Sunday 19 July 2020

Sorting Out the Food Stash - Part One


Behind closed doors ... you can hide a multitude of sins.
(The marks are on the camera lens not the door.)

This food cupboard at the Van is just over a foot wide and yet behind this innocent little door ...


... there's a chaos of food on two levels.


Neither of which are tidy and or that well organised.


Well things seem a little bit better when you get through to the back layers.


But these little 'step storage shelves' have been a bit of a disappointment to tell the truth.  I had high hopes when I bought them last year, but when they are in use although you can see more of the layers of things you have, you are actually losing valuable storage space underneath them.  Something in a small kitchen I that can ill afford to lose.

So now they have been removed.


This little cupboard held a lot!!

No wonder that I had kept putting off this job, I had a good look at everything, checking dates and condition.  


The only two things that were no good were these, somehow I had completely missed that the dates were well up before lockdown.  A check and sniff later and they were in the bin.


Then all that was left to do was to wash out the cupboard, and while it dried ...


... poke a certain little girl awake and go for a walk.



Sue xx




32 comments:

  1. A shame the little shelves didn't work out - they seem such a brilliant idea.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought they would be useful, it was worth a try :-)

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  2. shame about the shelves, they are bound to come in handy somewhere some day, maybe a plate rack?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I only have four plates here at the Van ... and none of them are the four inches wide they would need to be to stand on the rack safely ;-)

      Delete
  3. Cleaning out cupboards is one of the most satisfying jobs, isn't it. They look all clean & beautiful... for about 5 minutes. *lol* ~Andrea xoxo

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    Replies
    1. It's a good feeling, I almost wish it could have stayed empty for a bit longer just so I could have continued admiring the space :-)

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  4. I do love a well thought out gadget. Shame the tiered one doesn't work for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These would work better if you had lots of wall cupboards at eye level, and the space to really spread your food out around them.

      Delete
  5. I love a good cupboard sort out but not the thought of doing it. Once I get sorted, I am away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been putting this job off since I got back to the Van two weeks ago, glad it's finally done.

      Delete
  6. I love it when you show how you organise your van. my elderley parents have moved into a much smaller bungalow and your ideas have helped me sort out storage for them (and at my house too) One thing I would love to know - where do you keep your bin in the kitchen? Do you have recycling bins or do you always take things straight outside to the bins there? In fact where are your bins outside? A strange thing to be obsessed about I know, but we cann't sort this out at mum's new kitchen and it's driving me spare.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My kitchen bin is in the under-sink cupboard, the lid lifts as you open the door. It takes carrier bag sized liners. I'll show you a photo on tomorrows blog so you can see. No we don't have recycling bins here ... I wish we did. All the bagged rubbish get puts in the big shop sized bins in one of two bin areas for the caravan park, and is picked up by a small council wagon every Tuesday. I HOPE it is then sorted through at it's destination.

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  7. I should be sorting out the freezer instead of watching Cranford. There’s no hope for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cranford sounds much more interesting than stacking tins of beans ;-)

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  8. I do fine some of the straight across shelf extenders useful but I too was disappointed with the "step" ones - lost too much useful space. Gave it away!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was thinking of using a bit of my 'No Nails' and sticking a wooden shelf straight across inside the cupboards, I may still do this when the huge stack of chickpeas and tinned tomatoes has gone down a bit :-)

      Delete
  9. I've always felt the same way about those "step" storage racks. There is a lot of unused space underneath them! I'll be interested in seeing how you organize the cupboard. I have one about the same size that is my only space for canned goods and it drives me crazy! I want to get some kind of "pull out" storage container for it so I can see everything better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pull out storage would be good, my cupboards are very narrow but quite deep.

      Even the cupboard at the other side of the cooker, which is a large corner cupboard is hard to access as the door is so narrow I have to poke my head right in and try and grab things from the back ... which entails me almost lying down on the kitchen floor. I think a man designed this kitchen!!

      Delete
  10. Adorable photograph of that certain little girls.
    I found exactly the same with stepped shelves. Now my kitchen cupboards are quite large as I have a large kitchen but the trouble is that in the storage part tins get pushed to the back and I find it hard to reach them and they do tend to get forgotten.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My Mum has a kitchen full of lots of big wall cupboards, but as time has passed she can no longer reach the top two shelves so all her things have been moving downwards.

      Suky is pretty adorable isn't she ... and she knows it :-)

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  11. I tidied my tins cupboard on Wednesday evening - then on Thursday my granddaughter and I were doing money & counting work, so I got out all the tins again. I wrote prices on the top with a sharpie (all under 10p)and we played and learned for ages. Then on Thursday evening I tidied my tins cupboard again...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aww that sounds like a nice game of shop and maths, they learn so much easier when it's fun and feels like playing don't they. Anybody using the food out of your cupboard though will think you have been shopping at a very cheap shop ;-)

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  12. I've saved some money as I was looking at buying some of these shelves as well:) From what looks a small cupboard on the outside is so large on the inside:) Awwww Suki isn't she gorgeous xx I was in a floor covering store on Friday when a chap walked in with a little pug who then happily started walking around sniffing all the carpets of course I had to make a huge fuss of Mr Pedro♥♥♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's narrow but deep, better if it was wide and shallow really!!

      Oh Pugs love the attention they get off new friends when they are out and about ... no-one is a stranger to a Pug, they expect everyone to love them. Mr Pedro is a brilliant name for a Pug :-)

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  13. Those stepped shelves are only good if you have loads of space.My kitchen is small and I have some wire shelves th are tall enough to fit cans underneath, I think they came from a $2 shop, but you could get them made from thin ply wood,(handy hubby) it's just 2 sides and a top, but you could put a back on for extra strength/stability.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, I've learnt that :-)

      I think the only thing that will work as shelves actually stuck to the sides of the cupboards so no space is wasted at all. I think I'll wait for the tinned food supplies to go down a bit and then get some wood from Alan's stash at home.

      Delete
  14. That little girl of yours is adorable!
    Great job with the cupboard, I'm in awe at how much you managed to fit in. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She's pretty cute isn't she, not bad for an old lady :-)

      Delete
  15. Have you seen the ones in IKEA called Vareira? They're basically a little shelf on legs. I've got them in nearly all my kitchen cupboards, to make the best use of the space. They're metal and I've even managed to cut them to fit a really narrow cupboard. It's a simple design, so someone with DIY skills could make something similar I'm sure. I have no DIY skills, so shop bought for me :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the heads up, but they are too wide for the wall cupboards and again in the base cupboard I would lose the space the legs take up unfortunately. It was worth a look though. I'll stick with No Nails and wood idea, once I get the supplies down to a more reasonable level.

      I have little to no DIY skills too ... hence my use of Superglue and No Nails in most of my projects ;-)

      Delete
  16. I wouldn't if I was you, you don't have much more storage space than me in your lovely little kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
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