7. Here's a tough one. If you don't use it every day, remove it from your counters. So many of us complain about not having enough counter space yet we crowd counters with items we don't even use.

8. Check out all racks, drawer units and organizers on market to more efficiently store your kitchen items. You'll find a variety of selections at home stores throughout country.

9. Set up a small pantry somewhere in your home for extra cans of soup, coffee, etc. You'll save money by buying in bulk or during sales and you will save space in kitchen for more important things. A small closet can easily be converted to a pantry. Once you have one, you'll never want to be "pantry-less" again.

7. Nothing tastes as good as something you grew yourself.

Invest yourself in what you're doing and it will always taste better. It's projects you really work hard on that have meaning.

8. Find a partner who compliments you.

One year man in my life and I had a vegetable garden. I planned it, with my usual enthusiasm, and plotted everything out. He dug holes and planted what I'd planned with not much enthusiasm, but a sort of dogged determination. I watched things come up and was thrilled, and then lost interest. He was one who faithfully watered, and weeded, and fertilized and kept crops going with no imagination, just hard work. Then when harvest came in, I cooked up great things. He liked meals and pronounced garden a Good Thing after all. I'm a Strategist who likes to plan things all out and then turn it over to someone else, someone who's not a dreamer, to implement it. We were a good team. Now garden is all mine and I appreciate all more his former contribution. He may never dream and vision as I do, and I may never have a taste for doing same thing day in and day out as he did, so we made a good team and each learned things from other to incorporate into our lives.

9. Thorns and beetles and hornets and snails and worms.

I have cuts and scratches on my hands and arms, like wrinkles on my face -- signs that I've lived and been in touch with life. When I go out to garden I meet all sorts of critters that are part of life on this planet and my companions on journey. There are bugs that want to eat roses; and snails, whose function I do not know; and worms that are making it all possible; and hornets I must avoid. They quietly go about their daily business, intent on their own thing, which may or may not conflict with mine, and sometimes we meet.

10. Butterflies.

Butterflies, like happiness, just come and light on your shoulder. Though I planted a Butterfly Bush, it didn't attract butterflies, but other things have. From time to time (I think it's a migration) butterflies arrive in my garden while I'm doing other things. I can't predict their arrival, and my attempts to summon them didn't work, but still they come! I can't make it happen, but I can count on it happening just same. Like happiness. When it's least expected it will arrive.