Listen to Your Mother: Push Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work

Here is Mom a few weeks ago, celebrating her birthday. I chose this photo to provide public proof that at least once in her life she was given “the special plate” at our house. Pay no attention to the fact that I forgot to pull it out for her until we were serving the sticky toffee pudding…

Mom has forgotten more than I know, and today’s post is about one of the things she used to do, then forgot, then remembered again, and has now shared with me. I don’t know if it is as life-changing as my bra, but it certainly has made me a happier kitchen worker and housecleaner.

Here we are are together. Notice what we are wearing:

It is February in these photos, long sleeves weather. But there is work to be done — dishes to wash! toffee puddings to bake! Fish to fry! (Well, not fish to fry on this day — Mom doesn’t like much in the way of fish.) Anyway, we are chilly enough to want long-sleeved tops, but we are working hard enough to need to push up our sleeves to get messy stuff done. Therein lies a problem…

…sleeves that won’t stay up. Doesn’t that annoy the stew out of you? I can’t think how many times I have been up to my wrists in dough or batter or raw chicken and one or both of my pushed-up sleeves started south toward whatever gunk was on my skin. I have tried to push them back up by scraping them against the edge of the counter, by enlisting the help of whomever was wandering through the kitchen (and I’ve got to say, Calvin the Wonderdog just does not have the dexterity to assist me), and most often by biting the end of my sleeve and tugging it back up with my teeth. It’s undignified, bad for the garment, and worst of all, it doesn’t really work because those sleeves usually slide right back down as soon as I start working again.

Mom’s ingenuity to the rescue. Her solution is free, easy, and it works really, really well!

Wide rubber bands are the answer. Just slip them over the first inch or so of the sleeves.

Push up your sleeves to whatever place is most comfortable,

let the extra fabric cover the rubber bands so you don’t look dorky, and there you go — you’re ready to tackle whatever messy job is in front of you.

This trick is so important to me that I’ve given these rubber bands the honor of a spot in the utensil drawer. I think I have used them every day since Mom showed me what to do.

Isn’t my mom brilliant? I always suspected she was, but this proved it beyond doubt.

What practical lessons have you learned from your mom?