Saturday, April 24, 2010

Saturday-8:30am

I decided to post now before I go to bed. And what did I do all night? Got a long overdo bite by the pantry cleaning bug.
I'm not kidding--it has to be at least a couple of years--maybe three--since I did a complete cleaning in here.
And since I am wanting to switch to become a sort of macrobiotic/vegetarian/oriental eater...
...this is a lot to empty out in order to clean and organize.
Left side top to bottom.


Right side top to bottom.


No wonder I've been putting it off so long. Totally overwhelming.
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So I decided to set the timer for half hour increments. And took at least an hour break in between cleaning sessions. Trying not to overdo it. :)
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First I had to clean off the art table to have some more space to pile things.
By morning I had emptied most of one side.
Will be a lot of wiping down with a hot rag--you know that slightly greasy kitchen dust.
Oops! I missed the picture of the other side of the kitchen--which is also packed--all over the stove. And this is the art table now.
I have a few things already on the craft table, too. This is what I saw in the dark last night. Buddha Karma watching from the chair. (You know her fear of being stepped on--she decided to get out of my way--hehe!)
Seems like I especially get glowing cat eye pictures at night--with or without a flash.
Karma was all wound up from all the excitement. As soon as she knew I was taking a break she was racing around, clawing the furniture (well, she has no claws--pawing the furniture), meowing, and curious about everything I was doing. She'd go check out the pantry and look up at the counters, etc. Silly girl!
She better not get into much while I am sleeping now today. ;) I think the surfaces are too crowded for her to be able to step on anything really. I left the stool up in the pantry and she's already been up on an empty shelf, I think. Big excitement in Fargo--ROFL!
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Looks like a good sleeping day--cloudy and dark. When I get up--I'll see how I'm feeling after I "thaw out" and maybe I'll start on the cleaning and organizing. Not sure how much I'll do--or if I will do anything at all, for that matter. I'm only hoping to be done before Caroline comes on Tuesday--so no hurry. I don't want to set off a fibro flare, that's for sure. :)
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It will be sooo nice when I get the entire pantry done. After the pantry is done then I will work on the rest of the kitchen. I have been inspired by all the bloggers who have been cleaning and organizing lately and also motivated by switching my eating habits. It was time to dig out the weird dried oriental stuff I have so I know what I have and can find them easily...like lotus seeds and star anise. Don't ask. I've never actually tried them--hehe!
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Tired. Sore. No surprise. But am already organizing in my head....:):)

10 comments:

Serena Lewis said...

I hope you don't set off a fibro flare either. Well done to you on cleaning out the pantry. Mine can get in a right mess with three adult sons and an 11 year old son going in and out a lot too. They never put things back in place. I organised the pantry about three months ago but everything is out of place again. I hope Karma doesn't get into too much mischief while you sleep.

Mary said...

It makes me tired just to look at this! Very ambitious project and congrats on getting it done. And I thought I was doing good by washing all my floors this weekend :-)

akartisan said...

I love your pantry. The one I have is way too deep, so is almost useless because everything that gets put in the back is lost. I keep trying to find pull out or roll out shelves that I could put in there. I had put up a shelving unit across the room, but it's too close to the heater vent, so the food gets overheated and goes bad too fast there.

AliceKay said...

You have a lot of space in that pantry of yours. Nice. I hope you haven't overdone with the cleaning, tho. (will check the post above this one next to find out)

I noticed the Food Club brands on some of your items. We used to have a P&C grocery store where I shop but the main company went bankrupt and sold the store to Tops. They have replaced all of the Food Club brands with their own, and have totally removed some things I've bought over the years. We have one big grocery store in our area and that's the store. There's a small, locally owned store in the opposite direction of this one, but it doesn't have the variety. Sometimes it's tough living out in the boonies.

Rita said...

Hi Serena--I've been being careful to only do so much at a time. Funny--I used to have Dagan trained in when he grew up with me. But then I only had the one son--hehe! I've always been one to have all my cans lined up, and categorized (which is why my pantry has been driving me crazy when I ran out of room and lost control--hehe!). Dagan learned to always put things back where they belonged. I call it being efficiently lazy. I wonder if he does that in "Leah's" kitchen? She tends to be pretty organized, too.

Karma didn't get into anything. Not that I could see, anyways--hehe! :)

Rita said...

Hi Mary! Welcome!
You are so funny! Back in the day, I used to dive into big projects like this and go till I was done. These days I can only tackle them by breaking them down into small segments and not thinking about when I will finally be done--hehe! I'd like to be done before Caroline comes to clean on Tuesday--but, if not, she can clean around stuff. ;) A difficult but very freeing lesson for a slightly OCD person to learn, I think--ROFL! :):)

Rita said...

Hi Sue--I've never had an apartment with a pantry before, but I love it. But I think they put it in to compensate for the very, very limited room in the actual kitchen, tho. The cupboards are so narrow that I can't close the door all the way because a couple of my purposely mismatched eclectic dinner plates are too big. And the one wall is just the big hole into the main room--so there are very few cupboards at all. So, I'd be lost without this pantry! But, you're right, it can't be too hot. I hope you find a way to get to the back of your pantry. I even use some cut down boxes in mine that I can slide out. :)

Rita said...

Hi AliceKay,
I have lived in the boonies before myself when I lived in Wisconsin. Dagan and I lived on this farm in the country with Roger and we had to drive 11 miles just to get to a small town with few choices. Whatever they had was what you had to choose from unless you drove for half an hour or so on the freeway to get to a larger town. It was a good thing I have always been a stockpiler--hehe!

I often by the generic brands. I usually will try them out, because they are often just as good as the regular name brands. Once in a while not. But most of the time some name brand just repackages those generic labels. I still have some brand names favs that just don't taste the same, but I try to save my pennies wherever I can...so I can spend on things that are more fun--hehe! Or save up for the bigger stuff. :):)

Intense Guy said...

My goodness. You are set for being snowed in or flooded in for weeks on end!

Well, except for the strangely required "white bread and milk" thing.

Hope you didn't feel too sore in "your morning" whatever hour that was. :)

Rita said...

Hi Iggy!
I'd be ready...as long as we still had electricity--hehe! Most of this is only ingredients for cooking or baking. Staples. I think I need to buy some cans of vegetable soups for when I am not feeling well enough to cook, tho. I'm trying to avoid processed foods, too, as much as possible. But you just can't avoid them all, I guess.

I've been doing fairly well. Going to keep puttering in 30 minute sessions. Am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!! :)