Saturday, January 5, 2019

Living Vicariously in a Pantry

Since I've changed my living space from always having a three- to four-bedroom house and lots of square feet and a yard to a 1200 square-foot apartment and NO yard, I've found that I don't miss it at all.  Every day, I want fewer and fewer things to clutter up my life (to trip over and have to re-organize).   I guess I'm deciding this at a good time, because that seems to be the theme of so many books and articles and blogs and even TV shows.  The one Emily and the girls in the doctor's waiting room were talking about was Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.  They were talking about how cute she was and yet how crazy some of her ideas were.  I think I checked the book out of the library once, but it didn't interest me too much.

They said it was a TV show, and I figured I would never figure out how to get it.  I have very few channels on my cable setup.  I only use it for WiFi.  And Elise has something that she uses for some extra channels that is beyond what I want to learn.  But then I found out it's on Netflix, which is something that even I can work, so I might check it out, just for fun. 

All this is to mention how much fun it is to live vicariously in someone else's space.  You don't have to clean it.  You don't have to organize it.  You can just enjoy it for what it is, and if it gets cluttered, you don't have to look at it.  My latest space is Emily and Ryan's pantry. 

It's always been a nice room, and it's bright, and everything is pretty visible when you walk in except for about 10 wonderful drawers that hide things like bread and snacks and baking things.

When they moved there almost a year ago, Millie and I, being in charge of unpacking the kitchen and watching children, sort of did a hit-and-miss organization.  She did a great job of alphabetizing the spices on a huge wall rack that everyone should have. 




As a contrast, this is what I have, and since I don't cook that much, it serves it's purpose.  It's alphabetized, but I can't always tell what's in the jars and cans since I'm looking down on them.  I'm not sure I want to take the time to label each one, but I might do the ones I use all the time.  I need a new project.   I'm still proud of myself for getting this organizer when we first moved here.  It holds all the girls' dishes on the top shelf, spices on the 2nd and 3rd, Jello boxes and little packets of things on the next, and cat food cans on the bottom.


I know Emily and Ryan have been frustrated with getting the new house organized since they were both working full time and had the girls to contend with.  And I was no help there, because I didn't know where they wanted things to end up. 

At the old house, they had no children and all the time they needed to organize, but their pantries were two cabinets with doors, shelves, and drawers.  While I was envious of those, it was less than ideal, because you had to first decide which pantry you wanted to be in, then open a door, and then pull out a drawer (trial and error at first) to decide where your things were.

The new one is well lit, and you can just walk in and look around and grab what you want.  Until this week, though, food was mixed in with vases and drinks and containers and small appliances, and they could change overnight.  I could spend a lot of time in there just staring at the shelves wondering where the toaster went, only to find it on a counter. 

This week, with the both being home and the girls in school some days, they attacked that pantry, and it's a thing of beauty to me.  These are two that Emily sent me yesterday.


It's amazing.  All those stacked storage containers sitting there right next to the refrigerator.  

I just noticed the Unicorn cereal on one of the shelves.  On a Christmas Eve run to Costco, Emily spotted this and sent me a picture.  She said, "I'm totally getting this to wrap for the girls to open in the morning."  They are both obsessed with unicorns, as are most little girls their age, so we thought it would be one of their favorites.  When I was over there on Christmas Day, it was open on the counter, and it seems that Graysen had tried it and hated it.  I think Katherine liked it, but she likes most anything right now.  

This is the view from the kitchen with the door open.


The shelves are adjustable, and it looks like they've made a small space just for drinks and cans.

There's a side view of the spice rack, and look at that open space on the floor.  That may be a bin of cookbooks.  Not sure.

I've asked for closeup pictures, but since it's the last weekend before getting back to work, I doubt I'll get them.  I may have to go take them myself since it's a warm-ish day.

But this cat. 



She looks like such a generic little gray tabby, but she is completely different from any cat we've ever had.  Such a personality.  Elise has taught her to fetch like a dog, and she will do it.  But not for me, of course.  In the above photo, she's staring accusingly at her food bowl while guarding her bottle cap.  When Elise throws her toys, she will run get them and bring them back to her.  Except you have to make sure she sees where it lands, because otherwise she will run around frantically looking at you until you show her where it is.



She does the casual "walk over the bottle cap and pretend you don't know it's there until it attacks you" trick.  She's still playing with it and refusing to bring it to me because of her disapproval over her breakfast.




Being a rescue kitten, we hoped she would not be picky about food, but she is.  When you first open a can and give her a spoonful, she will eat it eagerly, but if there is any left, she starts digging at the place mat to remove it, I guess.  We have yet to find a flavor she absolutely loves.  She will eventually eat the whole can along with some dry food, but she's not happy with us. 

Yesterday I bought five new cans to try, and if she loves one, we'll save the label and buy only that kind.  I can't believe I'm spending my valuable time figuring out what a cat likes.


I know if I was a cat, chicken hearts and something else would appeal to me.  We're trying to stick with the pate, because if it has chunks, she will just lick the gravy part and leave the chunks.  She's going to vet for a checkup next week, so we'll see if she has any problems other than just being cat-like and finicky. 

She gets put in time out several times a day, because she harasses Elise.  She's perfectly calm around me - because I'm boring, but Elise plays with her, and she thinks she's another cat, I think.  Elise will be sitting on the couch reading or talking, and Layla will come running down the hall and jump up on the couch, just barely touching her but acting like she's going to attack her.  And she messes with her phone and cords and whatever else she has around.  When the water sprayer doesn't work, she just gets to go stay in a bedroom alone for awhile.  She doesn't protest either.  She just stays until someone opens the door for her.

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