Fridge Drawer Humidity Levels (Tuesday Tips: Kitchen Edition)

Every year we totally take apart our fridge and freezer, clean the walls, shelves, drawers and gaskets thoroughly, clean the refrigeration coils, fix any lights that are out, inspect for mechanical problems, then put it all back together.

Only I can never remember how to put it all back together. Once I do, I can't figure out how to set the humidity levels in my two produce drawers at the bottom. They have little slide levers for humidity (low to high and everywhere in between).

My owner's manual says HIGH for veggies, LOW for fruits. My search for more information (it just couldn't be that simple, could it?) led me to a better understanding of the settings and how they're used:

High humidity keeps moist air in the drawer. This is the best environment for your leafy greens or anything else that wilts.

Low humidity means drier air for anything that rots, gets slimy, or grows mold. This is the best settting for strawberries and most fruits and vegetables with skins (like cucumbers and apples), along with root vegetables (like carrots).

There's even a little saying to help remember the settings so you don't have to look it up every single time:

"Leaves grow high on a tree, roots down low."

If you only have one "crisper" drawer in your fridge, which may not have a humidity setting and is designed to keep moist air in, use it for your green leafies. You can store your other produce on the fridge shelves, which are in a lower humidity zone.

Here's hoping that I finally understand the workings of the two humidity-controlled drawers at the bottom of my fridge!

Anthropologie Inspired Spice Jar and Canister Makeover

I fell in love with these little Chalkboard Spice Jars last time I visited Anthropologie:

$10 - $12 each from anthropologie.com

Which got me thinking about the little jars I use in my spice cabinet to hold extra bulk spices and other odd things that come without decent containers, like baking soda.

I daydreamed for awhile about using chalkboard paint on my jars, but couldn't figure out how to get a cute little label shape just the right size without hand-cutting a stencil, because I'm a little lazy like that. 

Meanwhile, I realized I was bored with the sad and pathetic P-Touch labels I had put on my Blue Willow canisters, too. Would chalkboard paint work on them? 

Before I had time to really mull over the chalkboard-painting and mess-making and buy the supplies, a visit to Staples made it super simple for me (after all, I'm the Home Ec Dropout, not Martha Stewart). Coincidentally, though, the labels I stumbled upon were made by Matha Stewart Home Office with Avery.

My spice jars are not quite as cute as the ones at Anthropologie, but the jars were free (from Better Than Bouoillon chicken base- the labels peel off the top and front very easily) and 48 Kraft paper labels cost $3.99. I just wrote on them with a fine-point Sharpie marker.

And my updated canisters took all of five minutes. The chalkboard labels were 12 for $5.99. I had to cut one in half and recut the bottom edge to shape for the smallest jar, using another sticker as a pattern. 

Staples sells a 4-pack of Martha Stewart chalk for $3.99, which seemed expensive to me. So I wandered over to the art supply area, where I found a box of 12 for $.99. OK, to be fair, the MS chalk already had a little point whittled onto each piece. Big whoop, right?  For three extra dollars? The cheap kind worked just fine!   

So my canisters and extra spice jars have a new look, and I have lots of stickers left over for more projects. If I had done my own painting of the labels, I would've sized them specifically for each jar, but who knows how it would have turned out in the end?

Now if I could just learn how to do that cute lettering the scrapbookers do...