Are you ready to take a heady, esoteric journey through all the emotional, spiritual, and soulful lessons I’ve learned over the past 5 months on Pinterest?
YES? YES?
Too bad. It’s not going to happen. I had a post that was all those things and more three-quarters of the way written out (it actually might have been more about hangnails on your toes and clowns with sad eyes, but whatever) when my laptop screen decided to burst into flames and pelt my eyes with its cataclysmic deadness.
Or, you know, it just shut off, and then the laptop shut off, and then nothing works anymore.
Instead, I am typing this on a paleolithic desktop that is actually translating everything I write from ancient Egyptian into old Latin and then back into slang American. It might or might not be running by way of a little tiny dinosaur peddling a stone stationary bicycle.
Long story short, all of my wisdom is gone, and in its wake is something probably even more entertaining. On one hand, you’re going to miss out on why I think Pinterest has been shunned by men, though you can read this entertaining blog post for a hint.
And you’ll miss out on how I managed to completely skirt the love-hate relationship so many people have with Pinterest by adopting a “do what you can with what you have where you are” attitude. And blah, blah, blah.
Instead, let me just take the easy route and show you 7 fabulously helpful tips I’ve found via Pinterest over the last few months. And do forgive me if it’s neither pithy, nor witty, nor anything but sharing. And forgive me if I’m absent for the next two or three days while I try to mitigate this temporary electronic annoyance (but there will still be a winner drawn tomorrow … no worries there).
The Top 10 Things Useful Things I’ve Learned from Pinterest Thus Far
1. You Can Clean Hard-to-Reach Bottles With Uncooked Rice
If you don’t have a brush to do the job, or if your jar/bottle/container has hard to reach crevices, check out this ingenious tip.
Just pour a little uncooked rice in the container, top it with a tiny bit of dish soap, pour in the hot water and shake and shake and shake until it’s all clean. (It REALLY works!)
2. Recycle Mesh Veggie Bags for Homemade Scrubby Pads
I LOVE this idea, but I have to be honest – I don’t sew (yet), so I haven’t actually sewed mine up into little pads.
However, I keep them in a container under the sink and pull them out for heavy-duty scrubbing, as well as cleaning fruits and veggies well, especially ones that might have wax on them.
3. You, Too, Can Have Neverending Green Onions
THIS is amazing, people. Instead of cutting all the way up to the green and then throwing your leftover green onions away, leave some of the white part uncut and then submerge them in water.
Leave ’em in a sunny place, and watch them grow back for further use.
On a side note, I’ve also discovered that the best way to keep fresh parsley is to cut off the bottoms at an angle – like you would with flowers) and just keep them in a jar with water that’s just touching the bottoms of the stems. My parsley has been sitting there, good to go, for 3 weeks now.
4. If You Pop a Small Magnet in Your Medicine Cabinet, You Have an Instant Tweezer Holder
This may seem like a nonessential tip, but it’s REALLY not. This baby has saved me hours of hunting around for the tweezers that always seem to slip, slide, and end up in Alaska when I’m not looking.
5. It is SO Simple to Decorate a Jar Top with Scrapbook Paper and Modge Podge
You might have noticed a few jars I’ve pictured throughout Crunchy Betty and how they have ultra cute tops.
It’s because of this wildly easy trick.
It works, it’s adorable, and they really do last a very long time, or until you spill something on them.
6. A Parmesan Cheese Lid Fits Perfectly on a Regular Mason Jar
Now, this was a new thing for me as of last night. And I don’t buy a lot of plastic-bottled Parmesan cheese these days (because, you may remember, Costco).
BUT, this is a great idea for future reference, because now you can just buy one last bottle of it and then start to grate your blocks of parmesan instead. And then store it in glass. Because glass is good.
Then you could also use this idea for things like glitter or pepper or teeny-tiny love letters to sprinkle on ants.
And, of course, of note – a sprayer bottle top fits nearly perfectly on a Bragg’s Apple Vinegar Cider Bottle, too. Remember?
7. You Can Peel an Entire Head of Garlic in Less than 10 Seconds
I’m going to try to explain this, but it might be confusing. If at some point you shake your head and roll your eyes, watch the video in the pin instead. Then you can shake your head again. In disbelief. Because this is amazing.
Okay, so you smash the head of garlic with the heel of your hand so it all falls apart. Then you put it in a bowl and cover it with a second bowl (so it makes a nice open bowl-nest for the garlic). Then shake. And shake. Hard.
Open up your bowls – and you have completely peeled garlic. Yay!
What Are Your Favorite Tips from Pinterest?
Do you have any genius ideas from Pinterest that you’ve incorporated into your life?
Share!
In the meantime, I’m going to go bang my head against the laptop. It’s my last resort of fixing it.
Love You Three Times: My New Favorite Handmade Shops and a Basket of Love Giveaway
Peeling hard boiled eggs….put vinegar in the water, and then after you have drained them and cooled…drain again, put lid on pot and shake, like popcorn on the stove, for 30 to 45 seconds. The peels just slip off. (keep the eggs single layer)…
These are my two new favorite pinterest finds. This one (http://www.theyummylife.com/blog/2012/03/293/Overnight%2C+No-Cook+Refrigerator+Oatmeal+–+A+healthy+breakfast+made+in+mason+jars+in+six+different+flavors%21) I have yet to try, but I plan on giving it a go very soon since I made my own yogurt thanks to your holy grail post. Then there’s this one, (
http://tipnut.com/make-your-own-swiffer-cloths/ ) but I have to admit, I didn’t find it on pinterest, I found it on Ravelry. But I pinned it. And I love it.
Betty you truly are a fountain of knowledge. I didn’t expect to learn so much from what looked like another “This is what Pinterest is about” article. What a lovely surprise and yes I’m going to try some of these tips! Thank you for sharing them!
So far my favorite tip has been how to make your own homemade body butter. . . Mostly because it lead me to another site that has been a plethera of awesome information!!! Hint hint . . . it’s here!! Thank you so much for the time you put into your fabulous blog!! Long live Pinterest!!!
A spray bottle nozzle fits perfectly on a bottle of hydrogen peroxide or a bottle of rubbing alcohol too. Makes for for easy disinfecting.
I’ve used many of the ideas I’ve pinned! I planned a very fun halloween party for my daughter with all ideas stemming from my “Halloween” pinboard. So fun! (You can look if you want.)
http://pinterest.com/steele_megan/october/
My problem is that I spend more time pinning ideas then implementing them….
… and here’s her follow up blog in which she says that pinterest is really a good thing and is hopeful that there are ways to use it that are legal…
http://ddkportraits.com/2012/02/my-date-with-ben-silbermann-following-up-and-drying-my-tears/
I just found this article on the legal questions surrounding pinterest, written by a photographer who loves pinterest for inspiration, and who is also a lawyer who, upon review, has decided to delete her pinterest account. interesting reading even if it is a bit legalistic (ha!). http://ddkportraits.com/2012/02/why-i-tearfully-deleted-my-pinterest-inspiration-boards/
I found your blog through Pinterest and I am so glad I did! I am really addicted to that site, I could easily spend half the day on there if I didn’t have other things to do 🙂 I had not heard of the tweezer or garlic tips, thanks!
Ok, question about the green onion thing. If water is the only input, and no nutrients from the soil, will the onion degrade in nutritional quality over time? Or would that happen over such a period of time that you’ll probably have new ones by then anyway? I’m just wondering how you magically make onion from water.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m dead keen to try it! 🙂
I did a blog post about this a little while back:
http://ashleyshomemadeadventures.wordpress.com/category/tips-tricks/
I still have onions from that same batch in my kitchen window. I have learned some things since then though. They do become lighter (lose quality) over time, if the roots start looking nasty just trim them and new roots will grow. Rinsing them and changing the water everyday makes a big difference. They will not last forever this way, but it is still a great way to extend the use of them. I have heard you can also plant them in your garden to regrow 🙂
photosynthesis?
I have some in water but next time, I’ll plant them. That would be a cool science experiment for my kids (or me!), seeing which one grows better.
I am completely in love with pinterest!! Oddly enough my hubby uses it quite often as well (has his own pinterest account…nope not kidding!) He uses it for cooking and photography. I’m a teacher and so its AWESOME for the classroom, but I’m also an avid crafter so I use it for all things DIY and lots of sewing patterns. Anyway, I found crunchy betty on pinterest which i couldn’t be more thankful for, you are by far my number one find! Kevin just recently tried out the green onion idea and it works AWESOME…in fact, you could see growth the very next day!! Totally neat to us and our 7-year-old daughter who loves anything plant related. Some friends of mine and i said recently that you know you’re addicted to pinterest when suddenly you’re cooking improves and you’re dressing much cuter 🙂
I just got a Pinterest account. Like, two days ago. I spent most of the weekend condensing my recipe bookmarks (so many foodie blogs, so little time…) and now I’ll have to expand my Crunchy arsenal. This sounds like a great place to start—I can’t wait to plant my green onions!
I forgot to say that I use pinterest as a bookmark tool. I don’t follow anyone.
Good luck with your laptop. It is soooo frustrating.
I had an ACV glass bottle that I once used to store coconut milk. Well, I am glad I hadn’t thrown it away because the rice cleaning tip worked. Amazing! I just poured rice and water, no dish soap, just to try, and it worked like a charm. This way, I can eat my rice. No waste. 🙂
I found your blog through Pinterest too….although I somehow missed the fact that you have boards on Pinterest as well. Follow’d!
I did the garlic peel thing for my garlic chicken stew and it worked for the most part. I have to improve my technique on smashing the whole bulb…mine went in a thousand different directions 😉
My name is Gina and I’m addicted to Pinterest. I even found your website, to which I loyally subscribe.
I don’t sew much, either, so I just tie my mesh bags into knots to scrub with.
So many helpful and funny things, I can’t get over it!
I do love Pinterest. I had no interest in FB, tweeting, stumbling, etc… but when I found Pinterest last summer I was immediately hooked. Visual bookmarking… like they made it with me in mind!
You know, that almost makes me want to buy a jar of that awful cheese just for the lid… but I won’t! The rice trick works splendidly. I’m excited to try the green onion idea! Right now I’m trying to convince hubby that we should try the “pallet-as-herb-planter” idea I saw on Pinterest the other day (he prefers the “rain-gutters-as herb-planter” idea, also from Pinterest).
http://pinterest.com/pin/92394229825043301/
This! I bought some inexpensive (read: cheapy-cheapies) letter stamps and have been stamping jar lids like crazy.
Not to mention all the Crunchy Betty pins I’ve got! Love that Pinterest. But I do make myself review my Pins every so often so I don’t forget what’s there.
Pinterest is one road I haven’t travelled down yet. It does look interesting, and the kind of thing I could get into, but I feel a bit mentally overcommitted at the moment – I need to finish some things before starting new ones!
I can’t wait to try that garlic tip. I have been noticing recently that I’ve become progressively worse at peeling garlic, to the point where I start to worry when I need to use it in a recipe…”oh bugger this is going to take ages!!”. You may have solved a kitchen crisis here 🙂
Not necessarily any genius tips I’ve incorporated into life. But I found Crunchy Betty through a Pinterest search for peppermint extract recipes and I’ve incorporated your crunchy ideas into my life since then, so that counts, I think.
One of the best things about pinterest, for me, is that it’s a place for me to collect things that I like or that interest me, and so to find out about myself. Sometimes I’ll open a board and be surprised at what I’ve been pinning. “Oh, so THAT’s what I’m into.” (I’m learning to be more self aware.) It saves me time when I’m surfing and I don’t have the time to read, but I want to remember where to go to get that info. I’ll pin it and come back to it later.
Pinterest has also helped to inspire me. To dream, to make, to beauty, to art.
It’s also just given me some good ideas. Here’s one: http://pinterest.com/pin/120119515030873878/
I’m not so good at speaking my husband’s love language, which is Words of Love. I’m just not as verbal as he is and even though I think it, I don’t always say it. So when I saw this pin, I was inspired to make him a similar birthday/valentines gift (1 day apart, he got one on each day, 84 things I love about him in all). It was his most favoritest gift ever.
Pintrest is actually how I found your blog. So yay! I haven’t pinned too awful much yet but I am definitely trying to make up for lost time.
Sorry about your laptop woes – I live in fear of that happening to me! Hope you get it fixed soon! Thanks for these! The garlic video blew my mind! That one alone will save me hours a year in the kitchen so thanks for sharing the links!!!
You can roll the plastic mesh veggie bag from the end like a tube. It rolls up into a circular scrubber….a little bigger than the ones you buy, but useable.
I haven’t really gotten into pinterest too much, yet. My only computer/internet accress is through work. I think they might want me to actually work! LOL! I do have a tip i learned from a friend, the glass Starbucks Frappucino bottles make nice little vases. I’m saving them whenever i drink one and hopflly can use them for more great ideas! Actually i save any glass jar!
The bottle cleaning tip is wonderful! I have had an empty Bragg’s bottle sitting on my counter for a week, knowing it would sit there a year until I remember to locate a bottle brush to get “the mother” out – ha ha! My goal is to clean it and store filtered water for emergencies. I went through Hugo with no water for a week, so you…just…never…know (tho in Wyoming, hurricanes are unlikely). BTW, please check out my latest post at http://www.maggieorganizingchaos.blogspot.com bc I linked to your no-poo resources at the end, and included pictures of my no-poo journey! Thanks for all the great tips!
I haven’t spent too much time on Pinterest but I don’t DISLIKE it… its one of those things you could get into when you have absolutely NOTHING to do all day long…. I do not have days like that…yet…. But what I did find on there and absolutely love is http://www.flylady.net , she is changing my life and my house is getting happy and soon I will have time to try more of Crunchy Betty recipes because things will finally be under control around here!
PS LOVE the picture above lol…
I tried the garlic trick the other night. It worked like a charm! Of course I don’t have two clean bowls in my kitchen because I was still in my pajamas after being on Pinterest all day, so I used a mason jar instead. Much easier to fit in the dishwasher.