Welcome to the second post in the wee we wins series. Haivng covered a pretty significant wee we win in the last post, today we’ll focus on just about the most wee smallest win. It surely probably wouldn’t be worth mentioning but for the fact that I stumbled upon this one accidentally and it’s sort of enhancing my life, even if just a wee bit. Ahhhh! Did you see what I did there? “Wee”? Hey, I hear that. Stop that groaning!
I’ll add that the wee we wins aren’t always going to be solely money-related. They might also have resulted in other benefits, such as lowering our impact on the environment, enhancing our life in some way (however minor), or providing us with new ways of looking at something we’d previously not thought to question as such.
And the livin’ is easy
It’s amazing the modern conveniences that so many of us have that we take for granted. Some I think are essential. I’d put having a regular and reliable source of power (electricity and gas) firmly in this category. “Let there be light” was never so sweet. Well, I’ve never tasted electricity, so I don’t know if that’s technically true. Let’s just say that it was never so easy.
Others, aren’t essential, but are super convenient. I’d put the washing machine in this category. But not necessarily the dryer. Thanks, drying properties of naurally occurring air! I heart you!
Yet others are helpful, but we easily could do without them. I think we can all agree that something like the electric toothbrush would fall in this last category. Yeah, you heard it here first: the electric toothbrush not essential. You’re welcome, world.
Other items we might quibble about. But one modern convenience I continually am surprised that people find “essential” is the dishwasher.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the dishwasher is nice to have. Being able to put dirty dishes in a somewhat hidden box, squirt in some magic stuff (“detergent” for the more pedestrian among you), press a button or two, and then walk away and come back later to a box of (usually) clean dishes an hour or so later is pretty remarkable. I’m sometimes happy I have one, such as when we host a big group of people and we’ve got lots of clean up. To boot, it does double duty by cooking fish! Now, I ask you, what appliance does this combination of things?
But if I didn’t have access to this magical machine, I wouldn’t miss it for a second. Because you see, Dear Reader, I have a perfectly working set of arms and hands, and a sponge at the ready.
Not to brag, but I can go toe to toe with even the most accomplished of dishwashers. In an age when AI and other technologies may be making humans obsolete, this gives me some measure of satisfaction. Sure, maybe I’m not needed. But I can do without — and thumb my nose at — the technology.
Rough and Tumble
So I mostly hand wash dishes. The time trade-off typically is pretty minor, and it makes me feel not just a little presidential. This is in no small part because I’ve found that most dishwashers don’t always do the job perfectly on dishes with more than just a residue of gunk on them. So I end up partially washing dishes going in the dishwasher anyway.
Until just recently, I used a sponge that was foam on one side and an abrasive material on the other. I almost always only use the abrasive side. But after a month or so, the abrasive side gets worn down. I then have to replace the sponge with a new one. The system worked pretty well, tho I felt a little bad about the waste. As for cost, it’s about as minimal as it gets given that I get a 5-pack at the dollar store.
A while back, I saw that the store had “sponges” made just of the abrasive material. No foam. What put me off from buying them was: (1) they’re different and my lizard brain told me that different is BAD, and (2) they’re double the size of the deck-of-cards-sized of the sponge I’d been using, which is pretty big.
Aaaannnnd, Cut!
But I boldly ventured forth and bought the new-to-me sponge, which comes in a three-pack. Cuz I’m a risk taker like that, you know?
I mostly loved the new “sponge,” of course, because it’s nothing but the material I like. But I didn’t love the size because it didn’t fit as easily inside some items, like glasses. So cleaning was a bit tough in some cases.
As I washed and thought about this slightly annoying situation it dawned on me that I could just take a scissors to the sponge and cut it in half. And so I did. Voila! Problem solved!
To boot, there are other bonuses, even if they’re not at all worth writing about in a blog post minor. First, because the new sponge is about twice as thick as the abrasive side of the sponge I’d been using, it should last longer than the old sponge. And second, because I cut the new sponges in half, my three-pack essentially became a six-pack. And if you consider that I can use both sides of the new sponge, I should get even more use out of it than the old sponges.
This is not, Dear Reader, the most amazing thing to happen in the history of the world. Or even to me. I know, I know. That is hard to believe. The Missus accepting my proposal to annoy her for the rest of her life, or the birth of Thing One, the Elder and Thing Two, the Younger, would rank higher on the list. Probably.
But it was nice to have the most minor of epiphanies, and to be able not just to think differently, but to realize some benefit from that. I’ll take these wee we wins when I can.
Dear Reader, I hope that you find your own sponge, worthy items, too.
