations.
2 - Have the right equipment - until we had the right setup for the dowel we had a problem.
3 - Keep the tools you need where they can be reached and organized - the table close at hand and the items sorted for ease of access made the job much easier.
4 - If it is possible, protect the work in small groups (tying groups of thread loops together as we went in the final attempt) to prevent bigger problems.
5 - Don’t give up - persevere.
Oh, there was one other problem which arose from losing the warp so much. Yarn is sold is what is called “dye lots”. Two units of the same type of yarn in the same color might be slightly off from each other as each time a “lot”of yarn is dyed it comes out slightly different from all other “lots” of that yarn in that color. It is just that each time dyeing is done it is slightly different. So yarn companies give each “lot” a number (or letter and number combination). When we started he had enough yarn to make both the warp and the weft of the piece from the same cone of yarn. We lost yarn when we had to cut it off the loom. He no longer did. Luckily I was able to find some more of the yarn with the same dye lot marking today. So, plan ahead for the unexpected. If I had not found the matching cone of yarn today, he would have had to use a different yarn from a different “lot” for the weft (the weft is the bulk of the yarn needed). This would not have been a problem as it would have been all of the weft done with the other “lot”, but that would have left him with 2 unusable amounts of the yarn from the 2 cones. Now it matches and can be added to the started cone.
Do you have a problem with starting projects without preparing properly or without having sufficient room to work properly?
As a side followup note - today I brought the drinking glasses which I had taken out of the kitchen cabinet and I donated them to Goodwill. A job started and finished.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
BAD WEATHER - FOLLOWUP
During the week and the storm it occurred to me that I had not mentioned to you an important item of preparation. Light.
Battery powered lights are much safer than candles. There are very small flashlights, perhaps 4-5 inches in length, which have LEDs. These are wonderful for use in storms, as well as in general. They easily fit in a pocket to carry with one. After Hurricane Sandy my husband and I went out for a walk. We found the local supermarket was open and we went in. They were on emergency power and were not selling items which were refrigeratored or frozen. There was only low light in the store. We were looking through the cans of soup left on the shelf and could not see them - nor could others who were also looking. I stuck my hand in my pocket without thinking and there it was - the flashlight I had been walking around the house with. I pulled it out and we were able to see the items on the shelves.
We each had one of these in our pockets throughout the storm. Normally we keep one in the kitchen, in our bedside table drawers, and in the basement. They are sold in many stores. We get ours at a national tool chain which often sends out coupons making them free with a purchase - so whenever we make a purchase we get one (unless we are using a “free” coupon for another item needed).
The same store, and other stores, also sell a rectangular flash light which has a number of LEDs (something in the 20's) in the front, as well as in the end and can be used either way. These are great as they give off a great deal light. There is a magnet on the back of it. We normally have one in the kitchen on the refrigerator and others elsewhere in the house. Husband has one in his closet to light same. This is another great idea for light during an emergency.
The spares we have of both these lights are kept in a drawer in our studio - easy to find if we need another one for something and there are always spares.
We also have a camp light which runs on batteries - regular ones or a rechargeable unit. It is also a great thing to have when in the dark. We recharge it before the possible blackout and then can always use batteries if needed.
Candles give off less light than the above devices. One must also be careful that the candle is placed where it will not cause a fire. Similarly oil or kerosene lamps are good with the same precautions as the candles.
If one has children one must make sure that they do not play with or near the candles. The small pocket size flashlight is great for children who are old enough to know not to put them in their mouths.
If you have a wood fireplace and the bad weather is coming when it is not hot out - make sure you have firewood and starter for it as it can be used for light and heat. Make sure your damper is open before starting the fire and make sure that there is a fireproof firescreen in front of any fire, especially if you will leaving the room. Never leave small children (or even some no so small ones) alone in the room with a fire in your fireplace - even with a firescreen.
So, how did we do. We were lucky. Our lights and heat stayed on. The community we live in received 2 feet of snow (a lot for some of you, a little for others, and a lot for us). Strangely the community to our north - less than 5 minutes away - only received 16.5 inches while a community to our southwest - which is the next community to where my mom lives - received 28 inches.
We have someone who comes to clear our driveway (at a rather expensive charge) and he came with his assistants at 1 am - before the storm was over and said it was then or not and he would not come back later. They do not do a great job, but we cannot find anyone else to reliably come for this.
The day after the storm we went out and looked around and found that they had blown the snow onto the sidewalk in front of our house. It is illegal for it not be cleared, as well as we have a van parked next to the sidewalk (parallel to same) that was in the snow they blew and could not be driven. We cleaned up the driveway a bit for what fell after it was cleared, as well as what they left - they did a terrible job next to our side door which is how we go in and out. We also salted.
The following day, Monday, we planned to try to dig out part of the sidewalk. Our plan to was to clear a foot of the sidewalk a day. However we found that the plows had come through again and our two driveway cuts were filled in. Since the plows had not cleared the parking lane in the street, we ended up shoveling out the driveway cuts and the street itself to the end of the where the snow was in the street in both cuts.
Tuesday, we started to clear the sidewalk. In addition to what fell on it and what the snow crew had blown onto same, when the road was plowed overnight Sunday to Monday, that was added to what was on the sidewalk. It had been above freezing and some of the snow had melted, but our house faces east and there is not much sun to help melt the snow. (Last year we still had snow on the ground in May.) The snow was, luckily, still light in weight, so other than ice that had been thrown onto it and the thin ice that formed on the bottom of it through melting and refreezing, it was easy to move. We started out to do a foot. We did about a third of the sidewalk before needing a 5 minute break. We were breaking up large, heavy chunks of ice with a regular garden shovel to make it manageable to lift with our snow shovels. We did not have much room for both of us to work in the same place, so I went to the opposite end of the sidewalk and started shoveling there towards where husband was shoveling. It took us only about an hour and a quarter to clear a path the length of the sidewalk and dig out the van. Husband started and rolled the van forward and we even cleaned out under it.
We do own a snow blower, but the closest that we can get it to the house is in a small shed next to the garage - getting to it would have involved shoveling more snow than we did. We are going to work on finding a small enough plastic storage unit to store it in front of the side porch, which is still large enough to fit the blower so that we could actually use it.
Unlike last year it seems we will have time between storms as well as above freezing temperatures. Last year we had snow every 2-3 days - while not this much snow with any storm, they were sizeable and added up to much more than we had with this storm. In addition we had the coldest weather we had in years last year - the snow did not melt. We would run out, run errands - buy food and any needed medications, send mail, check the mail in our post office box, and return home to await the next storm.
I did manage to get the ornaments off our main Christmas tree and our studio tree and pack them in their boxes while in the house from the storm. More about storing Christmas to come.
Battery powered lights are much safer than candles. There are very small flashlights, perhaps 4-5 inches in length, which have LEDs. These are wonderful for use in storms, as well as in general. They easily fit in a pocket to carry with one. After Hurricane Sandy my husband and I went out for a walk. We found the local supermarket was open and we went in. They were on emergency power and were not selling items which were refrigeratored or frozen. There was only low light in the store. We were looking through the cans of soup left on the shelf and could not see them - nor could others who were also looking. I stuck my hand in my pocket without thinking and there it was - the flashlight I had been walking around the house with. I pulled it out and we were able to see the items on the shelves.
We each had one of these in our pockets throughout the storm. Normally we keep one in the kitchen, in our bedside table drawers, and in the basement. They are sold in many stores. We get ours at a national tool chain which often sends out coupons making them free with a purchase - so whenever we make a purchase we get one (unless we are using a “free” coupon for another item needed).
The same store, and other stores, also sell a rectangular flash light which has a number of LEDs (something in the 20's) in the front, as well as in the end and can be used either way. These are great as they give off a great deal light. There is a magnet on the back of it. We normally have one in the kitchen on the refrigerator and others elsewhere in the house. Husband has one in his closet to light same. This is another great idea for light during an emergency.
The spares we have of both these lights are kept in a drawer in our studio - easy to find if we need another one for something and there are always spares.
We also have a camp light which runs on batteries - regular ones or a rechargeable unit. It is also a great thing to have when in the dark. We recharge it before the possible blackout and then can always use batteries if needed.
Candles give off less light than the above devices. One must also be careful that the candle is placed where it will not cause a fire. Similarly oil or kerosene lamps are good with the same precautions as the candles.
If one has children one must make sure that they do not play with or near the candles. The small pocket size flashlight is great for children who are old enough to know not to put them in their mouths.
If you have a wood fireplace and the bad weather is coming when it is not hot out - make sure you have firewood and starter for it as it can be used for light and heat. Make sure your damper is open before starting the fire and make sure that there is a fireproof firescreen in front of any fire, especially if you will leaving the room. Never leave small children (or even some no so small ones) alone in the room with a fire in your fireplace - even with a firescreen.
So, how did we do. We were lucky. Our lights and heat stayed on. The community we live in received 2 feet of snow (a lot for some of you, a little for others, and a lot for us). Strangely the community to our north - less than 5 minutes away - only received 16.5 inches while a community to our southwest - which is the next community to where my mom lives - received 28 inches.
We have someone who comes to clear our driveway (at a rather expensive charge) and he came with his assistants at 1 am - before the storm was over and said it was then or not and he would not come back later. They do not do a great job, but we cannot find anyone else to reliably come for this.
The day after the storm we went out and looked around and found that they had blown the snow onto the sidewalk in front of our house. It is illegal for it not be cleared, as well as we have a van parked next to the sidewalk (parallel to same) that was in the snow they blew and could not be driven. We cleaned up the driveway a bit for what fell after it was cleared, as well as what they left - they did a terrible job next to our side door which is how we go in and out. We also salted.
The following day, Monday, we planned to try to dig out part of the sidewalk. Our plan to was to clear a foot of the sidewalk a day. However we found that the plows had come through again and our two driveway cuts were filled in. Since the plows had not cleared the parking lane in the street, we ended up shoveling out the driveway cuts and the street itself to the end of the where the snow was in the street in both cuts.
Tuesday, we started to clear the sidewalk. In addition to what fell on it and what the snow crew had blown onto same, when the road was plowed overnight Sunday to Monday, that was added to what was on the sidewalk. It had been above freezing and some of the snow had melted, but our house faces east and there is not much sun to help melt the snow. (Last year we still had snow on the ground in May.) The snow was, luckily, still light in weight, so other than ice that had been thrown onto it and the thin ice that formed on the bottom of it through melting and refreezing, it was easy to move. We started out to do a foot. We did about a third of the sidewalk before needing a 5 minute break. We were breaking up large, heavy chunks of ice with a regular garden shovel to make it manageable to lift with our snow shovels. We did not have much room for both of us to work in the same place, so I went to the opposite end of the sidewalk and started shoveling there towards where husband was shoveling. It took us only about an hour and a quarter to clear a path the length of the sidewalk and dig out the van. Husband started and rolled the van forward and we even cleaned out under it.
We do own a snow blower, but the closest that we can get it to the house is in a small shed next to the garage - getting to it would have involved shoveling more snow than we did. We are going to work on finding a small enough plastic storage unit to store it in front of the side porch, which is still large enough to fit the blower so that we could actually use it.
Unlike last year it seems we will have time between storms as well as above freezing temperatures. Last year we had snow every 2-3 days - while not this much snow with any storm, they were sizeable and added up to much more than we had with this storm. In addition we had the coldest weather we had in years last year - the snow did not melt. We would run out, run errands - buy food and any needed medications, send mail, check the mail in our post office box, and return home to await the next storm.
I did manage to get the ornaments off our main Christmas tree and our studio tree and pack them in their boxes while in the house from the storm. More about storing Christmas to come.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
BAD WEATHER COMING - PREPARATIONS
I have looked back at the last few posts about my kitchen and boy, I even bore myself. Lists and lists of what is in the cabinets and why - I don’t even care about it. So let’s take a vacation from the kitchen.
I live in the New York City suburbs. We are currently awaiting a snow storm. Right now we are told that, depending on the “models”, the area where I live will be getting between 7 inches and 26 inches ( a large range) of snow overnight Friday to Saturday and through the day on Saturday. The timing of the storm keeps changing of course, before it was to start on Friday afternoon, currently it is pushed back to 3 am Saturday (not 2:59, not 3:14, but 3 am, for a huge area when we know that some areas will have the snow start and - hopefully - end earlier than others). Then again, if the storm does not head south into Texas, pick up water and then curve back towards the east coast - it might be nothing at all.
So the panic has started and people are getting ready. They are buying food and snow shovels and salt for driveways and sidewalks. I understand food - although knowing how people are around here, unless they are the type who eat out all time, they have more food then they could need for weeks already in their homes. (Okay, maybe they need a major run for doughnuts. hen I was in college Dunkin Donuts opened in our town. The first snow storm my mom, my dad, and I all went - separately - and bought doughnuts there before the storm - family minds think alike I guess.) Three years ago when Hurricane Sandy was headed here we were in Costco - people were loading up for the storm with all kinds of meat. This really confused me since if they lost their electricity they would lose the food they just spend money on. I can understand salt for the for the ice. What I cannot understand is why people need new shovels en mass. Sure, some people broke their shovels last year, some have just moved in to their houses, some might not like the shovel they had last year - perhaps even another child is old enough to help shovel and needs ones - but most people have last year’s shovel(s) still sitting around - have they lost them in the clutter of their homes? Did they toss them out at the end of last year thinking that it would never snow again? This always surprises me that there is a such a major run on snow shovels. We have shovels, but as we have aged and the past 3 years we have had snowstorms which resulted in much deeper snow (last year we had some huge storms that came 2 or 3 in a week) we gave in and, breaking the budget, made arrangements for a company to come and clear the snow from our small property although we still clear small storms.
When husband still went out to work it was my job to get ready for snow storms, hurricanes, etc. alone. He always thought that some of the things I did was odd. I would fill my gas tank - even if it was almost full. I would do the laundry - all of it - even if it was not the time of the week to do so. Yes, I admit it, I made sure we had enough food in the house. Due to the fact that we had 2 major hurricanes in the area with loss of electricity for an extended period in 2 years, I have started keeping less refrigerator/freezer items in the summer when the food would be lost if we lose electricity for an extended time, but more in the winter as food could always be put outside in the cold and it is harder to get to the stores to buy more when the road is frozen and icy, but easy to do so in warmer weather.
Now that we have had the two bad hurricanes, Sandy being the worst of them, as well as some bad winter storms (one of them the same week as Sandy - imagine a major tropical hurricane followed by a major winter nor’easter the same week). He understands.
Long Island is the biggest island in the contiguous 48 states. As a result in the past - before Sandy - if one area lost electricity one could go elsewhere on the Island and eat out or get gasoline and that figured into storm plans. Then Sandy came to visit.
We have always been warned that after a major storm there might not be any gasoline available - due to a combination of electrical outages of about 90% of Long Island for an extended time (we were out for 4 days, my sister for 2 weeks, my sister in law for 4 weeks and none of us were in the areas worst hit by the storm along the southern coast of the Island), so that gas stations that had gas did not necessarily have electricity to pump it and the fact that all of the bridges onto the Island were closed so no new gasoline could be brought in to resupply those stations which could pump gasoline - there was a major shortage of gasoline with lines and security needed at those stations able to pump. We had a car, a van, and a small RV - all with full tanks. We used the car sparingly - we went for a drive to see what was going on before we knew about the problem, after that we made one trip before the gasoline was again available - to my mom’s house to get her to leave it for the nor’easter as her house had been hit by Sandy and was in the line of the nor’easter and she had no telephone - she shuts her cell phone off so she does not use up the battery even when there is no storm. So filling your tank before storms can be really important. We live in an are near businesses, unusual here, so we walked. We walked to the post office, the supermarket, to vote... We went once to check the mail in our post office box (which is not in our local post office) which is several miles away, climbing over downed trees and around downed electric lines to do so.
We charge all of our laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones in advance of a major storm - they are left charging until the electricity goes out or the storm is over. Our local cable company has wifi which, despite their insistence that it is impossible, we get in the house, so even if we have no electricity, we have cable access - used sparingly if there is no electricity of course. We have copper wire telephone service in the house - no other electricity needed. After Sandy the cell phones did not work - the towers were damaged - but the copper wire phones worked fine.
I find the battery operated radios - this goes without saying. After Sandy the local (Long Island, not NYC) radio stations were broadcasting the local cable news channel - some of it was “look at this” which did not help, but since the NYC stations were not mentioning Long Island at all, it helped a bit.
I have mentioned that we are 1770's reenactors. In the 18th century (and probably others) furniture was kept against the walls (at rest) when not in use. The furniture needed would then be placed in the middle of the room and used and then put back. I do this as much as possible before storms. It is much easier and safer to walk around in a room with an empty center and not have to figure out what to walk around in the darkness or semi darkness.
I am doing the laundry - right now. I will make sure it is all washed and dried. Why? No electricity for an extended time means no clean clothes - and unlike many people, we don’t have enough for weeks and weeks.
Since we bought the RV we use it in our plans for storms and electric outages. It is currently charging. After the two hurricanes we would go in it at night, put up the antenna and watch TV for the evening. We did not put on the air conditioner or the heat (to conserve the batteries). Husband figured out that we could use the batteries for 2 hours and then run the generator for an hour and recharge them on 1/3 of a gallon of gas (had to conserve as mentioned above). I also used the kitchen in the RV to heat soup, cook eggs once (I don’t cook in it when we travel so we found out that when one cooks in it - the smoke detector goes off and needs to be covered with a shower cap.) We ate in the house though. (Did you know you can heat frankfurters by holding them under running hot water?) We could also recharge the assorted electronics. After Sandy everyone who had service was calling each other on the cell phones and reading books on their Kindles - and then realized they could not recharge them! Businesses which were open and had electricity were letting people plug in to recharge. (One community on the Island has its own power plant and generally has electricity when no one else does - even when the rest of the east coast has none - and people were going there - my mom went to a restaurant there and ate dinner and recharged her cell phone - just in case - while calling us with it plugged in.) We also (in warm weather) fill the RV’s water tank - 25 gallons - just in case. (It is currently “winterized” and we can’t use the water tanks until they are “dewinterized” next spring.)
Tomorrow I am running to NYC to a client so that I won’t have to go if there is snow and ice around next week. I have written checks to pay all the bills due out through the end of next week and will mail them out on Friday so we don’t have to worry about them. We will get gas on Friday also (after my trip to NYC and back). We will then be settled into the house for the duration of the storm.
So do you have a plan for weather or other emergencies? I know that other areas have far worse weather problems than we do here. I hope that if you are in the snow storm’s path you have an easy time of it.
I live in the New York City suburbs. We are currently awaiting a snow storm. Right now we are told that, depending on the “models”, the area where I live will be getting between 7 inches and 26 inches ( a large range) of snow overnight Friday to Saturday and through the day on Saturday. The timing of the storm keeps changing of course, before it was to start on Friday afternoon, currently it is pushed back to 3 am Saturday (not 2:59, not 3:14, but 3 am, for a huge area when we know that some areas will have the snow start and - hopefully - end earlier than others). Then again, if the storm does not head south into Texas, pick up water and then curve back towards the east coast - it might be nothing at all.
So the panic has started and people are getting ready. They are buying food and snow shovels and salt for driveways and sidewalks. I understand food - although knowing how people are around here, unless they are the type who eat out all time, they have more food then they could need for weeks already in their homes. (Okay, maybe they need a major run for doughnuts. hen I was in college Dunkin Donuts opened in our town. The first snow storm my mom, my dad, and I all went - separately - and bought doughnuts there before the storm - family minds think alike I guess.) Three years ago when Hurricane Sandy was headed here we were in Costco - people were loading up for the storm with all kinds of meat. This really confused me since if they lost their electricity they would lose the food they just spend money on. I can understand salt for the for the ice. What I cannot understand is why people need new shovels en mass. Sure, some people broke their shovels last year, some have just moved in to their houses, some might not like the shovel they had last year - perhaps even another child is old enough to help shovel and needs ones - but most people have last year’s shovel(s) still sitting around - have they lost them in the clutter of their homes? Did they toss them out at the end of last year thinking that it would never snow again? This always surprises me that there is a such a major run on snow shovels. We have shovels, but as we have aged and the past 3 years we have had snowstorms which resulted in much deeper snow (last year we had some huge storms that came 2 or 3 in a week) we gave in and, breaking the budget, made arrangements for a company to come and clear the snow from our small property although we still clear small storms.
When husband still went out to work it was my job to get ready for snow storms, hurricanes, etc. alone. He always thought that some of the things I did was odd. I would fill my gas tank - even if it was almost full. I would do the laundry - all of it - even if it was not the time of the week to do so. Yes, I admit it, I made sure we had enough food in the house. Due to the fact that we had 2 major hurricanes in the area with loss of electricity for an extended period in 2 years, I have started keeping less refrigerator/freezer items in the summer when the food would be lost if we lose electricity for an extended time, but more in the winter as food could always be put outside in the cold and it is harder to get to the stores to buy more when the road is frozen and icy, but easy to do so in warmer weather.
Now that we have had the two bad hurricanes, Sandy being the worst of them, as well as some bad winter storms (one of them the same week as Sandy - imagine a major tropical hurricane followed by a major winter nor’easter the same week). He understands.
Long Island is the biggest island in the contiguous 48 states. As a result in the past - before Sandy - if one area lost electricity one could go elsewhere on the Island and eat out or get gasoline and that figured into storm plans. Then Sandy came to visit.
We have always been warned that after a major storm there might not be any gasoline available - due to a combination of electrical outages of about 90% of Long Island for an extended time (we were out for 4 days, my sister for 2 weeks, my sister in law for 4 weeks and none of us were in the areas worst hit by the storm along the southern coast of the Island), so that gas stations that had gas did not necessarily have electricity to pump it and the fact that all of the bridges onto the Island were closed so no new gasoline could be brought in to resupply those stations which could pump gasoline - there was a major shortage of gasoline with lines and security needed at those stations able to pump. We had a car, a van, and a small RV - all with full tanks. We used the car sparingly - we went for a drive to see what was going on before we knew about the problem, after that we made one trip before the gasoline was again available - to my mom’s house to get her to leave it for the nor’easter as her house had been hit by Sandy and was in the line of the nor’easter and she had no telephone - she shuts her cell phone off so she does not use up the battery even when there is no storm. So filling your tank before storms can be really important. We live in an are near businesses, unusual here, so we walked. We walked to the post office, the supermarket, to vote... We went once to check the mail in our post office box (which is not in our local post office) which is several miles away, climbing over downed trees and around downed electric lines to do so.
We charge all of our laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones in advance of a major storm - they are left charging until the electricity goes out or the storm is over. Our local cable company has wifi which, despite their insistence that it is impossible, we get in the house, so even if we have no electricity, we have cable access - used sparingly if there is no electricity of course. We have copper wire telephone service in the house - no other electricity needed. After Sandy the cell phones did not work - the towers were damaged - but the copper wire phones worked fine.
I find the battery operated radios - this goes without saying. After Sandy the local (Long Island, not NYC) radio stations were broadcasting the local cable news channel - some of it was “look at this” which did not help, but since the NYC stations were not mentioning Long Island at all, it helped a bit.
I have mentioned that we are 1770's reenactors. In the 18th century (and probably others) furniture was kept against the walls (at rest) when not in use. The furniture needed would then be placed in the middle of the room and used and then put back. I do this as much as possible before storms. It is much easier and safer to walk around in a room with an empty center and not have to figure out what to walk around in the darkness or semi darkness.
I am doing the laundry - right now. I will make sure it is all washed and dried. Why? No electricity for an extended time means no clean clothes - and unlike many people, we don’t have enough for weeks and weeks.
Since we bought the RV we use it in our plans for storms and electric outages. It is currently charging. After the two hurricanes we would go in it at night, put up the antenna and watch TV for the evening. We did not put on the air conditioner or the heat (to conserve the batteries). Husband figured out that we could use the batteries for 2 hours and then run the generator for an hour and recharge them on 1/3 of a gallon of gas (had to conserve as mentioned above). I also used the kitchen in the RV to heat soup, cook eggs once (I don’t cook in it when we travel so we found out that when one cooks in it - the smoke detector goes off and needs to be covered with a shower cap.) We ate in the house though. (Did you know you can heat frankfurters by holding them under running hot water?) We could also recharge the assorted electronics. After Sandy everyone who had service was calling each other on the cell phones and reading books on their Kindles - and then realized they could not recharge them! Businesses which were open and had electricity were letting people plug in to recharge. (One community on the Island has its own power plant and generally has electricity when no one else does - even when the rest of the east coast has none - and people were going there - my mom went to a restaurant there and ate dinner and recharged her cell phone - just in case - while calling us with it plugged in.) We also (in warm weather) fill the RV’s water tank - 25 gallons - just in case. (It is currently “winterized” and we can’t use the water tanks until they are “dewinterized” next spring.)
Tomorrow I am running to NYC to a client so that I won’t have to go if there is snow and ice around next week. I have written checks to pay all the bills due out through the end of next week and will mail them out on Friday so we don’t have to worry about them. We will get gas on Friday also (after my trip to NYC and back). We will then be settled into the house for the duration of the storm.
So do you have a plan for weather or other emergencies? I know that other areas have far worse weather problems than we do here. I hope that if you are in the snow storm’s path you have an easy time of it.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
KITCHEN CABINETS - PART 3
Before we get to “the right cabinet” I am proud to say that my Christmas dishes and glasses are packed away in their boxes and the boxes put back in the basement gas meter closet. The items which were displaced to in both the left and right cabinets are now back where they belong.
The right cabinet is called same as it hangs to the right of the sink. It is the same size and shape as the left cabinet and is also 4 shelves in height.
The bottom shelf contains a hodge podge of items. I have the glasses we use for every day - 2 short, wide plastic ones for my husband and 2 tall, thin glass ones for me. Generally one of each is in the dishwasher, but when they are put away, this is where they “live”. I also have measuring cups. I have 2 each of liquid 1 cup and 2 cup measuring cups and 2 sets of dry measuring cups. I also have a larger size 1 cup measurer (meaning there is more space at the top above the cup) which is good for mixing 1 cup items in as it does not run over the top. I also have a “shot glass” (1 oz) measuring glass that allows measurements of small amounts of liquid - by 1/4 oz increments or teaspoons.
I have a spare set of soup bowls to my everyday dishes here also. The company changed the size and shape of same and when I complained about needing to replace a couple of bowls and not being able to get matching ones, they sent me 8 bowls. I am waiting until I break over half of the original bowls and then will switch them - 2 bowls to go. I have 2 larger bowls that match nothing which I keep in here and we use for salad at dinner.
I have funnels in here in 3 different sizes, one of which is a canning funnel with a larger out spout than the others - great for pouring tomato sauce, gravy and the like into a small pitcher or gravy bowl without making a mess. Two glass ice cream glasses and some plastic glasses (no breakable glasses are allowed upstairs and no food). The smaller 2 of the plastic glasses have lids which clip on and a straw hole in the lids.
The second shelf up has the glasses which match my dishes - stemmed and goblet, 8 of each. These are the glasses that I plan to donate to make room for our “good glasses” to move from the living room secretary so husband can put more DVDs there. It also has the bottom cup part of my stick mixer (the part for grinding and such).
The next shelf up has my middle set of dishes - not the everyday, but not the good china. (It is ironstone). It is not stored in quilted dish storage containers and can be used whenever I want it. In the past when we had people in, I would use it for smaller groups as it is service for 8. Similar to my everyday dishes, the cups hang from hooks at the top of the shelf. The matching sugar bowl, bowl and platter are on the shelf with the dishes. The matching milk pitcher is on the shelf above as the handle broke on it and I can’t use it until we fix it. The dishes were a set and that is why I have the matching service pieces. Again, I need to climb up to reach this shelf as I needed to do to reach the same shelf on the left side.
The top shelf has, other than the milk pitcher mentioned, items I rarely if ever use. Again, similar to the left side, I need to climb onto the counter to reach this shelf. It has the juice glasses that match the glasses which match our dishes, a footed cake plate, a mold for making ice pops and 2 cylinder shaped pitchers. I think I can get rid of everything on this shelf when I get rid of the glasses below.
There you have it. The contents of 2 of my 4 kitchen cabinets. During the week I plan to store the good china used for Christmas and New Year’s Eves by my husband and myself. I will also start taking down the Christmas trees after Monday. I think I have found a new place to store the tree ornaments and other decorations in the house in the basement, rather than the garage. It will be interesting to see if they fit and where what is currently in that space will go.
See you next week.
The right cabinet is called same as it hangs to the right of the sink. It is the same size and shape as the left cabinet and is also 4 shelves in height.
The bottom shelf contains a hodge podge of items. I have the glasses we use for every day - 2 short, wide plastic ones for my husband and 2 tall, thin glass ones for me. Generally one of each is in the dishwasher, but when they are put away, this is where they “live”. I also have measuring cups. I have 2 each of liquid 1 cup and 2 cup measuring cups and 2 sets of dry measuring cups. I also have a larger size 1 cup measurer (meaning there is more space at the top above the cup) which is good for mixing 1 cup items in as it does not run over the top. I also have a “shot glass” (1 oz) measuring glass that allows measurements of small amounts of liquid - by 1/4 oz increments or teaspoons.
I have a spare set of soup bowls to my everyday dishes here also. The company changed the size and shape of same and when I complained about needing to replace a couple of bowls and not being able to get matching ones, they sent me 8 bowls. I am waiting until I break over half of the original bowls and then will switch them - 2 bowls to go. I have 2 larger bowls that match nothing which I keep in here and we use for salad at dinner.
I have funnels in here in 3 different sizes, one of which is a canning funnel with a larger out spout than the others - great for pouring tomato sauce, gravy and the like into a small pitcher or gravy bowl without making a mess. Two glass ice cream glasses and some plastic glasses (no breakable glasses are allowed upstairs and no food). The smaller 2 of the plastic glasses have lids which clip on and a straw hole in the lids.
The second shelf up has the glasses which match my dishes - stemmed and goblet, 8 of each. These are the glasses that I plan to donate to make room for our “good glasses” to move from the living room secretary so husband can put more DVDs there. It also has the bottom cup part of my stick mixer (the part for grinding and such).
The next shelf up has my middle set of dishes - not the everyday, but not the good china. (It is ironstone). It is not stored in quilted dish storage containers and can be used whenever I want it. In the past when we had people in, I would use it for smaller groups as it is service for 8. Similar to my everyday dishes, the cups hang from hooks at the top of the shelf. The matching sugar bowl, bowl and platter are on the shelf with the dishes. The matching milk pitcher is on the shelf above as the handle broke on it and I can’t use it until we fix it. The dishes were a set and that is why I have the matching service pieces. Again, I need to climb up to reach this shelf as I needed to do to reach the same shelf on the left side.
The top shelf has, other than the milk pitcher mentioned, items I rarely if ever use. Again, similar to the left side, I need to climb onto the counter to reach this shelf. It has the juice glasses that match the glasses which match our dishes, a footed cake plate, a mold for making ice pops and 2 cylinder shaped pitchers. I think I can get rid of everything on this shelf when I get rid of the glasses below.
There you have it. The contents of 2 of my 4 kitchen cabinets. During the week I plan to store the good china used for Christmas and New Year’s Eves by my husband and myself. I will also start taking down the Christmas trees after Monday. I think I have found a new place to store the tree ornaments and other decorations in the house in the basement, rather than the garage. It will be interesting to see if they fit and where what is currently in that space will go.
See you next week.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
KITCHEN CABINETS PART 2
Well, this week we are back to kitchen cabinets. Previously I had talked about the bottom shelf of my cabinet over the dishwasher (also known as the left hand cabinet). Right now I have managed to fit in service for 4 of Christmas dinner, soup, and dessert plates on the same bottom shelf. They will soon be returning to their box in the basement.
On the second shelf from the bottom I have some small serving bowls in a stack, some oval bakers also in a stack, some pudding cups - yes, again in a stack, and some spare mugs (behind the stack of serving bowls). On a wire shelf above them I have the rest of my dinner size and small plates, as well as 2 rimmed bowls. I can reach the front of this shelf, for the back, I need a step.
I realize now that I left something stored on the bottom shelf out. We take medications and the bottles for same are between the stacks of the dinner and smaller dishes. On the second shelf up I have a plastic dish that I can count the pills in and then pour them through a spout on the front of it into the daily pill boxes or from larger pill bottles into smaller one with a pill splitter kept in it.
In the next shelf up I have an assortment of items which match my dishes. I was young and foolish once and bought many accessories for the dishes that I thought would be of tremendous use. I am now starting, as I write this blog and realize the space I am wasting, to get rid of some of these items. This shelf has small round casseroles with lids - the sort in which one gets French onion soup in restaurants, a butter dish (I use a plastic one that seals closed instead), sugar bowl, candy dish and a couple of other things that I cannot see without climbing up, and the cups are hanging from a rack of hooks at the top of the shelf- all matching my dishes, as well as a cruet. I cannot reach this shelf without a step for the front or a chair for the back.
Now, the top shelf. I know that most kitchen cabinets have only 3 shelves, but I have 4 in this and the right hand cabinet (the other side of the sink). The cabinets are rather old - perhaps back to when the house was built in 1949 - either that or the fact that there are few cabinets in the kitchen (they are 2 of the 3 wall cabinets, other than the one over the stove) is why there are 4 shelves - oh, and the shelves are fixed and do not adjust in height.
The top shelf has things I very rarely use as I must climb up on a chair and climb onto the counter to reach this cabinet. I don’t like climbing and when I do climb onto the counter I am always concerned that I will break the counter. So this shelf has stuff I never use. Salt and pepper shakers that make another dish set from this company (all white, I thought they looked nice for company), small drinking glasses that match nothing, 3 ceramic glasses, with the bottoms indented that matching my set of dishes and are in holder with 3 rings for “relishes”, 3 more cruets (one matches the one below, the other 2 match each other), and a bagel holder. This last used to be used a lot, but we stopped eating bagels and it was stored up here out of the way.
So that is my left hand cabinet. From listing everything in it I have found out something. Try listing what is in your cabinets and it becomes more obvious what you can get rid of and not miss. My husband and I have had a storage problem for DVDs and I had planned to clean out and get rid of the drinking glasses which were sold to match my dishes (kept in the right cabinet) and move my good glasses there so we can use the space where they were for more DVD storage. I think I will be getting rid of more than the drinking glasses. Who knows what else I will get rid of by listing what I have and using that to realize what can easily be donated.
Next week onto the right cabinet.
On the second shelf from the bottom I have some small serving bowls in a stack, some oval bakers also in a stack, some pudding cups - yes, again in a stack, and some spare mugs (behind the stack of serving bowls). On a wire shelf above them I have the rest of my dinner size and small plates, as well as 2 rimmed bowls. I can reach the front of this shelf, for the back, I need a step.
I realize now that I left something stored on the bottom shelf out. We take medications and the bottles for same are between the stacks of the dinner and smaller dishes. On the second shelf up I have a plastic dish that I can count the pills in and then pour them through a spout on the front of it into the daily pill boxes or from larger pill bottles into smaller one with a pill splitter kept in it.
In the next shelf up I have an assortment of items which match my dishes. I was young and foolish once and bought many accessories for the dishes that I thought would be of tremendous use. I am now starting, as I write this blog and realize the space I am wasting, to get rid of some of these items. This shelf has small round casseroles with lids - the sort in which one gets French onion soup in restaurants, a butter dish (I use a plastic one that seals closed instead), sugar bowl, candy dish and a couple of other things that I cannot see without climbing up, and the cups are hanging from a rack of hooks at the top of the shelf- all matching my dishes, as well as a cruet. I cannot reach this shelf without a step for the front or a chair for the back.
Now, the top shelf. I know that most kitchen cabinets have only 3 shelves, but I have 4 in this and the right hand cabinet (the other side of the sink). The cabinets are rather old - perhaps back to when the house was built in 1949 - either that or the fact that there are few cabinets in the kitchen (they are 2 of the 3 wall cabinets, other than the one over the stove) is why there are 4 shelves - oh, and the shelves are fixed and do not adjust in height.
The top shelf has things I very rarely use as I must climb up on a chair and climb onto the counter to reach this cabinet. I don’t like climbing and when I do climb onto the counter I am always concerned that I will break the counter. So this shelf has stuff I never use. Salt and pepper shakers that make another dish set from this company (all white, I thought they looked nice for company), small drinking glasses that match nothing, 3 ceramic glasses, with the bottoms indented that matching my set of dishes and are in holder with 3 rings for “relishes”, 3 more cruets (one matches the one below, the other 2 match each other), and a bagel holder. This last used to be used a lot, but we stopped eating bagels and it was stored up here out of the way.
So that is my left hand cabinet. From listing everything in it I have found out something. Try listing what is in your cabinets and it becomes more obvious what you can get rid of and not miss. My husband and I have had a storage problem for DVDs and I had planned to clean out and get rid of the drinking glasses which were sold to match my dishes (kept in the right cabinet) and move my good glasses there so we can use the space where they were for more DVD storage. I think I will be getting rid of more than the drinking glasses. Who knows what else I will get rid of by listing what I have and using that to realize what can easily be donated.
Next week onto the right cabinet.
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