Dear Tanya,
My problem is how to manage the clutter that accumulates in our home. I’m not talking about only old magazines and books that my husband and I have no plans of reading again or clothes that don’t fit us anymore. We don’t have children, but I sometimes feel that I have one –my husband. He’s like a snake that molts when he gets home, trailing socks and shoes on the way to the bedroom. He also likes to bring home all sorts of junk – model cars and figures that he tires of quickly and leaves lying around. He hardly does housework even though we both work and don’t have a maid. The problem is I like to keep a neat house and he likes swimming in clutter.
Tina
We’re not married to the same man, are we? The same man who can sleep with an empty can of Coke and wet towels on the bed? I think I spent the first four years of my marriage picking up after my husband and the next three years picking up dogshit from the floor.
You are not alone. This argument is probably taking place in 90 percent of the homes in the world: Honey, can I throw this 1980s Boba Fett action figure away? (No, because he’s hoping he can trade an armless Fett on eBay someday.) Honey, can I throw this bent whisk you inherited from your grandmother? (No, she’s hoping she’ll learn to make soufflé before this decade ends.)
Letty Lopez wrote about clearing the clutter in last week’s Modern Living (hold a garage sale every five years, she said). I should add that you need to establish a routine as soon as you get home, like spend half an hour straightening the house, both of you. Men think they deserve a medal when they do housework. Fine. If he needs a pat on the head, do it.
Junk is a subjective word. So let me ask you this: How much do you love your husband? Because you have the option of tossing him out as well, you know.
No? Well then, the secret is to compromise and give him space. Before Christmas I went on a massive cleanup and told him to weed his hundreds of computer game CDs. He yelled at me and said these old, dusty CDs were classics (yeah, right – who’d want a 1996 NBA Live?) and that this was the only space he had while I had the rest of the storage cabinets, what the hell was I complaining about? He was right; most of the junk was mine. So I bought him a cabinet to keep his junk . Our deal is: What can’t fit in there he has to throw away. The same with my stuff. If my books can’t fit on the bookshelves anymore, I have to give away some. The thing about books is that they’re harder to give away than clothes, you always think you’ll need them in the future, like when the topic "discord in German classical literature" comes up at work. I promise you this: Once you’re able to give away a chunk of your books (no matter how expensive you bought them or how beautiful they are), the next weeding will be easier. Plus, you’ll make friends with the people who will gladly give them a new home. (Don’t impose your books on friends who don’t want them or you’re adding to their clutter.) Or you can give them to schools. I once donated books to the elementary school near our house, and made damn sure Erica Jong’s novels went to another box.
Another trick that my friends and I did was to hold a white-elephant party. Each friend brought two things she wanted to get rid of and then we picked from the pool the things we would find use for. It restores your belief in the saying that "one man’s junk is another’s treasure" and is guaranteed to make you laugh at each other’s white elephants.
How do I know my cheese is rotting and not just molding like blue cheese?
Joseph
How about you taste it – if it makes you want to puke, it’s rotten cheese; if it makes you want to pour a glass of chardonnay, it’s blue cheese.
Is this a trick question? Or did you attend a wine and cheese party and all the guests got sick?
Whether it’s processed cheese or blue cheese, cheese gets mold, the only difference is one tastes good (well, it is an acquired taste) and the other tastes bad.
Black mold means your cheese should be retired in the bin (with the exception of a cheese called Tomme de Savoie with its black-gray mold).
Blue mold in blue cheese is from penicillium roquerfort or penicillium glaucum. Websites such as foodreference.com and ilovecheese.com have different takes on the origin of blue cheese. The former says blue cheese was first produced in caves (in Roquerfort in the south of France, in Stilton in England, in Gorgonzola in Italy, in Danablu in Denmark) and it was by accident that they found out that for these kinds of cheese, the mold actually added to the great taste. The latter says that around 1845, a peasant took the mold from his bread and put it on his cheese thus creating the first blue cheese. (What was he thinking?)
Today, of course the penicillium roquerfort is injected intentionally into the cheese, then it is punctured to allow air to enter and the mold to grow or it is mixed with the curds for even distribution of the blue-veined mold. Some blue cheese are still stored in specially designed caves in the areas they take their names from.
White mold on the surface of soft cheese is produced from bacteria during the production; examples would be brie and camembert. There is also the soft cheese with a reddish crust from the red culture bacteria that develops as the cheese is matured. And the soft cheese with "washed" rind (reddish-brown color) on which white mold may grow, which is harmless, but green mold should be washed away.
To avoid the embarrassment of serving bad cheese, you should store it properly. Soft cheese dries up in high temperature, so keep it in the vegetable drawer of your ref in its original packaging. Cream cheese spoils easily and should be put in the higher drawer of the ref. Hard and sliced cheese should be kept in its original paper or aluminum foil. Blue cheese goes to the vegetable drawer. Processed cheese can be kept for weeks also in the bottom of the ref.
God knows how many kinds of cheese the world has. But if you’re more interested in French cheeses, a great resource is frenchcheese.co.uk. You might even learn how to make cheese yourself.
Before I put the crystal flutes and nice glasses in storage again, I want them perfectly clean. The problem is after washing they get spots when I air-dry them.
Malou
The rule of thumb in washing crystal glassware is that they should be washed one at a time, don’t put them in the water-filled sink to make it quicker. Use dishwashing liquid and add a few drops of ammonia. Don’t dry them upside down because the stems are easily breakable (the higher the lead content, the more fragile it is), rather dry them with a cotton towel. To prevent spotting in glassware, use hot water when rinsing or add white vinegar.
Then again, if you have a fight with your spouse while washing the flutes, who cares if they have spots or not – crystal always makes a nice clink when it comes crashing on the floor.