Pinterest Pinsanity

My Pinterest O how I love thee.

It is utterly "pinsane" how Pinterest has taken over my life.  Oh excuse me, I should back up a bit for those of you who don't know about Pinterest yet.  It is the latest hot thing on the Internet, a real barnstormer of a visual social media site that enables you to create a collection of visual bulletin boards.  You get to have as many boards as you want, for as many categories as you want and can pin as many things to them as you want.  This means that when you are on a website or blog that has an image or idea you want can capture it or “pin” it to one of your boards along with the link to site with the idea along with a beautiful image to inspire you to use it.  And yes...it is absolutely wonderful, simply “pinspiring” capturing all those beautiful, wonderful, magical, practical, unbelievable things one finds on Pinterest.  Those of us who have discovered this have all been so over the moon about it so much so that it has been call “visual crack” for the creative types and even equated to Internet hoarding it is so addictive in its appeal.

Not long after I started using Pinterest I created a Facebook group called “Pinterest Enablement and Support (PEAS)” after being unable to find an answer for a question I had about getting a problem resolved on Pinterest.  (I love the twisted little name of the group and how it alludes to Pinterest possibly being addicting don't you?).  Pinterest is a great tool with a lot of potential but after seeing myself and other pinners not using what we were gathering, I decided to try and encourage the members of our group to share what they have used from their pins.  That didn’t go so well, I think I got one or two to share, but then I am as guilty as they are and the question began to nag me, is it really hoarding?

Call me crazy but I thought it would be fun to figure out how long it would take me to use every pin I had captured on my boards if I did only one a day.  Wowwie zowwie…wake up call!  It would take me TEN YEARS to use what I had pinned at that time.  The very next week someone posted a joke poster of Facebook that stated pinners were just Internet hoarders.  I laughed, we all laughed, a little nervously I think as we realized the delight of Pinterest did seem to overtake all sense of reason at times.  We pinners like to say we are "pinning our brains out" which pretty much sums up what happens to a lot of us.  I get caught up in pinning my brains out more than I’d like to admit and I guess my rational has become, if it is fun, the information good, the pictures so inspiring, how can it possibly be a bad thing.

I remember visiting a farm once where the farmer was as frugal as the day is long and in his frugality had amassed quite a large pile of old parts from who knows what types of mechanical things in a pile near the barn.  His shop where he did the fixin’ was stacked half full too.  In reality there was no way that he was ever going to use all that stuff and it was obvious that some of it was nothing but unusable junk.  As we approached his cache he proudly stated “I don’t like spending on things if I don’t have to so I’m saving this just in case I need it.”  The greater portion of this stash was saved for nothing more than the notion of having it just in case...just like my stash of pins. (ugh)

My attitude resembles that farmer's a little too much I'll admit, but still, as I look at my boards, which are mostly filled with ideas I might use some day and see how pretty they look, its hard for me to recon it as an obsession.  However, recently I have even been haunted by the guilt of not using the ideas I have pinned which makes me wonder about that.  These seemingly innocent pins have turned into the Internet equivalent of those projects sitting around my house that I intend to do someday or the mail that doesn’t get tossed because I can’t make my mind up what I need to do with it at that moment.  Sound familiar?

Yeah Baby!  Love those boards!

Want to see for yourself what I am talking about?  Here is a link to my Pinterest boards so you can go have a peek.  Before you do I want ask that you try to visualize every pin on my boards as being a single sheet of paper or a small manual or a little box, I’ll wait right here.  So what did you think?  When we put spatial relationships on them it’s amazing how our perspective changes isn’t it?  By the way, you actually cannot see everything I have pinned without clicking on each board and that would take way too much time unless you have nothing else to do for a couple days.

That didn’t do it for you?  Here’s another example. If I listed my pins in a column on a legal pad…that’s 28 line items per page, divide that into 5000 which is about what I have now.  Let me see...that is 178.5 pages of things to get done.  That is some to-do list!  I think I need therapy.

Happy pinning!

Copyright © 2012 by Patty Hicks
All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.

Storage Tips From My Kitchen: A peek Inside My Spice Drawer

Our kitchens these days are filled with all sorts of products meant to inspire us to cook.  I'm not just talking about gadgets but a small thing...those spice jars.  How many of you have a drawer or rack full of dried herbs and spices and actually use “all” them?  Have you been mesmerized or inspired by one of those beautiful shiny pre-loaded spice racks because it seems quick and easy, so you buy it and then find only about 1/3 of the spices in it are ones you use.  The rack is handsome looking, organized in appearance...it just seems to be such a great thing and oh yes, it makes you look like you are quite the cook doesn't it.

Handsomely designed but impractical for most kitchens for various reasons

Most people purchase single jarred spices at the grocery store when they need them. Many times these get used a couple times, put it in the cupboard and there they sit, gathering dust, losing flavor and because they don't "rot" or look spoiled they are never thrown away.

If you seem to have a hard time getting rid of these unused herbs and spices you are not alone.  I know I've been guilty of doing this.  But in reality its such a waste of money to buy a whole jar of spices when you only need a teaspoon or tablespoon.  Its also a waste of time and space to maintain these jars when you think about it; moving them around, cleaning them, thinking about them and feeling guilty for not getting rid of them when you know you will never use them but just in case you keep them anyway.  Makes me tired just thinking about it too.  So let me share some things I've done that have helped me to save time, money and space in my kitchen.

Do you use all of what is in your spice rack?  If not why do you hang on to them?

If you snooped around my kitchen and looked in the drawers and cabinets you would notice I am someone who is fairly well organized.  I wasn't always this organized but have found it more frustrating and more time consuming when I am not and life is just too short for all that drama to suck up my personal resources.  When I added up the cost of all those herbs and spices I bought it was even more expensive than I realized so a few years ago I decided to do something about it.

The first place I looked for inspiration was in professional kitchens which are organized in zones and set up for efficiency.  I found this really useful and garnered a lot of great ideas I could implement in my own kitchen.  In my kitchen you would see I have an area for things I use in baking, one for cooking oils and vinegars and my culinary herbs and spices have a single handy spot all their own as well.  Even the drawer they sit in is organized to maximize its efficiency.  But excuse me I have digressed a bit.  Lets get back to the spices.

Daily used items up front and tools readily at hand and spices easy to find.

Vicki Norris, of “Restoring Order” who has been such an inspiration to me, posted a link this week on her company's Facebook page to an article on the question of how old is too old for spices. Spice Article  Though it was a pretty good article, it missed some things that I consider important and I wanted to add to what was shared there here.

My first piece of advice to you is to never buy that pre-filled herb rack.  Never ever!!!  They look enticing being all nice and shiny and have the appearance of being something that will serve you in the kitchen but remember what I shared above...there are a lot of things in those racks you probably won't use. Besides the fact you probably won't use what is in them they are not very easy to keep clean either.  I just spent 2 hours cleaning the one pictured above after our neighbors gave it to us...I was going to try and integrate it into our space but the lids were too big and because it was such a total pain to clean it's going away.

My spice drawer is organized for work but includes my pretty salt jars at the front and my favorite wooden salt scoop.

Because I cook from scratch a lot and have quite a nice collection of herbs and spices I use on a regular basis.  One thing that helps to keep things easy to find for me is the reduction of visual clutter.  Instead of random jars of this brand of spice or that, I bought empty spice jars that are all the same at a local kitchen store.  I chose those clear glass jars with white lids that are flat on top so I could easily label them with what was inside and only cost about $1.00 each.  I have organized my spice jars alphabetically making it easy to find what I need. I found an old wooden tray at the thrift store that the jars fit into perfectly and put the whole thing in the drawer under our cook-top.  It keeps them right at hand and away from heat and light, two things that can deteriorate the flavors in herbs quickly.  I do have a few containers with larger quantities of herbs and spices along along the edges as well as some less used ethnic spice blends towards the back.

The wood tray and purple box make unloading the drawer quick for cleaning.

By the way, the beauty of my wooden tray is that it makes cleaning a snap.  I can lift the whole works out to clean the drawer when needed.  So do those fancy racks that get kitchen grease all over them and take an hour or more to clean still look enticing?

My very favorite part of what is going on with what I do is not just in the efficiency of how the jars are organized, but that I grow most of the leafy herbs in my stash myself.  That really adds up to some good savings over time and the herbs are the freshest I can get anywhere!  Anything I don't grow I get from the bulk bins at the grocery store so I only purchase what I actually need instead and not that entire jar of something I won't use but once or twice.  For me spending $5 to $7 a jar for something I may use only once or twice or for those things that grow so easily in my garden makes no sense.  Example: In three years that little $3 oregano plant will provide enough for my household and gifts for friends too.

Herbs and seeds grown at home are a great way to save and share the harvest.

If you don't have a drawer like I do just remember that cool, dark and dry are what your dried herbs and spices need to help maintain their flavor as long as possible and make storage adjustments accordingly.  I used to stash my spices in a cabinet right next to the stove but after realizing the heat from cooking was warming up that spot I moved them away from the stove until we installed the drawer.  Try a box or tray slide onto a shelf in the pantry so you can easily pull it out and place it on the counter while you are cooking and put away right after. Where ever you store them be sure they are easy to access and easy to see.  Also be sure to go through them once in a while and refresh the older ingredients and for heaven's sake don't feel bad about getting rid of spices you don't use!  Give them to someone who will or just toss them out.  You may be surprised at how much being organized can inspire your creativity in the kitchen.

Living simply is delightfully inspiring.

Copyright © 2011 by Patty Hicks

All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.

Cutting Away The Deadwood

A small sampling of my collected past

It’s a hard and good thing to look at what one has and realize when its time to let things go. To come to that point where you get it, that what you have collected, maybe things you used to enjoy using or owning are somehow keeping you from moving forward.  You can no longer look at them the way you once did because you see them from a completely different perspective.  You see them like anchors that keep you lashed to your past, hindrances that keep you from moving into your future.  If you hold onto them you know you will be held back from growing, from achieving tomorrow’s provision and blessing.  It is a season of surrender, of giving up and letting go of what is familiar to the future you know you are supposed to take hold of.

Class outlines and information I used to glean from and collect.

That is where I am right now.  I am digging through file drawers of paper, looking at every piece, remembering and releasing.  Life is not static and my circumstances and God’s work in providing a new path for my future have called me to let it go and move on.  It feels odd how cathartic this is for me as I wade through things; there is a kind of lightness I feel in my heart, an unburdening from thinking about these things.  My mind not focused on what I “used to use” or thought I would use.  There is a freedom from feeling I have to go in that old direction and from the feeling of failure that I didn't complete some goal. There is also a sweetness in the remembering as I touch pages of my words, pictures of my past.  It’s amazing how much I’d forgotten I’d kept and I found myself in tears more than once.  Sometimes the tears were from happiness, sometimes because it was a little harder than what I thought it would be to let go.  I press on.

A portion of the memorabilia pile...heartwood.

In spite of how I may feel, I know I have to dig out from under yesterday to realize my tomorrow.  I long for new growth more than the familiarity and keeping of the past.  This is why I persevere in the process.  I am not looking to accomplish it all with one giant effort but bit by bit like doing restorative pruning on an old apple tree.  First remove the dead wood, then remove congestion and finally prune for fruiting.

Our Quince tree in its restorative pruning process will produce better fruit for us this year.

It takes time to prune like this, on a tree it takes a few years to bring restoration. For me in this process it will be a few months, maybe even a year before I begin to see that fruit I’m looking for.  I’m thankful for this understanding.  My files of collected information and ideas, class outlines and memorabilia could not have been conquered in one session.  It took two times going through them just to get them down to something that looked to be manageable.

All that stuff boiled down...now to manage this well.

This job will not complete until I have set up my systems to keep myself organized and discipline myself to working this new system so it serves me in the future and doesn't turn into another anchor.  That will be the interesting part. Creating something useful and manageable in light of who I am and how I work.  Its funny how we think we know who we are and how we work and how different that is from reality when we really begin to dig in…that is if we are being truly honest about what we are looking at and dealing with.

I’m a dreamer, I’m a designer, I’m an artist and these collected ideas are like candy to me, fodder for future projects. Some people pack rat stuff, real tangible things like figurines or toys or dishes or cook books…me I love to collect ideas and information.  The challenge…to ask myself why I want to keep any of it and be brutally honest.  I think I’m doing pretty well so far.

I can see my own weaknesses as I go through the piles of files and papers in front of me.  “What was I thinking?  Why did I feel I had to keep this stuff?” I laugh out loud. Granted, there is a lot more online today than there ever was on paper back when I began to file ideas away.  I can already see possible problems that might arise if I'm not careful however I really like things on paper better than digital files; the whole organic nature of it, the feel, the smell and its easier for me to read and edit off of a piece of paper than on my computer.  I “loved” revisiting information and ideas I “collected”, things that inspired me, that fed my creative soul and my inner nerd…emphasis on past tense here is important as that is in part what brought the congestion.  My weaknesses are revealed and I can breath.

The past is what it was and I'm moving on

As I dug through the mountain of my collection one thing that made me laugh was how my tastes in styles have changed.  It really brought home how much I needed to clean out that dead wood.  Another thing was how even that information I had used to teach with had changed too.  It was one of those “looking into a time capsule” moments for me and it hit me like a brick…I’m living in the now, not the then.

The work I did in college, my papers, my weed collection (yes I had a weed collection, they are plants after all), all the notes…those were really difficult to part with because of all I had invested them.  Actually husband was not helping at all here either and wanted me to keep the binder with my vast weed collection as a family heirloom!  With that, I decided it would be the first things to go.  I didn’t want to start calling my work an heirloom as I knew it wasn’t that beautiful.  Thankfully my college papers are digitally filed so no need to keep the hard copies with the teacher's notes…and if something happens to the computer and I lose it all I won’t die, nor will anyone else.  Life goes on.  There are other things I’d rather be remembered for.  I don’t want to be remembered for how smart I am but how I loved and helped to make other’s lives better and for how much I love my Savior.

To stay or go into the future, the choice is yours

Where I thought I was going back then no longer matters, I have to listen to where God is telling me I am going today and I don’t want to live in the time capsule of the past so out it goes.  So far I have recycled nearly one whole 60 gallon roll-cart from my past.  I’m still scratching my head at how out of hand things had gotten and I’m not all that disorganized. I just never went back often enough to prune out old wood, thus the congestion.

Pruning for fruit is where the heart is really dealt with.  We love the memories of the past and what is attached to those memories like the branches of a tree that gave us such lovely fruit in years past.  For myself it was and probably will continue to be anything to do with gardening.  I love learning about plants, I love teaching about plants, I love propagating plants, digging in the soil and the beauty I’ve worked to create.  This is indeed the most difficult of all this pruning process.  These old branches must be pruned though and they will always have a presence in my future but my focus will be more balanced and the struggle for good fruit less difficult as long as this pruning is maintained.

I am ready for that blade to be laid to this branch of my life that is so integrally attached to my heart.  It is the most important part of this process because strikes at the heart of the crossroads in my life.  My letting go or holding on will affect the future.  God has something new for me and I want to go with Him, not lag behind in my past.  I’m not exactly sure what exactly that looks like yet but I know that nothing surrendered, nothing experienced and no mistakes made are ever lost in God’s economy.  He uses all things for good in the lives of His children.  This knowledge has helped me to do this with freedom and without fear.  My heart is filled with expectation and hope instead of fear and anxiety.

Meeting the future with an expectant heart

As I begin to walk into this new future God has for me I will have to look at the heart of why I am choosing to keep something.  If I do chose to keep it I will need to remind myself that at some point in the future, I will need to let it go.  I’m hoping for the discipline to keep the creativity flowing and not bogged down by past notions like I’ve been feeling this past couple of years. Besides, there is only so much information I will ever really use in my lifetime and often these ideas are just that and nothing more.  They hold no tangible use nor intrinsic value and if there are enough of them just end up being that anchor tied around my leg that holds me to the past.  Time to cut the rope and move on with my life.

So its time to get real here.  My tack, at least for this season, is that I don’t keep anything I’m not currently working on until I get a clear view of where I’m to be heading.  One foot in front of the other with care and purpose.  I’ve discovered that collecting good ideas can bury the view of the path one is supposed to be taking causing one to veer off from it or at least muddy it up real good and causing us to not move with the freedom God desires in our lives.  These collections can stall creativity by keeping the mind focused on the collected things instead of allowing free flowing ideas and new creativity.  I cannot count the number if good ideas I threw out when I filled that roll cart...and they were good ideas back when I collected then.  But I don’t want to settle just for good ideas, I want the best ideas, those that God will prosper, those that will bless others and those that will leave the kind of legacy I want to leave behind.  So out with the old and congestion and lay that blade where You must God, I'm ready for my future.