The pantry

For such a little house, I have a great deal of storage. 

From what I can figure out, Margaret, the first owner of my home, must have grown her own things on the property, because in the plans, she included a root cellar and a large pantry downstairs. She had plenty of room then because she owned most of the land surrounding the house, before it was sold off by future owners to other home builders, as the years went on.

Growing her own food makes sense, because from the information I've gathered about my town, there wasn't a full fledged grocery store in the area until after the house was built in 1930 or right about the same time. I'm sure there was a general store for supplies, but nothing like the Piggly Wiggly that came into town later on, but has since left.

She must have been a very busy bee as one of the first female lawyers in Arizona, much less the only woman lawyer in this town, and also taking care of the growing and canning of food, even if she did have help in the form of a maid and then later, her widowed sister.

She is what I would call a tough broad ;)

Did I mention she was 41 and single when this house was built?

The same age and status I was, when I bought it.

Anyway, in the post about my tiny mudroom, I showed you this picture of the stairs that lead down to the laundry room and my bedroom. Off of my bedroom is the root cellar, which is odd, but I guess since (I think) my room was the maids quarters, she wanted her to have access to it?

More questions I'll never have the answers to.

Anyway, there's also a good sized pantry right when you round the corner of these stairs.

I'm not going to show you the hallway down there just yet, because it's another project that I've yet to finish, but here's the door:

Before I show you the inside, let me just tell you that before I spent an entire day organizing it, it was a disaster.

No, I didn't take a before photo, but just picture an area that had extra stuff, like boxes of pictures, cans of food, candles, extra dishes, and miscellanies thrown into it for 5 years, because I was lazy didn't know what else to do with it and you'll have an idea.

Scary stuff!

Anywho, it's not one of those fancy pantries that you see on pinterest or other blogs, because really... it's a working area and don't need to make cleaning anymore difficult for myself. I just want to see what's available, "shop" from it, put away things with ease and get out.

Kinda like my own little store ;)

So here it is...

I have my stored food on one side, with vases lining the entire top and my holiday warming supplies below. 

On the other side is my ridiculous supply of candles, paper goods, extra plastic baggies, pop for Annie (I don't drink the stuff), a step stool and power cords.

Straight ahead, I have my extra set of dishes, wine and champagne glasses, serving platers and dishes, extra booze, and paper sacks.

You have no idea how fabulous it is to finally have all my holiday servers together, instead of the garage and upstairs in my other pantry, not to mention how nice it is to finally be able to see everything.

Yay me! ;)

Oh and totally off subject, but I want to leave you with a dose of pretty and then the reality, instead of just a boring pantry.

So here's the pretty:

And here's the reality:

Bubba wants to know when dinner will be ready ;)

xo
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