Organize: Kitchen

I have been trying to organize my kitchen a little better. So I went looking for some drawer organizers. I finally found the Expandable Bamboo Gadget Tray at Crate and Barrel. It is made of bamboo, looks sleek and it is expandable. It fit my drawer perfectly. What more could I ask for. So I have finally organized my gadget drawer. Here take a look ....

I was told that spices last longer and stay fresher when stored in a refrigerator. I decided to store mine in a refrigerator too. I like the idea of using glass bottles instead of anything plastic for storage. So I ended up using the Starbucks coffee bottles and Classico pasta sauce bottles for storage. It was very easy to peel of the labels off the Starbucks bottles. I just washed all the bottles once in a dishwasher before filling them with my spices. I could fit 4 Classico bottles in the back and 5 Starbucks bottles in the front row perfectly. It looks neat and I didn't have to spend a Penny on these bottles.

Read more...

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

There is a lot of talk these days about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, the 3 R's campaign. Finally I see the government got involved in the 3 R's campaign in a major way. These days we are quite frequently bombarded with the water bottle advertisements, where they talk about the bottles ending up in landfill. So true.

I'm all for using the tap water with some kind of filtration. In fact who isn't. I guess we all agree that we need to keep the planet in a better condition for our children, grandchildren and the generations there after and so on.

So to do our part, first we had a water filter installed in our kitchen a few years ago. Next I went and bought reusable water bottles. I got mine at container store. I liked that they came in a set of 5 and are perfect for my daughter's school, one for each school day. The designs are cool too. These days these water bottles are everywhere, which is nice to see.

While EPA is doing all it can to stop the water bottles from ending up in the landfill, there is a new problem cropping up. I think it is the same water bottles with some simple additives and new labeling.

For example Propel Fitness Water. This is what it is ... according to Wikipedia. So it is water with some added vitamins. I also noticed that they have "Propel Fitness Water mix powder packets" in different flavors. I think I like this instead. So you can use your reusable water bottle and your filtered tap water with their added mix. Another example of this is Glaceau Vitamin Water. As the name suggests, it is water with some vitamins and some flavor enhancers. I did not see any flavored mix with this brand. Too bad.

So what is the verdict? Don't you feel all the money the government is spending to educate people about the 3 R's is a utter waste if people are fooled into buying products like Propel and Glaceau water. Don't those bottles end up in a landfill as well? I think so!!!

Read more...