A Few of My Favorite Things

I'm not really a "gadget" person. There are tons of cool things out there supposedly designed to make life easier, but I don't jump on every bandwagon. I just don't like clutter. While I am sentimental about some things, there are other things that I have no problem getting rid of if we are not using them. So my philosophy is "why buy them in the first place?"

If we are all about honesty here, I have a few confessions to make. Deep cleansing breath. Here goes...

I've never owned a George Foreman Grill. I know - shocking isn't it. How can I live in 2008 having never owned one of those? Mainly, it is because Kevin loves to grill and I always felt that if I had a George Foreman I would be taking away from one of my husband's favorite hobbies. Bread machine? Nope. Juicer? Nah. BowFlex. Not happening. Buns of Steel? Not really. Need I remind you of this conversation?

And before Kevin throws me under the bus, I will confess that in a moment of weakness, I did order some Tae Bo videos once. On VHS tapes. I was young and newly married. What did I know? They are on a shelf at Goodwill somewhere marked down to $ 1.00. Last I heard, Billy Blanks is still churning out videos.

I'm getting a little off topic here. Today I thought I would share some gadget that I really do use.

Kevin likes salad, lots of salad. We were spending $$$$$ on bag salad since it was so convenient. I decided we could save some money by buying heads of lettuce instead.

This salad spinner is awesome. I can tear up the entire head of lettuce and spin the whole thing in here. Fletcher loves making it spin.

Then we keep it fresh in this lettuce keeper. But notice it has a divider if you wanted to store more than one fruit or veggie. It also has a dial on the side where you can open or close the holes to store things like berries, celery, broccoli, etc. If you are like me and don't know whether the holes should be opened or closed, they have a list right there on the side of the keeper. It is more of a rectangular/oblong shape so it fits much better in the refrigerator than the old round Tupperware kind (am I old or what?).

Along those same lines, Rubbermaid makes these produce keepers that have a tray insert and a hole in the lid to store things like fruit. Our fruit has lasted alot longer by using these. The lids and trays also snap to the bottom when you are not using them as opposed to the lids getting lost in the sea of plastic (another thing that drives me nuts).

My last favorite thing is in my bathroom. Our dog is fond of trash. If a trashcan is available, she helps herself to whatever is in it. Consequently, all of our trashcans in the entire house either have some type of lid on them or they reside on the top of the toilet tank. I know, lovely sight for our visitors. Well, when I get ready in the mornings, I seem to use a ton of QTips, Kleenex, cotton balls, etc. I can't have a trashcan next to my sink because of Sadie so instead I found this. It is a mini trashcan called Trashi made by Umbra. It is only 7 1/2 inches tall and fits perfectly on my counter without taking up space like a regular trashcan would. When it gets full, I just dump it in the big trashcan.


NOTE: All of these items were purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Gotta love those 20% off coupons. Unfortunately, I am not getting paid to promote their products. Maybe I should have stuck with Billy Banks.