Australian Cruise

Australian Cruise
Our first full day in Australia, 2012, on a Freemantle beach.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Under the sink

Long, long ago I purchased some cute little basket shelves that go under the sink, and the normally stationary part of the cupboard would be made into a tilting drawer.  It gave me just a little more space, and although they had their flaws, I was glad I had them.

A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen, and we had the cupboards made to go all the way up to the counter.  I kept my cute little basket shelves and mounted them inside the cupboard at the top.
The old under sink basket shelve.
The main flaw in these shelves is the height. When it's mounted in a tilting narrow cupboard it would need to be that short so it doesn't hit the cupboard frame.  But now, it's just a pain.  Sponges and sink stoppers fall out when I shut the door.  Only things like scrub brushes will consistently stay in.  But I stayed with them, because I had nothing better.  Until now.

A while back I purchase some little organizing baskets to put my flatware in.  I bought these at the dollar store, so they were a deal.  The height of the new basket is almost twice the usable height of the old basket.

 I wanted to use the same screws that I already had in my cupboard, so I traced the holes from the old basket unto the new, drilled some holes and cut in between them to make the right shape, sanded the rough edges and installed!
The sponges and sink stoppers are not falling out in these!

I also have been wanting to install a short towel rod under the sink, and also one to put on my laundry cabinet.  So I went to the home improvement store to buy a few towel rods, thinking the cheap chrome ones would be a few dollars each.  I was wrong.  The cheap chrome ones are about $8 each, and the shortest they had in stock were 24", which was twice as long as I needed.

So after I looked at every place in the store where they would have towel rods, I went over to the "organization" isle.  They had some very cute paper towel holders- too expensive and too bulky.  They had nothing what I was looking for.  BUT they had stemware holders, $3 each.  Hmmmmm.  That could work!   I bought a few, then went home and searched online.  I found just the things I was looking for online, but they were all more expensive than my $3 stemware holder. 
 Here's the new inside of my under the sink cupboard door!  One for each door will be perfect for my needs.
Finished!

Pinterest

A couple of weeks ago I decided to join Pinterest.  I was very confused at first, but after a few days I began to understand how it worked.  And I 'unfollowed' about 40 people I had started 'following' on the first day.  I had not realized what it was I was really doing on the first day!

Anyway, Pinterest is an online bulletin board that you share with your followers, and you can follow others' Pinterest boards, too.  I have 8 "boards" at this time:  Fun Stuff for Baby; Stuff I've Made; Clever Ideas; Crochet Stuff; Family History; Household Hints, Recipes to Try; Recipes I've Tried.  The types of boards I tend to follow deal with recipes or household hints. 

I've learned a lot of fun things through Pinterest and made several new recipes.  My favorite new recipe is for "goldfish crackers."   http://pinterest.com/pin/527413806331145268/   Oh my, they were so good!  John said I shouldn't make them again until New Year's Eve, because he's afraid of how bad they are for us and how many we'd eat!  But really, they're not too bad for us, except the amount of fat, because it has so much cheese.  We may gain weight if I made them all the time!
My homemade paper tablets.  Aren't they cute?
I've made little tablets with covers made from fruit snacks, crackers and tissue boxes.  I've "polished" my silverware using a non-toxic recipe.  I love my homemade dryer sheets.  Lots and lots of fun ideas!

Now that I have found Pinterest I have to learn how to control myself wanting to look through what everyone else has pinned all the time.  I'm going to have to put a time limit on myself, because it's just too fun and I have other things that need to be done, too! :-)