It never rains but it pours
We try to buy dry goods (rice, porridge, lentils, couscous...) in bulk, which is great for reducing cost and trips to the shops, but more of a hassle once you get the stuff home - the packaging is usually hard or impossible to re-seal, vulnerable to rodents, and a pain to pour from. For a while now, we've been using a system taught to us by dynix (and taught to her by her mum): keep a few empty 4pt plastic milk bottles around, and decant your freshly-bought bag of lentils into bottles when you open it.
This system works brilliantly. The bottles are ergonomic, the right weight, easy to pour from, airtight, translucent (so you can see at a glance how full they are) and fairly tough. We maintain a working set of all our most common ingredients within easy reach, and stack our reserves along the top of the kitchen cupboards for when the working set needs replenishment. Our flat is no longer plagued by lentils bouncing everywhere and getting stuck in the most unlikely crevices. There was still one problem, though: the decanting stage. Milk bottle necks are a lovely width to pour from, but not such a good width to pour into. We tried a few funnels, but (being narrower than the bottle-neck) they tended to get blocked, leading to overspill and lentils getting everywhere (and I do mean everywhere).
Until wormwood_pearl came up with the most brilliant MacGuyver hack I've ever seen.
[Yes, our blender is held together with duct tape and Araldite. It still works.]
In case the picture isn't completely clear, it's a funnel made from the top of a milk bottle, screwed directly on to the bottle being filled using two bottle-tops taped back-to-back. The target's wide enough that it's hard to miss, even with a 10kg sack of rice; the neck's wide enough that it doesn't block easily; and the screw-thread means that the funnel's very unlikely to get knocked out.
Here's how to make your own:
You Will Need
1x 4pt plastic milk bottle
2x milk bottle tops
sharp knife
sticky tape
(optional) glue
Instructions
Close-up of the funnel:
Close-up of the connector:
Edit 11/02/2013: If you have access to a 3D printer, you can now print a one-piece connector, which should be more solid than the duct-tape ones. Download the STL file from Thingiverse, or get the SCAD code from GitHub.
This system works brilliantly. The bottles are ergonomic, the right weight, easy to pour from, airtight, translucent (so you can see at a glance how full they are) and fairly tough. We maintain a working set of all our most common ingredients within easy reach, and stack our reserves along the top of the kitchen cupboards for when the working set needs replenishment. Our flat is no longer plagued by lentils bouncing everywhere and getting stuck in the most unlikely crevices. There was still one problem, though: the decanting stage. Milk bottle necks are a lovely width to pour from, but not such a good width to pour into. We tried a few funnels, but (being narrower than the bottle-neck) they tended to get blocked, leading to overspill and lentils getting everywhere (and I do mean everywhere).
Until wormwood_pearl came up with the most brilliant MacGuyver hack I've ever seen.
[Yes, our blender is held together with duct tape and Araldite. It still works.]
In case the picture isn't completely clear, it's a funnel made from the top of a milk bottle, screwed directly on to the bottle being filled using two bottle-tops taped back-to-back. The target's wide enough that it's hard to miss, even with a 10kg sack of rice; the neck's wide enough that it doesn't block easily; and the screw-thread means that the funnel's very unlikely to get knocked out.
Here's how to make your own:
You Will Need
1x 4pt plastic milk bottle
2x milk bottle tops
sharp knife
sticky tape
(optional) glue
Instructions
- Glue the two bottle tops back-to-back. This stage is not essential, but helps to ensure that the edges of the cuts line up.
- When dry, cut out a big hole in the middle. You don't want to go right to the edge, lest lentils try to escape, but you do want the hole to be nice and wide so things don't get stuck.
- For added security, tape around the side walls of the tops.
- Cut the top 6" (15cm) or so off the bottle. You want the full width of the bottle for your funnel, and you want it to be deep enough that you have warning of a blockage in time to stop pouring, but you want it to be shallow enough that you can easily poke through to the neck to dislodge stuck things.
- Recycle the bottom of the bottle.
- Screw the two tops onto the funnel.
Close-up of the funnel:
Close-up of the connector:
Edit 11/02/2013: If you have access to a 3D printer, you can now print a one-piece connector, which should be more solid than the duct-tape ones. Download the STL file from Thingiverse, or get the SCAD code from GitHub.