Those of you who know us will attest to three things:

1) The basement will never be finished. Ever. It may possibly be usable in the near future, but it will never be finished. Until it is finished, stacks of stuff destined for the basement rule the upstairs.

2) We are drowning in clutter. We constantly fight this battle, and we seem to take endless loads of boxes to the Goodwill, but no matter how much we get rid of there is still too much waiting to ambush us when our backs are turned.

3) We’d far rather spend a day planning how to do something, with cool charts, graphs, lists and systems, than actually do anything productive to finish the basement or fight clutter.

So, ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you….

The Wonderfulpages.com Decluttering Flowchart PDF

Jocularity aside, this is actually a serious piece of work that is the result of literally hours of discussion. We were discussing with the kids how to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Explaining to a 7 year old which items in his overflowing “stuff” drawer to keep is difficult. Deciding what things in my “stuff” drawer to keep is difficult. Hence, a flowchart. The chart should be good for both items and paperwork, not so good for books. We’re working on the one for books, but that one’s a bit more complex. We care more about some of our books than about most of our stuff.

Sentimental clutter is the big killer. We’ve decided to keep only one item from each important stage of our lives (you decide what the important stages are) and take photos of the rest before getting rid of them. Harsh? Yes. Necessary with 7 bodies in 1200 square feet 24 hours a day? Yes.

Some clarifications:
“Assign a place” means to decide exactly where the permanent home for this item is. If that place doesn’t exist (on the shelf that won’t be hung until after the room is painted) then a temporary specific place is found. Like “in the box for stuff that will go on that shelf”, not “back on the top of my dresser with this other stuff I don’t know what to do with”.

“File or place in secondary storage” means to place the paper in the proper place in the filing cabinet, not in a pile of stuff to be filed later. You and I both know it won’t.

“Display, file or secondary storage after documenting” is for keepsakes. Displaying on a shelf or in a photo frame, filing special papers, storing things you want to keep but not display. “After documenting” means that the reason that the thing is special should be typed or written on a card and stored with the item, or if it won’t destroy the value of the item, written right on the item. (All of our Christmas decorations have the owner, giver and year marked on them in superfine sharpie).

“Discard” means “get it out of my house”. It may mean trash, it may mean recycling, it may mean Goodwill, it may mean the neighbours, it may mean someone else in your family, but get it out of there before you change your mind.

“Will you be able to find it elsewhere when you need it?” means “Can I look this information up on the internet easily if I ever need it?” for paperwork, or “Is there another more generic tool that I also own that can do this job?” for gadgets. You get the idea.

Tell us about your own decluttering methods!

There’s a local coffee shop near here called Forbidden Flavours. The owners are good friends of my brother and sister-in-law, so we went to check it out.

We’re now regulars, known by name. We have “the usual” (2 large decaf melanges) waiting for us when we get to the counter. It’s wonderful to have a place like that in this day and age. Personalized service, where the owner knows our kids and we hear all about hers. The baristas all ask about how school is going. That in itself is enough to keep us going back.

Unfortunately, the “Forbidden Flavours” line item on the budget is quickly climbing. $7 for 2 large drinks adds up pretty quickly. So, we figured out how to make our own version of “the usual”. We still go to the shop often, just not quite as often as we used to.

A Melange is a drink made with real chocolate milk (not white milk with syrup added), steamed and frothed, with a shot of espresso. No whipped cream or any other garnish, so it’s not very sweet, just flavourful. One of the reasons I love them so much is that they aren’t sweet; it’s not like hot chocolate, more like a cocoa latte.

Warning: This drink is the crack of the coffee world. Everyone we’ve taken to Forbidden Flavours for a melange has fallen in love. Our home version is close, but you have to try the real thing. Trust me.

Recipe for Home-Made Melange
makes 2 Melanges

1 1/2 cups milk (we use skim)
2 heaping teaspoons – 2 tablespoons cocoa (adjust for taste)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups very strong hot coffee (I use 1 and a half or even 2 times as much grounds as usual)

Heat the milk to near boiling. We do this in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave, but a pot on the stove would work.

Transfer the milk to a tall narrow container. We find that a large pickle jar works perfectly. Add the cocoa and sugar. Use a hand blender to blend the cocoa and sugar and milk together. When they are mixed, slowly lift the blender while it’s still spinning, so the milk gets whipped into a froth on top. This is the part that needs the tall container. If you use a normal bowl or pyrex cup you’ll get milk all over the walls. I speak from experience.

[edit: Thanks to Ash's comments below we tried using our French press to foam the milk and it was wonderful! We just poured the heated chocolate milk mixture into the French press and pumped until the foam was twice the volume of the milk. We will use this method now instead of the hand blender. (As a bonus, it's more environmentally friendly!)]

Pour the milk into 2 coffee mugs, just over half full. Add coffee to fill the mugs. Enjoy.

If this recipe has any appeal at all, and there’s a Forbidden Flavours near you, I strongly urge you to check them out.

The bake element in our Maytag stove burned out last week. MrsPages was getting ready to cook brunch for company (and we had company coming the next morning too) when there was a bright flash and *foom* *fizzle* the element died.

MrsPages ingeniously managed to cook the meal by turning the broiler on until the oven reached temperature, then turning it off, then turning it on again when it cooled. What a pain. So without further ado, I present:

How to replace the lower bake element in a Maytag Oven

You’ll need:

• A replacement element. I got mine for $35 from Reliable Parts. Any generic appliance store should have them in stock. The same element is used across many models, so they’re pretty common.
  

• A Pair of pliers (I used needlenose)
• A medium philips screwdriver (cross shaped head)
• A small slot screwdriver

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Step 1. Unplug it. If it’s wired in to the wall, turn the breaker off.

Step 2. Make sure it’s unplugged. Don’t laugh, go double check. Really.

Step 3. Make absolutely sure it’s unplugged. You really don’t want to be messing with 220 volts. Honest.

Step 4. Pull the oven out and remove the half dozen or so screws that keep the back cover on.



Step 5. Find the wires that connect to the lower bake element.

Step 6. Remove the clips from the element. You’ll likely need a pair of pliers. Be gentle, just take a firm hold and wiggle while you tug the connector off.

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Step 7. Open the oven door and remove the 2 screws holding the element in place inside the oven.

Step 8. Inside the oven, remove the broken element (just pull it straight out of the holes in the back oven wall). If the element is badly broken there may be white dust coming out. Be careful, this dust is apparently rather toxic.

Step 9. Insert the ends of the new element through the holes in the back oven wall and replace the two screws to hold the new element in place.

Step 10. Back behind the oven, using the small slot screwdriver, slightly bend open the crimped part of the connector on the wires. You might not need to do this. If you can manage the next step without it, don’t bother.

Step 11. Slide the connectors on to the ends of the new element and lightly crimp the connector with the pliers. Give the wire a tug to make sure it’s on securely. Lots of heat and electricity flow through this wire, and a loose connector can work its way off and be dangerous.

Step 12. Replace the back cover and all the screws that hold it on.

Step 13. Take this opportunity to clean the dried crud off the sides of the oven.

Step 14. Plug the oven in or turn the breaker back on and test it. Use an oven thermometer to check that the oven reaches the proper temperature and stays there.

If it doesn’t work at this point, call a repair person. The element burning out can damage the thermostat or other components. At least you’ve saved yourself the cost of this part of the repair!

If it does work, pat yourself on the back for having avoided $100-an-hour labour costs and 100 percent parts markup for a 10 minute do-it-yourself job!

UPDATE October 2009: I just replaced the element again. I found a replacement at Home Depot in the appliance section for the same price as the appliance place.

I want to post some notes on the utilities that I find useful. I’m on my PC 9 or more hours a day. I work on the PC and I have a lot of my hobbies on the PC, so I have some definite likes and dislikes, and I have the time to research best-of-breed solutions for problems that I have. So, you get to hear about them. Lucky you.

For the inaugural post, I will discuss all things sound-related.

MP3 Player and Organizer – Windows Media Player comes free with windows. Everyone likes iTunes and it comes free with an iPod or with the install of QuickTime. I happen to like neither.

I use MediaMonkey and love it. I like the way I can manage my MP3s exact locations on disk, I like the tag management utilities, I like the disk utilities, I like “party mode” which lets the kids add songs to the playlist but not mess around with the database, I like the player. The free version has almost everything the paid version has, but you need to tell it to look for new songs when you add them to your hard drive. The paid version does that automatically.

We have it installed on two different computers, and all of our MP3s on a computer on the network. MrsPages and the little Pages can listen to what they want upstairs while I have my office door shaking with my own choices of music. Great stuff.

Audio Editing – No question here at all. Whether you want to get into detailed editing of a sound file to remix a song, or just to cut a long ending off an MP3, you need to try Audacity. It’s free, it’s high-powered and it’s simple.

“But I’ve never needed to edit audio!” you say? Well, how about being able to move some of those old cassette tapes to MP3 so you can listen to them on your iPod? (Want to know how specifically? Let me know and I’ll write up a set of easy instructions). Want to make some of your MP3s smaller file sizes so you can cram more of them onto your iPod? Want to remove some hiss from those old vinyl recordings? Want to trim that stupid “hidden track” that makes your favorite song 34 minutes long on the CD? Audacity does it.

MultiTrack Recording — I know there are some musicians that read this page, and this one’s for you. Reaper Multitrack. Free (they ask you to pay if you can, but it’s uncrippled) software that does most of what very expensive studio packages like CakeWalk, ProTools and Cubase can do, but for free. It supports VST, VSTi and DX plugins. Great piece of software, especially given the price of its “competitors”.

If you want any more information of help with these programs, let me know. I’ve used them all pretty extensively, or can get you in touch with people who can help.

I’ve had a nagging headache for the past few days caused by packed upper sinuses. I can breathe fine, but I’ve got post-nasal drip and my head feels like it’s pumped about 10 PSI too tight.

I put it off, hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but it’s time. It’s time to pull out the big gun.

Shamelessly copied from Dr. Weil because it is so wonderfully effective.

Ginger Garlic Tea for Colds

Peel 1 inch of ginger root and grate it into 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper and simmer another minute. Remove from heat.

Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Add honey to taste (usually about a tablespoon).

The ginger and lemon are vitamin C, the garlic is a natural antibiotic, the cayenne pepper and the ginger make your tear ducts work so your nose runs and clears out. This is the absolute best thing for colds and stuffy noses that I have ever tried, bar none.

Now, don’t be mistaken in thinking this is like a nice cozy cup of NeoCitron. This stuff has a kick. Ginger, garlic and cayenne mean your mouth will burn, your eyes will sweat and your nose will run like a tap. You’ll soon realize that this is a perfectly acceptable exchange for how amazingly it clears your sinuses and stops your cough and sore throat.

That first sip is a bit of an eye opener, but keep at it. Drink it down, and don’t forget the bits of garlic floating in the cup, they’re chock full of good stuff.

Wonderfulpages.com: your source for character-building drinks since 2006.