Kitchen Week, Day Two

In her comment on my previous post, Alana suggested a quick "before and after" post -- and since that coincided with what I'd been thinking, here's a bit of proof that I did some work yesterday!


The food cupboard is tidy. Although you can't see it, the dishes on the top shelf have all been washed, and the stack of saucers and the stack of small plates are now enrobed in cling-wrap to keep that dust from returning (at least to them. The cups are still exposed to the elements.) The shelf was also washed, not an easy feat for a vertically-challenged person such as myself. Much expired food was dealt with, leaving just a few things to be going on with. Mostly cans of salmon. There were not one, not two, not even three -- there were SEVEN cans of salmon in that cupboard, all with best-before dates of July 2015. I do *not* need to buy salmon for a while.

The gold-color cream and sugar thingies were on the counter. It's nice to have them up out of the way. They're ones that I don't remember at all. I found them in the large particle-board cupboard that Mum and Dad kept extra dishes etc in (I cleared that out last fall). I'm using them to keep the dollar coins and quarters I need for laundry money! The kleenex box is where I store used grocery bags that I then re-use for garbage bags. It, too, was on the counter.


The flatware drawer has had quite a make-over. I put most of the mismatched flatware into the OutBox, because when I was at the Bay on Saturday, I discovered that they were having a half-price sale on Oneida flatware, and I bought two place settings and ordered two more, of a lovely pattern called "Easton". The drawer has been cleaned, and looks so much nicer now. (I kept some spoons and dessert forks from Mum's and Dad's old every-day flatware.)

Then the recipe drawer, which I discovered was mainly filled with user manuals for appliances, many of which have left the building. By the time I got rid of all that detritus, there were just two neat stacks of cookbooks left, and a rolling pin. The best "find" in the drawer is seen on the top of the nearest pile of cookbooks -- I put it together when I was about 8, and it includes a few recipes gleaned from the sort of cookbook where people contribute their prize recipes, since in the midst of the ingredients list I've also written "Mrs. Sarah Jhonston" or whatever other name. There's an "ad" on one page that says "Be sure to buy more of these cookbooks soon!" -- but I obviously decided that writing out recipes was too much work, because after 3 or 4, I've written in large black marker letters "Now you write suggestions". I was delighted to discover Mum had kept it all these years.

I have to report that nothing was done in the storage room yesterday. However, today is another day. And here are the tasks for today (although today needs to include some writing time, as well. I received a manuscript evaluation from my writing coach yesterday, and I'm eager to get to work on editing my picture book manuscript!)


The cupboard over the sink (mostly just rearranging the "deck chairs", the things to be donated have already been removed, yesterday):

The sink. Wouldn't you think that a person who has made it successfully to the age of 54 would know how to re-fold towels before putting them up on the rack? (I'd like to replace those towels, as well. I love them, they're the right color scheme, they're creative -- but they are the music and lyrics to "The First Noel" and perhaps it's time to put them away until next Christmas.)

And, *something* needs to be done in the storage room today. This whole project hinges on the clearing of the storage room, so no matter how much I'm not looking forward to doing that part of the project, it MUST be done. 


*SCB waves gallantly as she walks toward the mess in the south end of the storage room*