Tag Archives: home

Paper towel hack

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Disposable paper products can be a great thing or just another way to separate us from our hard-earned money. I’m not a greenie by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve cut down on buying/using some paper products: paper napkins, paper plates, tissues, paper bags. Paper products I can’t give up are: paper towels and toilet paper.

Terrycloth hand towels are the norm for us, however, I like to wipe up greasy, oily spills and other grossness with something I can throw away.

This started years ago when paper towel companies came up with the “select-a-size” gimmick. I ignored it. Then I bought some and lo and behold, I loved having that choice of a half-sheet, whole sheet or even one-and-a half sheets and beyond.

I waste less when I can pick a smaller towel for a smaller clean-up.

The last time paper towels were on sale, I bought one (or two) packages. I thought they were the select-a-size but when I was putting them away, I realized they were the whole sheet towels.

Enter the hack: I cut a roll of towels in half with a saw so I have half-sheet paper towels. I wanted easy access to both sizes of towels so I had to come up with a way to adjust my towel holder.

This is the super-duper strong magnetic paper towel holder I have (more colors available) that lives on the side of my refrigerator. It comes in two pieces so I can expand it with a longer core to fit both rolls. I used a tube from an aluminum foil roll that was smaller than the paper towel core, making vertical cuts at the bottom so it would fit snuggly over the end.

I put one roll over the new core,

the half roll,

then the top of the holder keeps everything in place.

I have two pieces of cardboard between both rolls so they can move independently but haven’t perfected that yet as they both turn when getting a towel.

So that’s my life hack.

Patti

Cutting the cord

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Well, we did it. We cut the cord to our landline and only have our cell phones for calls.

We cut the TV cable cord years ago and have been just fine without that squawk box. Quite frankly (IMHO) there wasn’t much on TV worth watching. We stream what we want to watch and can back up, pause, stop, and forward as we please.

Of course, we still have internet. That is something we would have a hard time doing without.

So many people have either used their cell phones forever and never had a landline at all or gotten rid of the landline in favor of a cell phone. 99% of our landline calls were telemarketers anyway.

Do you use a landline, cell phone, or both?

HousekeepingI

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My sister and I helped our mother clean on Saturdays. That included dusting, vacuuming, and sweeping and scrubbing the kitchen floor. There might have been more but I just don’t remember. And we might not have done those things each week. Again, I just don’t remember.

I do remember that our mother had a system on whether to dust first or vacuum first. But which?

Dusting first would cause any dust to fall to the floor and then be vacuumed.

Or did vacuuming first cause more dust to settle on the furniture so dusting was done after?

Or does it matter as long as both get done?

Or is the real question: what is this chore called “dusting” and why should I care?

I dust and vacuum (occasionally…don’t judge) but not always on the same day. However, we are having people come for a few days and I really need to clean!

Not a knitting project

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Two years ago we had our old wooden deck replaced with composite decking. We have two levels of deck and the lower section is about 12 x 15 feet. For some reason, I never posted about it. Anyway, the contractor used the existing framing to save on the costs. Unfortunately, the framing wasn’t what it should have been so the decking sagged under the weight of our wooden picnic table and grill that we use on that lower section. Not a lot but enough to be concerned about.

The old wooden deck

I had been thinking of how to fix the sagginess since last summer. So last week, I decided I would beef up the framing on the lower deck before it got too hot out.

New joists are on the left, and two more are needed on the right.

I removed the decking in one afternoon. Then I added joist hangers and new 2 x 6 lumber in between the existing joists so the support would be every 12 inches instead of every 24 inches.

Section 1 finished. That’s a root on the right, not a snake!
Section 2 joists finished!

The part that took the longest was putting the decking back on. There are special (and of course pricy) brackets that fit into the grooves on the sides of the decking boards so no screws or nails are visible on the top. It’s really neat and clean-looking. The issue was getting the brackets (I added more) and the grooves to line up so the boards would just slide in.

By the time I got to the last board, I discovered that it was too wide. Not getting the boards snugged up as tightly as the original installation was the problem. A fraction of an inch over the span of 30 boards added up. I managed to rip the last board down and get it in place.

I think this will hold an elephant!

I had some uneven stones as a kind of step off the one side but will find* someone (who knows what they are doing) to redo that area with some leftover pavers from another project to make a transition from the grass to the deck.

All in all, this took twice as long to do as I originally planned thought. Plus I was still recovering from that nasty virus. More clean-up is needed but the heavy labor part for me is done…for now.

*I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods but trying to find someone, anyone around here to do work is next to impossible. I know most of the projects/jobs aren’t huge but does no one need money or to work anymore?

Patti