The Slow Remodel

Hello again!

     Well, this is starting on the blog, but I may make my own page for it.  We have been saving money for a while (gifts and otherwise) for home improvements. At first we wanted to paint our living room and foyer/stairs.  If you've seen it you know why.  Don't get me wrong, rose wallpaper and poorly painted green walls are not horrible, but it is one of the last parts of the house that needs to be repainted.

     That being said, as I sat pondering when to call painters, I became finally fed up with my kitchen pantry. "Pantry" is a generous term for it. It's the standard width and depth of a cupboard, only it's almost five feet tall and totally useless. I don't know how many times I've bought food I'd lost in the back of the pantry.  So, although we cannot do a total kitchen renovation at this time, we did decide to use our money for The Great Pantry Renovation. 

     Here is a before photo. Pretty disgusting, eh?

I had already taken stuff out, and it was overflowing with chaos.
Granted, some chaos was Logan 'helping' take stuff out.

    So, two weekends ago, Jack and I went to The Container Store. It is appealing to both of our personalities, trust me.

And so it begins!

     Then, with Scott's help in the construction phase, we removed all the fixed shelving and installed drawers. WOW, what a difference it made! A few square containers for stuff that is typically in a box and sometimes goes stale before I find it and presto, new (corner of my) kitchen! Oh, and I also used my old water bottles with the large holes for spouts, to hold dried beans and stuff. You can see the one with the blue lid on the top shelf. Felt pretty darn clever about that one, I have to admit.

WOW! So much better!!!!

      I feel that this was a way better investment than paint. Well, for me anyway. a) I am sane b) I save money not buying stuff two and three times c) I can find stuff d) did I mention I am sane? Cooking dinner is already far less stressful.  I actually went through a lot of other cupboards also, and I found this trick on Pintrest that saved me some room:

Saw this trick on Pintrest

     Just make sure the 1 cup and 1/2 cup either  flatten, or whatever's on the shelf sits far enough back. Oh, and also look out where the shelf is. That will get in the way too. All this needs to make my OCD satisfied is labels...maybe someday.

   I'm hoping that slowly other parts of my kitchen may be made more useful. And someday I may even take down that rose wallpaper, but I hardly notice it anymore. :)

Until next time!