One of my favorite parts of homesteading is canning. I love to see my garden in jars during the winter months. Preserving the bounty of summer is great fun, but conveniently storing the jars is another chore.
Our staircase downstairs turns halfway back on itself creating a nice cool space under the steps. It was used mainly as storage for Christmas stuff before I started to set all my canned goods in there. I was getting loads of jars from the garden during the hot summer months. This presented an issue, since floor space was being taken up by all the jars I had. I would tip-toe around stuff and occasionally break a lightbulb that hung down from the low ceiling with my head. However, I did not complain, but Mr. Hunky certainly saw this as an eyesore.
The storage area under the steps has a door so I would just keep it shut, didn’t bother me any. A couple weekends ago, Mr. Hunky said he was going to make it into a pine-board canning closet. Pine, keeping it dry and still cool; I thought that would be fantastic. I never thought it would turn out the way it did though.
Usually when Mr. Hunky is going to ‘improve’ my life in some way, I generally let him go with it. The new closet with shelves and new lighting is economical and space saving. Canning is going to be even more worth it with a convenient, cool, dry place to store my goods for winter. Hopefully, with the added space I can produce enough vegetables for two years worth of canned goods instead of one.
We used pine: tongue and groove, 2-by-2-inch square boards for shelving brackets/wall stabilizers (instead of metal brackets), 10-foot boards in 8 inches and 12 inches for shelves, and pine molding.
Additional supplies include miter saw, nail gun, screws, hammer, and one Mr. Hunky.
Here are some before and afters of the completed canning closet!
Be sure to checkout more of my homesteading mayhem at my website, and my online natural soaps and body care store here!
