a little spring cleaning.

Published on by Quandie

It felt like it was time for a little spring cleaning last week, so I decided to tackle cleaning the pantry.

I’d like to say that I manage to get to this job every spring, but that’s just not true.

The thing is, this pantry is a bit of an illusion.  As you can sort of see in the photo above, there is no floor.  This is actually the stairway to our basement.  You can read all about how we turned it into a ‘pantry’ here.

I can reach the shelves that are closest to the door, but I can’t reach any of the upper shelves that are further out.  The only way to get to those is to borrow nnK’s scaffolding thingie and place that across the opening, giving me a platform to stand on and get to those other shelves.

For someone who is afraid of heights, it does feel a bit death defying to stand on that to clean those shelves.

I’m using that as my slightly lame excuse for not cleaning the pantry more often.

Here’s the view of the pantry from the bottom of those basement stairs, LOL.

Since I was removing everything from the shelves and cleaning each item, it seemed like a good opportunity to re-arrange some things starting with that row of watering cans at the very top.

I originally had a mix of watering cans and french flower buckets up there, but I have enough painted watering cans now to fill the entire row.

I have shared all of those watering can painting projects here on the blog except for the green one.  That one came in that color.

I also added a couple of French enamelware pitchers on the top shelf under the window.

The taller one is a recent acquisition that I found while out thrifting.  I added the I.O.D. Traditional Pots blue transfers to them myself.

My vintage kitchen scales went back on the shelves.  I’ve narrowed the scope of this non-collection to only include green ones.

I have to confess that I’ve cheated a little bit because just one of them wasn’t originally green.  I painted it.  Can you guess which one?

Spoiler alert, it’s this one.

I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Mint Julep.

Speaking of non-collections (because I’m in denial about being any sort of a collector of things), I still have my stack of vintage tablecloths.

I feel like these have gone a bit out of vogue these days, but I still love the colors.

In reality our pantry is only about 50% functional since we can’t actually reach about half of the shelves.

But it’s still nice to have a spot for the bread and wine.  Plus a space to display some of my vintage non-collections.

We actually have a few things stored out here in disguise as well.  There are boxes of kleenex in some of the metal tins …

and our extra Keurig coffee pods are in another.  The enamelware bucket with the red handle holds all of my cleaning rags, and we have extra soap in the green wooden tote.

I still think creating this pantry out of what was originally a very dismal basement staircase was one of my better remodeling ideas.

It might be a little bit difficult to clean, but I think it’s worth it.

17 thoughts on “a little spring cleaning.”

  2. I would love looking through the window/door. It’s charming! I love how you display all your non-collections! I, too still like my bridge table cloths. It is really all charming and really clean 😉

    smiles, Alice

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  4. I love this whole idea! “Non collections” don’t need accessibility to enjoy. I don’t think vintage tablecloths will ever “go out” – I love me some color! My most favorite part is your door! What a perfect way to add drama along with light! It is just perfect in my eyes!

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    1. That door was the starting point for the entire project. Originally there was a solid door there, but I realized that the door blocked a lot of light from coming through into the kitchen, especially in the later afternoon/evening (the window faces west). So I found the door on Craigslist, and that led to making sure the view through the glass wasn’t unsightly. The rest, as they say, is history 🙂

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  8. What a great way to use the space! With the light that comes in through the window it was a perfect idea even though getting to most of your things is somewhat of a daredevil balancing act, LOL! I love your “non-collection” of watering cans, they are so pretty.😊

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  9. I love it. While it might be too impractical or not worth it, it makes me want to figure out some kind of library ladder that could slide back and forth, but your method of access is probably safer. Just don’t step back 🥴

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