During the week and the storm it occurred to me that I had not mentioned to you an important item of preparation. Light.
Battery powered lights are much safer than candles. There are very small flashlights, perhaps 4-5 inches in length, which have LEDs. These are wonderful for use in storms, as well as in general. They easily fit in a pocket to carry with one. After Hurricane Sandy my husband and I went out for a walk. We found the local supermarket was open and we went in. They were on emergency power and were not selling items which were refrigeratored or frozen. There was only low light in the store. We were looking through the cans of soup left on the shelf and could not see them - nor could others who were also looking. I stuck my hand in my pocket without thinking and there it was - the flashlight I had been walking around the house with. I pulled it out and we were able to see the items on the shelves.
We each had one of these in our pockets throughout the storm. Normally we keep one in the kitchen, in our bedside table drawers, and in the basement. They are sold in many stores. We get ours at a national tool chain which often sends out coupons making them free with a purchase - so whenever we make a purchase we get one (unless we are using a “free” coupon for another item needed).
The same store, and other stores, also sell a rectangular flash light which has a number of LEDs (something in the 20's) in the front, as well as in the end and can be used either way. These are great as they give off a great deal light. There is a magnet on the back of it. We normally have one in the kitchen on the refrigerator and others elsewhere in the house. Husband has one in his closet to light same. This is another great idea for light during an emergency.
The spares we have of both these lights are kept in a drawer in our studio - easy to find if we need another one for something and there are always spares.
We also have a camp light which runs on batteries - regular ones or a rechargeable unit. It is also a great thing to have when in the dark. We recharge it before the possible blackout and then can always use batteries if needed.
Candles give off less light than the above devices. One must also be careful that the candle is placed where it will not cause a fire. Similarly oil or kerosene lamps are good with the same precautions as the candles.
If one has children one must make sure that they do not play with or near the candles. The small pocket size flashlight is great for children who are old enough to know not to put them in their mouths.
If you have a wood fireplace and the bad weather is coming when it is not hot out - make sure you have firewood and starter for it as it can be used for light and heat. Make sure your damper is open before starting the fire and make sure that there is a fireproof firescreen in front of any fire, especially if you will leaving the room. Never leave small children (or even some no so small ones) alone in the room with a fire in your fireplace - even with a firescreen.
So, how did we do. We were lucky. Our lights and heat stayed on. The community we live in received 2 feet of snow (a lot for some of you, a little for others, and a lot for us). Strangely the community to our north - less than 5 minutes away - only received 16.5 inches while a community to our southwest - which is the next community to where my mom lives - received 28 inches.
We have someone who comes to clear our driveway (at a rather expensive charge) and he came with his assistants at 1 am - before the storm was over and said it was then or not and he would not come back later. They do not do a great job, but we cannot find anyone else to reliably come for this.
The day after the storm we went out and looked around and found that they had blown the snow onto the sidewalk in front of our house. It is illegal for it not be cleared, as well as we have a van parked next to the sidewalk (parallel to same) that was in the snow they blew and could not be driven. We cleaned up the driveway a bit for what fell after it was cleared, as well as what they left - they did a terrible job next to our side door which is how we go in and out. We also salted.
The following day, Monday, we planned to try to dig out part of the sidewalk. Our plan to was to clear a foot of the sidewalk a day. However we found that the plows had come through again and our two driveway cuts were filled in. Since the plows had not cleared the parking lane in the street, we ended up shoveling out the driveway cuts and the street itself to the end of the where the snow was in the street in both cuts.
Tuesday, we started to clear the sidewalk. In addition to what fell on it and what the snow crew had blown onto same, when the road was plowed overnight Sunday to Monday, that was added to what was on the sidewalk. It had been above freezing and some of the snow had melted, but our house faces east and there is not much sun to help melt the snow. (Last year we still had snow on the ground in May.) The snow was, luckily, still light in weight, so other than ice that had been thrown onto it and the thin ice that formed on the bottom of it through melting and refreezing, it was easy to move. We started out to do a foot. We did about a third of the sidewalk before needing a 5 minute break. We were breaking up large, heavy chunks of ice with a regular garden shovel to make it manageable to lift with our snow shovels. We did not have much room for both of us to work in the same place, so I went to the opposite end of the sidewalk and started shoveling there towards where husband was shoveling. It took us only about an hour and a quarter to clear a path the length of the sidewalk and dig out the van. Husband started and rolled the van forward and we even cleaned out under it.
We do own a snow blower, but the closest that we can get it to the house is in a small shed next to the garage - getting to it would have involved shoveling more snow than we did. We are going to work on finding a small enough plastic storage unit to store it in front of the side porch, which is still large enough to fit the blower so that we could actually use it.
Unlike last year it seems we will have time between storms as well as above freezing temperatures. Last year we had snow every 2-3 days - while not this much snow with any storm, they were sizeable and added up to much more than we had with this storm. In addition we had the coldest weather we had in years last year - the snow did not melt. We would run out, run errands - buy food and any needed medications, send mail, check the mail in our post office box, and return home to await the next storm.
I did manage to get the ornaments off our main Christmas tree and our studio tree and pack them in their boxes while in the house from the storm. More about storing Christmas to come.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
BAD WEATHER COMING - PREPARATIONS
I have looked back at the last few posts about my kitchen and boy, I even bore myself. Lists and lists of what is in the cabinets and why - I don’t even care about it. So let’s take a vacation from the kitchen.
I live in the New York City suburbs. We are currently awaiting a snow storm. Right now we are told that, depending on the “models”, the area where I live will be getting between 7 inches and 26 inches ( a large range) of snow overnight Friday to Saturday and through the day on Saturday. The timing of the storm keeps changing of course, before it was to start on Friday afternoon, currently it is pushed back to 3 am Saturday (not 2:59, not 3:14, but 3 am, for a huge area when we know that some areas will have the snow start and - hopefully - end earlier than others). Then again, if the storm does not head south into Texas, pick up water and then curve back towards the east coast - it might be nothing at all.
So the panic has started and people are getting ready. They are buying food and snow shovels and salt for driveways and sidewalks. I understand food - although knowing how people are around here, unless they are the type who eat out all time, they have more food then they could need for weeks already in their homes. (Okay, maybe they need a major run for doughnuts. hen I was in college Dunkin Donuts opened in our town. The first snow storm my mom, my dad, and I all went - separately - and bought doughnuts there before the storm - family minds think alike I guess.) Three years ago when Hurricane Sandy was headed here we were in Costco - people were loading up for the storm with all kinds of meat. This really confused me since if they lost their electricity they would lose the food they just spend money on. I can understand salt for the for the ice. What I cannot understand is why people need new shovels en mass. Sure, some people broke their shovels last year, some have just moved in to their houses, some might not like the shovel they had last year - perhaps even another child is old enough to help shovel and needs ones - but most people have last year’s shovel(s) still sitting around - have they lost them in the clutter of their homes? Did they toss them out at the end of last year thinking that it would never snow again? This always surprises me that there is a such a major run on snow shovels. We have shovels, but as we have aged and the past 3 years we have had snowstorms which resulted in much deeper snow (last year we had some huge storms that came 2 or 3 in a week) we gave in and, breaking the budget, made arrangements for a company to come and clear the snow from our small property although we still clear small storms.
When husband still went out to work it was my job to get ready for snow storms, hurricanes, etc. alone. He always thought that some of the things I did was odd. I would fill my gas tank - even if it was almost full. I would do the laundry - all of it - even if it was not the time of the week to do so. Yes, I admit it, I made sure we had enough food in the house. Due to the fact that we had 2 major hurricanes in the area with loss of electricity for an extended period in 2 years, I have started keeping less refrigerator/freezer items in the summer when the food would be lost if we lose electricity for an extended time, but more in the winter as food could always be put outside in the cold and it is harder to get to the stores to buy more when the road is frozen and icy, but easy to do so in warmer weather.
Now that we have had the two bad hurricanes, Sandy being the worst of them, as well as some bad winter storms (one of them the same week as Sandy - imagine a major tropical hurricane followed by a major winter nor’easter the same week). He understands.
Long Island is the biggest island in the contiguous 48 states. As a result in the past - before Sandy - if one area lost electricity one could go elsewhere on the Island and eat out or get gasoline and that figured into storm plans. Then Sandy came to visit.
We have always been warned that after a major storm there might not be any gasoline available - due to a combination of electrical outages of about 90% of Long Island for an extended time (we were out for 4 days, my sister for 2 weeks, my sister in law for 4 weeks and none of us were in the areas worst hit by the storm along the southern coast of the Island), so that gas stations that had gas did not necessarily have electricity to pump it and the fact that all of the bridges onto the Island were closed so no new gasoline could be brought in to resupply those stations which could pump gasoline - there was a major shortage of gasoline with lines and security needed at those stations able to pump. We had a car, a van, and a small RV - all with full tanks. We used the car sparingly - we went for a drive to see what was going on before we knew about the problem, after that we made one trip before the gasoline was again available - to my mom’s house to get her to leave it for the nor’easter as her house had been hit by Sandy and was in the line of the nor’easter and she had no telephone - she shuts her cell phone off so she does not use up the battery even when there is no storm. So filling your tank before storms can be really important. We live in an are near businesses, unusual here, so we walked. We walked to the post office, the supermarket, to vote... We went once to check the mail in our post office box (which is not in our local post office) which is several miles away, climbing over downed trees and around downed electric lines to do so.
We charge all of our laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones in advance of a major storm - they are left charging until the electricity goes out or the storm is over. Our local cable company has wifi which, despite their insistence that it is impossible, we get in the house, so even if we have no electricity, we have cable access - used sparingly if there is no electricity of course. We have copper wire telephone service in the house - no other electricity needed. After Sandy the cell phones did not work - the towers were damaged - but the copper wire phones worked fine.
I find the battery operated radios - this goes without saying. After Sandy the local (Long Island, not NYC) radio stations were broadcasting the local cable news channel - some of it was “look at this” which did not help, but since the NYC stations were not mentioning Long Island at all, it helped a bit.
I have mentioned that we are 1770's reenactors. In the 18th century (and probably others) furniture was kept against the walls (at rest) when not in use. The furniture needed would then be placed in the middle of the room and used and then put back. I do this as much as possible before storms. It is much easier and safer to walk around in a room with an empty center and not have to figure out what to walk around in the darkness or semi darkness.
I am doing the laundry - right now. I will make sure it is all washed and dried. Why? No electricity for an extended time means no clean clothes - and unlike many people, we don’t have enough for weeks and weeks.
Since we bought the RV we use it in our plans for storms and electric outages. It is currently charging. After the two hurricanes we would go in it at night, put up the antenna and watch TV for the evening. We did not put on the air conditioner or the heat (to conserve the batteries). Husband figured out that we could use the batteries for 2 hours and then run the generator for an hour and recharge them on 1/3 of a gallon of gas (had to conserve as mentioned above). I also used the kitchen in the RV to heat soup, cook eggs once (I don’t cook in it when we travel so we found out that when one cooks in it - the smoke detector goes off and needs to be covered with a shower cap.) We ate in the house though. (Did you know you can heat frankfurters by holding them under running hot water?) We could also recharge the assorted electronics. After Sandy everyone who had service was calling each other on the cell phones and reading books on their Kindles - and then realized they could not recharge them! Businesses which were open and had electricity were letting people plug in to recharge. (One community on the Island has its own power plant and generally has electricity when no one else does - even when the rest of the east coast has none - and people were going there - my mom went to a restaurant there and ate dinner and recharged her cell phone - just in case - while calling us with it plugged in.) We also (in warm weather) fill the RV’s water tank - 25 gallons - just in case. (It is currently “winterized” and we can’t use the water tanks until they are “dewinterized” next spring.)
Tomorrow I am running to NYC to a client so that I won’t have to go if there is snow and ice around next week. I have written checks to pay all the bills due out through the end of next week and will mail them out on Friday so we don’t have to worry about them. We will get gas on Friday also (after my trip to NYC and back). We will then be settled into the house for the duration of the storm.
So do you have a plan for weather or other emergencies? I know that other areas have far worse weather problems than we do here. I hope that if you are in the snow storm’s path you have an easy time of it.
I live in the New York City suburbs. We are currently awaiting a snow storm. Right now we are told that, depending on the “models”, the area where I live will be getting between 7 inches and 26 inches ( a large range) of snow overnight Friday to Saturday and through the day on Saturday. The timing of the storm keeps changing of course, before it was to start on Friday afternoon, currently it is pushed back to 3 am Saturday (not 2:59, not 3:14, but 3 am, for a huge area when we know that some areas will have the snow start and - hopefully - end earlier than others). Then again, if the storm does not head south into Texas, pick up water and then curve back towards the east coast - it might be nothing at all.
So the panic has started and people are getting ready. They are buying food and snow shovels and salt for driveways and sidewalks. I understand food - although knowing how people are around here, unless they are the type who eat out all time, they have more food then they could need for weeks already in their homes. (Okay, maybe they need a major run for doughnuts. hen I was in college Dunkin Donuts opened in our town. The first snow storm my mom, my dad, and I all went - separately - and bought doughnuts there before the storm - family minds think alike I guess.) Three years ago when Hurricane Sandy was headed here we were in Costco - people were loading up for the storm with all kinds of meat. This really confused me since if they lost their electricity they would lose the food they just spend money on. I can understand salt for the for the ice. What I cannot understand is why people need new shovels en mass. Sure, some people broke their shovels last year, some have just moved in to their houses, some might not like the shovel they had last year - perhaps even another child is old enough to help shovel and needs ones - but most people have last year’s shovel(s) still sitting around - have they lost them in the clutter of their homes? Did they toss them out at the end of last year thinking that it would never snow again? This always surprises me that there is a such a major run on snow shovels. We have shovels, but as we have aged and the past 3 years we have had snowstorms which resulted in much deeper snow (last year we had some huge storms that came 2 or 3 in a week) we gave in and, breaking the budget, made arrangements for a company to come and clear the snow from our small property although we still clear small storms.
When husband still went out to work it was my job to get ready for snow storms, hurricanes, etc. alone. He always thought that some of the things I did was odd. I would fill my gas tank - even if it was almost full. I would do the laundry - all of it - even if it was not the time of the week to do so. Yes, I admit it, I made sure we had enough food in the house. Due to the fact that we had 2 major hurricanes in the area with loss of electricity for an extended period in 2 years, I have started keeping less refrigerator/freezer items in the summer when the food would be lost if we lose electricity for an extended time, but more in the winter as food could always be put outside in the cold and it is harder to get to the stores to buy more when the road is frozen and icy, but easy to do so in warmer weather.
Now that we have had the two bad hurricanes, Sandy being the worst of them, as well as some bad winter storms (one of them the same week as Sandy - imagine a major tropical hurricane followed by a major winter nor’easter the same week). He understands.
Long Island is the biggest island in the contiguous 48 states. As a result in the past - before Sandy - if one area lost electricity one could go elsewhere on the Island and eat out or get gasoline and that figured into storm plans. Then Sandy came to visit.
We have always been warned that after a major storm there might not be any gasoline available - due to a combination of electrical outages of about 90% of Long Island for an extended time (we were out for 4 days, my sister for 2 weeks, my sister in law for 4 weeks and none of us were in the areas worst hit by the storm along the southern coast of the Island), so that gas stations that had gas did not necessarily have electricity to pump it and the fact that all of the bridges onto the Island were closed so no new gasoline could be brought in to resupply those stations which could pump gasoline - there was a major shortage of gasoline with lines and security needed at those stations able to pump. We had a car, a van, and a small RV - all with full tanks. We used the car sparingly - we went for a drive to see what was going on before we knew about the problem, after that we made one trip before the gasoline was again available - to my mom’s house to get her to leave it for the nor’easter as her house had been hit by Sandy and was in the line of the nor’easter and she had no telephone - she shuts her cell phone off so she does not use up the battery even when there is no storm. So filling your tank before storms can be really important. We live in an are near businesses, unusual here, so we walked. We walked to the post office, the supermarket, to vote... We went once to check the mail in our post office box (which is not in our local post office) which is several miles away, climbing over downed trees and around downed electric lines to do so.
We charge all of our laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones in advance of a major storm - they are left charging until the electricity goes out or the storm is over. Our local cable company has wifi which, despite their insistence that it is impossible, we get in the house, so even if we have no electricity, we have cable access - used sparingly if there is no electricity of course. We have copper wire telephone service in the house - no other electricity needed. After Sandy the cell phones did not work - the towers were damaged - but the copper wire phones worked fine.
I find the battery operated radios - this goes without saying. After Sandy the local (Long Island, not NYC) radio stations were broadcasting the local cable news channel - some of it was “look at this” which did not help, but since the NYC stations were not mentioning Long Island at all, it helped a bit.
I have mentioned that we are 1770's reenactors. In the 18th century (and probably others) furniture was kept against the walls (at rest) when not in use. The furniture needed would then be placed in the middle of the room and used and then put back. I do this as much as possible before storms. It is much easier and safer to walk around in a room with an empty center and not have to figure out what to walk around in the darkness or semi darkness.
I am doing the laundry - right now. I will make sure it is all washed and dried. Why? No electricity for an extended time means no clean clothes - and unlike many people, we don’t have enough for weeks and weeks.
Since we bought the RV we use it in our plans for storms and electric outages. It is currently charging. After the two hurricanes we would go in it at night, put up the antenna and watch TV for the evening. We did not put on the air conditioner or the heat (to conserve the batteries). Husband figured out that we could use the batteries for 2 hours and then run the generator for an hour and recharge them on 1/3 of a gallon of gas (had to conserve as mentioned above). I also used the kitchen in the RV to heat soup, cook eggs once (I don’t cook in it when we travel so we found out that when one cooks in it - the smoke detector goes off and needs to be covered with a shower cap.) We ate in the house though. (Did you know you can heat frankfurters by holding them under running hot water?) We could also recharge the assorted electronics. After Sandy everyone who had service was calling each other on the cell phones and reading books on their Kindles - and then realized they could not recharge them! Businesses which were open and had electricity were letting people plug in to recharge. (One community on the Island has its own power plant and generally has electricity when no one else does - even when the rest of the east coast has none - and people were going there - my mom went to a restaurant there and ate dinner and recharged her cell phone - just in case - while calling us with it plugged in.) We also (in warm weather) fill the RV’s water tank - 25 gallons - just in case. (It is currently “winterized” and we can’t use the water tanks until they are “dewinterized” next spring.)
Tomorrow I am running to NYC to a client so that I won’t have to go if there is snow and ice around next week. I have written checks to pay all the bills due out through the end of next week and will mail them out on Friday so we don’t have to worry about them. We will get gas on Friday also (after my trip to NYC and back). We will then be settled into the house for the duration of the storm.
So do you have a plan for weather or other emergencies? I know that other areas have far worse weather problems than we do here. I hope that if you are in the snow storm’s path you have an easy time of it.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
KITCHEN CABINETS - PART 3
Before we get to “the right cabinet” I am proud to say that my Christmas dishes and glasses are packed away in their boxes and the boxes put back in the basement gas meter closet. The items which were displaced to in both the left and right cabinets are now back where they belong.
The right cabinet is called same as it hangs to the right of the sink. It is the same size and shape as the left cabinet and is also 4 shelves in height.
The bottom shelf contains a hodge podge of items. I have the glasses we use for every day - 2 short, wide plastic ones for my husband and 2 tall, thin glass ones for me. Generally one of each is in the dishwasher, but when they are put away, this is where they “live”. I also have measuring cups. I have 2 each of liquid 1 cup and 2 cup measuring cups and 2 sets of dry measuring cups. I also have a larger size 1 cup measurer (meaning there is more space at the top above the cup) which is good for mixing 1 cup items in as it does not run over the top. I also have a “shot glass” (1 oz) measuring glass that allows measurements of small amounts of liquid - by 1/4 oz increments or teaspoons.
I have a spare set of soup bowls to my everyday dishes here also. The company changed the size and shape of same and when I complained about needing to replace a couple of bowls and not being able to get matching ones, they sent me 8 bowls. I am waiting until I break over half of the original bowls and then will switch them - 2 bowls to go. I have 2 larger bowls that match nothing which I keep in here and we use for salad at dinner.
I have funnels in here in 3 different sizes, one of which is a canning funnel with a larger out spout than the others - great for pouring tomato sauce, gravy and the like into a small pitcher or gravy bowl without making a mess. Two glass ice cream glasses and some plastic glasses (no breakable glasses are allowed upstairs and no food). The smaller 2 of the plastic glasses have lids which clip on and a straw hole in the lids.
The second shelf up has the glasses which match my dishes - stemmed and goblet, 8 of each. These are the glasses that I plan to donate to make room for our “good glasses” to move from the living room secretary so husband can put more DVDs there. It also has the bottom cup part of my stick mixer (the part for grinding and such).
The next shelf up has my middle set of dishes - not the everyday, but not the good china. (It is ironstone). It is not stored in quilted dish storage containers and can be used whenever I want it. In the past when we had people in, I would use it for smaller groups as it is service for 8. Similar to my everyday dishes, the cups hang from hooks at the top of the shelf. The matching sugar bowl, bowl and platter are on the shelf with the dishes. The matching milk pitcher is on the shelf above as the handle broke on it and I can’t use it until we fix it. The dishes were a set and that is why I have the matching service pieces. Again, I need to climb up to reach this shelf as I needed to do to reach the same shelf on the left side.
The top shelf has, other than the milk pitcher mentioned, items I rarely if ever use. Again, similar to the left side, I need to climb onto the counter to reach this shelf. It has the juice glasses that match the glasses which match our dishes, a footed cake plate, a mold for making ice pops and 2 cylinder shaped pitchers. I think I can get rid of everything on this shelf when I get rid of the glasses below.
There you have it. The contents of 2 of my 4 kitchen cabinets. During the week I plan to store the good china used for Christmas and New Year’s Eves by my husband and myself. I will also start taking down the Christmas trees after Monday. I think I have found a new place to store the tree ornaments and other decorations in the house in the basement, rather than the garage. It will be interesting to see if they fit and where what is currently in that space will go.
See you next week.
The right cabinet is called same as it hangs to the right of the sink. It is the same size and shape as the left cabinet and is also 4 shelves in height.
The bottom shelf contains a hodge podge of items. I have the glasses we use for every day - 2 short, wide plastic ones for my husband and 2 tall, thin glass ones for me. Generally one of each is in the dishwasher, but when they are put away, this is where they “live”. I also have measuring cups. I have 2 each of liquid 1 cup and 2 cup measuring cups and 2 sets of dry measuring cups. I also have a larger size 1 cup measurer (meaning there is more space at the top above the cup) which is good for mixing 1 cup items in as it does not run over the top. I also have a “shot glass” (1 oz) measuring glass that allows measurements of small amounts of liquid - by 1/4 oz increments or teaspoons.
I have a spare set of soup bowls to my everyday dishes here also. The company changed the size and shape of same and when I complained about needing to replace a couple of bowls and not being able to get matching ones, they sent me 8 bowls. I am waiting until I break over half of the original bowls and then will switch them - 2 bowls to go. I have 2 larger bowls that match nothing which I keep in here and we use for salad at dinner.
I have funnels in here in 3 different sizes, one of which is a canning funnel with a larger out spout than the others - great for pouring tomato sauce, gravy and the like into a small pitcher or gravy bowl without making a mess. Two glass ice cream glasses and some plastic glasses (no breakable glasses are allowed upstairs and no food). The smaller 2 of the plastic glasses have lids which clip on and a straw hole in the lids.
The second shelf up has the glasses which match my dishes - stemmed and goblet, 8 of each. These are the glasses that I plan to donate to make room for our “good glasses” to move from the living room secretary so husband can put more DVDs there. It also has the bottom cup part of my stick mixer (the part for grinding and such).
The next shelf up has my middle set of dishes - not the everyday, but not the good china. (It is ironstone). It is not stored in quilted dish storage containers and can be used whenever I want it. In the past when we had people in, I would use it for smaller groups as it is service for 8. Similar to my everyday dishes, the cups hang from hooks at the top of the shelf. The matching sugar bowl, bowl and platter are on the shelf with the dishes. The matching milk pitcher is on the shelf above as the handle broke on it and I can’t use it until we fix it. The dishes were a set and that is why I have the matching service pieces. Again, I need to climb up to reach this shelf as I needed to do to reach the same shelf on the left side.
The top shelf has, other than the milk pitcher mentioned, items I rarely if ever use. Again, similar to the left side, I need to climb onto the counter to reach this shelf. It has the juice glasses that match the glasses which match our dishes, a footed cake plate, a mold for making ice pops and 2 cylinder shaped pitchers. I think I can get rid of everything on this shelf when I get rid of the glasses below.
There you have it. The contents of 2 of my 4 kitchen cabinets. During the week I plan to store the good china used for Christmas and New Year’s Eves by my husband and myself. I will also start taking down the Christmas trees after Monday. I think I have found a new place to store the tree ornaments and other decorations in the house in the basement, rather than the garage. It will be interesting to see if they fit and where what is currently in that space will go.
See you next week.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
KITCHEN CABINETS PART 2
Well, this week we are back to kitchen cabinets. Previously I had talked about the bottom shelf of my cabinet over the dishwasher (also known as the left hand cabinet). Right now I have managed to fit in service for 4 of Christmas dinner, soup, and dessert plates on the same bottom shelf. They will soon be returning to their box in the basement.
On the second shelf from the bottom I have some small serving bowls in a stack, some oval bakers also in a stack, some pudding cups - yes, again in a stack, and some spare mugs (behind the stack of serving bowls). On a wire shelf above them I have the rest of my dinner size and small plates, as well as 2 rimmed bowls. I can reach the front of this shelf, for the back, I need a step.
I realize now that I left something stored on the bottom shelf out. We take medications and the bottles for same are between the stacks of the dinner and smaller dishes. On the second shelf up I have a plastic dish that I can count the pills in and then pour them through a spout on the front of it into the daily pill boxes or from larger pill bottles into smaller one with a pill splitter kept in it.
In the next shelf up I have an assortment of items which match my dishes. I was young and foolish once and bought many accessories for the dishes that I thought would be of tremendous use. I am now starting, as I write this blog and realize the space I am wasting, to get rid of some of these items. This shelf has small round casseroles with lids - the sort in which one gets French onion soup in restaurants, a butter dish (I use a plastic one that seals closed instead), sugar bowl, candy dish and a couple of other things that I cannot see without climbing up, and the cups are hanging from a rack of hooks at the top of the shelf- all matching my dishes, as well as a cruet. I cannot reach this shelf without a step for the front or a chair for the back.
Now, the top shelf. I know that most kitchen cabinets have only 3 shelves, but I have 4 in this and the right hand cabinet (the other side of the sink). The cabinets are rather old - perhaps back to when the house was built in 1949 - either that or the fact that there are few cabinets in the kitchen (they are 2 of the 3 wall cabinets, other than the one over the stove) is why there are 4 shelves - oh, and the shelves are fixed and do not adjust in height.
The top shelf has things I very rarely use as I must climb up on a chair and climb onto the counter to reach this cabinet. I don’t like climbing and when I do climb onto the counter I am always concerned that I will break the counter. So this shelf has stuff I never use. Salt and pepper shakers that make another dish set from this company (all white, I thought they looked nice for company), small drinking glasses that match nothing, 3 ceramic glasses, with the bottoms indented that matching my set of dishes and are in holder with 3 rings for “relishes”, 3 more cruets (one matches the one below, the other 2 match each other), and a bagel holder. This last used to be used a lot, but we stopped eating bagels and it was stored up here out of the way.
So that is my left hand cabinet. From listing everything in it I have found out something. Try listing what is in your cabinets and it becomes more obvious what you can get rid of and not miss. My husband and I have had a storage problem for DVDs and I had planned to clean out and get rid of the drinking glasses which were sold to match my dishes (kept in the right cabinet) and move my good glasses there so we can use the space where they were for more DVD storage. I think I will be getting rid of more than the drinking glasses. Who knows what else I will get rid of by listing what I have and using that to realize what can easily be donated.
Next week onto the right cabinet.
On the second shelf from the bottom I have some small serving bowls in a stack, some oval bakers also in a stack, some pudding cups - yes, again in a stack, and some spare mugs (behind the stack of serving bowls). On a wire shelf above them I have the rest of my dinner size and small plates, as well as 2 rimmed bowls. I can reach the front of this shelf, for the back, I need a step.
I realize now that I left something stored on the bottom shelf out. We take medications and the bottles for same are between the stacks of the dinner and smaller dishes. On the second shelf up I have a plastic dish that I can count the pills in and then pour them through a spout on the front of it into the daily pill boxes or from larger pill bottles into smaller one with a pill splitter kept in it.
In the next shelf up I have an assortment of items which match my dishes. I was young and foolish once and bought many accessories for the dishes that I thought would be of tremendous use. I am now starting, as I write this blog and realize the space I am wasting, to get rid of some of these items. This shelf has small round casseroles with lids - the sort in which one gets French onion soup in restaurants, a butter dish (I use a plastic one that seals closed instead), sugar bowl, candy dish and a couple of other things that I cannot see without climbing up, and the cups are hanging from a rack of hooks at the top of the shelf- all matching my dishes, as well as a cruet. I cannot reach this shelf without a step for the front or a chair for the back.
Now, the top shelf. I know that most kitchen cabinets have only 3 shelves, but I have 4 in this and the right hand cabinet (the other side of the sink). The cabinets are rather old - perhaps back to when the house was built in 1949 - either that or the fact that there are few cabinets in the kitchen (they are 2 of the 3 wall cabinets, other than the one over the stove) is why there are 4 shelves - oh, and the shelves are fixed and do not adjust in height.
The top shelf has things I very rarely use as I must climb up on a chair and climb onto the counter to reach this cabinet. I don’t like climbing and when I do climb onto the counter I am always concerned that I will break the counter. So this shelf has stuff I never use. Salt and pepper shakers that make another dish set from this company (all white, I thought they looked nice for company), small drinking glasses that match nothing, 3 ceramic glasses, with the bottoms indented that matching my set of dishes and are in holder with 3 rings for “relishes”, 3 more cruets (one matches the one below, the other 2 match each other), and a bagel holder. This last used to be used a lot, but we stopped eating bagels and it was stored up here out of the way.
So that is my left hand cabinet. From listing everything in it I have found out something. Try listing what is in your cabinets and it becomes more obvious what you can get rid of and not miss. My husband and I have had a storage problem for DVDs and I had planned to clean out and get rid of the drinking glasses which were sold to match my dishes (kept in the right cabinet) and move my good glasses there so we can use the space where they were for more DVD storage. I think I will be getting rid of more than the drinking glasses. Who knows what else I will get rid of by listing what I have and using that to realize what can easily be donated.
Next week onto the right cabinet.
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