I think maybe the greatest misconception among my readers is that I have my shit together. I do not. My house is usually a mess, I own 17 pairs of safety glasses but can never find any of them, and I recently turned down a date with a guy because his couch was ugly. There was a picture of it on Facebook. He just wasn't right for me, it never would have worked. I just don't see myself with someone who owns a velour puffy couch.
Also, I often knowingly wear a shirt with a coffee stain on it, only to exclaim Oh! Look at that! I must have *just* done that! when someone pointed it out to me later in the day. I even pretend to try and blot it.
My shit is not together. My shit is all over the place. Oh! You too? Yeah. None of us have our shit together, no matter what Instagram leads you to believe, so don't worry about it.
My vegetable seeds for instance. They were quite literally all over the place. Some packets were in boxes, some were in bags, and some were in my secret hiding spot which is also apparently a secret from me.
Then out of the blue, like a strike of lightening, or more appropriately a strike of Luffah, I had it all figured out. I needed to get my seeds out of their packets where I couldn't see them and into glass vials. Those vials would get put onto a small shelf I would built, organized according to vegetable type.
That was a stupid plan so I didn't do it.
It was stupid because glass vials are see through (which I wanted) but seeds will last longer if they're stored in the dark.
Plan B. Don't put the seeds on a shelf, put them in boxes, which will not only keep the seeds in the dark, but they portable for carrying back and forth to my 2 garden plots.
I found my little boxes at Dollarama in Canada, but most craft stores or dollar stores have these kind of boxes. THEY ALREADY CAME WITH THE CHALKBOARD ON TOP. I must have done something right in a previous life.
IF YOU ARE A SANE PERSON (who possibly owns a puffy velour couch) WITH LITTLE REGARD FOR AESTHETICS AND VERY FEW OBSESSIVE/COMPULSIVE TENDENCIES THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO DO. PUT YOUR SEEDS IN VIALS, LABEL THEM, THEN PUT THOSE VIALS IN A BOX. EVEN A SHOE BOX WILL DO.
Look who's still here! Good for you. Some of my best friends are mental.
Me? I wanted these seed storage kits to make me smile every time I looked at them. Which I couldn't do unless I tinkered with them a bit.
The first thing I did was add labels to all the vials, and used a different colour of magic marker for every seed type. Red for tomato varieties, purple for radishes, green for greens and so on. That way if I had a bunch of vials on the table I could quickly grab all the red ones without even having to look at the words on the labels and throw them in their "tomato" box.
These vials also came from Dollarama where they sell for $1.25 for 3. You can buy almost the exact same ones on Amazon but they're $4 for 3. So unless you only need a few, try to find them at a local craft store.
I mean, come on. Look at those little seeds.
The boxes were fine. They weren't perfect but they were fine. I wasn't in love with the brown elastic band/wood knob closing system. They just, ... they looked a bit too much like faces.
So I spent 14 hours on the Internet figuring out what the name of this type of flippy latch is so I could do an online search for those at my local hardware store.
If you ever want them, they're called draw latches. Or draw catches. Not flippy latches.
You can get a set of 4 in chrome for $6.99 on Amazon. Or a set of 2 in brass (like mine) for $11.
The other issue I had with using the boxes exactly as they were, was that my glass vials were a bit too tall for the lids to close. If I laid the bottles down the lid would close, but I could fit WAY more into the box if I stood the bottles up.
So I bought a few extra boxes, took them apart and made one box out of two of the deeper box bottoms. This gave me enough room to stand my bottles upright.
I didn't double the size of all the boxes, just a few for the seeds I knew I had a ton of and needed to be able to fit a lot of vials in the box. Like tomatoes. And salad greens.
All the other boxes just got new clasps, I filled in the holes where the elastic band originally was and in some of them I added a little sort of shelf so the bottles could lay back a bit.
That's another place those extra boxes I bought came in handy. I took them apart and used parts of them for things like that little shelf.
I also glued some of them to the parts of the boxes the draw latch screwed into to allow more material for the screws to dig into.
No same person would do all this by the way. Nor would they turn down someone of considerable wealth and kindness because their couch was ugly. But there you have it.
Like I pointed out, I did something right in a previous life, because the boxes came with a piece of chalkboard on the lid.
Then I must have done something seriously wrong in a previous life because 2 days later I went back to this same Dollar Store and they had slightly larger boxes with ... you guessed it ... flippy latches.
But I can't dwell on that sort of thing.
Need to know what's in the box? NO problem. It's written on the lid. Changing what's inside the box? NO problem. Wipe off the lid and relabel it. (the bigger boxes with the latch that I came across a couple of days later didn't have the chalkboard on them)
Yeah, I know you're wondering about this. My sister gave me this silver chalk holder yearsssss ago. But you guessed it ... they sell them on Amazon for $5. I love this thing.
I also love my seed kids kits. Probably more than I should. Like, probably I should save this kind of love for humans.
Part of what makes this system so good for anyone who gardens is the fact that you can look right at the bottle and see how many seeds you have. And when the jar is empty you know you have to get more.
Finally. A seed saving system figured out. It took me years but I got there.
I may have done it with a stain on my shirt ... but I got there.
And you will too.
Miriam
Aw Karen, all that Amazon stuff for like $1 is making me want to live over that side of the Atlantic. Delivery charges to Ireland are crippling!
Your seed boxes remind me of my Essential Oil boxes, and I too love the neatly arranged rows of bottles :)
Becky
If you save your own seed, make sure they are bone dry before putting them in your jars or they will mold.
Ask me how I know this.
Amber
Im a novice in the garden. How do you keep the planting information (typically found on the seed packets) organized?
Is there an app or garden planning site you use so you don't have to rely on little paper packets to tell you what to plant when? It gets overwhelming trying to figure out what planning tools to even use.
Or perhaps I'll just admire your creativity & try gardening in another decade or two. *says the girl who failed at growing tomatoes. Harvested 3 total from 12 plants. Yellow flowers but no fruits from my labor. Then a freak hail storm wiped everything out. Perhaps it was divine inspiration....
Amber
*intervention
Julie A Jones
I just love when one of your emails shows up in my "in" box. I know I'm in for a lot of good laughs and reading info from someone who doesn't care what others think of her-you're saying what's on your mind.
Thank you for the laugh today!
.
Karen
You're very welcome Julie! And thanks. :) ~ karen!
Kristina
Your shit is so together. My dad used to keep one of those chalk holders in his pocket when he worked in our farm shop - to write on steel or make diagrams on the floor. Floods of memories coming back to me right now (thanks). I'll have to ask if he still has that doohicky (no joke, he has a drawer where he keeps all the old camera lenses, transistors and slide rules, why not chalk holders?). Otherwise, I am totally getting me one of those off amazon.
Heather Sykora
Great idea!! Really love it! It looks gorgeous!! Also--- Chalkholders are a thing???? I never knew! My husband built a lovely wood cabinet with a chalkboard on the front. I use it every day to communicate with the kids/ remind people of things, but the chalk pencils keep getting dropped and the chalk inside breaks...... you just solved my problem!!!!!? Thanks!!!!!
Zoe
Does the cork trap moisture inside? How do you keep track of the attributes of the different varieties?
Having not looked at a seed packet in 6 months, I already can't remember the difference between a bull's blood beet and detroit red. Or how much longer it takes for a chiogga beet to mature.
Karen
I have all that stuff memorized I guess Zoe. And you can't really go by how long a packet says the beet (or anything else) will mature in anyway. It's a very, very loose guideline, all dependant on weather. :) I don't need reminders for any of that stuff. Flowers on the other hand, I've saved in their packets so I can get a good look at them because I don't have all those different mum-type varieties and colours memorized. ~ karen!
Linda
very nice work!
Thought I would share my idea - takes up a lot less space and has proven very easy to use. Also a lot less work. Lee Valley Tools sells screw together stacking jars in various sizes. Transparent polystyrene jars. I either cut out the label name from package or print seed variety on the computer on plain paper. I cut out to fit the jars. Pop the labels inside the jars (they don't need to be secured by tape or glue), fill with your seeds and screw the jars together.
here is link to the item on their website:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=64690&cat=1,43325,43326,64690
Karen
Very nice little cases. ~ karen!
Ruth Vallejos
I lost interest in a guy when he said he "loved" T-1-11 siding (the plywood with grooves). That, sir, is not siding. That, sir, should only be used for ... no, just don't.
Karen
Ha! ~ karen
Cred
I really love this! (And sanity, and spotless tops, are overrated)
My seeds are already all together (my shit isn't, however) but they remain in their original packets and just all stored in a green IKEA Kassett office box (which I'm in the process of painting out black- mental, yes but they will all look much cuter in black neatly arranged in my craft closet)
My seeds are crying out to be organized in pretty little glass vials and stored safely from the light in hinged wooden boxes. Dollarama, here I come.
Btw- a good trick for fine writing with chalk, is to sharpen the tip to a fine point with a large pencil sharpener. I started doing this when I had a chalkboard wall in my kitchen- very helpful
shoshana leeder
I love this! I really do. I don't have any seeds, but whatever! French Breakfast radishes? Really? How often do you have a french breakfast? Now that I am 65, maybe I could use this idea for meds. The boxes could be labeled by body organ/system.LOL
Tracy Martinez
Ha ha :)
amanda
I'm pretty sure you might be a genius. Another very cool idea. When does your book come out?? We need your wisdom!
shannon
Man, you find the best stuff at your dollar store! I'm jealous.
Brenda
For 14 years, my husband and I have fought over what sofa we should have. You were so smart to NOT date someone with an ugly sofa! Yep - it's that important!
Melissa
Clearly, you have better dollar stores where you live... or they just have better inventory. My nearest store does not seem to carry anything useful, or anything that can be re-purposed. But now... now, I'm thinking it's me, and that if you came to >my< dollar store, you would see potential everywhere. That, or you would corroborate my story about the lousy dollar store, LOL.
Either way, your seed boxes are awesome--- well done!
Oh, and maybe you should ask couch guy, "Tell me about your couch..." and see what he says. It may be that it's a hand-me-down, and he reveals his true desire for some beautiful piece from West Elm, or PB, or whatever. You never know. Or, you could find out that he's attached to it, in which case, you probably made the right choice ;)
Luanne
You're awesome Karen. :) It's encouraging to hear that you don't have your sh*t together, either. It is little admissions like this that keep me feeling like I'm simply a part of the "human club". (Admissions like this, and also seeing the occasional block-heater extension cord in the middle of the road in the winter-time. :) That's another thing that proves you're a human.)
Alena
Karen, you way too much of that stuff. Some might say you have gone to seed! LOL
But, the logic of your thinking is impeccable. I would definitely NOT date anyone with an ugly couch.
I think along the same lines; in my view, a good car is one in which one can comfortably transport 3 greyhounds (the term 'comfortably' applies to the cargo, not to the driver). That's why I valued my Ford Escort station wagon which died in an accident in 2007. Now I drive a Matrix and relaxed my standards a bit (down to 2 greyhounds). But the car still has to be able to accommodate 8 ft long pieces of lumber (which the Matrix does). I also drove all 3 pieces of my countertop in it from Toronto. I did require my seat to be yanked forward so I drove with my knees practically under my chin (I have long legs) but that was ok.
Jane Keene
Great idea Karen, but lots of work! Our Dollar Stores here don't compare with Dollarama. Wish we had some! Gotta admit, right there with ya on the puffy couch thing.....but the kindness and wealthy might make me reconsider...that's a tough one. And thanks for the link to the chalk holder. Just ordered one. I said the other day I wish I still had mine from teaching, but with all the whiteboards in school now, I thought they were obsolete....Happy girl here?
Danni
in a word.... gobsmacked.
You know, at this point, you could wander through my house and yard and smugly point out all the stuff I borrowed/copied/reworked from your posts.
Thank you!!
Karen
Good, glad to hear it! Maybe one day I'll do a post where everyone sends in pictures of the "STUFF" they've done. ~ karen!
Molly Eileen
Oh, that's so true! I have sprouts growing, bread dough waiting in the fridge, of course a couche (which I didn't even know existed six months ago), a tabletop fire thing, and I'm fiercely planning a cob oven. Maybe this summer. Oh and I love shaking up butter in a mason jar. Every two weeks. :)
Madeleine Whitfield
If you ever want to come and live at my house, I'll feed you. I lack an organization gene, and don't mind if people touch my stuff. :))