minutiae

there are a lot of little things i've done around my house to make daily life easier that aren't each enough for a full post. i keep meaning to take pictures and finally got around to it.

not the best pictures, just the camera phone.

i just had to replace my car battery. since i did it myself i didn't have a receipt for the date of service, like i would for a professional repair. masking tape label! i labelled it just like i do when i open a food package or put something in the freezer. 

extra shower rod. spring tension rods run around $8-$15 depending on the length. tighten it in place high up over the center of the shower, great for hang drying bras and other things that shouldn't go in the dryer. and my cpap hose. that little plastic octopus looking thing is a tie/belt hanger, something like this. i use it for bras. you can also just hang your drip dry delicates on plastic hangers and put them up here too. the blue clip is an oversized clothespin from the dollar tree, usually found in a multi pack
you could also use clothespin hangers and hanging drying racks (also in plastic but the two plastic ones i have had go brittle in about 2 years and fall apart) 

little magnetic bars from ikea. i think they are meant for desks and dorm rooms. i have one in each bathroom for tweezers and stuff. i also dropped a super strong magnet in the dental floss box so it sticks to the magnet bar

a holder on the side of my fridge for cleaners and paper towels.  i also made a smaller one with smaller magnets for a friend's dish towel holder. hers uses 25lb pull magnets which will NOT hold a roll of paper towels an 2-3 full spray bottles of cleaner to the side of a fridge. 
this will probably stick to most stoves too

two big round 95lb pull magnets from harbor freight tools
2 screw eyes that fit through the holes in the magnets, 4 nuts for the screw eyes

put a nut on the screw eye, put the screw eye through the hole in the magnet, put the other nut on the end of the screw eye. tighten them down until the screw eye is stable in the magnet without the end sticking out past the back of the magnet

this is an old curtain rod that the previous homeowners left when they moved out. but any pole or rod that can bear the weight and fit through the holes will work. this worked better before i knocked the finial off the other end of the rod so it slips out if i run into it

additional sizes of the magnets

broom clips and cheap LED flashlights. i keep them near every door to the outside for those nights the cats drop things on the doorstep that i have to deal with. i got a ten pack of flashlights with crummy batteries for $10 at harbor freight. i've also seen them at big lots and the dollar tree. here's a 2 pack for $3 (watch for sales)

 my tape rack. i've overloaded this one and the wall it's on is very old drywall, so i need to fix up the hooks. and make it longer. this is behind the door in the utility room. also would be good in a supply closet or garage. the bread tabs on the tape rolls make sure i can always find the end

this handy little twist tie dispenser is from the dollar tree. a 2 pack. cut your own length. it's probably meant to be nailed to the wall, but i haven't yet. you can also get them in garden centers. this one isn't a terrible price, but i'd check your local discount or dollar store first 

did everyone have that metal grid and plastic corner cube stuff in their dorm room? the plastic gives out but the metal grid panels have other uses. like my bread holder? cut a couple places and bend, then hook it under the cabinet. fits a standard size loaf snugly and keeps the cats from stealing bread

this is a limited use arrangement. if you live in the woods and lose power a lot, you might want to keep a lantern handy. most people don't have a) this weird banister wall arrangement and b) a need for a propane lantern hanging around the house. 
there's a really big cable tie (actually two, end to end) around the rail, and a plain metal shower curtain hook hanging off it. the lantern comes with the chain

speaking of the plain metal shower curtain hooks, everyone should keep a 12 pack around because you will find the most unexpected uses for them. i keep trying to learn glass lampwork and while i haven't yet managed to, i have the glass rods in a case. with a teeny tiny hole on the top. it won't fit over a peghook, but it will fit a shower curtain hook

and maybe you have an extra weird pantry, like i do, with a closet rod in it. i use the shower curtain hooks and various bag clips to hang up my chips so they don't get smashed. another limited use idea for this specific purpose, but then again, you can always add a tension rod to your pantry, right?

when your kitchen scissors wear out and won't go back together again (you did know they come apart on purpose, right?) save the halves and you have great box cutters with handles

the right pen

been trying to do this for a while, with a cheap pen. specifically an inexpensive pen, not a fancy steel bodied one. because i lose things.
sometimes you just need to write things down.
near the fridge, or the metal front door.
but the smallest magnetic spheres i could find don't fit in your average bic and i don't want to glue a magnet to something that isn't always going to be around, whether i lose it or it just runs dry.
someone left this pen behind and it looked just the right size for my smallest spheres (a.k.a. bucky balls)

the magnetic spheres aren't strong enough to stick to the fridge through the plastic of the pen on their own, but a superstrong magnetic disk on the fridge works perfectly. similar to the setup for the little spray bottle of water for cleaning my wet-erase marker grocery list
after using the pen earlier, this idea hit me so hard i had to get up from watching the 2nd to last episode of Defiance season one.
so now back to that and pricing an extra shelf for my fridge. because hey, i have the space and use for it and GE sells the parts

recipe holder

this feels so simple to me that i cannot even think of it as a real hack

i was watching a video about uses for resealable zip top baggies and this was suggested:

place your recipe in a clear plastic bag on the counter so it doesn't get food spatter on it while you cook.

look, that's snazzy and all, but on the counter? why? my ingredients and mixing bowls are on the counter. there's no extra room on the counter. 

enter: our friend the binder clip

you know the metal wings come off, right?

why  hello, cabinet door pull!

squeeze and snap that sucker back on there, then flip it back up:

voila! eye level recipe protected from spatters.

and that's my great grandmother's spoonbread recipe. deeelicious! 

of course for a larger recipe, like a magazine page cut out or such, use a larger bag. you could probably even use this for a small cookbook, although i might throw a pencil or a wooden spoon handle in the top of the clip to rest along the top of the book and make sure it stays spread open to your page. 

freezer bag portion control

hat-tip to Lunchinabox.net - that blog appears to be fading away and may not be around to link to later, so here's my lazier version of her nifty trick

if you don't already know this one, here's the way i learned to freeze ground beef (sausage, any ground pork/chicken/turkey etc) in portions while only using one large plastic bag. never deal with trying to thaw and use several pounds of ground meat again.



1. place meat in bag. if you intend to season it, this is a great time to add the seasoning and squish it all around without getting your hands or a bowl dirty

bag.. err ... straw sealer

i saw a post that intrigued me, but i thought "i think i have the tools to make that better"

the original is an excellent tutorial, but uses pliers and a lighter

http://briangreen.net/2011/07/diy-single-use-antibiotic-packs.html

which is fine if what you have on hand is pliers and a lighter. not that i don't have pliers and a lighter on hand. i'm actually pretty sure i have pliers and a lighter in each room of my house. 

but i also have this 

http://dx.com/p/mini-portable-handy-plastic-bag-sealer-3-5w-2-aa-42799

 

that's a plastic bag sealer that operates on 2 AA batteries. 

also available here

i thought i'd test it with something easier to clean up, and less expensive than neosporin. since i also would use this for backpacking with food items, i tested it with salt.  which went into the straw with the cut corner of an envelope if you don't have a tiny funnel. i do have a tiny funnel but i don't use it for food (perfume) so i wasn't going to cross contaminate for this test. i recovered almost all the salt.

this is the heating element for the bag sealer. notice the narrow line across it - that's the actual heating element under the heat resistant cloth. the top just has the cloth, no extra heat. the top is actually just a small pad to keep the bag (or straw) in place.

 not all of the seams i tried worked. the first few leaked and it turned out i was moving the bag sealer too slowly. i was trying hard to melt the straw, when i didn't need to try at all. a quick swipe worked best, to prevent the straw from shrinking back away from the heating element.

by the end, i got a good seal and would try this with messier things than salt.

for most people, these would all be individual use items, like single doses of neosporin or calamine lotion. but you might have a desire to reseal them. while you are probably also carrying the lighter on a backpacking trip anyway, you might be less likely to carry this bag sealer. but it is very light, especially if you don't carry it with batteries in it. just borrow the batteries from another device for the two minutes it might take to reseal your tubes.

important note: i did also test this with compostable starch based "plastic" straws and got an EXCELLENT seal. if you can be sure your stuff won't be exposed to water regularly, these would be more environmentally friendly in the long run.   

Playing with PVC

 my new baggie storage tubes!

 

once upon a time i kept my food storage bags in a wire rack i had mangled for the purpose, cramming the boxes in any which way they'd fit and dealing with baggies sliding out and onto the kitchen counter on a regular basis.

as you can imagine, i could only fit 2 boxes in here, and that meant that gallon sized and snack sized bags lived in their boxes on the counter. in the way. all the time

one day it just hit me. POW! the baggies are inserted into their boxes at the factory in a roll. pipes are round. i bet i could make a bag holder out of pipes.

i measure the space and figured i had a little over a foot of space to work with.

4 sizes of bags, just over 12 inches of space... 3 inch pipe! 

i am a great procrastinator, so i actually bought the parts about a month ago and didn't do anything with them until last night.

parts:

qty1 PVC "Charlotte Pipe" 3 inch by 2 foot solid core pipe $5.24

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Charlotte-Pipe-3-in-x-2-ft-PVC-Sch-40-DWV-Solid-Core-Pipe-PVC-07300-0200/100533056#.UbdQ6Up-5M8

qty 4 PVC Reducing Coupler- 3inch to 2 inch $3.18 each

http://www.homedepot.com/p/NIBCO-3-in-x-2-in-PVC-DWV-Reducing-Coupling-C4801/100344038#.UbdRJEp-5M8

so that's just under $20 after taxes. 

the remainder i had in my utility room/scrap pile. you might need to go buy screws or bum scrap wood off a friend or scavenge your local resources. you might even need to buy a cheap board and cut pieces off it as needed for future scrap wood. personally, i used the kick plate from a pressboard bookcase that fell apart years ago. i saved the shelves and bits and cut them up as needed.

 

scrap wood as long as the width of all the pipe pieces laid side by side, plus a couple of inches, and narrower than the shortest pipe section. you need to attach the pipes to it but still have room to put the caps on.

2 screws per pipe section that are long enough to go through the scrap wood and into the pipe, but not sticking out too far into the interior of the pipe. as you can see on the right, the screws i used just broke the interior surface of the pipe. try to keep your screws from sticking out far enough to catch and tear your baggies.

4 screws long enough to go through the scrap wood and into but not through the underside of the cabinet where you will be mounting your organizer. wood screws are best. i didn't have the right length of wood screws so i used machine screws. poor choice, but i'm not using them to hold anything heavy or fragile.

fortunately for me, all the screws i used for the whole project were all the same size. i do not know the size of them as they were just loose screws i had leftover from an assortment pack.

tools: 

masking tape

something to cut the PVC. i used a jigsaw

screwdriver

a very long screwdriver bit or an extender 

drill

I use hex shanked drill bits with my black and decker screwdriver, or a hex shanked chuck adapter to use round shanked drill bits 

measure how long your bags are and decide how much pipe to spare for each one. you might be able to buy a longer pipe or a few shorter ones - i went with the cheapest option. the sandwich and gallon sized cuts were about equal to each other, with the snack bags being a little shorter and the gallon sized bags being much longer. i measured the width of the bag as they will be loaded in sideways and pulled out by the side seam, not the zipper opening. also, the actual width of Ziploc snack, sandwich, quart and gallon bags laid side to side is longer than 2 feet - just decided it was ok for some to stick out the back of the pipes. if this bugs you, and you need all three sizes of baggies, get more than 2 feet of pipe.

i ran masking tape around the cut lines and marked where to cut on them - the masking tape is also there to reduce the burrs you create with the saw. it won't eliminate them but it will reduce the roughness of the cut edges. 

if you, like me, don't have suitable clamps, throw some gloves and eye protection on a friend or roommate and ask them to hold the other end of the pipe steady while you cut. 

i also braced the end i was cutting off against my kitchen cabinets to try to minimize the vibration, but in respect to kitchen cabinets, this is a terrible idea. mine weren't damaged but yours may be  

point the saw away from people and hands and things you mind getting damaged.

i used a jigsaw with a blade designed for pvc.  you can see my handy Skil saw in the picture above. everyone should have one.
i cut into the pipe and then my roommate and i rotated the pipe against the blade to complete the cut. it's not perfectly smooth or even but that's ok because that part won't show.

sand or scrape the worst of the burring away.

line up your pipes, with the caps on to get the proper distance, and line up the scrap wood to mark along the center lines of the pipes where they will be attached to the wood. 

i like to drill with the scrap wood braced on my trash can to the sawdust falls in the trash

the tall pipe on the end? i didn't attach it in that position. i moved it "down" to make the opening closer to lining up with the openings of the shorter pipes.

notice there's a little more space between the two end pipes and the center pipes. that's where i decided to attach the wood to the cabinet and i needed space to fit the drill and screwdriver.

 you will either need a long screwdriver (manual) or a long bit or bit extender to reach in the space between the pipes.

 drill pilot holes in the scrap wood first. i didn't have extra hands at this point as my roommate had gone to bed, so i put the screws in the scrap wood, held it up to the cabinet and turned the screws enough to get them to mark the wood. then i took the organizer down and drilled pilot holes in the marked spots.

then i installed it and put the bags in. then i took it down, moved it forward two inches because i didn't measure properly and the gallon sized bags stuck too far out the front and the cap wouldn't go on. 

then i cut a couple of cardboard discs and masking taped them to the back of the sandwich and snack bag pipes because with it moved forward, the little bags were falling out the back.   

if you want to get fancy and put caps on the back ends:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/3-in-PVC-Cap-447-030HC/100210478#.UbdZ20p-5M8

THEN i loaded up the bags, stuck the caps on, discovered that the quart sized tube was in just slightly the wrong place to make it easy to put the cap on but it worked ok with a little shove. you may want to measure more carefully for your installation to ensure room to remove and replace the caps. i don't care enough to move it again since the cap will come off it a few times of year at most.

 

yeah, this is much better!