Lighter in ’17, Please

OK. The world is full of wonderful things that make our lives easier and lighter. I’m currently in love with my Silpat baking sheets. Instead of a sheet of parchment paper used once and then trashed, I can use the Silpat many, many times. I don’t quite know how many, exactly, but I think they will be less expensive than the parchment in the long run. And I don’t have to throw away all that paper. (Macaron baking uses a lot of parchment paper.)

I also love my steam iron. I don’t use industrial ones, I’ve found that good domestic ones are just as good for what I need, at about 25% the price of the industrial. ( Check the wattage, get one that is no less than 1600 watts — that’s what makes the difference).

But things can get out of hand with all this, too. Like the $10.00 raw egg cracker. Yup, looks like a big garlic press— you put an egg in and squeeze the handles, pull them apart and the egg drops out. Or the peeled avocado packaged in impenetrable plastic shrink-wrap. 

And, ( I SWEAR I’m not making this up,) cooked corn on the cob. From Thailand. Blister pack at the local DOLLAR STORE. YUMMMMMMMMMM.

One of my favorite blogs is “Hometalk.” It’s DIY stuff which is often quite innovative. The other day there was a closet re-organization piece where the before was a jammed pantry closet, completely unusable. The after was a wonderful assortment of matching containers, all filled with the beans, cereal, rice, flour and dry noodles we need to store. Each container had a printed label detailing the contents and the canned goods were on stepped shelves on the shelves, arranged by food type and can height.

Looked lovely. It cost a fair bit for all the containers but it did look nice. But it was so far from functional I had to laugh. Where was the storage for all the half-full boxes of cereal? For all the over-sized cans? Where were the bags of flour and sugar? And why would you put all the spices and tiny jars on the very top shelf? Nope.. 

(This isn’t the Hometalk cupboard)

It seemed to me that this wonderful example of organization actually created more problems than it solved. Instead of one functional cupboard — made so by dealing with over-flow and unnecessary items — the homeowner now needed two cupboards; the organized one and the storage one for all the backup.

My point: Take stock of what you have and what you need. They are probably two very different considerations for you to make.

Let’s keep it lighter in 2017. You will feel better. I promise