 |
Heirlooms |
Eleven months after our mother died, Justine and I are finally facing up to cleaning out her house. I was 3 when we moved into that house and I remember curling up on a shelf of the empty linen closet and thinking this was going to be such a good hide-and-seek house! And it was. I cleaned out that linen closet on Sunday, and it is empty again for the first time since 1969.
Justine and I have to divide up the "treasures" and so far have been accomplishing this peacefully, even happily, remembering our mother. Justine let me have the glass flour and sugar bins with the cracked yellow lids. These are truly prized possessions. Thank-you, Justine.
Our mother always decanted flour and sugar into these bins and stored metal scoops inside. What a shock when I went away and had a kitchen of my own and tried to pour flour and sugar out of bags into measuring cups. So stupid and messy. Could this be one reason cooking is in decline -- bad packaging of staples?
 |
Good design
Take baking powder. The old-fashioned Clabber Girl baking powder container is both beautiful and useful. You scrape the spoon on the straight metal lip attached to the top and it completely flattens the baking powder, which is the kind of precision you need in baking. My mother showed me how to do that when I was about 5 and I've enjoyed doing it ever since. |
 |
Bad design
Notice how Whole Foods baking powder -- a relatively new product -- lacks that lip for leveling your measuring spoon. It's a tiny, tiny flaw, but it irks me every time I use this baking powder. Is this intentional? To discourage us from baking and make those 365 cookies all the more appealing? |
Doubt it. Though it's always more fun to imagine malevolent conspiracy than boring incompetence.
Back to sugar and flour. As an adult, I went my mother one better and got wide-mouth bins for my sugar and flour. I especially love this flour bin, purchased at the Alameda flea market.
 |
Perfect design |
Sometimes I worry it contains lead, but I've been scooping flour out of this for eight years so the horse is long out of the barn. You can scoop your flour into the measuring cup
over the bin and spill not a grain on the counter. Very tidy and frugal.
 |
Labelmaker -- fair design |
And now I have my mother's bins -- for the bread flour and the high-gluten flour.
We go back to the house today to proceed with our task. If you are a thief, there are hotel soaps, Fisher Price toys, petite Talbot's jackets, tote bags, spools of thread, shower caps, ancient containers of mace, old copies of Martha Stewart Living, cracked Pyrex bowls and half a bottle of Canadian Club for the taking. There are also hundreds of photographs of me at all stages of life, as well as early finger painting projects, beautifully framed. Please. Take.
wow! that first paragraph is about as good as writing gets. have you ever considered writing a book? (just kidding).
ReplyDeleteyou have a way of writing about sadness that makes it seem so natural, which, of course, it is.
happy treasure hunting.
I like your conspiracy theory! I think I would bake more often if I had proper vessels for my supplies. I have plastic flip top containers for the sacks of flour and sugar to sit in that sort of contain the mess, but sort of just make it worse.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the amount of stuff one has to go through. I helped my parents move from the large house to a smaller one about 10 years ago and the process was much the same. Now they have accumulated the same amount of junk in a smaller area.
ReplyDeleteFunny, I just bought a container of WF baking powder and thought the *same* thing. Very annoying after having used Clabber Girl for so long.
ReplyDeleteI believe Home Depot and the like have lead testing kits. I'm not sure if they work on dishes, but I have some made in China plates I would like to test, but I haven't. Anyway, the kits may be more for windowsills, etc., but I don't see why they wouldn't work on any hard surface.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say that Rumford baking powder (aluminum-free) also has that straight edge, but it turns out, it's made by the same company that makes Clabber Girl! Huh.
ReplyDeleteClabber Girl's corn starch is the same way. Bless them for thinking of us.
ReplyDeleteYou and your sister are handling this graciously and with good manners, which is how it should always be done, but often is not.
It must be really hard to go through your mother's house -- and as others have commented, you and your sister sound like you are doing a great job together.
ReplyDeleteI am not a thief but as a nostalgic mother of a four year old, I've been looking for the old-school Fisher Price toys -- the farm, home, and school house. If you have those, and when you are ready, you should definitely put them on EBay!
I have my grandmother's metal flour, sugar, tea, and coffee tins, in graded sizes, on the top cabinet shelf. They are goofy and I love them because they remind me of her.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the house. Thinking of you.
Hey Jennifer! Check out the short video with G. Hamilton in the online version of the NYT. It turns out she is someone you would love to observe.
ReplyDeleteOz
Oz -- Thank-you for that link. She seems much more low key than I'd expected. Have you read the book yet?
ReplyDeleteThe cleaning out is an (emotional) (seemingly endless) labor of love. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteKeep the Fisher Price toys for your grandchildren (I'm serious!) And keep all those photos. If they are all in frames, then just fill a box and later on your can put them in a album. Photos are SO important.
Finally, I imagine that the WF baking powder does not have the rim because it is not easy to recycle - that is it is more ecological. But I agree that that little metal rim is very special and such a good design.
You are welcome! I started it yesterday, and I am trying to make it last. Cannot get enough of that voice!: something to be said about publishing a first book after 40.
ReplyDeleteOz
I can't believe all the press that Hamilton book is getting! I guess I better go out and buy it!
ReplyDeleteGood inseparable thoughts I like it and what I'm doing so will everyone else who may be interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dyni-jet.co.uk
my pet peeve is the spice jars that a teaspoon won't fit into the opening. And I really really hate baking powder cans. I think the conspiracy is so that most of the contents WILL spill all over the counter so one has to purchase them more often. Grrrr
ReplyDeleteWe offer personal Business loans services around the world. We strive to provide high quality service and high customer satisfaction, while possible financial services. We pride ourselves on our commitment to our customers; We can give you personal loans, auto loans, business / investment loans, short term loans. You can contact us for an affordable loan now at 2% interest rate. Contact us now via E-mail: abdullahibrahimlender@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWhatsApp Number +918929490461
Mr Abdullah Ibrahim
Looking for C# Homework Help? Get Your C# Homework Help done by the expert,professional programmer send your homework, Pay and get it.
ReplyDeleteLooking for C# Homework Help? Get Your C# Homework done by the expert, professional programmer send your homework, Pay and get it.
ReplyDeleteAntim-The Final Truth: A cop vs gangster thriller where Salman Khan and Aayush Sharma clash and it makes you grin with some wacky dialogues.
ReplyDeleteBob Biswas is a thriller movie where the character of the story gets up from coma and faces the harsh reality of life.
ReplyDeleteChandigarh Kare Aashiqui is a lighthearted romantic story about a taboo issue that is difficult to digest.
ReplyDeleteAtrangi Re - A twisted love triangle where a girl in love in married to someone else though suffering from mental illness and trauma.
ReplyDelete83 Movie - A movie based on Kapil Dev's Biopic and focussed on the World Cup 1983 where the performance of Indian team was at its best.
ReplyDelete36 Farmhouse - A movie based on the lockdown time full with intrigue, murder, hilarity and plenty more - a rebound journey of Subhash Ghai.
ReplyDeleteAttack Movie - A movie based on a true incident and the story of the movie revolves around the locating militants hiding in Kashmir.
ReplyDeleteLooop Lapeta Movie is a thriller movie which has fiction, mythology, romance, and history to keep you run in a loop.
ReplyDeleteBadhaai Do Movie - A fascinating story that engages the audience, with a strong storyline peppered with humour and punchlines.
ReplyDeleteGehraiyaan Movie - The directors have successfully conveyed the intricacies of a mature relationship to the public.
ReplyDelete토토사이트You ought to basically fantastic not to mention solid advice, which means notice:
ReplyDelete