Household hint--laundy

This has nothing to do with the kitchen, but it has made laundry day infinitely easier at the Zollinger house.
At the dollar store I found a bunch of those tiny brass safety pins( 150 for a dollar!) and every night when I take off my socks I use one to pin them together. NO more matching for me! They are washable, and I am to the point where I just leave the safety pin on one of my socks when I wear them.There was a day a week ago where one of my students was in dire need of a safety pin due to a ripped pants issue, and he was amazed when I took one off the cuff of my sock and saved his day. If you are a super laundry hater like me, you don't even have to fold the socks, you can just throw them in a drawer already pinned together.
I hope this saves a few people from having a basket full of mismatched socks!

Sanitary Sponges?

In efforts to make our blog a well rounded, educational place of reading, I would like to introduce a hint section. My hint of the day involves keeping sponges more sanitary, thus prolonging the life of your dish washing tools! After doing dishes and cleaning kitchen surfaces, rinse off your sponge and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds. It kills bacteria and gets rid of the beginning mildew smell.

Spaghetti in a pop bottle

I don't have a recipe today, just a very helpful hint that has saved me so much stress when it comes to spaghetti.
Keep your large 2-liter bottles for storing spaghetti. After you wash the bottles, stuff paper towels inside to help draw out the water. In a sunny window, it should take less than an hour.
Making sure the bottle is dry, put in your spaghetti. This takes time, but the result is worth it to me, because it will dispense a serving of spaghetti with just a shake of the wrist. It's easier for me than having to deal with spaghetti from a bag or plastic container. It seems to scatter all over the place and just my luck that is when Jake will decide to walk through the kitchen and step on a few pieces. Sweeping pasta is hard.

The best part about this is that the amount of spaghetti that comes out of the bottle is the perfect serving of pasta for two people with a bit of leftover. Easy measuring!