13 ways to make life a tad easier

1. Refrigerate your bananas.  Really. The skin will darken, but the fruit will stay sweet and edible for at least a week, maybe more.  Bananas these days are sold green but are still edible.  This slows down that ripening process.

2.  Apples in the crisper. They stay fresh longer

3. "Sell by date" is not the same as an expiration date on products, it's a guide for the store to begin to replace older stock or slow moving stock.  Many products are so acidic (like yogurt) that it can be kept way beyond the sell by date and possibly even their expiry date.

4.  "Organic" fruit is entirely overpriced.  It designates hand picked, hand buffed (in many cases) apples, pears, etc. It does not mean it hasn't been sprayed, although the spray may be 'organic" itself.  You can do just as well with regular fruit at far lower  prices and it tastes just fine.

5.  A bit of inexpensive shampoo on a dry-damp paper towel or sponge can make almost anything in your house shineyyyy.  Even car bumpers.  And I mean a very small amount, half the size of a dime, will clean brass fixtures, counter tops, stainless steel anything, aluminum...I washed my husband's car with it, and once I had it lathered up I washed it off with a hose. No buffing necessary. No streaking.

6.  If you have an endlessly itchy back, as I do, the perfect back scratcher is not one of those wooden things with claw hands.  I use a repurposed barbecue tong(s), with the connecting screw removed. It has teeth on the end, and you can, for the price of one, get two scratchers that will never break, even if the car runs over it. Them.

7.  SlipperSocks. If your husband won't part with his, break down and buy some good quality men's wool blend socks, the puffy toe kind, not those wussy nylon things--and cut the ribbing off.  I take off all the upper sock so that what's left just covers my shinbone, since I can't wear socks above that level.

8. Annnd the bonus part.  If you get cold hands, or need to keep your wrists warm or covered, the top of those socks work wonderfully well as wristlets.  I keep mine for using on the computer, since I have a bone spur on the right hand, just where it hits the desktop  when I use the mouse.  They are also nice in the winter, to keep the wind from whooshing up your coat sleeves.

9.  Kneeling pads:  the boughten kind have a limited life, and are always disappearing into the garden.  They are too thin, and too small.  And as we get older, and our knees seem to age faster,  they only really serve to keep our knees dry.    When we almost insulated the attic ceiling i noticed a TON of that thick blue styrofoam hanging about,  and it looked useful.   Turns out you can cut a hunk with a sharp knife, to any size you like, and you have a good two to three inch-thick cushion to kneel on.  I use them for kneeling on brick, or cement, or anything where you need serious comfort for a length of time.   They are also useful if you're going on an outing and will need something to sit on, on the ground, or even on a rock. (that kind of outing)

10.  If you have tomatoes in your garden, and you get the kind of rain we had this summer, you might notice your tomato plants getting yellow and droopy at the bottom. Too much rain leeches out all the nutrients that they need.  I tried this, and by golly it works. Milk of magnesia (powder or pill), calcium, and iron pills. grind it all together and sprinkle it liberally at the base of each plant.  dig it in, and cover with mulch.  It's too late probably to save what already yellowed, but the top of the  plant will thrive.  Magnesium, calcium, and iron also work very well with other nightshade plants, including potatoes and peppers.  I make up a batch and sprinkle about a tablespoon in each potato hill, and each pepper plant.  Do that maybe three or four times in a season.