Snack Chopsticks

My son grew up in front of the computer. The mouse and keyboard are extensions of his arms. So if he needs to eat while interfacing with his tech, which he does all the time, he needs to be able to put food in his mouth without dirtying his typing/gaming fingers. While a spoon and fork work with most food stuff, they’re not really efficient for snacks like potato chips and cheese curls.

I wouldn’t doubt that my son thought of this first, but yes, he uses chopsticks to eat snacks when multi-tasking with tech.

Pretty soon, I was using chopsticks too while working on my articles and blogs (I actually have a snack set beside me right now). This blog is not about using chopsticks – I bet everyone already knows that. This is about how to reuse the chopsticks.

You’ll notice that only the tips of the chopsticks get dirtied by the cheese curls. And when you don’t care to finish the whole bag of snacks, you close the bag (or plastic container) and throw the wooden sticks away (no, you don't want to reuse some old and nasty cruddy infected stick tips!). So you’ll have to get a new set of sticks for the next time you feel the urge for salty cheesy snacks. Ergo, you’ll need a lot of chopsticks on standby.

Of course, you can get a pair of metal chopsticks (which my son gave me some time ago -- he had a spare), and you can wash them after every use. But if you don't want to have to bother about washing the sticks, or you only have those sticks they give out at the Chinese restaurant, then here’s how to make the most of the wooden sticks -- without having to leave your workstation.

Cut off the dirty tips with a pair of cutting pliers, pruning shears, or a cleaver (you should have one of these implements in your workstation drawer so you won’t have to stand up to get it). 

Feed the newly-cut tips into your pencil sharpener (also a mandatory implement in your work area).

And there you have it – a clean pair of wooden chopsticks for your next cheesy snack.

Tip: It’s okay to pull out a new set of whole chopsticks when the reused ones are already less than three inches long.