The Spirit Moved Me!

Ah, the spirit moved me! I finally cleaned out my pantry and repainted it. This was a job I have literally put off for years. I should have had it done when we remodeled our kitchen and added an addition a few years ago, but it was one more mess in a raft of messes I couldn’t quite deal with. You know how the contractor will promise you that the whole remodel will take about 6 weeks, when, in fact, 4 months would have been a better guess? It actually took from June to October! For that length of time we had a small refrigerator and a microwave stationed in the front bathroom and operated out of that for our “kitchen,” so one more mess like taking the pantry apart might have been, literally, the last straw.
So, in only an afternoon last week, I dismantled the pantry and painted it, putting it all back the next day when it was completely dry. Easy enough, right? It did make me wonder why I had taken so long to tackle the job. In my mind it was a much worse task than it turned out to be and only goes to show that on the bright side, we sometimes build things up to be impossible when they truly are not. On the not-so-bright side, it reminds me that I need to do the same with other closets throughout the house. When you have lived in a place as long as we have this one, you accumulate far more than you should! Unfortunately, we could turn into hoarders if we live so long. Getting rid of things is hard for both my husband and me. Packrats we are.
Along that line, it seems we are prone to buy things we do not immediately use. You know, we might need thus and such one day. We should be prepared. So, we stockpile for the next hurricane, or just in hand for entertaining sudden drop-ins. Stuff like cake and cookie mixes, that big box of brownie mix from Sam’s, ten kinds of soup, boxes of rice, etc. Then those items get shoved to the back of the pantry to make room for the cereal boxes and the microwave popcorn. Bottles of vegetable oil and extra jars of condiments crowd for space. It’s all there.
Exploring the depths of the pantry was something of an expedition. My garbage can was emptied multiple times as I checked dates on items that weren’t a year or two old, but 10. Yes, 10! I hate to throw away food, but these items lived in that pantry and grew old, being ignored by me year after year when they should have been used or donated to a food pantry years ago. My good intentions to cook or bake for the family lived in my head, it seems, as I used those items in the front and never bothered to dig to the back.
Sigh. This is my world. Good intentions that struggle to make it to the surface to get done. I do the same thing with my novel writing and marketing. It’s so much easier to stay on the surface and not delve into what I know will require extra patience and brainpower. I promise to do better!
Really, I do!