Easter Week
6:11 p.m. - 2013-03-29


The ongoing efforts to declutter are continuing. Last night I decided on the top of the butcher block cabinet as my project for today. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't clear it off without first clearing out and rearranging the top shelf of the cabinet underneath so that I would have a place to put the things I cleared off the top. The top shelf started out as the place I kept the spices, but after the spouse put up some fabulous spice shelves for me some years ago, the cupboard space has degenerated into a mismash of various ingredients. The problem was that the space is deep and it is hard to see what is there. This leads to stuff getting overlooked and lost, so the first thing was to pull everything out and throw away the ancient and expired items. Throwing stuff away isn't as easy as it used to be since now you have to empty everything, compost what you can and recycle the containers.

After that, I got to thinking that what I needed were some sort of drawers or something that would act like drawers so that I could pull them out and see everything. I went to the restaurant supply store and got two of those gray bin thingies used by busboys. These were fairly shallow and were only about $5.50. These were great except that the inner floor of the bins were not flat - they had wide ribs going lengthwise and if I set bottles or jars in there, they would tip. My second stop was the Dollar Store to get some drawer dividers, the lidless, long, flat-bottomed plastic compartments you put silverware or utensils in. These fit in the bins perfectly, and the bottles fit nicely.

Soon I had nice neat cupboard with bins that pulled out easily, and all my vinegars, vanillas, wines, and baking stuff really visible and easy to get to. After that I was too tired to clean off the top of the cabinet, so tomorrow is another day.

I had several appointments and lots of errands this week so didn't do any sewing. I'm still working on the afghan, though, and am knitting several pairs of socks for A.