I didn't get to Costco last Friday as planned. But we went over the weekend. It's a whole lot easier shopping during the Christmas season if you go during the workweek, preferably on a morning when the kids are in school. The stores are SOOOO much easier! And the traffic.
Oh well, we did it the hard way.
But I was desperate. In my quest to get healthier, we are eating salads every day if we can, and we were running out of our favorite lettuce. Getting lettuce from Costco is a commitment. It means you have to EAT that lettuce before it starts to go bad. We will get a package of 6 romaine hearts and spend the week eating them, one a day, before dinner. It's good to have some extra refrigerator space downstairs in the rec room!
To make the salad something to look forward to, we also use mandarin orange sections... a product that would be unreasonably expensive if we weren't ALSO buying these at Costco. And we add a sprinkle of slivered almonds. Unfortunately, not available at Costco, but I can get them in bulk at Wegman's (we also put them on yogurt, so we keep lots of them around). And a dollop of honey-mustard dressing. I've not yet looked to see if we could get the dressing at Costco. I fear that the bottle of dressing I'd get from there might be bigger than would fit the fridge, and to make a green, leafy salad a daily habit, it's got to be EASY. Running up & down stairs for the salad dressing might be a step further than I'd be willing to do.
There's a principle of management... these days it's called "process management", and they have various ways of enforcing it... you may have heard of "Lean Six Sigma"... which is the process of taking a manufacturing process that is working well, and slowly identifying issues that are causing variation (variation is considered inappropriate in a manufacturing situation, if they are creating widgets, they want every widget to match)... you spent your time nibbling away at the pieces of the process that cause the widgets to fall outside of the standard deviation (a statistics term, the standard deviation is considered "sigma"... and in any grouping of objects, nearly all of the objects fall within six "sigmas"...). To reduce the size of the six sigmas that the grouping of objects falls within, to make that variation smaller, is the goal.
When I am trying to organize my life, I use the same principles. I find something that works, and reduce the work needed to make it happen. If I can cut down the number of times I have to go to the store to get the ingredients... if I can cut down the number of trips to the refrigerator in the rec room... if I can cut down the amount of product wasted because we don't eat it in time... then I am more likely to do the thing. Cleaning the bathroom is easier if the products used to clean it are stored in the bathroom. Sweeping the floor is easier (and more likely to get done), if the broom and dustpan are nearby. My sewing project is more likely to get done if the sewing machine and equipment are someplace where I can use them easily and not stored away in a closet so that every time I use them is a project in cleaning my closet, just to get access to the equipment. And I am more likely to eat my healthy salad if the ingredients are close at hand and easy to put together.
Wayne likes a variation in the salad. He prefers Craisins or tomato chunks over mandarin orange slices. And he prefers a spicy pepper vinaigrette over my honey mustard flavor... I make sure to keep lots of his favorite ingredients close at hand also. Because if his favorite ingredients are nearby, I can often rely upon him to do the salad-making.
With all the ingredients close at hand, inexpensive, and easy to manage, as well as flavorful... we eat a bowlful of salad every day.
Someday, when we retire, we hope to be able to afford to travel, and we hope to have good enough health that we will not be forced into being one of those little old couples who hobbles on & off of a bus tour through Europe... no, we want to be healthy enough to go off the beaten path, to climb pyramids in Egypt, ride elephants through the jungles of Thailand, and hike up & down the hills & stairways of Assisi.
Our daily salad is one step in the right direction.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Timesaver, my new medicine cabinet
My sweetie just installed a new medicine cabinet in my walk-in closet. It's a beautiful thing. The closet had a wall at the far end and the shelves and hanging rods lining either side would have been blocked if I had put much down near that wall, but I had an idea... There's a lot of light in that closet, and I could fix my hair while dressing if I had a mirror there. And a shelf. And I was already keeping a tube of deoderant on one of my sweater shelves. So maybe... hmmm...
A medicine cabinet was the solution. One with a mirrored interior as well as a mirror on the front. He hung it high enough that if I'm wearing heels, I will be able to check my hair and fix my mascara without having to lean over a single inch!
I can open it, keep it open, and stand right there while I choose lip colors to coordinate with my outfit, and brush on my eye shadow. I am closer to the mirror than if I were leaning over the bathroom sink. And I have never been the type to sit down and spend a half hour on makeup at one of those vanities with the little stools tucked under it. For me, if makeup isn't easy and quick, it doesn't get used.
I'm pleased with this addition to my closet! I spent yesterday afternoon moving all of my makeup from the bathroom shelf, into my closet, and reorganizing it. No more walking from bathroom, to closet, back to bathroom, several times whenever I get dressed to go out. I can now do it all right in my closet. Put on deoderant, smooth my hair, and stand right up next to the mirror as I put on my mascara without having to lean over a countertop to do it!
My bathroom cabinet is now totally devoted to toothpaste, cleansers, etc., and my closet cabinet has my finishing touches. Everything is easier to find, and there is no need to dig through stacks of colors to find the right one. I have space to work, without having taken over any more space from someplace else in the house.
What is it about girls and organizing products? I could have been no happier with Wayne if he had bought home a dozen roses...
A medicine cabinet was the solution. One with a mirrored interior as well as a mirror on the front. He hung it high enough that if I'm wearing heels, I will be able to check my hair and fix my mascara without having to lean over a single inch!
I can open it, keep it open, and stand right there while I choose lip colors to coordinate with my outfit, and brush on my eye shadow. I am closer to the mirror than if I were leaning over the bathroom sink. And I have never been the type to sit down and spend a half hour on makeup at one of those vanities with the little stools tucked under it. For me, if makeup isn't easy and quick, it doesn't get used.
I'm pleased with this addition to my closet! I spent yesterday afternoon moving all of my makeup from the bathroom shelf, into my closet, and reorganizing it. No more walking from bathroom, to closet, back to bathroom, several times whenever I get dressed to go out. I can now do it all right in my closet. Put on deoderant, smooth my hair, and stand right up next to the mirror as I put on my mascara without having to lean over a countertop to do it!
My bathroom cabinet is now totally devoted to toothpaste, cleansers, etc., and my closet cabinet has my finishing touches. Everything is easier to find, and there is no need to dig through stacks of colors to find the right one. I have space to work, without having taken over any more space from someplace else in the house.
What is it about girls and organizing products? I could have been no happier with Wayne if he had bought home a dozen roses...
Friday, December 7, 2012
Resisting the Costco traps
I'm about to go pick up a few things from Costco today, and a friend wants to go with me sometime so I can suggest to her how to avoid going Costco-nuts. I admit, it's an easy thing to do. I have made a few mistakes, myself... the extra large box of Bisquick, purchased with the idea that I was going to start making pancakes every weekend... an idea that does not match my lifestyle! ... the oversized pack of kiwis that did not get used fast enough to justify the savings or the storage room space.
But if you've got a knowledge of what can be found in Costco that is a regular purchase of yours, you can get some really great stuff. A case of tomato sauce. A giant bag of frozen chicken breast fillets (make sure you've got freezer space before purchasing any Costco sized frozen goods). A giant bag of pine nuts that you'll use this weekend for making pesto with all that great basil you've been growing all summer... these are things that are worth their weight in gold.
And if you've got a large enough storage space, the costco sized toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins are great. They've got no expiration date, and nearly every family needs them from time to time, shopping for these things in costco will save you time and money if you have the space to store them.
As long as we're talking about resisting the traps, I can't miss talking about the free samples. You'll get and taste all kinds of free stuff if you're there on the weekend. It's a regular carnival of new products to sample. And lots of those products sound fun. If you're NEW to the Costco experience, it's best to avoid these things entirely, sample, but know that you do not want to BUY. ALWAYS tell yourself that if you really need it, you'll come back for it later. If you're an experienced Costco shopper, you need to have a formula that you use when you choose whether to purchase one of these wonderful new things that you're sampling... The formula needs to include, WHEN will I use it? Do I have the space to store it? Will my family like it? Is the flavor (because usually it's a food item that creates the worst temptations) worth the price? And of course, is this item better than what I will am using already?
An example of what is a good idea in Costco... Frozen Taquitos are the easy lunch or dinner that Wayne likes if we're not in the mood to cook and we're each going to forage for leftovers or whatever... good for a couple times a month. So when we found that Costco sells frozen taquitos, for half the price that I can get them at the supermarket on sale... of COURSE we get them. I just have to make sure there's enough freezer space to store them. And we use chicken breast fillets at least once a week, so the costco-sized frozen fillets are perfect for us. And cashews are great. We love eating them by the handful and they contain some good nutrients, so getting a large container of them is something my family can work with. Same with slivered almonds. But we don't have as much use for whole almonds, so buying whole almonds makes no sense. At the beginning of any holiday season, I'll buy a large bag of flour, a large bag of sugar, of chocolate chips, pecans, walnuts. And if I've got a baking weekend coming up, I'll do the double-pack of eggs. Luckily, NUTS last a long time if you have the freezer space for the leftovers.
Today I'm going to pick up eggs and pepperoni for pizza night this evening. No reason to get pepperoni from the grocery if it's the same stuff, freezable, and a much better price at Costco! And for all those freezable Costco sized purchases, I'll get some Costco-sized ziplock baggies. I wash baggies for re-use, but eventually I do need a new supply, and this is the moment... we're running low.
As part of the purpose of this new blog, we will explore issues about storage of stuff, about usage, about price... we'll look to see whether we're being wasteful, cluttering up our houses or our environment with stuff that will not do us any good... or whether we're being frugal, using every last bit of things that can be used. I AM trying to avoid excess junk in the footprint I leave on this earth... We DO get our water filtered rather than through little plastic bottles... but I'm not exactly turning our shower into a "grey water" system for the garden (and switching to the higher priced, environmentally friendly soaps needed to do it right.)
The trick in Costco is to not get anything that you can neither store nor use before it's expiration date. If your family does not eat rice, what's the point of having a 100 lb bag of white rice cluttering up your pantry? But if you eat rice every day, the opportunity to have that much rice for a great price without having to shop every week for it, is a great thing.
So those are the things that need to go through my mind as I contemplate my trip to Costco. I need a list. I need to avoid the pretty, interesting, impulse buys. And as Wayne says, I have enough NUTS to last me through the next 3 holiday seasons... so no more costco sized bags of walnuts... taking up space in the fridge where his Taquitos might usually live.
But if you've got a knowledge of what can be found in Costco that is a regular purchase of yours, you can get some really great stuff. A case of tomato sauce. A giant bag of frozen chicken breast fillets (make sure you've got freezer space before purchasing any Costco sized frozen goods). A giant bag of pine nuts that you'll use this weekend for making pesto with all that great basil you've been growing all summer... these are things that are worth their weight in gold.
And if you've got a large enough storage space, the costco sized toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins are great. They've got no expiration date, and nearly every family needs them from time to time, shopping for these things in costco will save you time and money if you have the space to store them.
As long as we're talking about resisting the traps, I can't miss talking about the free samples. You'll get and taste all kinds of free stuff if you're there on the weekend. It's a regular carnival of new products to sample. And lots of those products sound fun. If you're NEW to the Costco experience, it's best to avoid these things entirely, sample, but know that you do not want to BUY. ALWAYS tell yourself that if you really need it, you'll come back for it later. If you're an experienced Costco shopper, you need to have a formula that you use when you choose whether to purchase one of these wonderful new things that you're sampling... The formula needs to include, WHEN will I use it? Do I have the space to store it? Will my family like it? Is the flavor (because usually it's a food item that creates the worst temptations) worth the price? And of course, is this item better than what I will am using already?
An example of what is a good idea in Costco... Frozen Taquitos are the easy lunch or dinner that Wayne likes if we're not in the mood to cook and we're each going to forage for leftovers or whatever... good for a couple times a month. So when we found that Costco sells frozen taquitos, for half the price that I can get them at the supermarket on sale... of COURSE we get them. I just have to make sure there's enough freezer space to store them. And we use chicken breast fillets at least once a week, so the costco-sized frozen fillets are perfect for us. And cashews are great. We love eating them by the handful and they contain some good nutrients, so getting a large container of them is something my family can work with. Same with slivered almonds. But we don't have as much use for whole almonds, so buying whole almonds makes no sense. At the beginning of any holiday season, I'll buy a large bag of flour, a large bag of sugar, of chocolate chips, pecans, walnuts. And if I've got a baking weekend coming up, I'll do the double-pack of eggs. Luckily, NUTS last a long time if you have the freezer space for the leftovers.
Today I'm going to pick up eggs and pepperoni for pizza night this evening. No reason to get pepperoni from the grocery if it's the same stuff, freezable, and a much better price at Costco! And for all those freezable Costco sized purchases, I'll get some Costco-sized ziplock baggies. I wash baggies for re-use, but eventually I do need a new supply, and this is the moment... we're running low.
As part of the purpose of this new blog, we will explore issues about storage of stuff, about usage, about price... we'll look to see whether we're being wasteful, cluttering up our houses or our environment with stuff that will not do us any good... or whether we're being frugal, using every last bit of things that can be used. I AM trying to avoid excess junk in the footprint I leave on this earth... We DO get our water filtered rather than through little plastic bottles... but I'm not exactly turning our shower into a "grey water" system for the garden (and switching to the higher priced, environmentally friendly soaps needed to do it right.)
The trick in Costco is to not get anything that you can neither store nor use before it's expiration date. If your family does not eat rice, what's the point of having a 100 lb bag of white rice cluttering up your pantry? But if you eat rice every day, the opportunity to have that much rice for a great price without having to shop every week for it, is a great thing.
So those are the things that need to go through my mind as I contemplate my trip to Costco. I need a list. I need to avoid the pretty, interesting, impulse buys. And as Wayne says, I have enough NUTS to last me through the next 3 holiday seasons... so no more costco sized bags of walnuts... taking up space in the fridge where his Taquitos might usually live.
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