Pantry Blues

"I hate housework.

You make the beds,

you wash the dishes,

an six months later

you have to start all

all over again!"

Joan Rivers

My pantry is a small room about 6' by 6' and for the past two years I have thought about cleaning it out. Today, since I have nothing else to do, I decided to remove all the items and clean it and I thought I would call it the Corona Clean Up! Of course, it may take me all week to complete the job because I tire and get bored easily.

I found a brand new syrup container with the expiration date of 2018 and a box of mashed potatoes that expired in 2016. Gee whiz, I wonder what else I will find! Continued taking things out of the pantry and putting them on my kitchen table, counters, floor and any available space. I was surprised to find Christmas wrapping paper, three packages of straws, a three section plate for horderves, a small crock pot, cloth napkins with rings and a few more food items that had expired.  Now my kitchen is a mess and I have to make my way carefully around the different piles! Washed down the shelves and tomorrow I will put everything back!

Here it is, another day to work in my pantry. Much easier putting things back as I tried to categorize what went back on the shelves. On a day I happened to go shopping at Costco I picked up an eight carton of pork 'n beans and another one of diced tomatoes. Maybe I thought I would never go out of my house again because as I put my items away I realized that I would never eat or use all those cans of beans and tomatoes.   Once I had arranged the pantry like I wanted, I took the cans to the Arvada Food Bank along with "tons" of plastic grocery bags.  The masked fellow who took the items told me that he heard that King Soopers was all out of beans and thanked me for my donation of beans.

"Cleaning out a pantry

when one is quarantined

is the most exciting

thing to do!"

E. Moscoso