Over the years I have found a few household tricks to help me . At home I have a lot of gadgets but when I am visiting I don't usually bring my gadgets with me unless I know I will be cooking.

1. Peeling potatoes: Cut your potato in half and set the flat side down on table or counter. Start peeling the side facing you and turn potato as needed until all sides are peeled

2. buttering a slice of bread or toast: Take a clean dish towel and sprinkle with water. Place the wet side down, Lay your bread or toast on top and butter away.

3. Cutting meat before cooking: Instead of a knife I have kitchen scissors Ikeep just for that purpose. They are easier to use with one hand than a knife.For example if you want to cut a steak into strips for a stir fry, same with chicken.

4. To open a jar without a jar-opener. Hold the jar lid under hot water for a few minutes then with the handle of a table knife hit the side of the lid gently with a left to right motion. The lid now should be loose enough to twist open with one hand.

5. Cleaning up: Most people today have dishwashers but if like me, you are alone and you would rther do dishes manually rather than run the dishwasher when its almost empty. With one hand it is easy enough to wash the dishes in the kitchen sink but not so easy to dry them so I used a dish tray and let it air dry. The hotter your rinse water the less time they will take to dry.

6. Sweeping: Easily done with one hand until you have to pick up the little pile of dirt with the dustpan. I have a dustpan and brush set. Lay the dustpan beside the dirt and stick your foot under the handle so it doesn't move while you are sweeping the dirt in the dustpan.

7. making a bed: Lay the fitted sheet on the middle of the bed as flat as you can.Start with any corner you wish and pull it over mattress, then going clockwise, skip the next corner and pull the one after over the mattress, then do the other two. you might have to go around the bed a few times to pull everything tight.Then you can do the same thing with the top sheet and blankets.