Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The little things

Luckily, my sister and I are still getting along and still speaking to each other. The weather had even cooled down and made this place bearable (until yesterday). But there are little things that are hard to get adjusted to.

For example, everybody has their own system for storing things and cooking things. If this is your system, this makes sense:


But if you are not the person who bought these measuring spoons, how the hell do you know which size is which now that the labels have rubbed off arrrgh! I am doing a lot of cooking by guesstimating these days.

Other problems just have to do with the limitations of space and cheap kitchens. My sis doesn't want to upgrade her kitchen until she knows what is going on with her daughter, and whether my sis will need to help her with a housing down payment, or possibly my sister will move someplace nicer (and she is definitely worried about all the stairs leading up to her place and getting older.) How can you argue with that kind of logical thinking?

It does mean that she has one cabinet for every single cooking implement and one for her entire dish collection, all stacked atop each other so that whatever you want is at the bottom of a 25-pound pile.


And it also means that there isn't really much room for me to put my stuff away, which is fine since my spices are in cute little shoeboxes:


As a reward/procrastination from the obnoxiousness of job hunting, I am throwing out one thing a day from my sister's fridge or cabinets. This one has a "best by" date of 2010:


So, yeah, I'm fine. Mostly. Little freaked out about cooking/eating here but that's all right. In a month or so I will have completely replaced my sister's systems with my own, mwahahahahahaha!

6 comments:

Notorious Ph.D. said...

I once sparked the world's biggest blowup by spendig 3 hours cleaning my parents' fridge and dumping all the expired-three-years-ago things in the trash.

I've since learned that your way is best: one thing at a time; focus on the things that are health hazards; dump it far from the house. Seriously: I've been known to sneak moldy cheese out in my purse.

Sisyphus said...

That is hilarious!


I also need to figure out a way to break it to her that I need to clear out her tupperware-ish collection. She seems to have 1.5 million old cottage cheese containers and 2 million lids.

Susan said...

Oh, dear. My mother does that with the old cottage cheese/yogurt containers.

The nicest thing anyone ever did for me -- the day after my husband's funeral -- was when my sister and best friend cleaned out my fridge. I did not take umbrage. I try to do it myself, but I run out of steam so after taking on one shelf, it's all over for another month or two.

Anonymous said...

If you got rid of my plastic containers or had a conversation with me about them, I would probably kick you out of my house. For serious. Pick your battles.

undine said...

Just today I announced to my mom, "I'm throwing away these five packages of moldy deli cheese," and she didn't even blink. That 2010 sauce had to go, for sure!

Tablespoon, teaspoon, half-teaspoon. They are standard sizes and the quarter teaspoon is often missing.

Sisyphus said...

Haha, Undine, you'd be wrong! The one on the right is a half *tablespoon* --- the teaspoon cracked and my sis threw it away. I think she bought a "regular" set and an "odd-sized" set and half of them got ruined by the garbage disposal. It makes for some interesting cooking challenges.