Putting it all back together!

Okay, I'm starting to reclaim my living room so that - maybe, just maybe - we can put up a Christmas Tree!

Putting stuff back is proving to be even *more* challenging than I'd originally anticipated. I'm finding it's a lot like when you dig a hole in the yard: You can NEVER fit ALL the dirt back in it!!!

HA! That's probably not a very good analogy, is it?!!

When I first started putting stuff away, I started by tackling the spices /flavorings/baking-materials (flour, sugar, baking powder, yada-yada). I emptied one box and got it all loaded back into the designated cabinet. I stood back and admired my handiwork and thought to myself "Wow! Painting the insides of the cabinets was a GREAT idea! It looks like I've got TONS of space!!! It doesn't look 'crammed' at all!!!"

Well, it turned out I still had one more FULL box of spices/flavorings/baking/cooking-materials to stuff back in there! (And I *do* mean "stuff!") :::sigh:::

Oooooops!

Actually, I think we "netted" slightly less storage space, than before. The Lazy Susans - while EXTREMELY convenient - definitely do not offer as much "space" as the plain ol' shelves did. So all of my bakeware (that required a complete purge of the lower cabinets, and crawling into the far back corner - on my hands-and-knees - in order to access it!), needed to find a new home...

"Prioritize By Need!"

I really don't "bake" all that often - to tellya the truth. But I *do* bake often enough that I do want the stuff "here" - not boxed-up in storage. So the Roaster-stuff and Baking Pans and whatnot now live over the fridge. Yeah, it'll be a PITA to get to 'em - but no worse than purging and crawling (Boy, that sounds downright NASTY doesn't it?!). And the oven is still acting as "auxiliary storage" for the cookie sheet, a pie pan, and my wok. That's actually not too bad...

I still need to re-jigger things a bit, but at least the majority of stuff *is* put away...

Unfortunately, we'll still be relying heavily on the "pantry" in the garage (which is now a complete SHAMBLES!!! AAACK!!!).

One thing that I definitely DO like is the pull-out drawer thingie inside the lower cabinet - next to the stove. It's on full-glides - that pull out ALL the way - and it's pretty heavy-duty. I was able to store ALL of my "frequently-used electrics" on that. Crock-pot, immersion blender, hand-mixer, coffee-grinder, contact-grill... I was even able to stash some mixing bowls in there. Freaking Awesome!!! LOVE IT!

And I ordered some pull-out baskets that will go under the sink. Unfortunately, it looks like the "trap" hangs a little low in there, so we may have to dremel the "back-wall" of the slider-basket so it's short enough to clear it. But it'll be nice to have fairly easy-access to all the cleaning crap (Rog gets to install that this weekend).

We're still waiting for the chrome slider-pull-outs for the narrow cabinet next to the sink (hopefully they'll be here Friday?). So all the plastic bags, foil, wax-paper stuff is still waiting for a home...

Oh, and I ordered a new "Space-Saver" under-cabinet-mount Toaster-Oven. So that should be arriving soon, as well.........

Yep - it's all coming together now! Yayyyy!

So next weekend, we'll get the tree set-up and I think we're Good-To-Go for the Holly-Daze! Christmas Dinner (à la Bah-ston Mah-ket!) will be here this year!

Life Is Gooooood!