Today, we don’t talk about gorgeous kitchen makeovers or products I like, nor books or whatever is needed to have a better understanding of interior design. Today, I have a horror story for you.
It’s about a corner cabinet, a trip that went on way too long, and a bag of potatoes that got its revenge.
My kitchen has this one awkward corner cabinet. You know the type: the one that’s a black hole for lost items and wasted space. I wanted a pull-out drawer solution here for easier access, but since we have to keep the gas bottle hidden there, this was not an option. So I used two different IKEA Jonaxel items: one with shelves and one with drawers. This wasn’t their intended use, but it worked well in our setup.
This is not the perfect pull-out system you see in magazines, but the units fit well, they’re easy to remove when I need to change the gas bottle, and they actually make the space usable. I was pretty proud of my clever little hack. I used the drawers to store food items like potatoes, onions, and garlic, and the shelves to hold some of the pots I don’t use often but like to have in the kitchen.
Potatoes aren’t really a staple food in our house because they give me stomach issues. However, we had guests over right before we left for a long, estimated six-week trip back to my hometown to sort out some paperwork. I bought the potatoes intending to prepare something for our guests, but during their week-long stay, nobody wanted them. I usually take everything perishable with me or throw it out, but I completely forgot about the potatoes.
Life got in the way, as it often does. A planned “few weeks” away turned into three months. We were hundreds of kilometers away when a sudden, cold dread hit me: “The potatoes.” But there was nothing I could do. This time, I hadn’t left the keys with a friend, so I had no way of asking her to pick up my forgotten spuds.
Three months later, after a 14-hour drive, we finally got home. The moment I opened the door, a smell so foul hit me that I nearly fainted. It wasn’t just a bad smell; it was a full-on, potato-based assault on my senses and my corner kitchen cabinet. My clever module with the drawers and shelves had become a crime scene—or more like a suicide. After cleaning up the rotten mess and the leftover tomatoes in a plastic bag, I continued with the rest of the cleanup.
Luckily, my cabinet had a secret weapon: the Variera plastic protection liner. This liner was the only thing that saved me from having to dismantle a good portion of my kitchen. After a frantic 5 a.m. cleaning session, the smell was still lingering, but I finally knew the cabinet wasn’t harmed. There was no lasting damage to the bottom of it, and I was finally able to rest. So, while this isn’t entirely an interior design story, I think it belongs here because it highlights a very good solution that might one day save your kitchen cabinet from various weird incidents.
So, here’s my advice, learned the hard way: Don’t forget a bag of potatoes in your kitchen module if you go away for long time.
