If you've ever found that your sugar bowl or salt shaker was full of a hardened clump of stuff, here's a simple trick that will prevent it from happening. For sugar, it works better in a shaker.

For a salt shaker, put 1/2 tsp of rice kernels in the shaker. The rice will absorb the moisture and keep the salt from clumping together. For sugar -- in a shaker, put about 1 full teaspoon of rice in the shaker. If you want to do this in a sugar bowl, find those little bags you can get in specialty stores for making your own tea bags or herb mix. Put a tablespoon of rice kernels in the tea bag and put that in the sugar bowl.