Today, I worked a bit on my "pantry". As I've mentioned before, my kitchen is too small for a real "pantry" area. (I believe the exact dimensions of my kitchen are 8'x9'.) My stairs to my basement are off the kitchen, and they've covered with shelves. The ones at the end of the stairs are too high up, and I'm scared of heights, so ladders are sorta out for now, so I don't use that part. At any rate, that wasn't my focus today. Another feature of my kitchen is a Big Lots island that I built, just to give me some extra cupboard and counter space. It's not an ideal solution, but it's a nice temporary solution. (I also have an IKEA Expedit shelf, but that offers no counter space because my kitchen window is one of my two south-facing windows. The other south window is commandeered by the cats from the couch, so the one in the kitchen is reserved for plants. But I digress.)
Here's what my pantry space looked like before:
I spent time in this area cleaning up the food area. If you can see the wire rack towards the bottom left corner, it's really not strong enough for cans, but I had cans stacked on top of it. Underneath it are backs of split peas (both green and yellow). I love peas in pretty much all forms--except canned. This past winter I discovered how easy it was to make split pea soup sans ham. Yum. I think it would be better with ham, so that will be my goal this winter. Or some cool summer day, if one of those comes along. Plus the popcorn maker (middle bottle) isn't sitting solidly on the shelf. One of these days, a laundry basket is going to take that out, if I don't change the situation!
The split peas are now in recycled pickle and mayo jars. As I eat more pickles, I'll move the yellow peas to pickle jars. I just feel better about storing them in glass rather than plastic. I also moved some appliances where the wire shelf was, and now it's got tea, powdered drinks, and dry mixes on it (upper right corner). It's infinitely better for the shelf. I really love that I put the shade on the back door. I now don't have to be concerned about all the direct sunlight hitting the food, which isn't good for it. Plus, there were a lot of tools and stuff sitting on the top shelf that are now in the basement--not put away yet, but at least close to where they belong! In a perfect world, I'll make a small shelf so the George Foreman grill can sit under the crockpot (bottom left), so all my small appliances can be on the bottom shelf there. I also want to sew appliance covers for all of these to keep the dust off--especially the toaster!
Wait, so where did all the pasta that was formerly in the upper right go? Good question. Let's move on to the island that I built.
This is actually a really obnoxious corner to get into. If you look closely at the picture, the white triangle in the bottom left is the IKEA shelf sitting there. It's dark, and tight. Not fun to get into at all, so it's been a mess for a while, especially since both my popcorn maker and toaster were in there. I don't make toast that often, but it was a jigsaw puzzle to get the popcorn maker out (so you can see why it was moved over to the pantry without room to put it!).
And now it's home to the pasta. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to deal with those pans there on the bottom shelf. I'm thinking about stacking them vertically, rather than horizontally. I'm not sure that will work better--unless I get a few dividers to use like bookends or something. Hmm. there's an idea! I'd kinda like to add another shelf in there (as you can see, I already have one more than the original design called for!), so the pasta could fit better. It's something I'll have to consider in future endeavors, which, sadly, may not happen this July. Then again, it might. I'll have to see what extra wood I have laying around.
BONUS! And here's another project--that probably could've counted towards my half-hour today, except I forgot to time it. I have a chair in my living room that has a great history. It was from my parents' living room set from when I was a child. When the couch wore out and my mom replaced the furniture (face it, my dad was just there for budgeting it), I saved the chair and moved it to my bedroom because it was so comfortable. I took it to college with me. When I graduated, I finished at the end of winter quarter, but Baby Brother was going to college halfway between where I went to college and our parents'. We dropped off the chair for him (I lived with my parents for a year after college--paid off most of my college loans that way!). As we walked away from my brother's dorm room, my dad said, "I am never moving that chair again." Well, my brother brought it home from college with him. And then Dad moved it into my first apartment. And then my second apartment. And then my third apartment. And then my fourth apartment. And now my house. It's really ending its life. The fabric is finally starting to show its wear. One of the springs is bent, so the chair kept eating the cushion, so it got pretty beat up. The zipper broke long ago (I'm pretty sure my mom fixed it at least once). I put a piece of hardboard over the springs, but cushion still manages to get caught between the board and the side of the chair. It's annoying and looks horrible:
So I decided to do something about it. I bought some fishing line from Target and used a large, thick embroidery needle I already had, and sewed it up. Why fishing line? It's some pretty tough stuff.
And now my cushion is sewn up. I'll be curious to see if it lasts, and how long it lasts. I know the chair needs to be replaced. It's not longer as comfortable (the board makes it hard to sit on rather than its former soft cushiness), and it's wearing out. Plus, it's really too big for my small living room. However, it's gotta stay for now, so I'll enjoy it while I have it. Maybe Dad won't have to move it again.
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