Over the past few weeks, subtle little things around our home have been changing and it was only yesterday during one of my enlightening showers full of philosophical questions and musings that I noticed two of these things. A part of me wants to give undue credit to the holy, enlightened side of me but truthfully, all I did was open my eyes and notice two things right there in the bathroom. And that's when and where I started writing this blog post. Both of these changes are in terms of finding new "homes" for two objects around our home and thereby making them more useful. And useful is what I hope you'll find these suggestions to be.
Mouthwash: I've always been paranoid about dental hygiene and everything related to teeth ever since I got my braces for the first time at the age of 12. The thought that food particles could remain stuck to the metal on my teeth, and that they could have babies of their own and form little civilisations that could, in turn, start colonising the rest of my body drove me insane. So I ended up being one of those people who brushed religiously after most meals and used actual tear-inducing mouthwashes (you know the kind) throughout my adolescence.
By the time I had to get my braces for a second time at the age of 18 (because somehow, everyone forgot to take into consideration the fact that I was too young the first time around to start erupting crooked wisdom teeth which could potentially undo the work of the first set of braces), things got even worse. Because my doctor the second time around was very strict and would tell me that if I didn't spend a considerable amount of time brushing my teeth every night, by the time he removed my braces, all my teeth would fall off too. There was no way that I was going to let my food debris colonies win this time either.
So basically, all things teeth related freak me out and there was no point in relating all this to you except to say that I happen to stock up on mouthwash sometimes.
However, since I don't like seeing big bottles of mouthwash displayed on my bathroom counters, I generally tend to put them away in my cabinets. This, in turn, led to our not using them because as they say, "out of sight, out of mind". But for the past few weeks, due to some stroke of genius, I placed our mouthwash in the shower. Ever since, both Shane and I have been using in regularly and even tend to reach for it absent-mindedly in the shower.
So here's a tip for you guys: If you want to use your mouthwash regularly, keep it in the shower.
Weighing scale: Ever since we've been taking care of our food intake and exercising regularly, we've wanted to track our weight on a regular basis as well. This isn't much of big deal to me because I've remained the same weight for over nine years and I know that my weight fluctuations wouldn't be too significant whether I eat too much or too little for a week or two. Shane, on the other hand, happens to be the kind of person who gains weight by simply looking at his food and imagining what it might taste like, and sheds just as easily on a single hike. I'm not kidding you, every time we go on a massive hike and end up taking close to 20,000 steps, his pants get loose and he has to depend on his belt to hold them up. It's crazy.
Now, I don't know which one of us has a better metabolism judging by what I just told you, but mostly for Shane, keeping track of his weight is quite important. In the past, the weighing scale was placed in an uncomfortable corner of our closet where it was literally gathering dust. But two weeks ago, I found it right under the bathroom sink, placed in such a way that my feet would press against it while standing there to brush my teeth. Ever since Shane found this location for our weighing scale, we've both been tracking our weight every single morning on an empty stomach because what can be more convenient than stepping on it while brushing your teeth?
And on most days (all days), we millennials are bound to have our phones with us in the bathroom so we can immediately enter it to our weight tracking apps.
I really don't know how useful these tips are to you, but when I realised that we'd found homes for two more items in our home and that Shane actually cooperated in terms of replacing said items to said homes, I was ecstatic. I think we may have just hit a new couple's goal.