I'm sorry if all I seem to write about lately is the pantry, but it seems to be what takes up a lot of my thoughts and time.
Our kitchen has a small reach in pantry. I was thrilled when we moved here 22 years ago because my previous kitchen was tiny and no pantry. But like my dad said, you always grow into your space. The pantry only had three shelves and the shelves are held up by wood around the three sides and then the shelf sits on the edge of each. A few years ago I found a shelf at one of the hardware stores that would fit without having to be cut. It's not as deep as the others, but that's OK because it makes it easier to get things off the floor of the pantry.
I'm almost ashamed to admit that the pantry walls and shelves look bedraggled. The contact paper on two of the shelves was not nice. I couldn't get it off. The wood on the three original shelves was really dark. The shelves themselves seemed sturdy so I couldn't see paying to replace them. So, I ventured out into the garage to look for a can of paint I knew we had. A few years ago we painted the bathroom and when we had some work done in there, we needed some touch up paint. The paint store wouldn't let us buy a small amount or even just a pint. Nope, had to buy a whole gallon. We didn't need a gallon and I have been irritated ever since to think about that almost full gallon of paint sitting in the garage. Well, I put it to good use. I had a paint brush and a small roller and plenty of newspaper to catch the drips. It took two coats, but I think it looks far better.
I have been browsing Pinterest and I know there is no way my pantry will ever be Pinterest Pretty, but I did get some ideas on better organization. I hoped I would find some things on our weekly thrift store outing and I did! I bought 4 square soft sided containers, one small metal basket, one wire basket that attaches to a shelf, and one of those spice things that slides out and turns for $13 and tax. One place had everything half price and we spent $11 there and $2 for the wire basket. I had two baskets and a couple of other things that I washed and reused. I'm sort of proud of the pantry. I felt like I did decently for some elbow grease and very little money.
I made more applesauce last week as well as apple juice. I think I have maybe 5 wide mouth quart jars and 3 regular mouth quart jars and 5 half pints left from all the canning. I have a lot of stuff canned. So, my pie safe as well as pantry is about full and what a blessing that is!
I noticed the other day I had stupidly stuck a bunch of papers in a drawer. I made myself go through all the papers. Most of them I could recycle. I had a few that needed to get to the shred pile. I really need to stop doing that kind of stuff and just deal with these papers right away.
More Pantry Follies and Tackling Some Clutter
September 7th, 2020 at 09:11 pm
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September 12th, 2020 at 02:41 pm 1599921665