We haven’t had a “What Am I?” Saturday for a while. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, what I do is post a fraction of a photo of my declutter item for the coming Monday and you get to try to guess what it is. So take a look at the photo below and leave a comment with your guess. There is no prize just the joy of being the first one to guess correctly.
What am I?
The Weekend’s Mini Missions
Saturday – Declutter something toiletries related. That old aftershave that stings your face, old shaver handles that are excess to your needs or that extra toiletries bag you received on your last long haul business trip.
Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.
“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast
Institutional-size mustard container?
The photo is not in 1:1 scale it has been enlarged to make it easier to see.
soap dispenser
Hi Kim and welcome to 365 Less Things. Nice guess but I won’t elaborate further because I would prefer to keep you all guessing.
The fact that the white part is offset is confounding me. Looks like the white might be some type of plunger.
Hrmmm.
Lettuce spinner?
Lotion dispenser?
Poorly designed tire pump?
Playdoh-related item?
Chicken feeder?
Pony or corny keg tap?
Duckbill lazmatazzer?
Fruit compote and plate.
Just wanted to comment on what I have been doing this week. While I am still tossing one thing a day at home, I have been doing a MAJOR decluttering and downsizing here at the office. We have been asked to pay a lot of money to keep a large room for a storage room or move our supplies and office gear to another space. I have managed to comandeer portions of several closets but it cannot begin to compare with the square footage of our large storage room. So, the next best thing is to toss and toss and toss. Lots of things were just kept “in case” but now, since we don’t have the space to keep it, it will go. I have cleaned out and consolidated 4 file cabinets and today found out that a mouse had gotten into one of the drawers where I keep plastic silverware and tea bags and the like. He didn’t get into any of the food items but just chewed around the edges and shredded up tons of napkins. (Must have been a bed)! Anyway, I tossed everything in that drawer (in case s/he had touched it). I have wanted to clear out that cabinet for several years but there is always something else to do. Today was that day. The top drawer of that cabinet had office supplies and I moved them to the main drawer that I keep our office supplies in and now the entire thing is empty. So, while I am not making as much progress at home this week, the office is getting a major overhaul. I am pooped!
Hi Maggie, if I remember correctly you have been working on that office project for a few weeks now. Great effort by the way. Imagine what it has cost over the years for the rental of the space it took to contain all that “just in case” stuff. I dare say you wouldn’t have had to go far to acquire the items had you not had them on hand anyway. My experience is that when things are in oversupply they are usually taken for granted and wasted or hard to find what you want among the multitudes and end up being repurchased. So perhaps in future even the supplies themselves will be used more sparingly and your company will end up spending less on them as well.
I do however dislike to hear the word tossing. I know that most people mean giving away but it just sounds like things are going in the bin and I am never happy about that if it is perfectly good stuff. I am sure that it is not what you meant. I have done radio interviews and had a newspaper article written about by my decluttering and the interviewer always use the word toss. I can correct them on the radio but it is too late once it is in the newspaper and I wouldn’t want people to thing that I just toss what I don’t want in the trash.
Good for you Maggie. Decluttering ‘public’ places is difficult so it helps to have an ally. Mice can come in very handy! When someone wants to know why you tossed such-and-such, you can not blame it on the mouse. It was the leavings of a mouse the provided the catalyst for a much-needed cleanout of the storage room at our Senior Centre. By the way, I have plenty of extra mice around if anyone wants to borrow one!
It looks like a container of some sort with a pump attachment. I’ll look forward to seeing what it really is.
A platter with a pedestaled container on top of it. I am sure that I am not even close to what it really is :). I liked Lucy’s guess better.
Not to scale: Tricky!!!
Tossed is for those items that cannot be reused or recycled. You have no idea how many empty boxes or packing material or computer parts that are obsolete that have been kept in this closet. I have made sure that everything that can be reused or repurposed has been saved but some things are just too old. We are giving to a customer who does printer repairs some of the old accessories so he can use them in his business. Again, “tossed” was tossed around unnecessarily. Sorry to offend.
Yeah, I think something there is just tossing as in throwing away (or recycling if possible) left for some stuff. And I have the impression it happens in offices even more than in homes that things just get “stored” that in reality are trash because nobody wants to deal with them. Used data cds, most sorts of lightbulbs, used up printer cartridges, broken electronics … at least where I live (and I guess in most other places in the western world) these need to be brought to special places so the chemicals in them won’t do harm and in some cases parts of it can get recycled if collected separately instead of poisoning the regular trash. It’s annoying, but it seems that if people have the chance to just stick something in a cupboard or take action most will choose the cupboard – especially if it is not theirs …
Office cleanouts on a regular basis really should be mandatory …
Colleen I don’t have any ideas yet about your What Am I but wanted to thank you for your Friday Favourites. There are so many good ideas there and this week it was Joy H and her pasta cooking tip. I have been doing hard boiled eggs like Hunter_xs for years but never thought about using that method for pasta. Tried it last night and it is perfect!!! Between you (and your readers) and Daily Lime I’m constantly improving the resource and planet-saving habits of my family.
Hi Megan, I turned my rice off after only five minutes on Friday evening and it did in fact cook the rest of the way. Not only that but the saucepan was easier to clean because none of the rice stuck to the bottom. I am going to try this with more of my cooking and not just the boiling situation. I will turn off the oven sooner and allow the residual heat to finish the cooking. Same with the frypan. It all adds up to a lot of saved power.
I admit, I was sceptical about this week’s discussion about turning things off the book, but I didn’t have time to cook potatoes before the bus, so i tried it. It worked! Now trying it with navy beans! Thanks you smart people in this community!
snosie, I’m not sure this method would work with navy beans because they need such a long cooking period. But you could likely turn off the heat a bit early, cover them and let them sit for 10 – 20 minutes to finish.
You can also let baked goods finish baking after turning off the oven early. This is best when used with hardy baked goods like muffins, brownies, etc or main courses like casseroles that are just being heated or thin dishes like pizza. It should not be used with dishes that need to be cooked thoroughly in case the food doesn’t reach a safe temperature before it starts to cool off.
What an I? Reminds me of a Liquid soap dispenser.
fantastic. Now that you have said it, its so obvious 😉
Haven’t a clue. Looks like a platter of some sort and then who knows what on top.
My guess is either a chess piece on its board, or a perfume decanter on a tray … and it is likely not either one!
Salad spinner, right?
Hi Toby and welcome to 365 Less Things. I am sorry but it isn’t a salad spinner. Try again.
What am I?
Looks like it might be some sort of craft’s stamp.
kind of looks like a paper cutter for scrapbooking
thanks Jo. The navy beans had a lot (more) cooking to do, but I didn’t keep the heat on the whole time. A recipe I have for brownies calls for ‘leave in cooling oven’, so I’m saving there!
Agreed that it’s a good method for stable foods. Actually I’ve seen a great chicken breast cooking recipe that calls for some residual heat cooking, but it would be a bit risky, esp your breast was thicker than the recipe writers!
Colleen – sadly work’s just blocked your site, I think. So it’s great you such a phone friendly site!
Hi Snosie, my site is probably more phone friendly because I reduce the size of my photos before adding them. This makes it quicker to load. I actually had to use my phone last night to schedule today’s post. We overstepped our downloads this billing period and are on a go slow until Monday. And boy was it going slow last night.
tupperware mustard dispenser ?