Sticky and ugly.

If there’s anything you truly need in your household, let it be an adhesive remover spray.

One bottle lasts you forever. We’ve got ours for nearly 5 years, the bottle has gone all rusty but it works every single time.

# – This is the shiznit.

Use it to remove the idiotically designed Malaysian road tax from your windscreen. Use it to remove stubborn labels from your bathroom’s sanitary-wares and cookwares. Most of all, use it to remove cheapass warning labels from your Ikea loots.

And that’s precisely what I’ve been doing lately – spending hours peeling off cheapskate Ikea sticky labels from my not so cheapskate furniture & knick-knacks. If it hadn’t been for my trusty adhesive remover spray I would probably be spending more time than I already had.

It is quite frustrating to have spent so much money on something and then end up at home peeling off stickers like a pathetic loser :P

I believe some of you may have chosen to live with the damn stickers constantly calling out for your attention every single time you enter a room as I had previously considered doing, but really we all deserve so much better!

So here’s a tutorial for you guys who are in similar predicament and would like to escape your destiny..

First of all, peel off the main part of the sticker. With your fingers. Yes, it is a frustrating and time consuming task.

My bf had experienced some sort of divine intervention where he soaked the entire label with adhesive remover and it literally slid off but I on the other hand have not had such luck. You can try though…

# – Peel off the main sticker. This is the hardest part of the task. Gather courage and patience before embarking on such activity.

# – They peel off like this, in little tiny pieces. Absolutely designed to annoy the hell out of you.

# – Even after you’ve peeled the main label off, sticky glue residue can still be clearly seen.

# – Spray adhesive remover onto the sticky residue till they’re soaking in the solution. Becareful when you’re spraying you don’t want the solution to end up everywhere. It’s got quite a distinctive “inhale-can-die” smell. I used thick paper towels to absorb the stray sprays.

After a minute or two, rub off the residue with a paper towel. In some parts you may have to rub harder or even use your nails to scrap it off, but it won’t take that much of an effort.

# – Shiny again!

We got our adhesive remover from either Ace Hardware or Eneos. I don’t remember, I often confuse both.

I’ve got a spicy rack.

Anyone who has any semblance of interest in cooking would probably agree that a well-stocked spice rack is a sight so beguiling, it’s probably more emotionally fulfilling than the actual cooking.

Yes, I have finally acquired a spice rack and 12 spice bottles from Ikea. It took me this long because the price put me off for a while. Anyway, as soon as I got home, I got to making individual hand written labels for each bottle. Hurm, because I can.

# – Pen, paper and all my spices.

This is a temporary measure as I haven’t gotten around to setting up my printer though I’ll probably end up buying a label maker because, really, what’s more satisfying than labeling every single item in your house?

# – Carefully pour content into its bottle.

I thought I’d have difficulties filling up 12 bottles but I obviously underestimated the size of my collection because right now, I think I need another rack….or two -_-

# – Bottles labelled and filled up!

I can’t believe I haven’t bought any 5-spice, the main ingredient for making awesome chinese roast pork! So despite having a few other spices that I could have chosen to put in the last bottle, I reserved it for the magic powder.

The sight of the empty bottle annoys the heck out of me though.

# – Besides the 12 spice jars, the rack could also fit an additional of 2 conventional spice bottles off the shelf on each level.

BF’s mom told me that spices should be stored away from the light but right now, I prefer to have them in sight because it makes me happy to see them everytime I enter my kitchen. /nerd mode on

The Grundtal spice rack was RM65 and the Ikea 365+ spice bottles came in set of 4 for RM16.90 each. By the way, I love these spice jars far more than the ones they always promote with the Grundtal spice rack because you don’t have to unscrew the cap all the time and stick a spoon in. Just flip and pour :)

Happy spicing up your kitchen!

Honey, I’m home.

We kinda live in the new house already. I use the word “kinda” because we still have loads of stuff left in the old apartment, yet to be moved.

Three big boxes of books for instance, his computers, DVDs, shit loads of magazines we’re not sure whether to keep or discard and clothes. It’s taking us this long partly because we have no furniture to store them :P

The renovation has rendered us pretty much penniless but we are slowly accumulating the items. Next on the shopping list: dining table, console cabinet, study tables and wardrobes. After all these items are acquired only then we’ll toy with the idea of inviting people over hehe.

Been cooking up a storm too. I’m glad my kitchen has turned out exactly the way I want it to. One that is meant to be used, hardy and “user-friendly”.

I’m in a good place now. It’s a cliche but I think I’m finally home. I’m finally comfortable in my own skin.

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