I did achieve some of those organisation goals: these ones:
- sorted linen cupboard
- sorted kitchen appliances
- cleaned out sideboard
- new curtains for the girls' rooms - also sorted and tidied the girls' rooms
- carpets steam-cleaned
- house sprayed for bugs and spiders
The rest are still On The List.
But the one I achieved which gave me the most satisfaction, was:
- sorted the kitchen pantry.
For something I wanted to do for about a year and a half, it took me one evening to do it. Admittedly, that was one hard-working, tiring evening. But the result has warmed my heart ever since. I feel organised -grown-up - efficient and capable. I feel like superwoman!
Sometimes I still, weeks later, open my pantry doors and just take a little look and sigh in contentment.
I know this is not what life's all about, but it has even so given me great, quiet joy.
For we have gone from this:
To this:
See? Even the LIGHT is better! (like any good before and after shot!)
Yes, it's true - I used part of my redundancy pay-out to buy a hundred plastic containers! And I'd do it again, I tell you!
You find surprising things when you clean out a pantry. For years we have just stuffed things in there and at times I have found myself looking for things I am sure I had, but not finding them - then after a few despairing attempts at pawing through the various packets and containers, thinking "Huh. I guess I don't have that after all," and buying it on my next shopping trip.
Hence in the great clean-out, I found four packets of rock salt.
And my husband has a similar obsession, clearly, with white beans.
Not sure what's going on there, because he never cooks anything using white beans.
But those strange, unorganised and chaotic days are far behind us now. Thanks to my pantry project, we are now completely organised, efficient and healthy, providing lovingly prepared, healthful and interesting meals every night, with time to maintain our active love lives as well as provide quality time for the children.
Ha ha!
What's on your to-do list? Have you achieved anything recently that has changed your life?
I cleaned out my parents' pantry a couple of years ago and found a jar of vegemite that had expired TEN YEARS earlier, some paprika that had solidified into a red log and over 20 rolls of glad wrap!
ReplyDeleteMy own list would be to write a complete novel
Plant a herb garden in our window boxes and have it still alive by the end of the summer
Take LC and Sapphire to Paris this year
Find more recipes that are simple to cook but taste acceptable (my range is severely limited but I hate cooking too much to try very hard)
Find a regular, one or two day a week paying job that doesn't require me to bid against 75 Indian and Philippino writers to get.
Ha! Your parents' pantry sounds like the way mine was headed, in another 20 years when my kids would have to come and clean it out! Funny about the Vegemite - my mum swears that it "never" goes off and the expiry date isn't needed!
DeleteI like your to-do list - excellent goals all. Good luck.
Obviously you're really good in putting stuff in order! Youve done an amazing job re-organizing that pantry! Something more than impossible for me to do!
ReplyDelete