Creativity in the Kitchen

A mushroom tray gets a second life

Last year, I designed a couple of patterns and had them printed on fabric and sewed the into kitchen towels.

When my energy was low, I began to wonder if I would ever experience creativity in housekeeping again. I used to regularly come up with small hack and fixes, but this had faded with my energy. Creativity requires time and an amount of energy we don’t have to ration. It isn’t just something that happens when writing or artmaking, creativity is more of a state of being. It can be applied anywhere, even in housekeeping.

While putting the utensils away, creativity finally struck again. For years this utensil tray has been sliding around every time I open the drawer. I know that shelf liner helps with this, but it also becomes another thing to clean and adjust.

Here’s a video of the sliding around problem I’ve been living with.

This is a package that some mushrooms probably came in. I held it up to the drawer gap to gauge whether to cut it horizontally or vertically to fit best. I wanted it to wedge well. Depending on the size of your gap, you may need to trim your halves, or use 2 containers.

I set my homemade wedges in the back of the drawer and slid the silverware tray in behind them. I had to push the tray against them a little to get it to wedge in nicely. Now there’s no more slipping and sliding.

I am now CALSCAPE Nursery Trained! My husband has started the Native Plant program at Theodore Payne Foundation. Our goal is to offer consulting and installation for small jobs like front yards and butterfly gardens. By focusing on jobs outside of the scope of large landscaping firms we can make native plants and habitat gardens accessible to all.