Any mother of young children can look at the picture below and immediately identify what will happen when her son or daughter attempts to pour a tablespoon or two of salad dressing.

How do we know what will happen?  We’ve experienced one too many incidents in which half the bottle is inadvertently poured out upon poor, unsuspecting greens.  It’s not pretty.

Which is why I, personally, prefer to buy salad dressings that have tops that look more like this.

Unfortunately, though, the salad dressing manufacturers sort of frown upon consumers opening up their products in the store to check for child-friendly pourability, citing something or other about sanitation.  Hmph.

This little problem resulted in many a wasted salad in my child-heavy household.

Until.

Until my wise {young} grandmother taught me a thing or two about resourcefulness.

You see, what I never realized was that the difference between those two bottles was nothing more than a removable plastic funnel.  Key word: removable.  See for yourself.

Really.  It pops right out.  You just stick a butter knife in the hole and pry it on out.  Easy peasy.  Then you give it a good wash–you know, so that your oil and vinegar dressing doesn’t mix and mingle with the kids’ ranch.  And the next time you come across a funnel-less bottle of dressing?  Voila.  Just pop this one right in.  It’ll fit, even if it’s not the same brand of salad dressing. But don’t take my word for it; check it out for yourself.

Now I always collect the funnel before washing an empty bottle and tossing it into the recycling bin.  I keep many a spare funnels on hand–just in case.

Isn’t my Gram genius?

I think so too.

*Check out more Works For Me Wednesday ideas at That Family.