Down Sizing While Upgrading

The story of my life the last 6 months... down sizing and upgrading. How do you do both effectively? Move into a camper and you will find out really, really fast!!!  Living in a camper means little extra room. So little that storage space is a prized commodity. Amazingly enough I have not used up all my spare space yet! Anyways, when we were cleaning out our storage unit and getting ready for our big move to our home with a hitch, we got rid of a lot of stuff. Two trunk fulls and a truck load of stuff. Let's just say the local thrift store doesn't have to worry about going out of business just yet.

 A sure fire way to reduce clutter and extra stuff in your home is to pack everything up and go live with a family member for a few months to a year. When you need to unpack all the stuff you had, you realize how much stuff you have that you don't need or haven't used in about a decade. (Ok, maybe not a decade, I'm only married 6 years.) Along with all the down sizing and removal of stuff, I got rid of almost all my elctrical appliances. I did keep the juicer and the toaster oven.....and the waffle iron. But I need new stuff to replace the old stuff. In comes the upgrade!
 

Say Hello to Culinare Rocket Chef 7 in 1!

This little thing works! And you can find it rather affordable on ebay. Mine just so happened to be from a friend who never used it and didn't want it to collect dust anymore. Can you say one mans junk is another mans treasure?!?! This little thing comes with a grater, plunger, large slicer, thin slicer, mixer, beater and chopper and of course a lid. The best part? It all fits inside the mixing bowel for easy storage. I put this thing to the real test last night. We made mocha smoothies. A very, very special treat in our house.

In went the ice, what better way to test this product?

I started off with chopping up a little bit of ice to see if it was worth opening the smoothie packet. Surprisingly it did rather well. Not as fast as an electric chopper, but in less than five minutes it was all finished. I could have spent a little more time chopping up the ice as there were a couple large pieces, but over all it was great and worked well.

The finished product, with one large piece of ice.

I have used this item on simpler things, like soft veggies, but the ice was the kicker. If it could chop the ice then it was worthy of its praise. I would like to encourage you to go through your cupboards and closets and look at the stuff you have. If you haven't touched an item in a year or two then consider passing it on. Think about items you can use whether you have power or not. One thing I know for sure is my family won't starve if we lose power for an extended period of time. We have multiple hand crank items and lots of cast iron dishes. Let me tell you, dinner over the fire is the best tasting!

This blog is linked to:
Homestead Barn Hop 70
Homesteader Blog Carnival 16