deep hunger, deep gladness.

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday.

RIP, Rebecca Black's career.

I've been cooking a LOT lately - like all three meals at home for the last two weeks straight. Being snowed in doesn't make for easy restaurant access! But, you know, snow - so definitely worth it.

I thought I'd share the utensils that I find myself reaching for over and over. This is not about featuring the "nicest" tools in my kitchen; rather, these are absolutely the most useful things I have in my kitchen. Not pictured: my Ove Glove. Which I actually use every day. So just pretend that's in there.

1. Stick Blender.
My trusty stick blender comes in handy when I need to blend batter, crush tomatoes, whip egg whites into meringues, or make the world's fluffiest scrambled eggs. It's way more convenient than lugging my large blender from its storage space underneath the counter, and it's dishwasher-safe, so the cleanup is so easy. You can buy this one here!

2. Single-Serve French Press.
I had never used a French press until we received one as a wedding gift, but it completely changed the way I drink coffee. French press coffee is so intensely flavorful. It requires no electricity - nothing but hot water and fresh grounds - and you will seriously never go back. This is perfect for mornings when I only want a cup, and would also be the ideal size to travel with or take to work. You'd never have to depend on someone to make another pot again. At $25, this is a steal. Buy it on Amazon here!

3. Biscuit Cutters in Assorted Sizes.
These bad boys are used a LOT in my house. For biscuits (obviously), but also for cutting consistently shaped cookies out of dough, cutting circles out of bread for eggs in a basket - I love that these guys nest into each other for easy, aesthetic storage, and allow me to make pretty desserts that are all the same size. Found them online here.

4. Miniature Glass Bowls.
Oh. My. Gosh. I love these bowls so much. These were literally #1 on my Christmas list this year. I use them to portion out ingredients before I start cooking or baking, to carry peanut butter in if I'm snacking on the go, to serve nuts on a cheese plate, for yogurt every morning - the list goes on and on. I have four bowls and four plastic lids, but I could have 50 and still find ways to use them all. Impossible to convey the value of these guys. This link has a version that's pretty close to mine - and on Amazon Prime, no less! Buy them. You will not be sorry.

5. Stainless Scoop and Cutter
Saved the best for last. Don't you hate it when you're chopping vegetables and you try to transfer them to your pan by balancing them on your knife, but they end up all over the floor? Worry. No. More. This tool is the ultimate in convenience for transferring any foods from one surface to another, for chopping those last few veggies you may have missed, and for tossing in the dishwasher when you're finished.

I got this tool in my stocking from my grandmother Nonnie a few years ago, and use it every single time I cook. It is my best friend in the kitchen. Buy one for $7 on Amazon here - I guarantee you, it'll be the best $6 you've spent in a long time. If you buy one and are disappointed, I'll buy you lunch.

Happy cooking! Have a great weekend, friends. See you Monday!

If you're feeling accused at this moment, rest assured it's because I have come to the conclusion that almost everyone I know has too much stuff. Chiefly, me.

You may be one of those wonderful, rare unicorns who is capable of getting a card from their grandparents and thinking, "This was so sweet. And I'll cherish the memory of getting this card. But the thing, not so much." Aaaaand into the garbage it goes. Because, #clean.

If so, you are a "Jordan." You are not a "me."

That 5th grade fun run t-shirt you gave away immediately? I still have it. Oh, did you want to see a note I passed with my friend Ginny Tyler in middle school? Gotcha. Gimme a sec and I'll root through MILLIONS OF BOXES to get it for you.

This is my life.

As I'm sure all of you who identify as My Fellow Packrats understand, getting rid of things is really, really hard. Every item is attached to a memory, and if you purge, you might forget it!

This problem, which had already consumed my life, compounded on itself when I got married. All at once, I was merging my (endless sea of) stuff with Jordan's stuff, then we got all of these unbelievably generous wedding gifts. And then, to add to the hilarity, my parents moved from Alabama to Oklahoma, forcing me to go over there and take every single one of the 30 (not an exaggeration) boxes of my old stuff to my 2/2 house in Homewood.

HOLY PANIC ATTACK.

Jordan didn't have tons of sympathy for me while sorting through literally decades of childhood memories (I could have been cleaning as I went, obviously), meanwhile I was feeling REALLY sorry for myself, a la famous ugly crier Kim Kardashian:

When I say I am a packrat, I mean that when I went to get my boxes from my parents, there was an entire large laundry hamper full of ONLY Chi O t-shirts. This is not a drill. This is not an exaggeration.

So I've been reading up on ways to de-clutter your life, because I just feel like it's time. Apart from the obvious physical nuisance that too much stuff is, it poses a moral question for me: why do I have this much stuff sitting around? Aren't there other people who could be using it?

In Marie Kondo's (who is a mastermind and you should look her up immediately) books, she proposes three ideas that have changed things at Chez Scott:

"Thanking something for its service." How beautiful is that? So: the items you're holding onto because they were gifts and you feel guilty throwing them/giving them away? Thank them for their service, and let them move to their next purpose.
Asking yourself, "Does this item spark joy?" She suggests confronting every single item in your house and getting real with yourself - does that item truly make you happy? If not, it's time to thank it for its service and say goodbye.
Making your items happy. Does that shirt look like it wants to be folded or hung up? Do your books need dusting? Treat your items with respect.

Jordan and I decided this past weekend that we needed a closet/clothing overhaul. Here was our method.

We each chose three items of clothing that we knew we LOVED and would never give away. Those items were our barometer for whether future items "sparked joy."
One person sat on the edge of our bed, and the other person held up every single item of that person's clothing, like a personal assistant (this is what made it fun). The person who owned the item directed the other person to place it into one of five piles:
1. Give away
2. Throw away (for items that are too damaged for anyone to get use out of)
3. Tailor/dry clean
4. Nostalgia pile
5. Keep in the closet

This may sound like a lot, but let me explain a couple of them.

3. Tailor/dry clean: We were SHOCKED at the number of items that we own and never wear simply because they're stained or ill-fitting. Jordan has so many shirts and I have almost 10 pairs of pants that just don't quite fit correctly. So we decided to nip this in the bud and finally give these items the respect they deserve.
4. Nostalgia pile: Jordan always laments that his dad didn't keep any of his shirts from growing up in the 60's and 70's, so Jordan wanted to make sure his future son has lots to choose from. These are the items that we don't wear enough to stay in the closet, but we want to hold onto for sentimental reasons. We also promised we'd go back through this box regularly to edit as necessary.

This process was AMAZING. I can't say enough about how freeing it was to see all the clothes we'd decided to send away from our house in some form or another. Here are our results:

White box is of stuff we're sending to my friends and relatives who wanted it, center box is the "nostalgia pile," and right-hand box is full of things we're donating.

All of these hangers represent clothes that used to be in our home, but aren't anymore:

And our bureau and chest of drawers, which used to be literally bursting (I couldn't fit any more of Jordan's t-shirts on his shelf so the shelves were buckled up) is now so minimalist that I can't believe we didn't do this years ago:

Sorry for the alarmingly bad photo quality here.

Ultimately, this process made us feel SO great and so much lighter, in a strange way. I will say, though, as much as I wanted to pat myself on the back, this is something that's so overdue. Ladies, I'm talking to us here - it's so easy to fall victim to the lie that more = better. It's the myth of the fashion blogger.

"I have a trench coat, but I don't have a sleeveless trench coat." - Something I have actually said out loud before.

"But I've worn this in front of these people before, I don't want them to see me in it again." - Another thing that has for sure come out of my mouth. Many times.

There are so many people on this planet who are scraping what they have together in order to make their lives work, and I'm sifting through boxes of clothes I never wear.

It's a gut punch.

Going through our clothes has now made me very conscious of what I'm going to buy in the future. I actually made a list of the things I need, like a new pair of tennis shoes (mine are actually falling apart) or a new pair of glasses for Jordan (his are eight years old), and I won't buy anything that isn't on that list.

Excess isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Especially when my neighbor doesn't have enough.

(Note: I'm aware that not everything I want to give away can be of use. Homeless shelters are constantly getting some things (like M-L men's shirts) and not others (like new socks or XXXL men's shirts), so it's worth researching what can be helpful!)

So, are you ready to feel better and do your part to help in the process - ready? GO!