In my defense, I was left entirely unsupervised. You know how you can live with something for like, I don’t know, three decades give or take, and then suddenly one day, you can’t stand it a moment more? No? Is that just me? True to my nature of being an absolute JOY to live with every single day, I woke up about a week ago and just couldn’t stand our pantry. The pantry that has been here for over a century and in my life for three decades. Last Saturday, I was OVER it. I watch home decor shows. I peruse Pinterest. Our pantry was … not cute.
To be fair, our pantry is more of a utility room than food storage — even though it doesn’t have any utilities located within. Over the years, it has become what I call a “doom room.” It was piled with seasonal storage, brooms, pet supplies and inexplicably a large collection of buckets. Why do we have so many buckets? Had there been some sort of bucket embargo, I was stocked up and at the ready.
This space simply was not very useful. I woke up one bright and sunny Saturday morning and suddenly had a lightbulb moment. I am an adult with free will and a vehicle that can take me to a Home Depot. I can change all that.
Suddenly, I wasn’t just a bored girl who had been left alone while my husband went to help his sister with some projects. Oh no, I was on a mission with no one to stop me. Being a sucker for punishment, a few years ago. Mr. Wonderful gave me my own drill that I could keep in the house so I didn’t have to continually steal his from the barn. This drill was a gateway drug. Once I could drill things, I was basically unstoppable. He’s smart to not have given me access to a circular saw. Things could have gotten completely out of hand.
It occurred to me that I had learned a few things over all of our years together and I could certainly figure out how to install shelves myself right? How hard could it be anyway? I threw my hair up in a ponytail, the true sign that we are getting down to business, and I got to work.
First, I emptied the space. Why do we own all this? Again what is it with all these buckets? Why do I have about a half dozen half empty cans of spray paint? What was the plan here? Spoiler alert: there wasn’t one. That’s how you end up with a doom room. Things that don’t have a home end up living here.
The existing shelves weighed approximately 10 tons. That could be an exaggeration, but barely. I continued undaunted. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Please note that when my husband is is here to indulge my princess fantasies, I don’t lift anything over 20 pounds. Heavy boxes? Laundry baskets? An overly large bag of pet food? No thank you. I have a man for that.
Left to my own devices? I figured it out. I unscrewed the shelves from the wall. With much grunting and groaning, I wrestled them onto a throw rug and I slid them out of the room and into the kitchen. Now I was committed to the project.
I had just turned our pantry into a room with absolutely no shelves. I’m no architect but this felt wrong. I had to take a break to assess my options. This meant I hopped on Pinterest to see what other over-confident and possibly delusional DIYers were doing to store their food?
I needed shelves and brackets, and all the things that make that sort of thing work. I headed off to the hardware store. Once there I went directly to the shelving aisles. I’m no novice. Go big AND go home. I bought the heavy duty brackets and the really good shelves — and too many of all to boot. I drove home quite pleased with myself.
It took me roughly six hours but I installed seven (7!) shelves and I (probably) hit studs with most of them. It’s been a week and all our canned goods remain on the shelves, and nothing has tumbled to the floor. I consider this a win! I kept one bucket and donated the rest. I picked a favorite broom and got rid of three more. I now have more cabinet space than I know what to do with — a blessing indeed.
Most importantly, I created a small tool area to store my beloved drill. Did you know they let just anyone into a Home Depot? They don’t question your skill level or anything! They’re probably ought to be a law.
