Entertain Regularly for a Clean Apartment

A reader shared the following tip which closely echoes a conversation with friends a few weeks ago:

I decided recently that it’s nice to invite people over to the house every couple of weeks. My wife (and somewhat me, too) has to have the house picture perfect anytime we have special guests over. By inviting someone over for dinner or another couple over for a movie forces us to go into cleaning mode.

Whenever we don’t have anyone over for a while, we let the house go. This helps keep us accountable. Obviously, not everyone cares about how their living conditions are perceived by their guests, but for people who are, this is a great way to force yourself to do some “spring cleaning” on a pretty regular basis.”

It’s all too easy to get comfortable with your own message (big or small!) and begin to ignore it. Most people don’t want to be known as “Those nice people with the post-apocalyptic nightmare of an apartment…” so the pressure of having a presentable home for entertaining helps to keep things orderly.

Make Your Own Sandwich Press

A nice hot-pressed sandwich is delicious but unless you’re running a deli out of your kitchen it’s likely you don’t keep a sandwich press on hand. This clever work-around helps you grill-press your sandwich without a sandwich press.

Over at the food-centric blog The Kitchn they share a simple kitchen tip for making grill-pressed sandwiches without a dedicated sandwich press. You’ll need two cast iron skillets, some non-stick spray, and a tea kettle full of water to weigh down the second skillet. Heat both skillets to the proper temperature and drop your sandwich in the larger one. Place the smaller skillet on top, weighted down by the kettle. Cook until the sandwich is as crispy/melted as you desire and serve.

Have a favorite kitchen tip of your own to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Printable Bookplate Freebie

Hop over to Image Zoo and download these patterned bookplates. You could print them on sticky label paper, trim them out, and include them with a set of children’s books you give a kid. A girl kid, most likely, because they’re kinda flowery.

The Kitchen Cleanout

A trim, organized, kitchen makes it easier to get in, cook, clean, and get out.  Begin with a few boxes and bags, and label them one of two things:  Trash or Donate.  Before you start, and as you move through this whole thing, you have to ask yourself:

1. What kind of food do I make regularly?
2. What can I expect to make this year?
3. Do I have the right tools for the job?

You probably have 95% of the tools you need, yet more than half of what you have is redundant/unused/old, or just plain unidentifiable. Purge these things. It is time.

Chucking busted food

Okay, you’re ready. Start by going through the fridge and chuck out all those three to six-month-old jars of fridge door detritus. If it’s not still fresh, or something you’re really going to use, chuck it. Take everything out of the freezer and only put back things you’ll actually eat in the next 2 weeks. Otherwise, chuck it.

Then hit the pantry and check all the sell-by/eat-by dates. Are you really going to make that blue corn tortilla soup you got in that going-away gift basket? But, wait, that soup mix is 13 years old!? Say goodbye to one-quarter of the fridge and pantry. Donate what you can, and chuck the rest.

Getting ruthless with drawers

Now go through the drawers one at a time. You don’t need 14 bottle openers. You need three, tops. Think Alton Brown—have as few unitaskers as possible. Keep one, at most two of the same kind of tool, as a backup or, in the case of peelers, an extra for anyone helping out. Otherwise, pare down on the utensils, put ‘em all in a box, and give the goofy stuff to charity. Be ruthless.

That junk drawer? No excuses. Tip it out, and put the batteries where batteries go (hint: not in the kitchen). The bills and paperwork laid on the counters and tacked to the walls? It’s a kitchen, not an office. File it or, even better, pay or enveloped them right now and then chuck them. Keep two working flashlights in here (LED would be better), and that’s it.

Keep kitchen drawers for kitchen things, and do the same kind of tip-and-examine process for other drawers in your kitchen. When you start putting it all back, put like with like. One drawer for baking stuff, one for pan/cooktop cooking, and a good ceramic countertop utensil bucket for stir-flip-poke-tong-spoon stuff. It’s easy to have too many of these things and not realize it. Keep three or four wood/plastic spoons, some tongs with plastic ends (no pan scratching). The spatulas shaped like Daffy Duck’s beak go—you guessed it—into the trash.

Now to the sacred cows. But here’s some good news—even if you never use the KitchenAid mixer, you should keep it. It’s iconic, if only for design, and you probably do need to make cookies once a year, so don’t chuck it. The bread maker, well … Make bread in the oven, which creates another use for that KitchenAid. Blenders, big and small food processors, blade coffee grinders, slow cookers, a big mandolin, a toaster or toaster oven—all useful. But the rest? Questionable at best. If you didnt use it in a year, it may be time to go. Otherwise, it becomes a vessel for collecting silverfish and various under-counter debris.

The cookbooks

The last bit, which could arguably be the first bit, involves the cookbooks. Most people who use cookbooks really only use about four or five regularly (Ed. note: So very, sadly true). The rest are kept around, knowingly or not, because they contain and explain some process or technique reference—how to roast a bird, how to brine, trussing, pickling, proper cooking temps—or hold one or two unique recipes, like the best deviled eggs you’ve had. I’d separate them into sections just like that. Keep the general reference ones, and consider spending a little time with a scanner and then donating all but the most beautiful reference books. Foodnetwork.com and other recipe search sites can replace nearly all of them.

In any case, starting off the spring ready to cook well is a good thing.

Repair Scratched CDs/DVDs

DIY site Instructables highlights an inexpensive method for breathing new life into those old, scratched CDs you’re still clinging to. Their solution: a dab of Vaseline or any type of petroleum jelly.

A soft cloth or disc cleaner, petroleum jelly, and some ancient scratched CDs are all that is required for this project. Using the disc cleaner/cloth, apply the jelly to the CD. After applying it in a thorough manner, the excess grease needs to be removed. Take a cotton ball, swab it with some rubbing alcohol and start cleaning it off. The idea is that the petroleum jelly will fill in the scratches on the CD, making it—hopefully—readable.  Another option: Toothpaste, especially the teeth-whitening toothpaste because they have tiny scrubbing particles.  Just don’t push too hard, it’ll destroy the discs instead of repairing them.

Making a Container Theme Garden

Container gardens are an easy way to garden on a small scale.

Step 1: Filling the Container

No matter what theme your garden pot will have there are a few things you have to do to prepare. First, you need a large, sturdy pot such as a terra-cotta planter or a whisky barrel. In the bottom of the pot place a piece of terra cotta over the drain hole. Then fill the pot with 2″ of gravel. Over the gravel lay a piece of landscape fabric to keep the potting soil from mixing with the gravel. This will help the soil drain and it will keep dirt from running out the bottom of the pot.

It’s best to use a high quality potting soil in a container garden. Be sure you start with a fresh unopened bag, that way you won’t add diseases or pests to your pot. Today many of the potting soils you can buy have small water-retaining polymer crystals that help hold water in the soil rather than letting it drain through the bottom. You can buy these crystals separately if your potting soil doesn’t have them. Most container gardens dry out quickly and the crystals help the soil stay moist and fertile. Add crystals to your pots as well as slow-release 10-10-10 fertilizer. Prepare two pots, one for each of your themed container gardens.

“Truly the Deepest Clean…”