Frugal Intuition

If you’re like us and have pets, more than likely their hair is on everything and you rarely leave the house without taking a part of your furry loved ones with you.  My husband is considerably more embarrassed about this than I am (I figure anyone who will judge me for that outside the context of something important like a job interview isn’t a pet person and I wouldn’t like them anyway), so this means that we’ve tried lots of ways of getting rid of pet hair from our clothes and furniture.  We’ve tried the lint rollers that are basically inside out masking tape, where you peel off one layer to reveal a clean one.  But these aren’t reusable and can get expensive if you’ve got truly furry friends.  We’ve tried a washable lint roller, which works moderately well, but inevitably it gets used and put back without washing and then when it’s needed again, we need to wash it and don’t have time for it to dry and…well it’s just not the perfect solution either.  The furniture, of course, we can vacuum, but that doesn’t work as well for clothing.  What we have discovered is hands down the best way to remove pet hair is to use rubber gloves, like the kind you would use for cleaning.   These are uber cheap, reusable, and most folks have them in their house anyway.  Simply put them on both hands and rub the clothing in one direction.  I find this works best when one person is wearing said clothes and the other person is de-hairing them.  I don’t know exactly how it works, but the friction or the static or something manages to drag the hair down into clumps that can be picked off.  This actually got the hair off of our fleeces, which are notorious for holding dog hair.  And they’re cheap!  Less than $2 for something you can use over and over again.  It’s a great example of using this for that.

Okay one of the key questions to ask whenever you’re thinking of purchasing something is:

Do I have something already that works for that purpose?

This is particularly important for me when it comes to kitchen gadgets.  I have a real thing for kitchen gadgets.  This is a problem for budgets, space…

One of my very favorite “this for that” kitchen gadgets is my personal substitution for a panini press.  I love LOVE paninis.  There’s nothing better than a hot toasty sandwich with melty cheese.  But rather than going out and spending $25 to ridiculous on a panini press that wouldn’t fit in my overcrowded kitchen if I wanted it to, I turned to the handy dandy appliance that almost everyone has in their kitchen (and if they don’t, you can pick one up at a garage sale on the cheap)
The George Foreman Grill.  The thing works just like a panini press.  It even does the nifty little grill marks.  Since I never actually use this for it’s intended purpose (I’m a food snob and say it doesn’t taste grilled unless it was done on an actual outdoor grill), this was a great way for me to reuse something I already had.  AND it takes up less space than most panini presses that I’ve seen.

If you don’t have a George Foreman, you can also use a waffle maker.  It’ll press interesting designs into the bread.  I have fond memories of waffle maker grilled cheeses from my grandmother.

This makes the best grilled cheeses.  Two slices of bread, cheese, and some of that fake squirty butter that isn’t really butter but tastes like it (I like Parkay).  It really cuts down on the fat and grease, and it’s fast.  Toasts both sides at once.