Hi Anthony,
On 5/3/2016 7:37 AM, HerHusband wrote:
When I make marinara/bolognese ("spaghetti") sauce, I use #10 cans of
ingredients (i.e., essentially the size of your head).
I've never checked myself, but I've heard larger 28 ounce cans of
tomatoes have more liquid per volume than smaller 14 ounce cans. No
point, just an interesting rumor. 
Dunno. I use a few 106 oz cans of "ground tomatoes", plus a few of the
16 oz cans of puree (spices, etc.) and a REALLY long simmer (12-16 hours)
that is designed to "burn off" the moisture (let it condense on the
underside of the lid, then wipe it off every hour or so).
I get annoyed because each "move" requires me to find a suitable vendor
of tomato products. I used to make a great sauce with "6-in-1" brand
products but can't find them, here.
[I make it in 16qt batches. Sauce is probably the only justification,
IMO, for tomatoes! : ]
Ours sits in an easily accessed space. We pile items to be shredded
on top of it until the stack is unmanageable. Or, "looks big enough".
Then, feed them into it (to cut down on how often it has to run). I
htink it will shred something like 20 pages at a time -- or a couple
of CD's, stacked.
My shredder sits next to my desk in the office. It's easy to feed in
sensitive documents as they come in.
We keep ours in the garage -- adjacent to the (small) recycling bin
(which we periodically empty into the large recycling "barrel", outside)
I have switched to electronic billing wherever possible so I don't have
much paperwork to shred anymore. I keep the electronic documents on an
encrypted drive and have multiple backups.
We don't like having "online accounts". So, our utilities, bank statements,
etc. all come in dead tree form. I keep all my business paperwork virtually
indefinitely -- yet it all still fits neatly in a single file cabinet.
"Project files" probably account for a disproportionate amount of that
volume; often, there are documents that came with a project that only exist
in hard copy (and I am far too lazy to scan everything just to save space!)
I don't shred CD's or credit cards as that would contaminate my
recyclable paper with unrecyclable plastics.
The paper and plastic go in the same recycling container, here. As well
as tin cans, etc. Seems like it has to be incredibly inefficient to
have to sort this stuff at a central facility but that's how The Powers
That Be have decreed it...
As a coarse measure of just how inefficient recycling is, consider a
computer is worth about $5-10 in recycle value. Yet sells for...?
That's one of the reasons I like building my own computers. I only
replace the parts that need updating, such as a hard drive or graphics
card. Other than my laptop, I haven't bought a packaged PC in over 20
years.
I rescue machines that others may have outgrown. Or, were looking
for an excuse to upgrade. Or, that businesses shed in their 18-36mos
upgrade cycle.
E.g., this Optiplex 645 set me back $10
http://images.geeksimages.com/imageshare/O/300x300/OPTIPLEX-745-MAR-1R-unit.jpg
and another $5 for the 22" display
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/24-176-079-04.jpg
OTOH, my first 386's set me back $8K/each. So, I figure I'm entitled
to save a few bucks :
In most cases, I've been able to sell my old motherboards and other
computer parts on eBay.
I don't sell "things". Give them away or recycle. I don't want to
worry that someone will not feel they got "good value" out of a sale.
I recently noticed that the Atari Tempest I gave to a neighbor
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/8WoAAOSwnDZT77fz/$_1.JPG
now sells for ~$1-2K (factory new condition).
shrug
Currently trying to convince myself to break this habit and *sell*
some of my older, collectable kit (e.g., an ASR-33 in the garage
that really deserves a better home)
In my case, disposable razor blades, containers that have vestiges of
medicines/salves/creams/other "actives", remnants of soap bars, tissue
and TP. Any plastic containers (personal care products) go in the
(unsorted) recycle bin -- if the plastic is one of the "approved"
types. Tissue and TP get flushed ("But, the BACK SIDE is still
pristine!?"). The "cores" to the TP rolls are recycled as paper
products (ditto for the cores for paper towels).
We should recycle more items from the bathroom, but it's on the other end
of the house and there's no convenient "staging area" to set things till
we can take them out to the bin. It's mostly just laziness, as it's
easier to toss these items in the bathroom trash can. Thankfully, the
volume is quite small.
Shampoo bottles get hand carried to the "bin" in the garage (it's
really convenient having it there). When it fills, it gets dumped
in the bigger container outside.
So, not uncommon to see toilet paper cores, shampoo/mouthwash bottles,
etc. These are too big for us to want to put them in our regular
"trash bags" (indoors). So, the recycling option works to our benefit
(otherwise, we'd have to carry them out to the trash can, outside)
[We also wash and reuse our ziploc bags -- typ used for storing items
in the freezer. Though I have been moving to rigid containers as they
pack better (plastic bags have no real "form" and just kind of
"slouch")]
We've been using Rubbermaid containers for years as they are easy to
store, wash, and reuse. We have an assortment of ziploc bags in a
drawer, but mostly just use them when we travel (packaging we don't need
to bring back home).
We use rubbermaid and tupperware containers for food storage. E.g.,
I have many 3C containers that are permanently stained "tomato red" :
But, in the past, we've used bags to store things like individually
wrapped steaks, chicken brests cut into small pieces and individually
wrapped, hot dogs wrapped in pairs, pecans/walnuts/almonds in smaller
bags (which are then packed in a larger bag), mozzarella cheese in
~2C batches in small bags inside larger bags, etc.
I recently switched to small ~1/2 cu ft containers to use in their
place. But, you can't easily repack the things that have now
"conformally fit" into the bags; they no longer have nice, regular
shapes that would settle into a rigid container well.
So, we're waiting for our "past stores" to dwindle to the point that
we can replace them in the *new* containers.
Medicines are recycled at special annual recycling events FOR
pharmaceuticals.
Thankfully, I haven't reached a point that I need to take regular
medications. We always use up our over-the-counter meds so we don't have
those leftover either.
I've had Rx pain meds prescribed (prophylacticly) a few times in the
past. Or, Rx cough medications. Usually, I don't need them. So, they
sit on a shelf "just in case".
After a while, they lose their efficacy (actually, it is a LONG while!)
and have to be disposed of.
[Antibiotics always get consumed in their entirety]
The only OTC stuff I buy is Advil. And, we don't buy that in "Costco
quantities" so there's no concern of it expiring before we can use it.
(a bottle of 100 tablets probably lasts close to 2 years or more -- for
the two of us!)