7 Top Tips How to Reduce Food Waste

Apparently an average European citizen wastes 179kg of food a year. We throw out almost 20% of the food we buy. This is a horrendous waste!

The food waste is not only limited to our households. Supermarkets and restaurants waste an even higher percentage of food, but there isn’t a lot we can do about it… We can however take a look at our “wasting” routine and try to do something about it.

We are not the most innocent family when it comes to reducing food waste, this is why I did some thinking and put a plan in place to help us reduce our food waste.

Know what you already have

This might sounds funny but do you really know what you have in your cupboards? I thought I did but I was wrong. I tend to “stock up” on things when they are on a special offer and at times I simply forget about them later on. Like the time I bought four large jars of mayonnaise despite still having two in my pantry (luckily they were still in date so nothing was wasted, we just had a lot of salads that month).
Anyway knowing what you already have in the cupboard is the key to success. It will allow you to avoid double buying but also it will help you to plan meals ahead.

Buy local, buy smart

Large superstore are designed to make us spend more; make us buy stuff we don’t really need; make us buy too much. Buying local will help us to buy only what we need and when we need it.
Going shopping with a shopping list is a great way of sticking to what we need to buy, if we can stick to our pre-written shopping list of course.

Learn to read labels

Not all food that has passed its “label date” is actually out of date. A lot of foods have labels which are actually design as recommendations for the store selling them.
Sell-by date – a date printed on the packaging of perishable goods, indicating the date after which the goods should not be offered for sale. This doesn’t mean they can’t be eaten. Sell-by date can be found for example on fresh cakes or pastries. Store can’t sell them past the date but we can still enjoy them 🙂
Best before – the length of time a packaged food will last without deteriorating. Food eaten after “best before” date is perfectly safe to eat, it might just not be “perfectly perfect”; its taste, texture, aroma or appearance might start to change slightly.
Use-by date – refers to safety and are the required form of date mark for foods considered to be highly perishable from a microbiological point of view. This is the only label we should be really concern about and should try to avoid products which have passed their use-by date.

Learn how to store food properly

A lot of food goes to waste due to poor storage. Investing in a good, clever storage solution will help us save money (and a lot of food) in the long run. A nice set of plastic air-tight containers (like the ones I reviewed for you in the past from Addis) or simple Fresha bags, which are design to keep your food fresh for up to 25% longer are perfect food storage solutions. They will help your food stay fresh for longer, giving you more time to enjoy it.
Storage containers are just one side to the proper storage solution… the other is correct fridge placement. When unpacking new grocery shopping, move your “old” food to the front of the fridge. This way you will not forget about that pack of half eaten butter or an already opened bottle of milk.

Learn to experiment in the kitchen

I must agree that recipes are made to be followed but I am also a believer in variety and freedom. Product substitution might not be ideal every time but you never know what your new “upgraded” dish will taste like until you try it. Experimenting in the kitchen is a great way of “using” all the odd things we have left. Challenge yourself and cook once a week a “what’s left in my fridge” dinner. You might be surprised with the results. To give you an idea on what sort of thing we create, check my “Something from Nothing Dinner” post.

Learn to use leftovers

Big portion of the food ending up in the bin come from leftovers… Depending on the type of leftovers, they can be eaten the next day, turned into a new meal or frozen, to be consumed at a later date. Very often you can find the dish gets better with time, so don’t be scared of a “leftovers” dinner.
Freezing it on the day is a great way of avoiding binning it a few days later. Just remember to clearly label your meals, so you know exactly what’s inside and what date you put it there.

Donate it, jar it or compost it

No matter how careful we will be, there will always be a time when we have too much food on our hands. Depending on the type of food we can donate it to a local food bank or try your hand at a new skill and re-make it for future use in the months to come, for example turning fruit and veggies into pickles and chutneys.
Last summer when we went to Poland we drove back to the UK with three cases of fresh apples. We knew that we will not be able to eat them all, so I turned some into jars of grated apples, ready to become a filling in my Apple Pie.
And when we have food which still needs to go to the bin, compost it. Instead of putting it to the bin, give it a second life and turn it into a useful resource… your garden will be truly thankful for it 😉

Anything you would add into my list?

*Picture source

Zoflora, Pets and Christmas – Inforgraphic and Giveaway

We are a nation of pet lovers, there is no doubt about it, but how good are we at making sure our beloved dog, cat or parrot lives in a clean and safe environment?

If you are a regular reader of Bark Time you know that I am huge Zoflora fan. I have been using it for years and I have no problems with recommending it to others. It ticks all the right boxes when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting certain areas in the house… one of those areas is the dog den aka the conservatory 😉 I like the fact that Zoflora kills 99.9% of both bacteria and viruses additionally it is very good with odour elimination, the result it helps me keep the house clean and with winter having arrived “wet dog” odour free.

Zoflora has made a cute infographic about pets and Christmas – have a look…

91% of pet owners buy their pets Christmas gifts… hmmm… what is wrong with the remaining 9%? I guess these must be people who don’t celebrate Christmas… or perhaps they just don’t do any kind of gifting during this festive season…

73% of pet owners will add their pet’s name to any Christmas cards they send – we admit to being one of those owners… our cards always include all our animals names and if we are feeling artistic the paw prints as well.

Whilst on the topic of cards, Zoflora shared with me their selection of pet cards, which you can print out yourself.

If you would like any of these cards in a large file then please just drop me a line and I will email it to you.

And now for the giveaway… this festival season one of you will receive a Zoflora product bundle and a £25 Pets at Home voucher. So now there is no excuse not to buy your pet a Christmas gift, which is great news, isn’t it?

To be in with a chance of winning this lovely prize, please tell me: do you personally have any special pet related Christmas traditions you carry out?

As an additional bonus entry you can follow me on Twitter and RT my giveaway tweet:

Follow me and RT to #win @LoveZoflora bundle and £25 @PetsatHome voucher. Full T&C at: http://t.co/Tpp3PRpU9U #giveaway ends 15/12

— Agata @ BarkTime (@AgataPokutycka) December 6, 2014

Good Luck!

T&C:
1. Open to UK readers only.
2. One obligatory entry per reader – leave comment on my blog plus extra daily entries in form of a RT.
3. There will be 1 winner in total.
4. The winner will receive 1 x bundle of Zoflora goodies and £25 Pets at Home voucher. The prize will be provided by Zoflora.
5. Winner will be picked at random and informed within 7 working days via email or Twitter.
6. Winner will have 7 working days to claim the prize, after this time, a new winner will be selected.
7. Closing date is Monday 15-12-2014 at 23:59pm, any entry made after this time will not be counted.

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions
Loquax – Home of The Lucky Duck
SuperLucky Blog Giveaways Linky

***

16/12

WINNER UPDATE

Well done @JudeVFR400

One thing ticked off the wish list – Dyson DC41Mk2 Animal

A few weeks ago a huge lovely parcel arrived on my door step – it was a Dyson DC41Mk2 Animal. I have wanted one of these vacuum cleaners for years but there was always something else far more urgent that needed to be bought first…

Anyway, it was finally here!

My own, personal Dyson DC41Mk2 Animal.

I had huge plans for it. On the one hand I wanted to open it right now, the moment that the courier brought it to me, but then on the other hand I had a video idea which required me to stay put and keep my brand new Dyson, well “brand new”…

I really wanted to film me cleaning with my Dyson, and the money shot, after cleaning with my old vacuum and then see if there was any difference… I thought that this might be an interesting thing to do but the days were passing by, life was manic and I was nowhere closer to my video project being started… when I did actually have a moment either the weather was very bad which meant no natural light for actually shooting the video indoors or the weather was fine but there was no one around to actually help me, like all of us I am cursed with being born with only two hands… I didn’t even want to attempt vacuuming with 2 different machines and filming it at the same time… this would be quite insane, even for me…

So, the days were passing by and still no video…

The days kept passing by and every day I looked and my shiny new Dyson still in its box…

Then some more days passed by and then I finally broke!

Yesterday after yet another discussion with my trusty old Henry about his aging status and resulting lack of abilities to include actually cleaning effectively I broke! I ripped the box open and decided that enough is enough; I just had to try my new friend.

Within 5 minutes the Dyson DC41Mk2 Animal was put all together and I was off…

OMG what a difference!

OMG it was a pure pleasure!

The 1m x 1.5m rug by the front door, which normally would take me around 15 minutes to clean (usually with me on my knees), was totally clean and dog / cat hair free within 1 minute maybe 2 at most… not only was it fast, there was no need for getting down on my knees anymore and cleaning with a precision brush – Dyson just ate it all like a pro!

I am over the moon!

30 minutes and 9 containers full of hairs and dust later my house was totally clean! Yes, 9 bins… the amount of stuff he can suck up is just unreal… I really didn’t have an idea my house was SO dirty!

And you know what… I now have some totally new ideas for my video and I think that it will be much better than my original plan… so stay tuned as a full review of my new friend – Dyson DC41Mk2 Animal is coming to a blog near you soon 🙂

* Picture courtesy of Dyson.
I received a Dyson DC41Mk2 Animal vacuum cleaner for a review purpose.

The 4-Box Challenge

I was challenged by the Plastic Box Shop to use their 4-box method to de-clutter my home. The idea is very simple:

•  Indentify the clutter in your home
•  Follow the chart
•  Place the item in the correct box

Easy peasy!

The four “magic” boxes are as follow:

Keep – Items which will remain in their current position and are to be kept.

Store – Items which you do not want to throw away but would be able to relocate and possibly store somewhere else.

Donate – Items which you intend to donate to charity.

Bin – Items which you intend to throw away.

I found myself lacking one more box – Sell. As I didn’t have my 5th box I just piled those items on the floor next to the four other boxes.

And the chart which can be used as an aid looks like this:

The chart is actually very helpful and clever. I did follow it for some items, simply because I wasn’t able to make me mind up about the final placement of the item in question.

My boxes arrived and it was time to get to work.

I picked the worst room in our home – my office. Terribly, terribly messy room, full of clutter, spare furniture and was actually really badly lacking in space even for just moving around. I meant to “clean it” last week… last month… I don’t even remember how many times I have promised myself “Ok, tomorrow I will take care of it”, then tomorrow came and went and my office just collected more and more clutter.

So Saturday morning after a large strong coffee I put some lively music on and started on my epic challenge.

Slowly piece by piece I was removing things from my office and placing them into the provided boxes… the pile of stuff in the boxes was growing fast.

The pile of stuff for sale wasn’t doing badly either. I decided that if I do not want it and the item has some real value I will sell it. In the end of the day who really needs 3 phones?

Once I had actually dug myself through the endless pile of weird stuff I was actually able to remove a spare futon and a chest of drawers from my office. These two pieces didn’t belong in my office, so they had to go in order to get back so much needed space.

I spent most of the day clearing out my office. I found that the Donate It box was the most popular. The next day I packed the car, drove to my local village and donated everything to our local dog charity RATS.

It was a long and tiring day but it was really worth it!

Now I have a spacious office and if someone wants to join me there is actually some space for them to join me by my desk.

This clear-out session was long overdue, so thank you ever so much to the guys at the Plastic Box Shop for selecting me for this challenge, as this gave me the impetus and a very much needed kick to do it and I thus finally did it!

Job jobbed!

Antibacterial Products: To use or not to use? The pros and cons.

What is an antibacterial product? It is simply a product with an added agent which interferes with bacteria; stopping its growth and reproduction. They are widely used in a selection of products design to disinfect surfaces and eliminate potentially harmful bacteria. In every store county wide you can find a selection of soaps, washing detergents, household cleaners and health and skincare products marked as “antibacterial”, but are they any good for us?

I did quite a bit of reading on the subject and the general consensus seems to be: TO USE. There are some studies done at the moment regarding any potential repercussions after long tern use but no conclusive results are in… it seems that we have not actually been using them for long enough to be able to determine if there are any downsides from long term usage.

So far the biggest controversy is caused by antibacterial soap. When some people say: “use it”, others are very strongly against it. Why? Apparently constant use of an antibacterial soap can cause:

• dry skin, which makes it more susceptible to infections
• bacteria resistance, which actually makes them harder to neutralise in the long run
• reduction in personal care; people think that using an antibacterial soap makes them more resilient and they tend to forgo the hand washing process at key times when it would be advisable to complete

So what are the pros of antibacterial products? They kill bacteria! This is a good reason for me to use it and this is enough. I don’t actually need any more benefits for using it.

Lately we’ve been using an antibacterial spray from Zoflora. As you know I am huge Zoflora fan (you can read all about my house full of it here) but until a few weeks ago I actually didn’t know that they make a spray as well. I was thrilled to discover that the spray version actually existed. I love the original Zoflora for all its various uses and possibilities but I must admit the spray is much handier at times.

Do you use a lot of antibacterial products?

Do you think they are good or are they bad?

Are you afraid of any negative effects they might have on you and your family in the long run?

Review – Iron & Velvet – Luxury Cleaning Products

Have you ever heard about Iron & Velvet – Luxury Cleaning Products? No? Hmm, me neither, until a few months ago that is. I spotted Iron & Velvet on Twitter and as a junky for all things cleaning related and a lover of luxury I just had to try them out.

So who are Iron & Velvet and what is so special about their product?

As per their website description: Iron & Velvet was born from a desire to improve. With over 30 years’ experience in the manufacture and development of specialist cleaning solutions to be used in the metal finishing industry we noticed that we had a different expectation of what “clean” is. For us, “clean” is a surface which has no impurities on whatsoever, even down to a microscopic level.

Currently Iron & Velvet have 14 cleaning solutions for use in and around the home. They are all manufactured in the UK at their site in the West Midlands. They use only the best materials and are proud of the products they make.

Iron & Velvet split their products into two separate collections – there is an interior collection and an exterior collection.

I was lucky to be sent a few products from each collection, so we can “test ride” them. So what did I get and how did they perform?

This is the selection of Iron & Velvet products I received.

Let me start with the delivery itself.

You know how it seems some companies really don’t care about deliveries… once they got your money that’s it… Iron & Velvet cares! They actually care a lot. Every single bottle came in its own separate plastic bag. Every bag was separately sealed.

This was great. I am a sucker for details and small things like this make a huge difference to me. I have received on many occasion cleaning / liquid products by post and I must admit they do not always reach me in a perfect condition. And believe me there is nothing worse than opening the parcel full of excitement just to discover your order is actually damaged or worse, ruined.
I am confident in saying that in the case of Iron & Velvet the chances of this happening are really zero.

Now let’s talk about the packaging.

Iron & Velvet products come in see-through bottles of different shapes and sizes. I like it. Why? Simple because I can see how much product is left, without playing the guess when will I run out game. Some bottles have just a simple screw on top, some have a top and a spray and some have a spray only. The one with the spray only has however a very clever security mechanism, so you can lock it when not in use and thus avoid any accidental spraying.

One other thing about the packaging – every bottle has clear directions for use, suitability and storage, safety warnings and content information, which includes % and some chemical names as well as clear details about the company, so basically everything you might want to find on the bottle is present.

Now it is time for the products themselves.

I must admit, I didn’t use the Barbeque Cleaner (simply because by the time I received the products our BBQs were already prepared for the season and didn’t need any cleaning) or the Decking Cleaner (no excuse here, I am just too lazy). I did however try all the rest.

Car shampoo is the one product making me laugh every time I look at it. It is red / violet in colour yet its fragrant is called Blue Lagoon 🙂 Ok, I know that one has nothing to do with the other but for some bizarre reason I would expect blue lagoon to be… guess what… blue! Car shampoo comes in a 750ml screw top bottle. Despite the lack of blue colour it does smell like the sea or a sea breeze or a sea front, I guess it depends where you go to the sea side. The smell is pleasant and not overpowering. The surprising bit for me however was how effective it is. Ok, I am not a car shampoo expert as you know from my earlier posts; our car is always a bit neglected, but if I didn’t read the label I would most likely put about half of the bottle into my bucket, when in fact you only need a 50ml of shampoo to 5l of water. And this amount is sufficient to clean your car, which means that one bottle will last you for 15 car washes or in my case a lifetime 😉 The shampoo works great and I can’t fault it in any way.

Moving on…

The interior collection has quite a few different products. They are split into three categories which are easily recognized by different colours. Kitchen collection is kind of green-ish, bathroom pink-ish and household specific products have a kind of yellow-brown colour of the liquid. I like colour coordination so for me it works perfectly. I would be much happier to display them outside of the cupboards, as they are products of a similar design and colour rather than a colourful mish-mash of products we all usually have, this would just drive me crazy all the time.

Most of the interior collection has a really nice and interesting smell – there is mango, coconut and lime, sandalwood, orange and ginger, ylang ylang and my personal favourite apple and mint.

The apple and mint fragrance belongs to the Glass and Mirror Cleaner. This product comes in 500ml spray with the top bottle. Sharing the house with a gloopy Newfoundland can only mean one thing – there is always something to clean and we like mirrors. We have a mirror in every room in the house (except for the front room at the moment) and they get dirty on a daily basis. There are some things which you can ignore when your house isn’t sparkly clean but a mirror for me isn’t one of them. I simply can’t stand looking into a mirror and sharing the view of myself with loads of dog slobber (and if you are wondering how come dog slobber gets onto a mirror… well, it gets everywhere including the ceiling, so hey ho…)
When it comes to cleaning mirrors and windows for years I used just one product and one brand only. Everything else that I have tried just wasn’t good enough, but Iron & Velvet actually is. Iron & Velvet Glass and Mirror Cleaner not only smells amazing but what’s most important is it cleans the mirror and glass with ease. For a normal family living in a normal living condition without a “slobber machine” which works 24/7 dirty mirrors might not be such a problem but for us it is… believe me. You, my lovely readers, might struggle with water stains or dry speckles after toothpaste… I have to deal with slobber. If Iron & Velvet Glass and Mirror Cleaner works for me, it will for sure work for you as well. And it is not just the fact that it cleans the mirror and leaves them sparkly… to some degree most products will do this… what gets me is the ease of the cleaning process. It is almost like spray and wipe, no scrubbing necessary… it is brilliant! Same with the glass; our conservatory doors have never looked better.

Hmmm I am not even half way there and my post is well over 1200 words long. Ok, I think I will stop now and if you want to discover more about Iron & Velvet you should place an order.

But before I go I just want to give a special recognition to Iron & Velvet Floor Cleaner. It is so efficient and works like magic. All pet owners know how hard it is to clean dried muddy paw prints… well for Iron & Velvet this isn’t a challenge at all! I hate mopping in general because I find it hideous and very tiring but with Iron & Velvet I hate this chore just a little bit less.

So from me Iron & Velvet gets big thumbs up.

Special note to Iron & Velvet: I really like your products guys and I think you are creating something special!

As for you my lovely readers:

What are your favourite cleaning products or brands?

Did you try Iron & Velvet yet?

* Products were provided free of charge for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are honest and my own.

7 Wonders Of Toothpaste – unusual uses you may never have heard about before

Toothpaste is an everyday essential, it can be found in every home and it is used every day (twice I day I would hope), but there is so much more to it than just a cleaner of teeth.

A few weeks ago I picked up some old silver spoons at the car boot sale; they were lovely but very dirty and discoloured… Guess what I used to clean them? Yes, you are right, toothpaste. This gave me an idea… a selection of all known to me uses for the wonder that is toothpaste.

So here you go… my selection of 7 toothpaste wonders.

Metal Cleaner

Just as stated above it works wonders on silver, gold, brass or any other kind of dirty metal for that matter. Simply use a cloth or the soft side of a sponge, wet it, apply some toothpaste and rub it in for a bit. You will see the dirt removed in no time.

First Aid

Burns and bites can be treated with toothpaste. It is especially effective on mosquito’s bites as these are extremely itchy. Just pop a small amount of toothpaste onto the affected area and you will feel the relief within a few minutes. The same applies to burns, a little toothpaste can stop burns from blistering (just remember I am talking about minor burns which do not involve an open wound).

Beauty Routine

Due to its ingredients toothpaste can be used in many ways to help us with our every day beauty routine.
First of all it works as a perfect hand cleaner. It will help to get rid of unwanted smells like garlic or onion, but this isn’t all… it also works as a finger nail cleaner. Have you ever gone gardening and forgot to put gloves on… if you did, you know how hard it is to wash your nails afterwards. The next time you are in this situation simply rub them with toothpaste and it will be much easier to get them back to their full glory.
Secondly it can help to reduce facial blemishes. It helps spots dry out so just put a small amount of toothpaste onto the affected area and leave overnight.

General Cleaner

Dirty shoes, irons, carpet or clothes stains or even crayon stains on painted walls can be treated with toothpaste. Simply treat affected, stained area with a damp cloth and a bit of toothpaste; repeat if needed. It really works great on scratched leather shoes, coats, handbags etc; it minimises the marks leaving the leather looking much better. It also works perfectly on the dirty soles of trainers; it can bring those whites back to life.

Anti-Scratch Remedy

CD and DVDs get scratched like everything else. A bit of toothpaste magic can help. It also works well on car headlights or bikes for that matter. Scratched headlight give less light so treating them with toothpaste every now and then can be highly beneficial. It will also work on your smartphone screen or a tablet if you are not protecting it with a screen protector.

Stinky Smell Removal

Every parent knows that baby bottles after repeated use develop a sour-milk smell, which simply doesn’t want to go away. Rub some toothpaste inside the bottle and pop it into dishwasher. It will remove the smell and leave your bottle smelling nice and fresh yet again.

Defogger

This is perfect for any goggles – skiing, swimming and diving… it will work all the same. Simply rub a small portion of toothpaste into each lens, rub gently, rinse and… No more foggy goggles!

That’s it. This is my list of unusual uses for toothpaste.

I just want to add that standard, ordinary, old-fashioned toothpaste works best. You really don’t want any triple colours malarkey or a whitening type (this can leave bleach marks on fabrics) or anything with scrubbing particles inside of it… just use a cheap white, smooth toothpaste.

Also do not scrub like a mad man (or woman). Use it in a gentle manner with a soft damp cloth. It is much better to repeat the process if needed than over scrub and leave unwanted marks.

Did you ever use toothpaste in any of these ways?

And if you know of any other uses for it, please share.

Kitchen Storage Solutions – Cupboard Organizer – Raised Shelves

I don’t know about you lot, but we always seem to run out of space in our kitchen. Everything seems to be nicely in order and then we buy something new and bah no space to store it 😦

Our kitchen furniture is the standard ones; the ones off the “shelf” and not made to measure or to any special order, which means that we didn’t choose the size of our cupboards. They are not so deep but they are tall. In an ideal world I would prefer them to be totally different – or at least not as tall as they are at this moment or maybe just having more shelves inside them, but we do not live in an ideal world so we have to deal with what we have.

But where there is a problem there is also usually a solution to it… we resolved our “problem” of wasting storage space with a range of raised shelves. They simply go inside your cupboard and double your space.

I find this solution brilliant. It is so much easier to reach for things when they aren’t stacking directly one on top of each other. So they offer more storage and ease of use and I love them!

We only use the straight inserts – the ones with just one extra surface but if you look around you will be able to find special stacking shelf racks which look like a step ladder (they might be especially useful for small cupboards filled with things like jars of preserves or spices). There is also a range specially designed for corner cupboards.

But this is not the end of the uses for this lovely little insert. We also use them outside of the cupboards. Mark likes to have his essential cooking things always handy, so they were taking valuable worktop space, but no more… we bought a range of narrow inserts and placed them along the side of the wall. This space wasn’t really used anyway as it is below the upper cupboards so access to this space isn’t all that great. This way we have doubled the storage space we would have without them and I think they look nicer too. On baking days he also tends to dismantle one to use it as a tent frame with a T-towel to cover breads and doughnuts as they are rising!

We even have one for our toaster, so we can hide a sandwich maker below 🙂

There are an infinite number of useful applications when you start to think about it.

Do you use raised shelves in your kitchen?

Do you have any space saving tips you would like to share?

Living on the boxes

Despite the fact that we didn’t move house lately, we seem to have an awfully large amount of boxes laying around the house, garage and loft… wherever you look there is boxes filled with some stuff. Living around so many boxes is very tiring and it comes the moment when enough is enough. It is time to de-clutter… again!

Last year we had some big de-cluttering action going on (you can read about it here and here), but that was last year and in the last 12 months we seem to have accumulated, yet again, a lot of stuff which have no permanent home. We now have to start again, from the beginning, in order to bring our house back to its full potential and show its full glory; especially that we are thinking about selling… no one will look with favouritism at the house full of clutter that resembles a warehouse.

So back to the basics and let the selection begin – a pile for selling, a pile for the local charity, a pile for the rubbish tip and finally a pile to keep.

I really wish I was more organized and didn’t allow all this clutter to accumulate like this.

I wish I could make snap decisions right there on the spot regarding what to do with any particular item when it first comes in to my possession, but I can’t… I like keeping it all just in case… and then I wonder… in case of what?

In case I might need it one day?

In case someone else might need it one day?

In case of what?

I am actually not able to answer this question but it doesn’t change my desire to keep it all.

The thought of moving house again really scares me. The last time when we moved it was from a rented property. We had very limited possession of our own then. This time around it will be a totally different story as we have a big 4 bedroom house that is filled with stuff… we are going to need a bigger truck… or two to move all of these things.

We are at this crossroads at this moment and aren’t sure which way to go… but I think more roads are leading towards selling up and moving than staying put where we are now.

Looking back at our moving experience last time, we decided this time round we are going to get movers. Ideally I would love for them to pack everything, move us and unpack each box while we are on holidays relaxing and chilling out. I doubt this will happen unless we win the Lotto but… one can always dream.

Do you have any tips in regards to keeping your house clutter free or moving?

*Post written in collaboration with Eco Movers

Kitchen Storage Solution – Addis Clip & Close Food Containers

Every kitchen needs some special food containers, no matter how careful we try to be there are always some leftovers which need storing, but the food containers are not just for leftovers, are they?

Food manufacturers try to aid us with storage but their ideas aren’t always up to the task.

Have you ever bought a packed ham or a pack of sliced cheese in a “resealable” packaging? Did it work for you? As it goes its hardly ever working for me… I open the pack take the slice or two and after few unsuccessful attempts of resealing the packet, I just take the content and move it into a size appropriate container, to keep it fresh for longer.

I seem to always run out of food containers… maybe because of my slight OCD when it comes to segregation… I do not like it when certain things get mixed up… so they all need to be in their own separate little box 🙂

I received a lovely selection of Addis Clip & Close food containers and I must admit they do work much better than your standard food storage boxes with flat lids which you just push down. Clip & Close boxes are so much more secure, really there is no escape once you have placed something in it. Believe me there is nothing coming out of them once they are closed 😉

Addis offers an awesome selection of food containers. You can pick from small, round, rectangular, or square; they can hold liquids or dry foods (this one is specially designed with cereals in mind); size wise your choice ranges from 180ml going all the way up to 8.3l. The prices range from £1.99 for a small one up to £11.99 for the giant 8.3l one.

All Addis Clip & Close containers are 100% airtight thanks to an all around silicone seal and 4 clips on the lid. They are all dishwasher, freezer and microwave safe and BPA Free, which is a huge plus in my eyes. The scientists are still working to determine if BPA is or isn’t safe, and if it is at which dosage but until this verdict is out I prefer my plastics to be BPA free… just in case.

Food containers are a must have in every kitchen and it is important to invest in good quality boxes, after all these containers “look after” your food. I like to believe that the better the container the longer my food will stay fresh and sexy.

Do you find yourself running out of food containers all the time or is it just me?