Hello, lovelies!
I hope you had a good last weekend of fun and relaxation.
I have always been a tea lover, so when my husband Steve was told by his Dr. recently to stop drinking coffee for health reasons, we both ditched our coffee, cold turkey, and went all-in on tea. So far, neither of us has missed coffee at all and we are really enjoying tea, both hot and iced.
Now, being in the sunset era of our life where we are streamlining and simplifying every single thing in our entire home and life, we have decided to just use tea bags and not mess with loose tea anymore. I know, the high tea purists are calling me on the phone right now! But don't worry, my tea connoisseur friends. When I go out for tea next time to say Balmoral Castle or the Shangri-La, I will be sure to politely tell them I would like gourmet loose leaf tea and no grocery store tea bags, please.
But back to real life in Arizona, USA where I drink at-home tea at my little cottage-style retirement home. Tea in a pretty cup. With cozy garden-esque slippers on my feet and a lovely "Garden Party" dress on my bod.
Note that when you like to try many different flavors of tea like I do, you'll likely buy at least six boxes at a time, or so. That's a lot of tea bags! But, you want to buy that many boxes at a time, because just like flour, rice, and other food staples, if tea is your main beverage of choice at home other than plain water, you're going to want to stock up when those bags are on sale.
BTW, my favorite tea bag brand is now Bigelow's Steep, sealed in foil wrappers so they don't go stale nor absorb odors during shipping, and my favorite place to buy those tea bags is Vitacost because they have the best price, plus stackable discounts and coupons too at times. (10% off right now!) Be sure to go to Rakuten first and then to Vitacost within Rakuten so you get a cash rebate, too. Steep is Bigelow's premium line of tea and it's organic and non-GMO. I'm impressed.
Okay, so you have now stocked up on 9000 tea bags. (Kidding!) So how do you find the flavor you are craving this very day, and none other will do?
You organize those tea bags!
Like you didn't know by now I was going to say that?! :)
And here's the easiest way by far that I have found to organize tea bags so you can find your English Breakfast tea easily without having to go back to bed in frustration. (Hey, it happens.)
Think of this tea organizing system below kind of like the Dewey Decimal system of organizing library books. Only for tea bags, not books. (Sorry, but I worked in several libraries when I was young and Dewey became my good friend and informed my future life.)
Yes, I realize I am showing you this picture twice in this post. It's that important of a concept. You see that thing on the right here that says "Steep" a lot? Those are tea bags. And they are in drawers. And those drawers have dividers in them.
Eureka, it's the sorting principle, once again! As in "divide and conquer!"
So for example, my particular tea drawers are sorted by Earl Grey, Lemon Ginger, Mint, (for tummy aches), Chamomile Citrus, (to help you doze off), Chai (yum!), and Dandelion Peach. Those are then followed in the drawer by other flavors, sooooo, you can have a lot of different flavors and tea bags in a very small space.
Bye bye, bunch of bulky tea boxes cluttering up your cupboard!
When I get my tea boxes, I remove the pouches/bags from the box and I organize them by flavor in the drawers, as I mentioned. Like the title of a book, the tea flavor is on the front of the bag/book cover so you can readily see what flavor of tea it is, of course. Any excess bags go in the clear container marked "tea" shown here, because I keep extra bags on hand that I bought on sale so that Earl Grey and I will always have a date night together.
Swoon, we're dancing the tea tango, Earl and me!
PRO TIP: Only so many bags will fit in each section of the drawer. Plus one more: Turn the last tea bag upside down so the bulk of the bag is on top and you can fit one more bag in that way.
(Steve just said to turn every other bag upside down to get even more bags in. Geeesh, some people think they know everything, don't they?! :) He is laughing as I read this to him.)
Here's another way you can organize your tea bags, but I am not fond of this thing-y so I changed to the drawers pronto.
Here's why: These stack, which is nice, but it was a pain to take them off the shelf to get at the exact tea flavor I wanted, so Goodwill it was donated to new or not, because I don't do clutter. This is not a waste of my money; it's a charitable donation! Because someone could use this divided box to sort maybe their jewelry if they have a lot of large pieces, or office paperclips etc. I don't have much of either, so I did not need the box and therefore donated it.
Also, according to Murphy's Law with this bin/box system, the bag flavor I wanted was usually in the bottom bin, go figure, so I would have to lift the top box off all the time. The drawers are much easier -- just like your dresser drawers. Drawers are sorters. Sorters are good -- no they are great, in your home! Everywhere.
Shout it from the "rooftop" of your beautiful backyard tea party: Sorters are great in your home!
You could also put these bins with the hinged lid in a drawer in your kitchen, but you're not going to be able to see the tea bag flavor names that way because you will be looking at the top of the bags, and the name is on the front of the bags, and you have to fiddle with the lid.
No fiddling! I have helped people get organized in one way or another since I was about two years old, (okay, maybe a little older than that), and you should know that I do not advise "fiddling" with anything in your home, (unless it's the musical instrument, of course), because you are a busy person who needs things at home efficient and easy, so just like me, you don't want to fiddle with anything but a musical fiddle. And in order to not fiddle, you need a system. And this tea bag drawer system is it if you want to be Queen of Your Tea Bags just like you are Queen of Your Paperwork. :)
Okay, I'm done with my former 8th grade teacher voice who only wants you to learn and do your very best. So that your home is organized and runs smoothly so that you have time to have a little daily tea party for one at home. :)
May you have tea bags at home organized by flavor, a pretty dollarwise tea pot, and a loved one to share tea time with, wherever you live in the world.
Love and tea hugs,
Kathryn :)
P.S. The Cup of Life and Tea Thoughts and Thirsty for Tea are lovely and informative blogs about all things tea. They have a nice eBook too. I don't know these ladies personally, but I like their blogs and tea vision so wanted to share them with you here. Enjoy!