DOH Moments: Simple Solutions and Tips
Posted on September 11, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Lifehacks,Organization,Techniques
Every now and then the obvious hits me. I like to call these “DOH” moments in honor of Homer Simpson. I have had several happen in the past weeks, and I thought I would share them.
The first concerns my new-to-me breadmaker. I was drying the pan, and thinking that it would be nice to have a better place to store the breadmaker pan other than with my other baking pans. It was getting hard to get things out of the cupboard without having to pull other things out first. The thought then occurred to me, “why not store the pan in the bread machine?” Why not, indeed?
Almost since we moved into our house, my jam jars have lived in my pantry. They’re in a back corner, though, so empty jars often didn’t make it back into the boxes I used to stack the jars. I have lots of space in the cupboards — the ceilings in the house are 9 foot, and the top shelf of the cupboard is unreachable for me without a ladder (and I am quite tall!) So why not store the unused canning jars in one of the top shelves? It freed up a great deal of pantry space, and I don’t have to worry about knocking over and breaking glass jars anymore.
My daughter and husband like to stick things in the toaster to dislodge their food. After my husband caught my daughter fishing in the toaster with a fork, he confiscated my plastic cooking tongs for the purpose. But these often got lost in the flotsam in the appliance cabinet. My mother brought a set of plastic toaster tongs specifically made for this job, but these also got lost. I finally struck on the idea of keeping them in the toaster. I lay the power cord across the top of the cooled toaster and put the tongs into the slots over the cord. When someone goes to plug in the toaster, the tongs will automatically flip out, and we always know where the tongs are.
We’ve developed quite a collection of travel coffee mugs. I no longer care which one I use as long as it has a cover. But often the covers would slip off the tops and then we would have to get on a chair to find the cache of covers at the back of the shelf. The thought occurred to me that I could use a basket to hold the covers. We can now stack the cups, and the covers are neatly piled next to them. It has been a great improvement.
My nail polish collection was out of control. I had gained a few more bottles and could no longer shut my container (I use an old baby wipe container to hold the bottles). I couldn’t find what I was looking for, and decided I needed another solution. I decided to buy something. After searching the web for the perfect solution (and coming across my own solution in the comment to someone else looking to solve the problem), it occurred to me that maybe I just needed to get rid of some bottles! Sorting everything out, I got rid of enough polish I no longer liked or didn’t wear well. And my baby wipe container is working perfectly.
Photo by striatic
If you enjoyed this post, please buy me a cup of coffee!
Comments (2)
I love your realization that a bigger container wasn’t needed. Not only did you save yourself from buying a new container, but you pared back your nail polish collection to just what you like and use. Good thinking!
I agree, being practical is indeed a good thing to do. Keep it up.