Why solving life's daily small irritations is easy and important. Tool buckets?
This blog post is mostly finished but will be expanded, corrected in next while
Tool buckets are something I stumbled on about a year ago. They will also be a bit of a metaphor in this post. I actually want to talk about a lot more, and bigger picture topics, some of which are not about "stuff" at all.
Practical solutions to small recurring problems
Family, work, health, weather, your mood, how well you sleep, those things and much more, to a large degree are not in your control. Evidently, if you can improve any one of those, if you can alter the portions you can control, you likely should. Unfortunately it tends to be limited and rare that you can quickly and significantly change one, never mind all those things.
On top of all those key and universal things, every single day there are ca. five to fifty other things you absolutely *can** control or vastly improve. Things which can also very much sap your "brain CPU cycles", energy, time, positivity and even your enjoyment of life.
And many of those are, or at least seem, **very small*. So that in and of themselves they appear as ridiculous to give much thought to, or to care about.
Yet usually these things, which are minor irritations or distractions, are far easier to solve than most think. You might have to re-arrange, declutter or clean up something, do a small DIY fix, make a few labels quickly, have a short conversation with a person you frequently interact with, or order something cheap or affordable online.
Generally the solution, in order to ensure that these recurring small issues and irritations are never a problem at all anymore, is to make the issue itself go away. Or to make the set up and practicalities really simple, or very pleasant, perhaps even "idiot-proof".
For instance: taping up, zip tying or otherwise doing a little cable management so you can't trip over the cables and can find your cables, plugs and chargers easily.
Another example would be changing your blunt kitchen knife that you use every day for a sharp one that is €10. Getting a really cheap pull through Fiskars sharpener. Or even better, spending €40 and getting a Chinese Vegetable cleaver which is easy to sharpen and will be faster and better in countless ways, every single time you cook, compared to almost any other knife. It may be a skill issue as well, you will need to practice cutting with your new knife. I did, it took only an hour or two and YouTube was wonderful to learn. My speed and accuracy in cutting any ingredients improved vastly, and with that, my enjoyment.
People cook every day, yet I have seen so many use terrible and blunt (which are paradoxically more dangerous!) knives as well as really slow much more dangerous technique.
I have aftermarket "Mag-safe" plugs on my phone, laptop and all my chargers. Every day, possibly for as long as I am around I (un)plug my two main devices multiple times a day. Since I started using these little devices, all that has become far more convenient. It practically plugs itself in, angle matters little and it being darker, makes little difference, unlike before.
More importantly, these add-ons drastically reduce the chances I -or someone else- accidentally pulls or jostle the cables and launches my laptop or phone to the floor (has happened to me). Or that I wear out or break my single, and essential, USB-C charging port. These plugs are about €5,50 each.
This ca. €27,50 investment, very likely -at one point- will save me a €200 repair or €750 replacement bill and a totally ruined day and much stress.
I combined the above with having multiple chargers (I waited for a sale) in my home, in various rooms, since I tend to like working in different parts of the apartment.
Another very low tech simple example: laundry pegs. We have very windy days, tend to do bulk laundry, sometimes have many socks and small kitchen thing to hang. I kept noticing we didn't have enough pegs, had to do weird kludges/work-arounds and double-up. Plastic pegs kept breaking, so the issue steadily got a little worse.
One day while hanging laundry, I thought to myself: "Wtf, am I doing? Am I really going to be mildly irritated about this for months or years? Every time? There is such a simple solution!"
I walked the two minutes to the store I knew had pegs and I bought two packs. €4. No chance of losing clothes in the wind, no longer being annoyed even a tiny bit when hanging laundry or having to be real careful when taking laundry down. Also, future proof. Eventually all pegs can break or be accidentally dropped down a few stories, not a problem, we have pegs to spare now.
Had some pantry moths twice, gross. Spain is warm, various bugs are a thing at times. I could have kept going, just tightly rolling up plastic food packaging etc. Hoping for the best and occasionally finding their the moth's spider like webs and tiny maggots inside my food stores. Nope.
Instead just bought enough of these glass airtight jars. No more bugs. Bonus: they keep food fresher, they stack and it is far easier to see at a glance how much you have left. Now we are far less likely to waste food or run out or have to discover another big infestation, then clean and toss a bunch of stuff.
Yes, some people reading this will likely think to themselves:
"Who cares, why do these things bother you more than the average person or at all? Why prioritize these things? Really, you want to spend you time fixing or buying stuff to eradicate these irritations, alright. Well, I myself would probably just let this one be. But if it makes you happy, sure."
My gf has said words to that effect to me, about maybe two or three of things that bothered me, in the past as well. I don't blame her! However, eight out of ten times, after I made the fix or purchase she also said "Well, this is nice, it is -a bit or a lot- more convenient and works better, it did improve our place!"
I think many people do not realize how much these constant small, recurring tiny stressors and inconveniences add up in aggregate.
They are "open loops" in your subconscious, that will keep burbling up to your conscious mind now and then. Fairly often at inconvenient moments or when you are already irritated or low on time and energy.
Most people underestimate how much all these type of things together will sap you on a day to day basis. To what extent they can lower your mood, energy and your willingness to put time and energy into other things you can not easily "solve" and prevent and that you must do.
If you spent much of the day slightly fighting your home environment, your stuff, or if the cleaning of your place is rather hard or time-consuming to do, once you finally handle all those mundane things, you might find you won't have much left in you for things that do really matter, to everyone.
For instance: to be as patient and kind to your friends or partner as you'd like to be, or to do your actual paid job properly. To have enough patience in reserve. To have better mental health.
Personally, if I notice something is broken or just really not good in the house and it is not a hard or long fix, once it annoys me for the third or fourth time, it is lives rent-free in my head.
Every time I practically notice it, spot it or am reminded of it, sometimes randomly (it may occasionally just pop in to my head when doing something totally unrelated) it taxes me, a little.
I will think for the tenth or twentieth time "Oh yeah, damn, I should take care of that! Ah, but I am 'busy' at the moment, not now!".
This can go on for weeks, even months, easily.
2 Minute & 5 Minute rules
I am not religious about these two guidelines I have set for myself, but mostly try to stick with them.
"If it takes less than 2 minutes and you have thought about it more than twice: do, fix, or resolve it at once!"
"If takes more than 5 minutes, even if it take 2+ hours and you can not do it right away and you have thought about more than 5 times, write it down asap!"
I will write whatever these defer-for-now-items are, on a paper to do list that lives on the table. The writing down part is key. Once I have jotted the thing on a list, it is out out my brain, it feels partially handled. Doesn't bother me anymore. I have a plan. Hell, sometimes I will even add a generous date behind the to do item, by which I will I want to have it done. ca. seven to thirty days into the future usually.
Now I do not have to think about it or mention it to my partner anymore, at all. And on a weekend-day or whenever I have the energy and gumption, I will just go down the list. Bulk DIY or decluttering or clean up tends to be more efficient anyway.
My gf often is happy to help. And I sometimes ask her:
"Which DIY or cleaning or whatever other jobs that I or both of us have been sleeping on have been bothering you?"
We then put those at the top of the list and do them together or alone next time we have the time and energy. I usually throw the old task lists out, but once or twice I looked at a few of our older completed ones and I was amazed at how much we got done this way.
If it remains in your brain alone, it is usually a fleeting thought and a "hope" and recurring irritant. By jotting it down, it becomes real and it will likely happen and you will feel good about it.
A somewhat bigger task would be hanging up things on the wall, it will require drilling and some plugs. Now that we have the tools always handy, it is truly not a big deal. Only recently did I (re)learn that you can always tape a large envelope underneath the hole you are drilling so that you don't get red brick dust everywhere. That is, if you don't have someone who can put the vacuum cleaner nozzle right below the drill bit.
*A friend helps us with our kitchen in a big way *
We live in an old apartment, it is very nice, we are lucky to have it, but it needed a ton of small jobs done in the first few years.
One of my friends has worked in dozens of high-end restaurants, including Michelin star ones. She comes and stay with us for vacations sometimes. She is also good at DIY. One day she offered to improve our kitchen. We picked up the knife magnets, stainless utensil holder and wooden small shelves at IKEA. She then transformed our kitchen.
She explained that in professional restaurant where practicality and speed are key, that all very frequently used kitchen tools and ingredients should be in sight and an arm's reach away, yet at the same time off the counter. That way your counter is a big work-surface that is easy to clean and you are never fruitlessly rummaging in drawers or having no idea where a kitchen tool went.
All the kitchen things in the picture she improved. She did far more other things, in various parts of our kitchen. We liked our kitchen before, but we loved it after she had finished. Took her a few hours and she insisted on doing it alone. Her upgrades made a massive difference in various ways. I enjoy cooking more and do it a bit more since she made those changes. Everything, including clean up is easier and faster.
Mental health, stress and discomfort
Since Valencia is coastal, the aforementioned breezy or windy days are common. Which is great eight months a year, really helps you stay comfortable on the more than 300 sunny days a year that this city gets.
During the colder months on the other hand, the climate can lead to unpleasant cold drafts. Lots of strong gusts of wind and wind storms occur regularly.
Our old place has many nice wooden doors. We often have two or more windows or balcony doors open, nice indeed. Yet for the first year we lived here, many dozens of times, probably a hundred+, our doors and windows smashed themselves closed due to a sudden wind gust. To the point that it was so violent that more than once I feared the entire glass pane would shatter.
We tried bricks, rocks, wedges etc. All those only partially worked. They were always in the way, had to be adjusted and moved in annoying ways, some scratched door and I stubbed my toe more than once and the wind still overcame them at times.
Besides the above, a lot of the glass panes were loose in the doors and window frames. Which meant vibrating and clattering, a lot, due to the old dried up caulking and the wood changing a bit, since everything is at least 30 years old.
You'd think: these are minor problems! Yet all that clattering of glass, plus a loose kitchen back door latch, on windy days this all made the entire place sound haunted, even when all doors and windows were closed.
Lots of unpredictable noise. Tons of draft. Not good.
I started noticing that on windy days, myself and gf felt noticeably more stressed and anxious. Unheimlich, the very opposite of feeling cosy, homey or safe.
This effect was not even that minor. It did feel a bit like you are sitting in a rickety tent while it storms outside, hoping for the best and fearing the worst, rather than living in a nice apartment. We spent a year just ignoring (or more accurately trying and failing to ignore) all those issues.
One day I had, had a enough.
Ordered some stainless door hooks of different lengths and together we drilled a few holes and installed wall plugs, fixed the back door latch and used the caulk gun to put a bit of transparent silicone on the loose panes. That was all that was needed to permanently solve these issues, forever.
It was kinda fun to do and all told, it took 3 hours, spread out over a few days when we had a bit of time.
We could have just left it for many years instead. Just accepted that draft, noise, smashing windows & doors, stubbing my toe as well as messing with three rocks on the floor daily (to sort off block our toilet, kitchen and balcony doors) was forever our new "normal". I am glad we didn't! Had I known early on how much it would affect us in aggregate/over the long term, I would have fixed these issues within a month or two of moving in!
Labels
Almost all our drawers and cabinet doors have a simple large font label and pictogram next to it. Sure, it looks a little odd, but also cute. It helps me find things, but since we also have quite some guests, it saves a lot of time there too.
We play D&D every two weeks and regularly organize events of 5 to 70 people in our spaces. By having our bins clearly labelled, people can separate garbage easily without dozens of people having to ask us where things go.
Dish drying cabinets with no bottom
I first read about Japanese, Finnish and Spanish (these countries seem to commonly have them) dish drying cabinets in an excellent old book called "How things don't work."
When we improved our social center, I insisted on having one of these cabinets, much bigger than the one in the picture above. I absolutely love it.
After washing, dishes are placed on the shelves and drip-dry neatly into the sink below. With the cabinet doors closed, the dishes are hidden from view as they dry. It’s a true game-changer for small kitchens, homes without a dishwasher, or anybody who has a lot of hand-washable items.
You no longer need a separate drying rack, countertops stay uncluttered and tidy, it allows and the water drips directly into the sink. You almost never, ever again need to use a drying cloth to dry any dish or cup etc. I don't know about you, but I never enjoyed or loved drying dishes.
Batteries
We use a lot of AA / AAA batteries. We have ceiling mounted ventilators in every room that each have a remote, tv-remote, a milk foamer, bike, headlamp & other lights and more. Ended up buying a bunch of the IKEA "LADDA" rechargeable batteries and a few chargers.
Besides the obvious benefits to the environment, there are other considerations.
Regular batteries often leak when they are low on power. In the long run, it costs more money to keep buying them over and over. I also noticed that we would dutifully collect spent batteries but it would take literally a year before we'd return them at the supermarket. Sometimes despite putting them by the door for weeks. It was a blind spot. Rechargeables I won't have to return for many, many years.
As it turns out, the high capacity AA ones that Ikea sells are likely the top of the line Eneloops, just re-branded and at half the price.
https://www.ruxyn.com/2025/05/ikea-ladda-batteries-rechargeable.html
It is not about just stuff, it is even about friendships or relationships
I will call her "Soroya", she was a friendly acquaintance that lived nearby. I liked many things about her. But there was an issue, she always talked 80% of the time and would talk over people (not just I). I had known her for almost three years, did not see her frequently.
About a year ago I finally plucked up the courage to explain that it was very sub-optimal, that in any conversation there should be a two-way street. That both person ask questions, do not interrupt, do not talk over one another constantly, and if she could please be mindful of those things.
I tried my utmost to say it as kindly as I could, she took it well. Unfortunately nothing ever changed. There were about two other issues since almost the first.
She had once already said she was considering leaving our group since she was not very interested in almost any of our (varied) events, and for other reasons too.
A month or two ago, after a lot of soul-searching, I wrote the kindest, but shortest message I could muster, to see if there was truly no way to change these issues. She did not take that one message as well, but to her credit, not bad either. However, she did herself decide then and there to leave our (messenger and IRL) social group and to focus on other activities and groups. Absolutely fine of course. She was barely showing up anyhow, for a long time. The truth is the fifty other people in that group, we and nobody else had those same issues with as we did with Soroya. I find that at least a bit telling.
The thing is: even though I have not changed my mind about the things I asked her to work on even a bit, the better and kinder thing would have been to tackle the issues early on. It would have lead to a lot less confusion or irritation on my part and perhaps a lot of time-saving on both our parts.
In that sense even friendships can also have recurring, small, but significant and mounting issues that take a lot out of you. Sometimes the issues are easy to resolve, with one pleasant conversation and a good outcome for all. I have experienced that multiple times, including being the only one that had to change!
At other times, sadly, it means ending the friendship. I still think she is a good person.
But just like the issues with our windows or doors and kitchen, I could have just accepted them, and been irritated or stressed indefinitely. I don't think that would have helped even Soroya!
Decades of trying different tool storing solutions for around the house
I have had all the tool storage solutions above and quite a few more. They all had issues. The Rolykit plastic thing, rattled like crazed and need a lot of floor space to be able to access all tools. It could not contain large tools like hammers or battery powered drills.
The tool rolls are excellent for taking a few rolls to another building or location. But they also do not hold large tools and often you get in trouble with the sizing of the tools. The individual pockets are too small (tools can fall out) or too large (tools can disappear from sight).
The metal boxes are noisy and rattle, tend to rust and have occluded sections.
I didn't even know tool bucket liners existed. I saw the randomly online about a year ago. It was game-changing for me! Since everyone reading this blog post likely own a least of few tools or does a little DIY or gardening, I hope it helps someone.
I Ordered online, ca €25. Fits any standard ca. 15 Liter used (or new, like 4€) sturdy but light paint bucket. There are plastic and metal buckets, ubiquitous at any DIY store.
What makes the liners so valuable is that the tools are rather secure, do not rattle, there are pouches of many sizes, the bucket is easy to lift and plenty of longer things can stick up and out the middle if needed and even some fasteners, tape or other things can be put in the middle of the bucket.
The bucket fits so much, without getting hard to carry, that it essentially fixes the typical and extremely common and sometimes tiring problems of using, transporting and storing tools:
"Where the heck did I put that tool?! I had it just now!"
"Damn! I need one or several more tools, I have to walk or go back, perhaps a few times"
Each tool has their own spot, can be easily seen and put back at all times. You can move all your tools at once, 30 cm over or carry them wherever, easily. That possibility is key for me, because often when I do DIY I will be doing jobs in 2 to 4 rooms within an hour or two. I used to throw the tools and materials I thought I would need into a crate. That was a nightmare in terms of the two issues above and more.
And of course you can also hang all your tools from a ladder or such.
For those who take their tools to lots of onsite jobs, there are very similar items available that are more of a backpack and that allow you to cover the tools.
I wish these things would have been around when I first got into fixing things.