These 7 Cool Kitchen Gadgets Belong In Your Kitchen

Image courtesy of renters.apartments.com

Love it or hate it, cooking is an instrumental part of daily life around the home and in an apartment. Whether making dinner for yourself or preparing lunch for a lovely get-together, your kitchen utensils can make or break your cooking abilities and your dining options.

A lot of us keep our kitchen utensils to a bare minimum: pots and pans, some glasses and plates, a decent set of silverware, and some butcher knives. Sometimes, though, just having the bare minimum number of utensils and gadgets can limit your cooking options. So, if you're looking to update your kitchen's gadgets and tools, this blog post is for you! Keep reading to check out renters.apartments.com's article about the best gadgets and tools to have in your kitchen:

Zesters/Graters

A good zester and grater is essential for anyone who wants to make their favorite from scratch recipes, or top things off with some freshly grated cheese. Recipes that call for lemon or lime zest usually ask for a few teaspoons or tablespoons at the most, and finding “zest” in a grocery store can be difficult and overpriced. Shredded cheese is easy enough to find, but you might not want all your cheese shredded or you may want a bit of freshly grated parmesan on top of your favorite Italian dish or salad. Graters can also grate chocolate that makes a perfect topper from your homemade pie, specialty drink, or even an ice cream sundae.

Garlic Press

Fresh garlic shows up in almost as many recipes as regular salt. It’s delicious and good for you, but it can be hard to handle. If you have a garlic press, it’s much easier. Trying to mice garlic with a knife can be cumbersome, and you can wind up with larger chunks of garlic in your recipes. With a garlic press you tuck your garlic clove inside and press. Out comes minced garlic you can scoop into your recipe and the rinse the garlic press clean.

Salad Spinner

With a busy life, having a good salad with your meal can seem like a chore. This leads many people to buy prebagged salads and pay about twice as much or more than putting their ingredients in a salad spinner in order to get the same and better salads.

Manual Chopper

You might have a larger electric food processor, but when you just want to chop a few nuts or even crush crackers taking out a big appliance can be cumbersome. Using a knife and cutting board often won’t give you the finely chopped texture you may want. With a manual chopper your food is contained in a small bowl while you chop.

Apple Corer 

Apples are one of the most celebrated health foods, but it can be messy to eat them with the core in tact. You can also wind up missing some of your delicious apple. If you have kids, you have to worry about seeds and the choking hazard they bring. Cutting up an apple with a knife can lead to waste. An apple corer makes things simpler. Simply press the corer over the middle of the apple an get those perfect slices everyone loves.

Can Opener
More and more canned food have pop tops, but they are not yet universal. It’s a good thing there are a wide variety of can openers. The latest designs are easy to grip and some are designed to lift the whole can top off, rather than cutting into the can and leaving sharp edges. Many people are particular about their can opener, so be sure to hold a few different kinds in your hand and see which feels right to you.

Potato Masher

A potato masher may not seem fancy enough to be included among the best kitchen gadgets, but it is a very handy tool. To many people “mashed” potatoes are really whipped potatoes and once you give up the potato texture something is lost. With a potato masher, you get a mostly smooth texture while getting the occasional little piece of potatoes for the homemade feel. Potato mashers can also efficiently mash other soft foods, such as ripe bananas for banana bread, hard boiled eggs for egg salad, or avocados for fresh guacamole.

7 Gym Etiquette Tips for Our New Apartment Gym

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Equinox couldn't be happier right now: our new gym is finally opening to our residents after several months of construction and planning. The new fitness center will be a massive improvement over our old one - it's set to be bigger, features more equipment, and will just be more comfortable than our old one.


With our official opening approaching quickly, we wanted to take a moment to share a few simple gym etiquette tips. While good gym etiquette is important anywhere, it's extra important in an apartment, where you share your gym with an entire community of neighbors. It's our goal to ensure that our equipment stays germ-free, the area stays safe and the atmosphere stays conducive to an effective and pleasant workout.

With that in mind, here's a few simple things to keep in mind when using our gym in the coming months, courtesy of renters.apartment.com:


1. Mind your noise.

This goes for any personal radios and even personal headphones that may be blasting at an extremely loud volume. Keeping noise levels down also means refraining from loud chatting on your cell phone and loud grunting noises you may find yourself making during your workout. While the gym doesn’t have to be as quiet as a library, it should not sound like rush hour at a circus.

2. Practice cleanliness.

Showing up in muddy shoes or filthy, smelly gym clothes is not the best way to be courteous at the gym. You also want to refrain from wearing excessive perfume, cologne or any products that leave residue on the machines. Wiping down any machine or weight bench after use is a must for being polite. No one wants to work out in other people’s sweat.

3. Don’t show up sick.

Going to the gym with a contagious illness is a surefire way to make instant enemies of your neighbors. Gyms are a prime place to spread around germs and viruses that can infect other gym-goers. Besides, hacking and coughing all over the equipment is just, well, gross.

4. Don’t be a machine hog.

If the little sign on the treadmill says you have a 30 minute time limit, then please heed it. While you may be able to extend the amount of time you may be able to spend on a particular machine if you’re the only one in the gym, pay attention and be polite when others are waiting.

5. Know what you’re doing before you do it.

Whether you read the instructions posted on the wall or ask an employee for help, knowing how to properly use the machines and equipment can save a lot of grief. Not only will knowing what you’re doing with a specific piece of equipment stop you from breaking the equipment, it can stop you from injuring yourself.

6. Put the equipment back in order.

If you use a yoga mat, roll it back up and prop it against the wall where you originally found it. Put any pulleys or accessories you removed from a machine back to their original position. Restack your weights. Leaving things a mess can result in resentments as well as injuries, especially if someone has to move weights that are too heavy for him or her to move.

7. Respect personal space.

Personal space at the gym ensures you’re not huffing and puffing down someone else’s neck during a group class or other workout. It also helps prevent injury. You and other gym-goers need enough space to comfortable as well as to move comfortably through whatever routine you’re doing.

Get Some True R&R During Your Next Vacation

Image courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com

Vacations are meant to be times where we take a break from normal life and just enjoy time away from our jobs and our daily worries. But for many of us, the moment we return from a vacation we feel drained and like we need to go out of town right away once more.

The problem is the pace of modern life tends to follow us everywhere we go - even on vacation. Rather than letitng your next vacation become a stressful energy drainer, we recommend using these tips from apartmenttherapy.com to ensure that you truly unwind while on vacation and then return from your trip recharged and happier:


Limit Your Technology

This tip is perhaps the most important, the most obvious, and the most difficult to actually achieve. But seriously: tuning out distractions in the form of technology is a huge part of being able to relax while you're away from home.

Turn off data roaming and/or push notifications on your phone. Don't check your email (or, if that's as unreasonable for you as it is for me, check it once a day at a predetermined time only). Purposely stay somewhere without a TV or radio — seriously, if something big happens in the world, you'll find out sooner or later anyway.

(Maybe) Don't Bring A Camera

As someone who is known among friends for near-obnoxious levels of Instagramming when on vacation, I definitely understand the instinct to capture all the exciting sights around you for posterity. Sometimes, however, we get so focused on capturing what's happening around us that we forget to fully experienceit; hardly a recipe for relaxation. Photos get damaged, deleted or lost in the archives of Facebook, but memories last forever. Make sure yours are made with all your senses, not just your viewfinder.

Don't Over-Schedule Yourself

When I'm planning for a holiday, I want to do all of the research, see all of the sights, eat in all of the restaurants, have all of the fun… I think you can see where I'm going with this. Traveling as a Type A planner can get real old, real fast. You only have so much time in any given place, and by prioritizing what you want to see and do, you'll buy yourself more time to actually enjoy it.

In fact, scheduling time to relax might be just the ticket. I'm heading to Rome with a friend in a couple weeks' time, and I'm trying a new travel tactic. Since the city is going to be hot as Hades during the day, and since I'm not exactly a fan of soaring temperatures, we've only (loosely) planned our morning and evening activities, while the afternoons will be solely devoted to lounging poolside at our rental property (chosen specifically for this reason, naturally). If we don't get to see everything we'd like to? Well, I'm pretty sure Rome will still be there next time.

Choose Like-minded Travel Mates
Some people, no matter how much love lies between them, were just not made to travel together. Finding a travel partner who enjoys a similar pace as you, whether it's that of an Energizer Bunny or a turtle, is key to avoiding disagreements that can lead to stressful situations.

For a really relaxing holiday, consider ditching the companions altogether and going it alone. Last month, a bout of gastroenteritis turned my planned girlfriends-in-Paris weekend into a solo venture, and, aside from feeling a tad guilty about my sick friend, I had an terrific time. When you travel alone, you're free to do exactly as you like on your schedule, whether that's a full day of museum-hopping or sleeping in until noon, followed by a leisurely stroll along the Seine.

Consider a Staycation
Apparently studies have shown that we sleep fewer hours per night while traveling, whether due to jet lag, busy sightseeing schedules, or just being in an unfamiliar setting. Sleep deprivation is hardly relaxing, so taking the holiday to your own home (and bed) could be a way to beat this.

Keep in mind, however, that in order to be truly relaxing, a staycation should still be a vacation, of sorts. No making endless lists of home improvements or using this time to "catch up" on work or even social engagements. Sleep in. See a movie. Try that new restaurant...

Go Somewhere You Know Well
If you're not quite ready to holiday at home, consider traveling somewhere you've enjoyed before. Familiarity breeds tranquility, and when you know a place well, you're less likely to overextend yourself or become flustered by day-to-day travel problems. My most relaxing holiday destination? Perhaps ironically, it's New York City: after having visited my best friends there for nearly seven years, I no longer feel the need to sightsee compulsively, so it's all leisurely brunches, walks around town and picnics in Central Park.

Buffer Your Vacation
Let's be honest: flying home from paradise on a Sunday evening and showing up to work at 9am the next morning is pretty much the Worst. If you possibly can, try taking an extra day off before and/or after your holiday to be at home. This gives you time to do all those un-fun, post-holiday tasks like laundry, grocery shopping, and finishing the book you started on the return flight.

What To Do This Weekend? Go To A Museum!

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There is so much to love and do in Seattle that some weekends it’s hard to even begin to pick where to go. Out for a hike? To a new coffee shop? Whale watching?

Another great option for weekends is visiting a museum; museums give us the ability to explore various topics, from art to history to science, at our own pace, alone or in a group. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of museums in Seattle to choose from! Here’s the top 10 museums in Seattle, listed by hotels.com:

• The Olympic Sculpture Park: The Seattle Art Museum transports its most dramatic sculptures to the waterfront Olympic Sculpture Park, where visitors enjoy the works for free. A sunlit sky and the blue sparkle of the Puget Sound render the oversized sculptures even more spectacular. 
• The Seattle Aquarium: Just try to resist touching the nubby, rubbery flesh of starfish or the slippery smooth rays in the Seattle Aquarium’s touch tank. The waterfront museum also exhibits fragile corals, shore birds, marine mammals and lots of fish. 
• The Museum of Glass: Delicate vases contrast with towering abstract sculptures at the Museum of Glass, dedicated to 20th- and 21st-century works. Check out the Hot Shop where glassblowers create new works in molten glass every time the museum’s doors open. 
• The Museum of Flight: The Museum of Flight highlights all forms of mechanical flight in Seattle, hometown of plane-making giant Boeing. Visitors test their physical and analytical prowess in the flight simulator, designed to showcase the demands of space travel. 
• Seattle Art Museum: Hammering Man’s black silhouette towers 50 feet outside the Seattle Art Museum. Stand beneath his shadow and watch him hammer silently, then head inside for the museum’s renowned Northwest Coast Indian artworks. 
• The Experience Music Project: At the Experience Music project, a rock ‘n’ roll museum spanning music from Ray Charles to grunge, Jimi Hendrix isn’t the only attraction but he is the star. Absorb Hendrix’s creative energy through a headset while swooning over his psychedelic costumes. 
• Woodland Park Zoo: Woodland Park’s brown bears reveal nature’s power and beauty as they fish for salmon in their own stream. The bears are just part of the zoo’s 1,100-animal collection, representing 300 individual species over the 92-acre site near Green Lake. 
• The Seattle Asian Art Museum: Asian artworks from the Neolithic period to the present bring east to west at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The collection of jades, ceramics and snuff bottles is especially rich. 
• The Science Fiction Museum: A dozen alien spacecraft come to life with the click of a mouse in the Science Fiction Museum, their histories and literary or film origins revealed in multimedia displays. The museum also displays clothing, books and memorabilia from literary, television and film sci-fi. 
• The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture: A revolving collection fills the halls of the Burke Museum, highlighting the natural and cultural history of the American Pacific Northwest. The museum boasts a collection of colorful Northwest totems and fleshes out local history with archaeology, dinosaur and animal displays.

Here’s a bonus tip: if you’re on a budget, check out one of these three museums, which offer free admission and events throughout the month!

Are These 4 Household Urban Myths Legit?

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Do you put salt in water to make it boil faster? Do you store batteries in the fridge so they last longer?

These are just a couple of the types of things we’re told to do to make living in our apartments easier. Let’s be honest: it can be hard to tell fact from wives tales, even for the best of us. Fortunately, this article from apartmenttherapy.com addresses 4 common household myths you may have been told. The truth is out there...keep reading to find out what it is!

Myth: Adding salt to water makes it boil faster.

The Truth: Nope. Salted water actually takes a little bit longer to boil, since the salt raises the boiling point from 100°C to around 106°C. But salt water does boil hotter because when sodium chloride (salt) attaches to water molecules, it releases gas bubbles which increase movement in the water and therefore the temperature. So although you will wait a little longer for your salted water to boil, it will cook your pasta a little faster. Cool!



Myth: Store batteries in the refrigerator so they'll last longer.

The Truth: Short answer: not really. The chemical reaction within the battery (the one that creates an electrical charge to power your devices) is affected by temperature, and cold temps do slow that process; however, contrary to popular belief, batteries don't generate energy unless they're in use, so there's not much point in chilling a resting battery. In fact, until your refrigerated battery returns to room temperature, it won't be able to generate much electricity at all (just try starting your car on a freezing morning). The maximum recommended temperature for a battery is around 77°F, so drawer storage should be just fine for most people.



Myth: Microwaving a sponge kills bacteria.

The Truth: Yes! But it's a little more complicated than 10 seconds on high. Studies show it takes two full minutes for 99% of germs to bite the dust. Double that time to four for complete sterilization. Make sure your sponge is damp (microwaves work by heating water molecules) and, depending on how often you use it, nuke it every few days as a rule of thumb.



Myth: Grinding ice cubes will sharpen your disposal's blades.

The Truth: Sort of. There's no way to really sharpen the blades, but grinding up some ice cubes every now and then does clean them by knocking off built up residue, helping them to function more efficiently. Run some cold water, grind the ice for about a minute, and you should be in business. 

Were you ever taught to do something around the apartment that you found out was bad advice or an urban myth? If so tell us about it in the comments!