Today, I spent several hours or so sanding down my old dresser – and by old, I mean I’m pretty sure my Mom got it at a garage sale when I was 6 or so, so it’s been in our family for 30 years, more if I’m right about the garage sale.
This thing is stained – was stained – an orangy red color, and, well, it had been a child’s dresser. Possibly two or three children’s dresser. It is beat to shit. One of the legs is broken. I have been carrying it in move after move since I moved out of my parents’ house at 20. It’s well-used.
But it’s solid wood, it’s a good size for us, and the frame is still intact. So I picked up 4 new (taller) legs at the ReUse center (you should totally see if your area has something similar!) – also stained an ugly orangish red – and got to work with the palm sander.
I’ve gotten the drawer fronts (5), the top, half the front, and one side sanded down – it’s turned out to be a lovely poplar with a very green grain. My plan is to pain the carcass and drawer fronts (the same white as the bedroom walls), stain the top to match what we’re doing with the closet doors, stain the legs to match, and buy nifty knobs.
Truth be told, I’m doing all this for the knobs.
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Wow, that was a lot of text for “I’m sanding down a dresser,” sorry.
While looking for tips on refinishing furnishing, I found “The Frugal Girl” and, specifically, her Food Waste Friday segment, in which she blogs about, yes, food waste. I find it interesting, and I’m glad to see someone else thinks of it.
T. & I have learned to minimize food waste by using the freezer a lot and not buying veggies we don’t have a plan for – we buy a lot of canned food. How do you avoid throwing food out?
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I’ve got a vacuum sealer that I use at times (vacced, frozen, then boiled in the bag pasta seems to reheat best out of any other method I’ve tried). I’ve occasionally picked up multiple pounds of ground turkey or beef on sale and made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce. Then put a couple cups to a bag, vacuum seal, and freeze with the bag laying flat. You get a nice easy to store stack of frozen sauce-sheets. Only problem is the cramped apartment kitchen. With counter space at a premium the vacuum sealer gets stuck on a shelf when it’s not in use, and if anything else is on the counter then it isn’t convenient to use it. I have a couple of vacuum canisters that work with the unit too, although they’re harder to find other than mail ordering. Never had any kind of weavil/bug/whatnot problem with flour that I’ve vac-sealed in a canister.
We got a vacuum sealer on super-sale and we LOVE it for meat and for purees (we can’t eat a whole squash at once). The problem I have is the tiny cord and our badly-spaced outlets.
Oof, yeah. Not sure what they’re thinking sometimes with some of those power cords.
“This is the minimum we can get away with paying for.”
I’ve learned the hard way that buying fresh veggies is generally nonsensical for me; they tend to go rotten before I finish using them. Frozen veggies, on the other hand, last a long, long time and I can just use what I need when I need it.
Hee, yes, we always have frozen peas and corn in the freezer. But i can’t do without asparagus. (That’s why we planted it)
I find it really handy to add prepared veggie mixes (along with frozen shrimp) to bowls of udon soup to make for a yummy, and maybe almost even healthy, small meal in short order.
oh, hey, that sounds tasty. We add frozen peas & corn to rice sometimes, or premade soup mixes.
It is quite yummy. I can use different soup bases, like curry paste, to control sodium levels, too.
Ooh… curry soup!
Yes, I use a half portion of Glico Curry in a bowl of water, with moist udon noodles, frozen Asian style veggies, and frozen shrimp. Nuke for four minutes on high. Let sit for a couple minutes. Mmm, mmm, good!