September 4, 2012 - Erin's Challenge

Erin, from Garden Now, Think Later, threw out the challenge...."I know I'm the last person to be issuing demands and challenges since I've been such a bad blogger lately, but since I put up the kitchen photo and it is that time of year, how 'bout you share a photo of where you do your canning and a photo of what you have stashed away so far?  I'll call this the "Medicine Cabinet" challenge, because you have to admit that for us like minded folks looking at photos of other's canning spaces and under-bed storage pantries is like other peoples' fascination with medicine cabinets!"

To which I commented "I'm waiting for Mr. Granny to cover my wire shelves with some paneling, because the jars tip on the wires. I've moved the (former) grow shelves into a large spare closet, and someday, when Mr. G gets his act together, I'll be moving all of my canned goods in there and out of the laundry room. I promise there will be a picture if it ever happens!"

I admit that put me at a slight advantage, because I immediately informed Mr. Granny that he'd been promising to cover those shelves for me for over a month now, so I was just going to have to use layers of old newspaper and then blog bad things about  him again  ;-)

Of course, Mr. Granny, not wanting bad things being blogged about him, jumped right up from his recliner and headed for the garage to find some sheets of paneling he had in there somewhere.  Within the hour, I had the wire shelves covered with paneling, and I even got some shelf paper covering a couple of them.  I spent the afternoon moving all of the home canned foods and canning equipment and a few of my jars into the new area.  That done, I tackled the laundry room to take advantage of all the new found space.  Funny thing is, after I rearranged everything, the shelves and cupboards that had previously held the jars of canned goods were once more full.

To meet Erin's challenge, here are the pictures.  Ha-ha, Erin and Robin, I got it all cleaned up before I took the photos!

This is my canning area.  I debated over getting a ceramic cooktop, but other than being a beotch to clean, it's worked out quite well with my flat bottomed canner.  It does have one double cooking ring just for large pots and canners, and after a couple of uses, I had it figured out.  I like my kitchen cooking area, because I'm a bit of a TV fanatic, as well as a computer fanatic, and both are handy.

Here are the shelves, in an unused closet, with all of this year's canned goods and pickles from 2010.  We'll never get all those pickles eaten!  It sure doesn't look like much, but the tomatoes haven't been very forthcoming this summer, and most of the garden harvest has been put into the freezer.  I'll probably bring the remaining empty jars in from the garage, just to keep all the canning supplies in one place.  Yes, I only have five pint jars left.  My children need to return their empties!!!!  Anyway, the shelves hold pints five deep, so there are really quite a few jars of food there.

My laundry room still serves as a pantry and storage area.  Even with the jars of food and canning supplies removed it's quite full.  

I do have a much neater shelf above the washer and dryer, as many of the things (light bulbs, boxes of ZipLoc bags, etc) got moved to a cupboard.  Now only cleaning supplies and a couple of toxic chemicals occupy the high shelf.  Toxic like Goo Gone and Silicone remover.

The shelves and cupboards on the right are where the home canned foods used to be stored.  Now I have room for some of the larger things that have been taking up space in my kitchen cupboards. Things like bags of flour and sugar, crackers, cake mixes and just lots of miscellaneous stuff.  The cupboards hold my laundry supplies, rags, and the aforementioned light bulbs and ZipLocs.

To the left of the entry door, this shelf unit now holds canned goods, large jugs of vinegar, garbage bags and dog food.

To the right of the door is a spot to hang my broom, mop and dustpan.  It seems so well organized now!  I give it a week at most.

Just look at the extra space I gained in this cupboard under the kitchen counter!  This is where I had the canning jars stored, but now that they've been moved I can probably utilize this space for storing seldom used small appliances or maybe my big cookie sheets and baking pans.   That means I get to clean kitchen cupboards now.  Why does one job always lead to another?  LOL!!!!