If you haven't been hiding under a rock the past week, you'll know that the South has been getting hammered by huge, nasty storms. Well, we have no basement in this house and there were tornadoes all around us and headed our way. The two sheltered places that we do have are in our hall coat closet and in our pantry.
So, the first snowball happened in the coat closet. Besides coats, we have stored blankets and kid vhs tapes in there. If there was anyway that I and the Youngest were going to shelter in there, it had to be emptied out. I put all the tapes in two boxes and started a small snowball rolling there. We had to rearrange a ton of stuff on shelves to make room for them. Then all the blankets were moved to the laundry room for spring cleaning. I'm still dealing with those today. Finally, I found the bottom of the coat closet.
Next I headed for the pantry. This is a small pantry. It looks like an okay size in the pics, but it's not. You have to turn sideways to walk into it and then hunch over because it was shoved up under the stairs and the ceiling is slanted and low.
Now, remember that there were tornadoes heading our way and we were panicking at this point. I drug everything out from the floor of the pantry and slung it along the wall in my kitchen here:
Then, I started worrying. The top shelf was filled with jars and cans. What if a tornado came and started dropping those on top of the husband and The Eldest's heads while they were in there? I mentioned it aloud and the husband went into the garage and came back with bike helmets, a crow bar, flash lights and a portable camping fan. "We'll be fine", he said. Uh huh. I put some pillows and blankets in there anyway figuring they could put it over their heads.
I started thinking about getting trapped in that tiny coat closet with the Youngest. He's hypoglycemic and gets evil when he doesn't have food. I grabbed a huge box of raisins, bottled water and some rice crispy treats. If you really want to know, I wasn't going to share the rice crispy treats with him. :) I considered putting some booze in there for Mommy medicinal purposes, but changed my mind at the last minute.
This gets even funnier when you consider the devastation that these storms left in their wake. Like our puny efforts would have done any good. Have you seen the mere splinters that are left of some of those houses?
Anyway, all of this was done in about 10 minutes flat. We were scrambling and not thinking very clearly, obviously. Oh, and did I tell you that the power went out in the middle of all this?
Luckily, the tornadoes went around us on both sides and left us safe. But the mess I had to deal with the next day? Not so much fun.
I hate to show you these pics, they're painful, but here goes. This is what the pantry looked like sans camping gear the next day:
Now, notice the wire racks. I hate these wire racks with an ever-loving passion. Jars and cans won't sit straight on them and I've hated it for the past 8 years. Since I already had stuff halfway out of the pantry anyway, I decided to do something about it.
Remember the Snowball that I mentioned? This lead me to empty the shelves and it looked like my pantry had exploded everywhere:
Why so much stuff? Obviously, I like a well stocked pantry.
Once this was done, I took off to Home Depot in search of plexi glass to cover the wire racks with. I got a huge sticker shock though. It was going to cost me upwards of 80 bucks to do this! For 3.25 freaking shelves. No way, nuh-uh. Quick change of plans and I purchased a 8 foot sheet of Eucalyptus Hardboard for $7.96 and had them cut to fit. Got some contact paper and 3 rolling bins from Target and I was good to go.
This is what the finished product looks like. Before the storm, there was no space to walk in. Everything kept getting thrown on the floor and we just stepped over it. I put all that crap into the three rolling bins and slid them up under the racks. So much better. I wish I had a true before pic for you, but I was kinda in a hurry when I was cleaning it out.
The added benefit of the storm causing all this chaos? I found stuff that I had forgotten we had! And did I tell ya about the cans that had a 2007 expiration on them? scary.
