"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away?"

Author: Unknown

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Hide Those Pipes!

    For the past few weeks, I have been cleaning and re-organizing my cabinets. I am going to get pictures of these soon. Anyway, the last one I worked on was under the kitchen sink. Admittedly it has been awhile. Actually, a LONG while. This cabinet seems to be a catch-all.
    As my bath towels are worn out, I cut them up into rags for cleaning. I have been throwing quite a few of these in this cabinet. I really need to divide them up and place some in the bathrooms, but thats another day. There was multiple cleaning supplies, etc.
    I also store my bag of onions under there as well. Guess what i found while cleaning? Yep, a bag shoved to the back with 3-4 rotted, watery onions in it. They had leaked out of the back into the cabinet in one corner as well. Now  I realize my choice of shelf liner was a mistake. I had used that open, waffle weave type plastic liner. This allowed that leaky mess to run onto the wood cabinet floor, staining it.

TIP # 1: USE a waterproof shelf liner! You never know when pipes or something else is going to leak.

Ok, grit your teeth, and be ready to run, here is my cabinet BEFORE:

I warned you,lol. Admittedly, it could be worse. Now I get to another thing bugging me. Those ugly pipes! They have been there since the kitchen was remodeled about 10 yrs ago. While under there, I did clean them, but I still hated the way they look. Ugggg! There has to be some way to hide them.
     Then it dawned on me, what about a wrap? Yea thats it! I measured how big around my pipes were in the large areas, then measured how long the side "Y" leg was from just under the sink to the center connection before it goes to the bottom leg. I added roughly 6" to length, and about 2" to width. I cut a rectangle, and hemmed the long edges. I then  made a small cuff in the bottom and top to hold a small piece of 1/4" elastic. Threaded the elastic thru and stitched the ends to hold in place. I then sewed on velcro pieces along the long edge, placing one on each end over the elastic. Make two of these.
       Now make same measurements to the lower leg of the "Y". Make another piece in the same manner. Now cut a rectangle about 8" wide x 12" long. Hem all edges.
      Now slip one section around the left leg, and velcro in place, slip the right leg piece over and velcro in place. Lay the small rectangle you made last over the join to cover where the two upper pieces meet. Pull it down on front and back and slip the ends under the lower wrap to hold in place.
     There you go.... pipes are pretty, and the piece can easily be pulled off quick if there is a leak.
I know your probably thinking, "that lady has too much time on her hands", lol.  Well,.....they do look better, right?
    Now for the organization part. On the left door, I wanted a small rack to hold dish soap etc. I did not want to screw through my beautiful solid oak , custom made cabinets. I read somewhere on the web that someone used command strips to hold it on the door. So I gave it a try. Its been about 4 days, and it's still hanging. 
     I bought 2 green baskets from the Dollar Tree to use under here, but unfortunately it only fit on the left side. The right side, i am having hubby make me a narrow bin type thing to hold potatoes and onions in it on the right.  On the left I would love one of those side mounted drawers that pull out, but gotta wait till hubby gets "round to it",lol.
    The box on the left is a temporary holder for my rags. Here is a closeup of the wrap:
I know ... a little "cutesy", but its clean  :)
That's what happens when I am home alone a little too much!

    


2 comments:

  1. Great job cleaning out the cabinet! I agree, under the sink is such a catch all!
    You know what I love about your pipe covers? It keeps the pipes clean, and when the covers get dusty, just yank 'em off and throw 'em into the washer! Voila! Back to clean pipes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the compliment, and for taking the time to stop by. I love it when posts are appreciated. Have a nice day.

      Delete