OT Whisks

Making them little muslin caps sounds like a wonderful idea. You could even get decorator cute with it, and it would keep them safe from cat hair, dust bunnies, mosquito fingerprints and whatever unspeakables might come flying through. You've reminded me of how badly I need to go through my kitchen gadgets and shed some of them. Such as, I've had a book on how to garnish and about a dozen interesting gadgets to go with it for more than 10 years. Never used them. Perhaps it's time. Polly

I'm in the 'tangled in a drawer' group! . In message , NightMist writes

I have 2 whisks that I use often and they hang behind the stove top because I only have 2 drawers in the kitchen. One drawer is for silverware, the other is the junk drawer. I also have a coffee can I decorated and use for cook spoons to stand in. I have acquired too many duplicates of cook spoons that I need to go through! Barbara in SC

Here is a thought that you might use. Make an wall apron, with a series of pouches that accept the handles, for however many of the whisks you have and then hang the apron pouch holder on the wall, nearest the major use area for the whisks. You could be as creative as you want as to color coordination and style but so long as you use a flat stick across the top that is contained in a sleeve at the back of the apron, it should be able to be hung up and lay flat against the wall. A lovely quilted design would be quite a fashion statement that is also useful as a storage solution. Of course something of a similar style could be made out of wood, but might take skills and tools that are not available right now to you. How about that?

John

My big whisks go in the big decorative round planter that sits beside my stove. It is ceramic and has an open basket weave type pattern. If you wanted to put a plant in it, it would have to go in it's own pot.

My small whisks go in the drawer beside the stove.

Cindy

Howdy!

"making them little muslin caps" - Sweetie, you need a nap! Or at least a tall glass of ice tea & a spell of sitting in the easy chair beside the a/c vent. ... mercy!

When we had the kitchen countertops replaced last month, dust went EVERYwhere, including inside closed drawers, soooo I went thru' all the cabinets and drawers, pulled out everything, put back what was immediately needed. The rest has been sitting here in 3 baskets... I think I won't use most of it again. I'll sift thru' it once more (got to save those jillion popsicle sticks!) before I cart it all down to the Goodwill store. The whisks sit in the utensil crocks beside the stove; they don't get snagged or scrunched up (don't put too much in the crocks; probably don't need most of the utensils, anyway ). There are leftover crocks, now, that have moved to the sewing table; I've been able to find my rotary cutter ever since! ;-P Too much is good for fabric stash, but not for kitchen stuff. YMMV

R/Sandy

I just toss my whisks into a utensil drawer with spatulas, scrapers, wooden spoons, tongs, etc. I haven't had any trouble with them getting tangled with other stuff.

Perhaps my whisks are a bit anti-social?

We did reorganize a bit in the kitchen recently. Thus the what in heck do we do with the whisks dilema.

I now have a drawer full of all the stuff that you cannot do without once a year. Holiday cookie and cake stencils, springerlie molds, the pfeffernuse cutter, melon ballers, etc. I have been threatening to get a box to put them in so they can be stored a bit more out of the way.

I have also discovered I need a better way to store knives. We had to ditch the mag strips when Ash discovered he could climb walls like Spiderman. One of these days I am going to slice a finger clean off rummaging in a drawer.

We do have too many of some things, but the thing is with as many cooks as we have everything is somebody's favorite widget.

Back to the whisks, we have five. My whisk, his whisk, DD's whisk, a silicone coated whisk and a baby whisk (this is starting to sound like The Three Bears). I would have chucked the baby whisk ages ago, but it is apparently absolutely essential for somebody or others single cup hot beverage stirring. My suggestion that they use a fork was met with much disapproval. My suggestion to toss out the breadbox to make more counter space was also roundly vetoed.

I like John's suggestion. I had a such a thing that I made for spices ages ago. However there is Ash to contend with.

Wouldn't take more than a half an hour to run up some muslin bags to stick on the things. Except I would play with their looks. (G) Maybe paint a different bear on three of them and goldilocks on a fourth. Then stick the baby whisk in the cup cupboard. Or use the baby whisk to make something to drink that will make me more charitably inclined towards it.

NightMist Puzzl>Howdy!

For knife storage:

I have something similar to this:

I saw this, and then found something very similar at K-Mart for a fraction of the price. It sits in a regular drawer, out of the way, safe, but easy to get the knives. And it is kind to the knives too. Probably takes up more space though than just dumping the knives in with other stuff...

Hanne > We did reorganize a bit in the kitchen recently.

I second your idea of putting seasonal gadgets out of the way. One reason we bought this house was its storage pantry. The shelves behind the pantry door (which can be locked BTW) are the perfect spot for the odd cake tins, extra plant pots, cookie boxes and other not-quite-useless miscellany. I read once that every household has a "Sargasso Sea", the spot where objects collect and get sucked in. The trick is to avoid having it in your kitchen.

I've been reading and thinking about the caps for the whisks and thought "why not stand them in my recycled cloth covered coffee can and make one big cap to go over the whole can." Seems like it would be a lot less work than making 3 or 4 caps for different whisks and will keep the dust off everything that is standing up waiting for use. Barbara, who is all for things that are a lot less work.

I have a wooden knife rack/holder exactly like that- my mom was so envious of it that I bought one for her, too. They are great, but take up nearly an entire drawer, so if you are short on kitchen drawer storage space it might not be the best solution for you.

For NightMist- what if you were to have some kind of shelf under your upper cabinets? Whisks aren't too bulky, so the shelf could attach under the cabinet and only 3-4 in. below it and about as deep and not get into your countertop space by very much.. Maybe? Or hang the whisks on cup hooks under the upper cabinets? Or cup hooks on the inside of a cabinet or on the inside of the cabinet door? Or use magnetic hooks on the side of the fridge? There must be *some* place you can borrow a few inches.... VBG

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Would something like this work for your knives?

Julia > We did reorganize a bit in the kitchen recently.

Good thought, Leslie. My whisks don't tangle but I did have a daily fight with my cooling racks. Nothing fancy, just a leftover couple of racks from killed oven toasters, one little square and two big racks that I use for a landing spot for cookie sheets and such. They used to grab onto the pizza pan, jelly roll pan and each other much like a snarled Slinky. DH solved the battle for me by installing those wonderful 3M Command hooks inside the lower cabinet doors. (Upper would do as well.) My cabinets are such masterpieces that I expect the cabinetmaker will give them to a museum when I die. The 3M strips don't do a bit of harm and they certainly do prevent a daily war with the racks. This just might solve the whisk tangle. Would take some thought to put them so the doors would still close but it's worth thinking about. Polly

"Leslie & The Furbabies in MO." Or cup hooks on the inside of a cabinet or on the

Magnetic strips work in a drawer too.

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:41:40 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (NightMist) wrote: snip

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