the people under the stairs

Because my house was built over 130 years ago, it has only two closets.  Luckily I have a decent-sized basement with tons of built-in shelves, and a china cabinet in the dining room.  But even with those few extra storage options, I am still always searching for novel space-saving ideas.  One of my favorite solutions is using stairs and staircases for storage. The staircase in my own home feels like an enormous amount of empty/unused space and I've been researching ways to utilize it more effectively.

One of my favorite ideas is this stair/drawer how-to on Apartment Therapy.  The risers on our steps are going to need repair or replacement in the next few years, and I definitely plan on doing this project to create some pull-out drawers for seasonal items like scarves and gloves, or paperwork and books!


Another great option is to use the space under the staircase itself.  There are a wide range of gorgeous ideas on this Remodelista post.  For my own home, I prefer the design using drawers or doors that hide the stored items (in a room as small as my living room, displaying items on shelves could end up looking very cluttered); but I do love this too:

 



















Lord knows I have enough books, music and wine around to make a lovely display like this one!

This Dornob.com post also has a ton of fascinating design (and engineering!) ideas for cabinets, pull-out drawers and bookshelves!  I'm eternally on the hunt for new/aesthetically intriguing ways to showcase my book collection, and the shelving schemes shown here are really great.

And finally, this DIY Life post has step-by-step instructions on three clever projects to turn "dead stair space" into brilliant storage zones!

homesteading holiday

In the spirit of saving money, combating consumerism on a personal level, and being "green" (we try not to buy a lot of plastic or throw-away items), we made several edible items to give as gifts for the holidays this year.

I made my annual batch of krupnik - a Polish vodka drink that is perfect for cold weather.  My family and friends just LOVE it - you can heat it up to sip, or take shots of it like the Polish do.  Na Zdrowie!
I use an old recipe that includes distilled water and honey, boiled and steeped with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and oranges.  I also add a touch of ginger.  Then it's bottled (I use paper paint strainers like these to filter out the nutmeg, orange pulp and vanilla specks) and sits for two weeks.  This year I've collected dozens of "airport sized" bottles (like in the wonderful $5 Absolut mini bar that's out right now), and even made my own labels.  It's a good idea to give krupnik in small quantities, it really packs a punch!

My husband perfected his own hot sauce this year: made with cayenne, garlic, vinegar, salt and sugar.  It is extremely hot - and works great as a marinade for chicken wings or ribs.

Then I made a couple jars of a spicy jalapeno relish.  I finely chopped the jalapenos with bell peppers and onions, and made an oil and vinegar base with garlic, salt, sugar and white pepper.  It would be perfect on dogs or burgers, or to spice up falafel or tofu!

I made pickles too - garlic/dill cucumbers and baby corns.  They turned out great - crunchy and light with a fresh dill flavor.  I also added a couple chives and black peppercorns to each jar, which gave them a little complexity.

And lastly, we made my mom's mustard - another holiday family tradition.  It's extremely creamy and while tangy and spicy, also has a sweetness that makes it perfect for ham or turkey.  The recipe calls for tarragon vinegar, but we had trouble tracking any down (even in Reading Terminal Market - the bastion of food!) so I made my own by putting a handful of fresh tarragon in a jar with apple cider vinegar.

And although the mustard-making process made our house smell pretty terrible, the mustard itself tastes fantastic!

I had so much fun making food this year, and it gave me lots of weekend projects to experiment with.  I can't wait to give all of this fun stuff as presents to friends and family - I hope they like it as much as I liked making it!

composting

Part of the reason why my husband and I bought our house four years ago was because of the large, beautiful garden in the back yard.  We had never lived in a house with a yard before, so we were forced to learn a lot about plants, flowers and gardening very quickly.  And through this somewhat hasty education, we learned that we absolutely love it.

In an effort to recycle more and decrease our trash output (while also saving money on soil and mulch), we decided to start composting for our garden.  About two years ago we started our first compost bin.  We used a large Rubbermaid garbage can with small holes cut into the bottom and side.  We added yard clippings and food refuse and poured in a beer to get the process started.  Over the next 8-10 months, we added all of our yard/garden waste, newspaper, cat hair, coffee grounds and food product waste like fruit, veggies and egg shells.  When we finally used the compost this past spring (in mid-March when we began prepping the perennial gardens) what we found was the richest, most wonderfully smelling and nutrient-packed base for our plants that I could imagine.  I really believe that this compost, combined with a rainy spring season, gave us the loveliest garden we've had since moving into the house.  All of our flowers and herbs were huge, with abundant blooms or leaves.

In the colder months, we keep an old cat litter bucket like this one beneath our kitchen sink.  We throw in our food waste, cat hair, dryer lint and coffee grounds until it's full and then take it out to the large compost bin.  Because the cat litter bucket has a strong locking lid, we never get bugs or an odor from the compost inside.

The large bin in our back yard gets "turned" or mixed every week or so, when we take the smaller container out to dump it. This helps the process continue successfully.

You can read more about composting at Composting 101 or about the cool Philly Compost project.

Oh my yes.

Merry Cliffmas!

At first I was like

And then I was like

Holiday Music Mix

For the last ten years or so, I've made a holiday/end-of-year music mix to give to friends and coworkers.  Until this year I would burn copies of a CD I painstakingly created, usually with about 20 songs, and decorated with my own track listing/CD art.  The mix would be an assortment of my favorite songs released that year.  But this year I've decided to do it a little differently.

I don't listen to music on CD anymore, and haven't for a long time.  It feels a little weird/disingenuous to give CDs to people who also rarely deal with CDs, and don't prefer them.  So it occurred to me to get a handful of USB flash drives and fill them with my favorite music from 2010, not just new songs, but older songs I've been listening to this year too (80's pop, jazz favorites, new wave, 90's indie rock classics). So far I've compiled about 60 songs into a folder, and today I'm going out to get the flash drives. 

I'm really excited about it, and surprised it's taken me this long to come up with this process.  I think my friends will really enjoy it, and I've certainly been having fun putting the songs together!

car "emergency" packs

Something my husband and I have been working on this month is "emergency" bags for our car and truck.  We have several of these small-ish insulated bags that came holding a case of beer.  The good thing about these is that they can hold heavy objects, will keep things hot or cold, and have sturdy zippers and handles.  Plus, they collapse/squish up easily to fit in the trunk or storage compartment in the car (they really don't take up much room at all).

We filled the bags with:

• bottled water
• couple cans of food (tuna or chili)
• granola bars
• a flashlight and extra batteries
• an umbrella
• hand sanitizer
• aspirin, flu meds
• a fleece throw

I feel like such a well-prepared road warrior now!  I'm thinking about making one for my parents, and grandmother, for the holidays.  It's not expensive, and of course, shows you really care.  Plus, my parents and Nana have enormous cars with cavernous, empty trunks.  Gotta make sure they don't get stuck in a snow drift in a giant Lincoln Continental with no provisions!

kitchen reorg

Over the last two days, I've been working on my kitchen cabinets, drawers and pantries.  Going through just four drawers, I was amazed at the amount of crap we've accumulated in the last year or so! I was able to get rid of a lot of stuff (old chopsticks, broken clothespins, dried-out markers, etc.), and used different-sized plastic containers to organize our utensils, barware, knives, pens/pencils, spatulas, and dishtowels.  Simply opening the drawers now makes me feel calmer - I can actually see what is in each drawer, and access everything without fear of cutting myself on a pizza cutter or paring knife!  (I put everything with a sharp or serrated edge in a narrow, open container with handles facing the front of the drawer for safe access.)

I also completely cleaned out every shelf of the pantry, scrubbed them, and re-organized the food.  It was a mess with no categorization (well it started out with one a year ago, but had since fallen apart) and things just crammed in willy-nilly.  I checked the expiration date of everything and managed to get rid of a lot of old items.  Then I re-packaged some of the stuff (brown rice, sugar, flour) into plastic containers from Ikea that easily stack and store together well.  This decreased the wasted space by a lot!  I made each shelf have a "theme" - the bottom shelf holds appliances (blender, teapot, stand mixer) and large bags of rice and potatoes.  Then I've got a shelf of tin foil, ziploc bags, parchment paper, jarred and bottled food/drinks, coffee filters and cereal.  Next is spices, sugar, flour and dried fruit.  The middle/most easily-accessed shelf  is oil, vinegar, condiments and cat food (I swear those guys eat more than we do!)  Next is pasta, pasta sauce, boxes of couscous and chicken broth, and snacks.  The top shelf is all canned goods - soup, tuna, beans, chili, tomato paste, and the like.

I created an incredible amount of space in less than 45 minutes.  Of course, I did this while my husband was shopping at Costco, and when he came home (with probably 3 months worth of food!) we were able to fit all of it very easily into the "new" pantry.

I hope we can keep up with this categorization system.  It occurred to me that putting away groceries is a great chore for kids, especially if you have one who LOVES to organize/categorize things (you know one if you have one - the kid who sorts crayons or M&Ms by color, etc.)!

I also managed to clean out the other pantry, where we keep cleaning supplies, trash bags, mops/brooms, plastic and reusable bags, etc.  That one was so crammed with stuff, one of the doors didn't even shut right.  So while it wasn't as big of a mess, it was an annoying situation!

My next goal is to get through our liquor cabinet and coffee cabinet (the fact that we have both of those seems like an interesting tidbit) to clean and organize them too.  Who knows what I'll find next!