Storing, sorting, preserving

Yes, it's a very dark, bad picture. But this is a little peek into my pantry and it's a shame there's no tempovision on computers yet or you'd be able to touch that picture and find that the chutney's still warm! (And no, sorry, there's no such thing as tempovision; I'm just a little weird).

When in doubt, work on storage.

In the last few days I have sorted out the storage in the over-the-stairs-cupboard (sounds strange - we have stairs that used to lead to the attic, then we converted the attic, built new stairs, sealed off the top to the old ones, but left them there behind a door. You just climb them til your head hits the ceiling. It's like living in Alice in Wonderland. I.e. freakin' fabulous... only most of the time they have suitcases, boxes and sleeping bags resting on them). I have also sorted bits of the eaves storage (the bits that don't involve toys the Little One is too young for but would go crazy for if he discovered them).

Last week I sorted the drawers in the utility room (finally put the winter scarves and gloves away now that it is just about warm enough to do without them... just). And the sewing storage (pretty ribbons were organised into boxes = pretty ribbons are now jumbled on the floor out of boxes = the Little One found them).

In a sort of storage tangent, today I have turned three punnets of organic plums into plum chutney, using this Delia recipe... only I had the old version from her 1970s books and didn't know about the 'thick enough' test. I don't think it was thick enough. Oh well. But it felt good to make it. It's that classic psyche-yourself-out technique: when you are not doing the everyday things that need doing and instead do an added extra, and it makes you feel super-capable. Only, don't tell anyone, those everyday things are still waiting to be done. You should see the toys on the floor around me. They'll only be strewn around again tomorrow so, tonight, I choose not to bother putting them all away again.

It's been a bit of a tough fortnight. I figure if I spend some time sorting, storing and preserving all around me, it might encourage a bit of spontaneous, tandem sorting, storing and preserving of my insides too.