You may have come across the following call at a glass container: “Please do not throw any unwashed honey jars into the glass container!” Is someone being particularly clean here, or is there a specific reason for this request? Yes, there is! American foulbrood can wipe out entire bee colonies in this country! You can read here how the simple act of washing out empty honey jars can prevent this.

Why you should always rinse honey jars

Recycling used glass is a matter of honor. When the honey jar is empty, it goes into the glass container. However, beekeepers have been warning for several years about the devastating consequences that honey residue in jars can have on the local bee population. They ask people to put honey jars in the dishwasher or wash them thoroughly by hand before disposing of them. The reason: the spread of American foulbrood.

American foulbrood – bee disease on the rise

American foulbrood is a disease that is completely harmless to humans. However, it poses a serious threat to bees. In the worst case, it can wipe out entire bee colonies. This is why the disease is also known as bee plague.

American foulbrood is a bacterial blood disease. The spores of the bacterium enter healthy bee colonies with contaminated honey. If the bee colony is weakened, the combs are taken over by other bee colonies, which in turn become infected. The disease can affect huge areas in this way.

The name American foulbrood is not an indication of the origin of the disease. It occurs worldwide. A beekeepers’ association estimates that 80 to 90 % of imported honey contains American foulbrood spores. This is due to the fact that infected bee colonies in non-European countries are usually treated with antibiotics. Although this keeps the bees healthy, the spores of the pathogen are not combated.

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In Germany and other European countries, for example, American foulbrood repeatedly spreads via honey residues in used glass containers. The disease is particularly common near glass containers, landfill sites and highway service stations. Bees love to collect the finished honey – especially in summer when the flowers have faded.

Which honey jars should I rinse?

If you buy imported honey from non-EU countries, which is usually cheaper, you should actually rinse your empty honey jars thoroughly before disposing of them (or donating them to a beekeeper). The same applies to honey in plastic bottles or jars. The better alternative, of course, is to use local honey. Perhaps even in a refill jar from a local beekeeper? This saves long transportation routes and CO₂.

Sources: tipps.computerbild, quarks

Do you have kitchen roll in your fridge? The absorbent and tear-resistant paper is usually stored under the sink or in a special holder 🛒. But there are a few tangible advantages to storing it in the fridge. Here you can find out how to use kitchen paper not only to keep food fresher, but also to keep your fridge clean.

Kitchen roll in the fridge has these advantages

Kitchen roll or kitchen paper is indispensable for many people in the kitchen – whether it’s for wiping up spilt milk or dabbing meat. But kitchen roll is also really useful in the fridge.

Vegetables keep longer

Vegetables and salad quickly become mushy or moldy in the fridge due to condensation. If you place kitchen paper in the vegetable drawer in the fridge, the moisture is absorbed and the food stays fresh and crisp for longer.

Kitchen roll is also a good help for foods that should not come into contact with certain other foods during storage. This applies to mushrooms, for example, which should be stored separately from leafy vegetables (lettuce, parsley, white cabbage, etc.). To protect them, you can simply wrap the food in question in a piece of kitchen roll.

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The fridge gets clean faster

Another advantage of kitchen paper in the fridge is that it absorbs dirt. Instead of wiping out the fridge again and again or struggling with stubborn encrustations on the shelves, you can simply use the kitchen paper as a base, dispose of it once it is dirty and replace it with new paper.

However, if you want to use kitchen roll in the fridge, you should bear the following in mind:

1. According to Ökotest, not all kitchen rolls are suitable for contact with food as they contain the potentially carcinogenic substance chlorpropanol 3-MCPD.
2. To protect the environment, you should buy kitchen rolls made from recycled paper. Alternatively, you can of course also use tea towels.

Despite all the enthusiasm for this versatile household helper, you should also know that there are 5 things for which kitchen roll is unsuitable. There are also alternatives to kitchen roll for many household tasks.

Sources: familyhandyman, br

The links marked with the shopping cart 🛒 are affiliate links. The products are researched to the best of our authors’ knowledge and some are also recommended from personal experience. If you click on such an affiliate link and buy something through it, our editorial team will receive a small commission from the online store in question. For you as a user, the price does not change and there are no additional costs. The income helps us to offer you high-quality, entertaining journalism free of charge.

Keeping things tidy in stressful everyday life is often not that easy. According to the motto “out of sight – out of mind”, everything simply disappears into the depths of the kitchen cupboards and there is no time to tidy up. But that’s over now: you’ll see how easy it is to organize your kitchen cupboards, create space and ensure a harmonious overall look with a few clever tricks.

Success is usually preceded by effort, which is why you need to put in a lot of hard work when organizing your kitchen cupboards to achieve a harmonious result. The following tips will help you:

First step: clear out and muck out the cupboards

Before you can really get started, everything has to be removed from the cupboards. Clearing out and Mucking out of the cupboards is the most time-consuming and strenuous step. But only when you have an overview of your entire kitchen inventory can you start to organize your kitchen cupboards sensibly. Once you have cleared everything out, assign the various items to specific areas:

• Baking utensils
• Ingredients for the pantry – you should also make sure to keep it tidy!
• Pots and pans
• Small electrical appliances such as blenders, toasters, kettles, etc.
• Snacks & Co.

Tip: Check the best-before date of your supplies during the clear-out and sort out expired products.

Organize your pantry

If you can’t see it, you won’t use it. To organize your kitchen cupboards, you should use transparent boxes 🛒 in which you can store rice, flour and similar items. These are also ideal for the fridge transparent storage containers . This not only looks neat, but also protects your food from pests.

Jars and tins for supplies

You don’t have to store all your food in the cupboards. Dry ingredients such as pasta or breakfast cereals can also be stored visibly in jars or tins 🛒 and used as decoration for your kitchen. However, too many tins and jars can quickly look messy. It’s better to use a few, but large containers – this looks calmer and clearer.

Tip: Everything you don’t need every day can still be stored in the kitchen cupboards.

Cleverly organize and divide kitchen cupboards

It’s not just transparent boxes, jars and tins that keep kitchen cupboards tidy. To organize the storage space you can use small kitchen shelves 🛒 to double the space in your cupboards. But turntables 🛒, stackable boxes 🛒 or pull-out drawers 🛒 also help to keep the kitchen chaos tidy.

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Avoid dead corners in the kitchen

Not everyone has the luxury of a large kitchen. But even in the smallest of spaces you can use clever solutions to create plenty of storage space. Perhaps there is a gap between the stove and the wall where a narrow shelf with castors 🛒 fits? Or use the inside of your kitchen doors to attach storage options 🛒. The space between the hob and the back wall offers room for your chopping boards.

Diversify the design of your kitchen cabinets

If you want to organize your kitchen cabinets, the look naturally also plays a role. Uniform storage solutions look great, but they don’t always fulfill the desired purpose. So make sure you use a sensible mix of materials: glass is suitable for dry food, woven baskets 🛒 for fruit and vegetables.

Source: westwing.de

The links marked with the shopping cart 🛒 are affiliate links. The products are researched to the best of our authors’ knowledge and some are also recommended from personal experience. If you click on such an affiliate link and buy something through it, our editorial team will receive a small commission from the online store in question. For you as a user, the price does not change and there are no additional costs. The income helps us to offer you high-quality, entertaining journalism free of charge.