a "been-there" mom of six offers encouragement
to wives, young mothers, and those not so young,
and simple common-sense approaches to
the "ings" of life:
child-rearing (hints and helps), homemaking (all areas),
cooking (simple, cheap, and do-it-yourself)
making (toys and gifts), preparing (for the unexpected),
maintaining (sanity and peace in this increasingly crazy world) and more---
all aspects of making the most of making do on little---
and having fun in the process.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Dishwasher Pantry

We moved from a large home with lots of cupboards to a small home with next to nothing in the way of cupboards. And a non-working dishwasher.

We didn't care about the dishwasher not working but I did care about the space it was taking up. And, being cheapskates we didn't want to spend money having a cabinet built in its place.

For years it served pretty well as a holder of extra bowls and other large or awkward kitchen things but I longed for it to have a more productive purpose. And one day, I came up with. . .

The Dishwasher Pantry!

My dishwasher pantry is nothing fancy but, it is wonderfully functional!!!

I removed the "guts" of the machine -- the sprayers, etc, The water source had long ago been shut off so it couldn't inadvertently get turned on.

On the lower rack I bent and/or cut off the plate-holding uprights that were in the way of where I wanted to place my containers.  You can see from the photo that the shelf holds quite a few containers. The two in front hold flour and sugar (about 10 pounds of each). Smaller ones hold biscuit and cake master mixes I make up in bulk, whole wheat flour, dry milk and others I use on a regular basis.

I left all the uprights right where they were on the upper rack and filled those spaces in with spices, flavorings, baking soda and powder, and such. I wrote the spice names on the top of the lids so they are easily located.

My mixer and blender sit on the counter directly over the dishwasher --- making this its own compact and complete baking center.

We find there is great satisfaction and fun in "re-purpose-ing."  Hopefully the ideas I present help you come up with ways to make do with, or make better use of, what you already have.

Have a good day.

I am Simply, Gail
                 

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