and the food lived happily ever after...

Well, it's certainly looking that way at the moment. A few people have asked how I went with the rolling pantry. I can finally give you an update.

I took a two minute walk around the corner to Mitre 10 a couple of weeks ago. A member of staff saw me standing in front of the castor wheels looking a bit perplexed (there were a LOT of wheels!), so asked if he could help. [Sure. That would be great.] So, I explained, in detail, the issue I was having and told him I needed two inch fixed castor wheels.
He told me the kind that matched my description were out of stock.
[Of course they were. Sigh.]
So, he ordered them in for me.

Almost a week later a got a call saying they were in. [Yippee! - never in my life have I been so excited about wheels.] I took the boys with me straight away to pick them up.
I was just about to pay for them, when [hang on a minute!?], I noticed that they were SWIVEL castor wheels!! [how can it be this hard to find wheels that don't do anything fancy?? They just need to ROLL for goodness sakes!]

I returned home empty handed and a bit grumpy. I wanted the food out of our laundry. So, when the boys had their naps that afternoon, I headed straight for my trusty ol' pal, Ebay! I found exactly what I wanted within five minutes and for a fraction of the usual cost! They were shipped from Queensland and arrived two days later. I then attached them to the pantry myself. I had to sand back a couple of lumps on the wheels to get them running smooth (you get what you pay for), but the end result is a fully functioning rolling pantry.

All of our food is now either in the fridge, beside the fridge in the rolling pantry, or in the two drawers underneath the oven. My friend upstairs informed me that those drawers are the only place in the kitchen that cockroaches can't get into. Win!!

So, I am feeling extremely organised in the food department at the moment. We can see (and reach) all the food we have, it is fairly neatly arranged, and we now have a sensible amount of everything too. I am surprising even myself! Although, I haven't really sorted out the fridge yet. I have been stalling. I am very very afraid of what I might find. Will definitely be wearing gloves for that job!

But, I guess I got my happy ending.
Or is it the beginning...?

wash the dishes, dry the dishes

I am always just delaying the inevitable. I pretend not to see the stack growing and growing. But really, it can only be put off for so long. When there are no clean pots left to cook dinner in, I know it is time.
Washing the dishes is yet another household chore that I like to avoid. My dear husband usually does the washing up - which makes me very happy! - but sometimes the lot falls on me.

The dishwasher is one of my favourite modern-day luxuries. (And helps us save water too!) As many things as possible are maneuvered into the dishwasher. This is something I am very particular about, for some reason - which I will go into more detail about at a later stage. Another bizarre thing is that I really do not like to touch the dirty dishes at all. If my hand touches some food residue as I'm stacking them, I must wipe my hands immediately. And I will gag if my hand accidentally touches a cold, slimy piece of leftover food. I shudder at the mere thought.

For this reason, I must wear rubber gloves as often as possible. One of my biggest dilemmas occurs when I put one of the gloves on and realise some water has got inside it. Ew eww ewww! Cold, old water! But, then if I don't wear the gloves I have to touch the dirty dishes! Eww!! What to do??

I wear the dry glove on one hand and make the bare hand the 'scrubbing brush hand' - even if it means I have to awkwardly scrub at things with my left hand - as long as I'm not having to touch anything, then great. Problem solved! Unless both gloves got wet!? In that case I flip the gloves inside out and wait for them to dry. (Actually, my new, slightly more organised brain tells me it would probably be even easier to just find a more suitable place to store the gloves in the first place. Hmmm. Good idea, brain.)

So now you know my strange reason for avoiding doing dishes.

When I actually get to the mountain of pots and such, I have to lay out a couple of tea towels on the benches, as well as the drying rack, just to fit it all.

In this picture you will see a prime example from just a couple of nights ago. These are the clean objects laid out to dry. Two pots, a frying pan, a wok, a strainer, four baking trays, about ten containers, a knife block worth of knives, measuring cups and a few other odds and ends. It would be so much easier to just wash a couple of things each night. I know this, but I can't seem to do it.
(And, yes, that is a basketball you can see on top of the potato box in the corner.
Why is it there? That's a story for another blog.)

the 'rolling pantry'

We are lucky enough to have a decent sized kitchen. Unfortunately, though, it has one major flaw. There is no pantry. Which leaves us with 'the food cupboard.' When we moved in, this is the cupboard that seemed to make the most sense as a food storage area. To our dismay, after a few years of using this cupboard, what we are left with is an absolute atrocity!

Tins, jars, bottles and packets of food are crammed in, pushing whatever was unlucky enough to be there first further towards the back. Most of those items never to be seen again. I am certain a black hole has formed at the back of 'the food cupboard'.

Most of the time, in searching for, lets say - a can of diced tomatoes, we will remove half the contents of the cupboard only to discover that there are no canned tomatoes left. Instead, we find seven tins of tuna (!?) and a couple of packets of out-of-date pasta. As you can tell, there is absolutely no way to keep track of what is there or what we have run out of. It has been a source of much annoyance, too, when we reach in to get something and knock a dozen things onto the floor in the process. I feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.

Enter the rolling pantry! In my Google search for some in-cupboard storage solutions, I came across this fantastic contraption. It roped me in with it's blurb... "Imagine having six extra shelves for storing your packets, cans, bottles and jars!... this mobile pantry will wheel out of the way or roll into the narrowest space." This is the answer to our problem! I wrote down the measurements and set to work with the tape measure. Yes! It will fit perfectly next to our fridge!

So much hope was pinned on this fantastic pantry on wheels. I waited in anticipation for weeks. When it finally arrived, the box seemed far too small. Upon opening it, I discovered that this thing required a significant amount of 'assembling'. All I saw were planks of wood and a million tiny screws and wooden pegs. Basically, we had to build the thing from scratch. My husband and I actually had a fun time building the rolling pantry on Friday night, which is just as well, because it took a good few hours.

I was so excited to see it completely assembled in all it's glory! We nudged the fridge across a couple of centimeters, adjusted it's feet (it seems our walls have a slight lean to them) and rolled the pantry in beside it. It fits! I grabbed the handle to roll it back out again and it wouldn't move. It was stuck! What was going on? We quickly realised that the swiveling castor wheels were swinging out from beneath the edge of the pantry and into the wall as they were turning. Garrr!

Long story short... gaffer tape fixes most things but won't stop wheels from swiveling and the pantry is now in the laundry. I am going shopping for some fixed castor wheels some time in the next few days. Will this solve the problem? Time will tell....

I really hope this story has a happy ending.

what do you do with a didgeridoo?

Here is a somewhat unique situation. My husband comes from a very musical family and I have also been known to play an instrument or two once upon a time. Therefore, we have managed to acquire a rather large number of musical instruments.

We currently have an upright piano, an electric keyboard, a Fender Rhodes keyboard, an acoustic guitar, a Spanish acoustic guitar, an African guitar, a trombone, a flute, a melodica, a tambourine, a various assortment of percussion instruments (one of which looks like a frog), a Nepalise flute, a full size djembe and a didgeridoo (pictured above).

My ridiculously clever husband can play all of these instruments and many have made appearances on stage at gigs. (Except maybe for the African guitar. It is a bit hard to tune and is more for 'decorative' purposes.) Our boys really enjoy listening to, and playing them. They are all used and well loved.

The problem. Where do we store all of these instruments!!??

The upright piano is like a piece of furniture, so has it's place. But as for everything else....

We have been using our garage to store the larger items that can't really be carried up and down the stairs. Also, things that my husband needs regularly for his band are down there to save lugging them around. But our garage isn't a very safe place for these things. I would have also added two more flutes (don't ask) and my super-sweet bass guitar to the list above, but they were stolen out of the cupboard in our garage last year. We also had been storing a complete drum kit in there but were finally able to move it elsewhere!

And there are only so many things we can fit under our bed...

A thought had entered my head that maybe we could put one or two on display. But then that is more things for me to not dust. Hmmmmm.

Help! What should we do? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!