I think the inspiration for this little brainstorm was the book, Confessions of an Organized Housewife (which book, by the way, caused my friend Lisa to about die with laughter when she spotted it on my shelf, half hidden behind a flower vase, three hair barrettes, and an old disposable camera, while helping me pack for the move).

The author of that book talks about kitchen organization, and storing items commonly used together in one place, instead of, say, measuring cups in cabinet X and measuring spoons in drawer Y. Makes more sense to keep your measuring cups and spoons together along with the electric beaters, your favorite mixing bowl, and possibly the baking powder.

I thought that was a great idea and promptly took her advice (some six or seven years ago).

Later it occurred to me to use that grouping technique for the lunch-prep items my kids and I use almost every single day. I got a plastic basket for the pantry, and that’s where we keep the peanut butter (creamy and crunchy), honey, and a loaf of bread. It’s much easier to pull out that one basket than to have the kids rummaging through the pantry for the various items.

Hardly rocket science, but it works for us!

(And of course this is the same principle at work in my famed Personal Salad Bar.)

Hubby just forwarded me this Boing Boing post:

On the Freakonomics blog, Stephen Dubner (co-author of the wonderful Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything) digs into the pricing on generic drugs and finds that the main-street pharmacies mark up their offerings by 975 percent!

Even once you factor in the cost of buying a membership at Costco and
Sam’s Club, the price differences were astounding. Here are the prices
he found at Houston stores for 90 tablets of generic Prozac:

Walgreens: $117

Eckerd: $115

CVS: $115

Sam’s Club: $15

Costco: $12

Those aren’t typos. Walgreens charges $117 for a bottle of the same pills for which Costco charges $12.

Yowza! I’d be interested in seeing the differential for asthma medications (the only prescription meds we buy on a regular basis here).

Click through to Boing Boing to get the link to the whole post quoted above, which is quite interesting.  A commentor chimes in that Costco does not require membership for pharmacy purchases. Is that correct? I don’t shop at Costco (yet) but I have always heard good things about it (including its corporate policies). I keep meaning to go check out diaper prices there. I’ve been getting them via Amazon Grocery, and with the 15% discount for subscription service, I’m paying 18 cents a diaper. I used to get Target’s store brand for 17 cents per, but the doorstep delivery is totally worth that extra penny, in my book.

Except this time I cut it too close, and the baby is wearing the last diaper in the house, yikes! We are nibbling our nails while waiting for the doorbell to ring this morning…

UPDATED to add: Ha! I’m a nitwit! After I posted this, I realized this week’s WFMW has a recipe theme! Doh! I deleted my link and will put it in next week’s collection** instead. But I may as well leave this post up. So here you go.

**Except! I forgot to do that until this week. So here it is, properly linked at last. Bump!

I’m still working on part two of the narration post I promised yesterday, but I just remembered it’s Wednesday and I’ve had a Works for Me Wednesday post in the drafts folder for weeks. So here! This works for me!

Under my kitchen sink I keep an old plastic beach tote in which I toss the seventeen dishtowels we manage to go through in a day around here.* I got tired of trotting to the washing machine all the time (especially since in our old house, the washer was upstairs), so I just fill up this basket and then I can take all the kitchen laundry to the washer at once. Voila.

*Today’s towel tally so far: three, which is how many it took to clean up the mess caused by escapees from our sourdough crock!

(Note to self: next time you see it like this, TAKE CARE OF IT BEFORE RUSHING OUT THE DOOR, no matter how late you are. Especially do not stop to take a picture of it for the bread blog and THEN rush out the door without cleaning it up.)

(By the time we came back, the rebels had oozed their way all down the side and along the counter. I think they were plotting a takeover of the flour canisters.)

• Time for tracking down the cause of the nasty smell coming from the heating vents.

• Time for removing nasty-smelling dead rat from under house.

• Dead! Rat!

• Time for addressing and mailing the Christmas cards I was so proud I managed to order early.

• Time for multiple doctors’ appointments for multiple children with respiratory infections.

• Time for extra laundry generated by baby’s abhorrence of antibiotic. (As in: my laundry. Amoxicillin spatter? Not my best look.)

• Time for dealing with horrific aftermath of three-year-old’s antibiotic-induced gastro-intestinal distress. (He had poop on his eyebrows; need I say more?)

• Time for eight frantic phone calls to eight online vendors in order to correct colossally stupid mistake involving credit card number. (Tip: when carrying out your brilliant plan to cut and paste your credit card number from a desktop sticky into various online order forms, MAKE SURE YOU ARE PASTING THE CORRECT NUMBER, AS IN THE ONE WITHOUT THE TYPO. Especially if you want the gifts to arrive before Christmas.)

• Time for calling the DMV to find out what happened to the driver’s license they were supposed to have mailed me a month ago.

• Time to snark to various friends about how the DMV promised to look into it and call me back, uh huh, yeah right.

• Time to eat crow when the DMV actually DID call me back. With an apology, no less!

• Time to make series of phone calls from the grocery story in search of the ingredient list for the recipe I specifically went to the store to shop for, but whose ingredients I forgot to check before I  left home.

• Time to scold bored and impatient children for rowdy behavior in grocery store while mom is on phone.

• Time to humbly accept compliments from no less than three elderly strangers on excellent behavior of children in grocery store.

• Time to wonder whose assessment of children’s behavior was correct, mine or elderly strangers.

• Time to break down large quantity of cardboard boxes which arrived containing Christmas presents.

• Time to finish breaking down large quantity of cardboard boxes leftover from cross-country move.

• Time to supervise massive cleanup of daughters’ closet, which can’t possibly have needed cleaning out yet since it was only moved into two months ago.

• And yet, it did.

• Time to watch various funny, gorgeous, or nightmarish video clips forwarded by husband who was forced to kill time while office maintenance men stood on ladder next to his desk repairing air-conditioning system for the whole floor.

• Time to write a long list of the things I forgot to allow time for.

Heard about this site on the Ambleside Online yahoogroup and had to share: The Toymaker’s instructions for making paper toys. My girls are going to GO NUTS over this. Fairy furniture, pinwheels, all kinds of neat stuff.

And Michele Quigley of Family-Centered Press is very kindly posting step-by-step instructions for making your own baby sling. See how lovely hers is? And isn’t her new baby too scrumptious for words? Congratulations, Michele, and thanks for the sling how-to. Too cool.

Y’all were so helpful with the bread recipes (and I have more links and recipes to add to the carnival, just as soon as I get a chance!) that I thought I’d throw a new question at you. My old vacuum cleaner was one of the things that didn’t make the cut when we moved. This house has all hardwood floors, and I want a lightweight vacuum to save me from having to sweep every day. Any recommendations? I want something that won’t scratch the floors but will pick up the crumbs and can handle area rugs too.

I do use a Swiffer broom a couple of times a day, and that’s great for dust but not crumbs. Has anyone tried the new Swiffer vac? It seems like basically a long-handled Dustbuster with a Swiffer pad mounted behind it. Looks promising, but wouldn’t work on my area rug. Hmm.

I don’t want anything big that will take up a lot of room in the closet. I know Orecks are small and light. Are they worth their salt? Will they scratch hardwood floors?