Sometimes the House Wins

On occasion, I have to act like I am a housekeeper. Ugh. Yesterday was one of those occasions. Ugh. Ugh.

A couple of weeks ago, I made the decision to switch around a few cabinets in my kitchen to make things more accessible. Here were the problems I needed to solve.

1. Kitchen Aid mixer stored on a high shelf; too heavy to access; burdensome.
2. Foodstuffs in a corner cupboard- couldn't reach the back; long-forgotten items hiding back there.
3. Cookie sheets, trays & cake pans stored inadequately-a jumble of pans to juggle every time I needed something.
4. Many nice cookbooks shelved upstairs rather than in the kitchen.
5. Pantry closet was messy/cluttered.

So, I spent the day taking apart cabinets, moving things around, and throwing things out. A few things will go to a yard sale my DS plans to have.

This is the contents of the cavernous corner cupboard. It was a complete unorganized mess of items I had long forgotten. I threw out about 1/3 of this because of expired use-by dates. The oldest date: March 2002. (gracious!!!)



Above is the cleaned-out corner cabinet.

 This is where the cookie sheets, trays and cake pans were amassed. Also numerous casserole dishes and miscellaneous serving bowls resided here.

Here's the newly cleaned and refunctioned corner cabinet. There is a lot of wasted space here; it'd be nice to add some dividers and I might just do that over time. This will work for now.

This is now where the blender, food processor, and kitchen aid are stored. Also, those casserole dishes are back here, along with the bread pans. The 2 wirey things (bottom left and top right) are serving towers. How the heck are these supposed to be stored efficiently?

This sweet little red cupboard sits at the end of the bar, and used to be a hiding place for miscellaneous stuff. Now look!!

Most of these cookbooks are Italian and have value not just for the great recipes, but also for the fabulous pics and stories of history and customs. I love reading them!

Here's the pantry closet that was a disaster.

Now, below is my tidied up closet, and I will warn some of you neat-freaks, it probably will still look rather messy. But it's a far cry better than it was, believe me. The Kitchen Aid was kept on the top shelf of this closet - I needed help every time I wanted to use it.

Ahhh, finally, it's all done. I hate doing jobs like this (this is why I have expired food with dates of 2002!), but I am so glad to have this to cross off my list! Now I can get back to Blue Portugal which only needs its borders. After that, I may go straight into Economy Blue, which is cut out and waiting in the wings.

Happy Quilting, Friends!