eek! a mouse!
Not that I'm afraid of them, I just don't want the little buggers in my house.
I was rummaging around in my pantry looking for something when I shifted a plastic bag of flour and it left a trail. Picked it up and saw a chewed hole, teeny tiny tooth marks in a ragged circle. Serves me right for storing flour in a plastic bag and forgetting about it. For five years.
This under bench corner cupboard is my pantry.
I tossed out that bag of flour, then set about emptying the whole cupboard onto my kitchen floor. Swept out the line of mouse poop on the top shelf, washed the shelves and went to visit my elderly neighbour while they dried. She'll be 88 this year and hs shrunk six full inches since I saw her last. She's losing weight too.
Anyway, I got home and started putting things back into the pantry. Well gosh, how long has this been in there? And that! I don't need that if I haven't even looked at it all these years. Into the bin with it. And the other thing, and how old is this bread flour? Out with it! And several other things.
It's amazing how much space I have in there now.
Here it is all neat and tidy with plenty of empty spaces.
In other news, my beautiful butterfly leadlight lampshade no longer glows with colour.
The base is an old touch lamp that used to have a smaller shade which got broken in one of my house moves. Well, it's thirty years old now and last week it died. It was fluttering off and on all by itself and then it stayed on even when I touched it to turn off. I had to crawl under the table and pull the plug.
I will keep the shade and eventually get another base for it, something sturdier and with a switch to turn it off and on.
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So, in effect, the mouse helped you clean out your cupboards?
ReplyDeleteYeah, still don't want 'em in my house!
Bob; I'd been planning a cleanout anyway, I usually do it more frequently, but I got lazy.
Deletemice are helpful that way. The mouse in my friend's hotel room got her a better room a few floors up plus compensation! Clearing cupboards and shelves is always a good thing.
ReplyDeleteLinda Sue; yay for your friend! I used to enjoy cleaning out cupboards and shelves but I got a bad case of "I don't care anymore" for a couple of years.
DeleteHave you seen the episode in River Cottage when HFW is told by a white witch to write a letter to the mice to ask them to leave his River Cottage? Just an idea.
ReplyDeletenorthsider; I have never seen River Cottage, I don't think it os shown down here under the equator. I think the mouse will go elsewhere on his own now that nothing is in a chewable container.
DeleteWe once discovered we had a mouse after finding chewed silver paper behind the armchair. The little bugger had climbed up onto a high shelf on the bookcase to steal a wrapped chocolate Santa.
ReplyDeleteJayCee; mice do like chocolate, and peanut butter too, so choose either of those when setting a trap if you need to. Put your chocolate Santas in a glass jar.
DeleteWell done on the cleaning job. We could really do with a similar effort. I hope you can find a new lamp for that shade. It is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; I will store the lampshade in my shed for a while, it will take time to find a suitable base that I really like. I enjoyed the cleanout, just like I used to, I don't know what got into me to leave it for so long, and not caring.
DeleteI love the lamp shade. Nice job of cleaning and organizing your pantry. Every couple of years, when we have a field mouse get in, I've been able to see one darting along the baseboard, or hear one rustling among the Walmart bags holding school supplies in my office. That's an advantage of being up late at night when they sneak around! They didn't make it upstairs to the kitchen before being snapped in a trap.
ReplyDeleteVal; the lampshade was a roadside dump find and had a couple of broken panels, but I still love it. I never heard or saw any evidence of a mouse until I shifted that bag of flour. I have seen an occasional rat in the garden, but they don't come inside and I haven't seen one since I stopped feeding the birds.
DeleteThat is a lovely lamp! I hope you get it fixed up.
ReplyDeleteI recall having mice here. They are such a pain. My late mom had moths in her pantry. It was terrible.
Jenn Jilks; I will get the lamp fixed and may even look for a leadlight maker to fix the two broken panels back into place properly. I've had pantry moths too and my daughter once had an infestation that took five years of moth baits to fix. She didn't realise what they were at first so they got into every room in the house.
DeleteDon't worry. This newly created cupboard space won't last long.
ReplyDeleteTouch lamps don't seem very reliable in my experience.
Andrew; I think the spaces will last because I am buying less these days instead of two or three of anything I get one. Except for the tomato sauce and tomato paste which I use in almost every recipe. The touch lamp was thirty so I think it did well.
DeleteOrganized, clean spaces are essential for your health and your peace. Good on you for getting rid of the rubbish and sorting out the fresh stuff.
ReplyDeletehels; organised and clean have been my default setting for most of my life, but a couple of years of "I don't care anymore" got hold of me.
DeleteA clean cupboard will show that mouse! Love the lampshade and agree it deserves a new base.
ReplyDeleteJoanne; I think mousie will be quite disappointed when he finds he can't get into anything anymore. A new base for the lampshade will take some time, it's quite heavy and needs something sturdy as well as beautiful.
DeleteThe mice can go elsewhere. As for flour, be careful if it gets old, it can make you sick, believe it or not.
ReplyDeletemessymimi; I did not know that about flour, I did know that it is less effective when it gets old and stale, that's why I threw out the bread flour. I rarely bake anymore so I think I will also toss out the other flour and buy fresh when I need some.
DeleteI amazing what you can find in the back of a cupboard.
ReplyDeleteMike; it is amazing, more amazing is how often lately I realise I just don 't need some of those things.
DeleteAt least you have a clean cupboard now, and not a nice feeling to see a mouse in there.
ReplyDeleteLove your butterfly lamp, must be very pretty when it worked.
Margaret D; I didn't see a mouse, only the chewed flour bag and a trail of poop.
DeleteThe lamp is lovely when it works and even better if I keep the dust off it.
It's amazing how much out-of-date stuff can be found in a clear out. It's so nice when a cupboard is tidy. I always have to keep looking at it and admiring it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you soon find a new base for your lovely shade.
jabblog; I like the clean look of a newly cleaned and tidied cupboard too. I remember in my previous place looking at the neat shelves in my linen cupboard, here I don't have a linen cupboard so sheets and towels are crammed drawers in all over the place.
DeleteMice can eat almost everything when they're hungry. Once a mouse ate all my candles, leaving only the wicks.
ReplyDeleteI like that lampshade, it fits the lamp too, maybe you could have a thingy that turns the current on and off fitted to the cable (Sotty for not knowing the rigth words in English). I did so with one of our old lamps.
Charlotte; I remember an old story about Church mice who ate the candles to survive the winter, back in the days when candles were made of tallow. Many modern candles aren't.
DeleteI'm not going to fiddle around trying to fix the lamp base it was thirty years old and used daily so it was time for it to die. It's too lightweight for the butterfly shade anyway, so I will look for something bigger and heavier.
Things change, as we age.
ReplyDeleteCatalyst; they certainly do.
DeleteI like that the cupboard doors open all the way to allow full access to the back corner. And nice work on tossing items of unknown vintage. It's hard to think that flour can go rancid, and whole wheat is even worse. And wheat germ goes off super fast, even if stored in the refrigerator.
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty lampshade. I've never had any touch on/off lamps because of cats. Is there a way to convert the base to a regular old fashion on-off socket?
Just Gail; the lamp base is lightweight and too old anyway, so I won't bother with it. i'll look around the shops for something bigger and heavier to balance the shade better.
DeleteThat back corner is hard to reach even with the cupboard doors all the way open because I'm short with short arms, but I manage.
We had a mouse in house, during the fall months.
ReplyDeleteWe had one once who blatantly in broad day light stole a large biscuit from the dog's feeding bowl, traps were set that night, I'll say no more!
ReplyDelete