mandervince's Profile

I keep my tupperware in a little cheap plastic crate on a high shelf. It's easy to just reach up and grab the basket and set it on the counter, put the newly-clean pieces in the appropriate stack, and put it back on the shelf. I keep the lids in one of those under-shelf baskets.

I read somewhere about airlines starting up family-friendly flights, which are specifically meant for families with small kids and designed to keep the people who are easily annoyed by rambunctious kids on their own separate flights. I'd be happy to get on the plane with the kids, even though I don't have any of my own, in order to avoid all the self-righteous evil glares and complaints. It's not as if children come with a volume control or an off switch. I'm sure the parents are doing whatever they can to keep their kids calm and quiet but it doesn't always work that way.

I come from a relatively poor American Mid/Western background, and I didn't know anyone who routinely line-dried their clothes. I now live in northern England, and I don't know anyone except my well-to-do in-laws who use a dryer! In wet weather we hang stuff around the house, and plan not to do major amounts of laundry if company is coming. Otherwise it all goes on one of the umbrella-style clotheslines outside. We do occasionally get bird poop and insects, but a good shake gets rid of the latter, and if something gets poop on it it just goes back into the laundry pile for the next load.

Maybe it's our water but I don't have much of a problem with towels being scratchy. I don't like super-soft towels anyway, it seems like they don't actually absorb much water.

I'm also amazed at the number and emotional depth of the responses here.

I tend to take off my shoes because I like to run around barefoot, but I often go out into the garden barefoot, too. I'm just not that worried about germs, dirt, pollution, etc. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

I have noticed that a lot of our (new) friends have assumed we have a no-shoes rule, because I tend to pile up shoes by the front door. It always embarasses me a little when they come in, and a while later, yank their shoes off. I don't want them to think that I disapprove of shoes in the house, or by extension, them!

We bought a few Ikea items when we bought our new house, because the only furniture we owned was an armchair and a filing cabinet. However, we have mostly stuck to the things that are made from solid wood, like bookshelves and a dining table, with the exception of the Expedit shelves--I like the way they look but I do wish they were made of better materials.

I think their sofas and beds are crap, though. We got those from other local businesses. We sat on plastic lawn chairs for months until we found a sofa that we liked.

I think this version looks better than the first one. This style of sofa is much more suited to the marker treatment than the super-elegant and expensive one in the first marker example.

I'm not sure I'd put it in my living room, but it is kind of fun.