Please Don't Store These Things on Your Kitchen Counter

Are you an uber-organized minimalist whose kitchen looks like it belongs on the cover of Good Housekeeping? If your kitchen resembles more of a disturbing way station for stuffed animals, mail, hairbrushes, stickers, and disembodied Legos, you’re not alone. No matter your organization skills (or lack thereof), there are certain household items that just shouldn’t be stored on your kitchen counters. Besides the sheer anxiety the mess can cause, there are other valid reasons to tuck the following items away.

 

RARELY USED KITCHEN APPLIANCES 

Appliances you don’t use daily should be put away, even though they’re tough to store. Things like blenders, stand-mixers, juicers, bread machines, electric can openers, and even toasters if you’re not using them every morning should be put away. 

 

KNIVES 

Not only do knife blocks take up valuable real estate on your counter and breed bacteria, the repeated scraping of the blade against wood upon removal can dull your knives over time. Whatever you do, don’t just toss them in a drawer with other kitchen gadgets. Besides the inherent danger of cutting yourself, the knocking of the blade against other metal objects will dull the knife and create nicks. 

 

SPICES

Similar to olive oil, heat, humidity, and sunlight all weaken the efficacy of spices by breaking down the chemical compounds that given them their distinct flavors and scents. To avoid them getting moldy, store them in airtight containers in cabinets away from your stove top. 

 

PANTRY STAPLES 

Are you one who keeps pretty canisters of sugar, flour, and pasta on your countertop? Here’s a tip: They’re called pantry staples for a reason. Rancid smells happen because the fats in whole grain flours oxidize when exposed to air and moisture, so proper storage of flour is important for freshness and to achieve desired baking results. 

 

COOKBOOKS 

You may use them often, and they may lend to the aesthetic feel you’re trying to create, but over time cookbooks will be caked in indiscriminate kitchen grime, the covers may fade from sun exposure and the pages my stick together.

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Putting Planes in Hibernation Is Complicated; Waking Them Up Is Even Harder

Delta Airlines has announced that it's awakening more than 550 aircraft put into hibernation after demand for seats on flights plummeted in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines all over the world had to park and store their fleets during the pandemic, stashing them in places ranging from the Australian outback to the Mojave Desert in California. By one count, 16,000 aircraft — about two out of three airliners in use — was in hibernation by May 2020. Storing a jet airliner for an extended period isn't the same as putting your car in the garage while you're on vacation. Hibernating the big planes requires elaborate preparation and careful periodic maintenance to keep them from deteriorating. Restoring them so that they're ready to fly again is an equally complicated task. When an airliner is parked for a while, there are a number of things that the airline has to be concerned about, including exposure to freezing temperatures or high levels of moisture. That’s one reason airlines choose to store planes on airfields in the desert, where humidity is low. That doesn’t eliminate the problems, though. Sunlight can damage the inside of the aircraft, and the numerous ports and openings can allow insects, such as wasps, to get in. For that reason, airliners that are being hibernated undergo careful preparation. Workers will cover up the windows with reflective material and tape up the ports and openings. They'll also drain the oil from the engines and replace it with a preservative oil that's designed to inhibit corrosion. Additionally, mechanics will put bags of absorbent material — called desiccant — into spaces in the engines. They'll tape up and cover the tailpipes as well. They may also spray the internal parts of the wing with a preservative. To keep the tires from developing flat spots, workers will move the planes every so often. After an airliner has been stored for a while, bringing it out of hibernation requires the same sort of care. Workers remove the preservative oil from the engines and replace it with regular oil, take off all the tape and coverings, and then check everything on the plane to make sure that it's still in working shape. Getting all that done might take about as much time — two to three weeks — as was required to hibernate the plane in the first place. There’s a lot more to it than people realize.

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Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes Are the Ultimate Thanksgiving Hack

As integral to a traditional Thanksgiving feast as the turkey, mashed potatoes don't often get a radical update, but now there’s a hack that will make them the star of the holiday meal without too much fuss. They can actually be made ahead of time and reheated without any problem. Of course, they’re never as good as freshly mashed, but when you have a million things on your to-do list, this quick tip might just make it worth it. In this recipe, cooked mashed potatoes are transferred to a casserole dish, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and baked until golden, creating a cheesy potato masterpiece. If you're the make-it-ahead sort of cook, the prepped (but not baked) mashed potatoes can be refrigerated for up to three days. On Thanksgiving, simply pop them in the oven as the turkey rests.

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The Companies That Help People Vanish

All over the world — from the U.S. to Germany to the UK — people decide to disappear from their own lives without a trace, leaving their homes, jobs and families in the middle of the night to start a new life, often without looking back. In Japan, these people are referred to as “jouhatsu” — the Japanese word for “evaporation.” From inescapable debt to loveless marriages, the motivations that push jouhatsu to “evaporate” can vary. Regardless of their reasons, they turn to companies that help them through the process. These operations are called “night moving” services, a nod to the secretive nature of becoming a jouhatsu. They help people who want to disappear discreetly remove themselves from their lives, and can provide lodging for them in secret whereabouts. In Japan, it’s easier to evaporate because privacy is fiercely protected. Missing people can freely withdraw money from ATMs without being flagged, and their family members can’t access security videos that might have captured their loved one on the run. Police won’t intervene unless there’s a reason to, such as crime or an accident. All the family can do is hire a private detective and wait. For the jouhatsu themselves, feelings of sadness and regret stick with many of them long after they leave their lives behind.

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