I ended yesterday’s post talking about Happiness and it being the simple things.
And it’s true. It’s the simple unassuming things that make me happy – cuddling one of my doggies, rearranging the living room, being finished with cleaning the stove (also known as cooker). Notice I said being finished with it!
And in these times we live in now, toilet paper.
I just started a new roll of toilet paper and I feel like I either need a sedative or loads of alcohol right now, to calm myself down!
Such a simple, unassuming thing. Such a big, big impact.
Moving from one part of the country to another can have a big impact on your daily habits. For instance, I never used to buy instant coffee. It was just something I never did. I love coffee, good coffee – flavoured or not. Once it’s good and strong(ish) I love it.
Then I moved to rural Scotland. There is a great love for tea here, but in every household that I’ve been invited to for a cup of something it’s always been instant coffee. I find that interesting. There’s loads of good ground coffee in the supermarkets here, and of course there’s Amazon. It’s just not in the culture of the place.
So I did what any good-natured, sensible transplant would do. I started having instant coffee in the house (along with the ground of course!). I think the first I may have bought was Nescafe. A name well known, you know! And then I had to gravitate towards the beautiful jars of Douwe Egberts. Once you get the proportions right (for me this meant ignoring the instructions) the instant wasn’t that bad. I didn’t want to be that woman that chose her coffee on the beauty of the packaging though – so of course I trialed some others.
Needless to say I’m ecstatic that the jars of Douwe Egberts reigned supreme. You see I love beautiful things, and I like order. With a rugged and outdoorsy, king of make-something-out-of-nothing other half and three dogs, order in various parts of the house just seems impossible. So, I guess it’s great for me (in this instance) that my lovely man is allergic to kitchen cupboards and that the pups only seem bothered with the ones that house their chow. I get a chance to create order and keep it in the other cupboards.
Have you ever looked at those celebrity kitchens online and marveled at their super organized, uber-labelled, achingly beautiful pantries? Just the other day Kim Kardashian was showing off hers, so was Chrissy Teigen. And, they were glories of form and function. I want that.
And I got it. Not exactly really like Chrissy’s or Kim’s. But hey, I’m in a croft house not a mansion.
You may wonder how many containers I bought and the method I used for labeling. Well. Um. I bought none and I used none. Ahem. But see, what I did was good for the environment and good for my health. I saved my Douwe Egberts coffee jars and reused them as beautiful, airtight containers. They now hold my legumes, oatmeal, cornmeal and jaffa cakes. If I can’t recognize a kidney bean from a lentil, or a jaffa cake from cornmeal (polenta) I shouldn’t be allowed in the kitchen anyway.
The toughest part of setting up these storage containers is getting the water out of the lid after they’ve been thoroughly washed. It takes some time, and honestly it’s a bit of a pain in the butt. Not wanting to mess with the seal though, I just stick my paper towel into the seam between the glass and the plastic and let it gradually suck all the moisture out. It’s worth the wait!
Reusing is good for the environment. This is a good thing. Coffee is good for my health. This is a further good thing.
Win, win? I think so.
Update: I’ve just been bold enough (and fed-up enough) to take a regular eating knife to prise the seals off these coffee jars. And of course the plastic seal bit pops off really quite easily from the glass part! How silly do I feel having been all gentle and scardey-catish previously! Now, I have a beautiful pot of garlic granules (in bulk) in the kitchen. This has ended on a very happy note!
