Sunday, November 06, 2016

This and that

Nothing really spectacular has been happening in these parts recently.  I just had nothing to say/post!  But that changed on Friday.

Before that - ending DLST.  I don't care which way we mess with the time, I am tired afterward.  I should be highly refreshed and good to go, but I am dragging.  I am so close to completion of Steven King's marathon novel  Needful Things, but I cannot keep my eyes open to finish it.  It is working like a sleeping pill.  But I will bet you that if I tried to read it TO go to sleep, it wouldn't work that way.  Melatonin or whatever - when insomnia hits, it hits hard.

Now Friday!  My pantry has been updated.  I had my contractor get his cabinet guy to make the pull out drawers to go on the shelves.  I haven't been able to get to the back of the lowest and next to lowest shelves in way over 10 years.

Getting ready for the installation of the shelves, I pulled everything out.  Some of it was just flat disgusting.  The only way I could have reached it before was getting on the floor.  Nice if I were still 60.  There is no way for me to get up from a tile floor these days.  I would have to kneel, and my beloved (deceased) orthopedist told me the only way I could get on my knees was with a well-padded surface, and he didn't like that either.  He said that padding the patella between outside sources and the titanium knee is never very successful.  The patella tends to crack.

So this weekend I have been putting the rescued items back into the pantry.  I knew all along I would be minus a couple of inches because of the glides for the drawers.  That was a pretty good swap for me.  What I didn't realize was that even though glass bottles and all could go right up to the outside, I would still run out of room for what had been in the pantry.  And this is even after discarding a lot of stuff that was outdated.  (the old out of sight - out of mind thing, only it was out of reach - pretty much out of mind)

My biggest offender in the pantry is duplicate herbs and spices.  Who in their right mind needs three bottles of cloves?  Well - I guess I needed some cloves three times, and couldn't find them.  Who needs three bottles of molasses?  Again, I guess I did three times.  Those things just pushed themselves into the deep dark recesses of that pantry.

I am still going to have a problem with the herbs and spices.  They all nestle down into that drawer with its four-inch sides (thus covering the labels completely) unless I do something.  So I have come up with my next (as if I needed a next) project.  I am going to make labels to go on the lids of these items.  At least I might have a fighting chance.

So - next week, I will be busy making labels!  I will let you know how that comes out!

5 comments:

Jeanette said...

I tend to buy duplicates of stuff all the time, then get mad at myself for not checking first! At least you got your pantry cleaned out!

Marti said...

It is so funny (or make that coincidental) that you would mention the spices. After we moved to this tiny duplex, with only 2 good upper cabinets, I discovered that I had lots of duplicate spcies. FIVE tubs of cinnamon. My excuse was that my pantry was so deep that I never could find anything and just bought more. I've culled a lot of it here. Threw away unopened bottles of cumin and chili powder because I knew I would never use it and it had just expired so the food pantry wouldn't take it. What a waste. Here's to both of us making our cabinets easier to manage!

yellowdoggranny said...

check dates on spices...6 months is about as long as they are good.

Sally said...

Like your friend Jackie, I do check the expiration dates; not only on spices but other things as well. What really got my "goat" was learning that the little tubs of peaches, fruit cups that I've always tried to have on hand for the kids came from China. Yep, and that's Dole. I know we eat things that probably come from there, or Thailand, or whatever other place I really don't trust because a lot of labels just say "distributed by". Whoa, I sure got off track here, Karen. Sorry!

I hope things work out for you that will keep you off your knees; I can only imagine how much that hurts along with taking the chance of cracks.

xoxo

Sally said...

Well, to continue being "off track" I noticed in our grocery store that other than very few fish and shrimp products come from foreign countries. Like, an example, Fisherman's Wharf from China. Whoa, won't be buying any of that anymore. I do, however, purchase fish from Alaska. :)