or: How one change can make so much difference

Have you ever found yourself doing something for about the billionth time and thought “there must be an easier way?”, found that easier way (and it really was very, very easy) and kicked yourself for not having done it sooner?

Then you start to think about other things you have blindly been doing the same way for a long time that could be a lot easier if only you took some time to question them and why you did them that way in the first place.

No?

Me neither.

This is the story of one of my “friends”.

I’ll tell it in the first-person to make my life a little easier.

Many years before relocating to Hong Kong, some great friends, as fellow coffee lovers, gave us a coffee canister. This coffee canister has stored countless packages of coffee over the years. Ground and unground. Always still in another packaging container too.

This container has gone through the phase of being put in the freezer for storage to keep the beans fresh, back out to the cupboard when it was found that freezing them didn’t really do anything and now it resides in the fridge due to lack of cupboard space elsewhere.

As it has made its way around various kitchens in Sydney, HK and Japan, one thing hasn’t changed.

It still stores coffee in the coffee’s original packaging.

My now ex-husband enjoyed making coffee, similar to me, he enjoyed the process and he always did it the same way.

After he became an ex, I followed the same process.

Not even thinking about doing anything differently.

Most mornings, I make myself a coffee of some sort. My current go to coffee making method is plunger. This is partly because I have a new kettle and I like to hear it sing on my stove, partly because my espresso maker isn’t for an induction stove. I can see no reason to buy a new one when I like my old one and surely there must be some way to make it into an induction one at some stage….

Anyway, each morning, my coffee canister is taken out of the fridge, the lid is removed and I unroll the bag to reveal the little incision to reach in and scoop out however much coffee I feel like that day.

Every day, there ends up being some coffee spilt on my countertop.

Every day I wipe these coffee grounds away (or beans if I’m grinding my own).

Every day for years…

And years…

Until now.

I cut the top entirely off the bag and haven’t spilt coffee grounds since.

Thanks to Garbage for the title to this post.