Cupboard Keeps
Hello Dear Friends and Readers,
A long time ago, I was charged with cleaning out an elderly lady’s home after she had to go to a nursing home. She had a lovely old bungalow from the 1920’s, and since I’ve always liked old things and vintage items I didn’t mind. Nothing had been touched much inside for quite a while.
Of course she had lots of old preserves and a few “interesting” things dead and alive, in the kitchen, and I’m not being disrespectful at all. The thing that fascinated me, was when I went to the linen cupboard, and I know these are becoming a thing of the past too, but I am going somewhere with this story.
When I went to clean out the linen cupboard, and I was expecting the worst, I was amazed to find that the cupboard was pristine. I was expecting, silverfish and disintegration, there was nothing of the sort. The lovely old linens were pristine.
Now of course you will have to take my word for it, and what I’m saying is of course anecdotal, but, when I cleaned out all the shelves I was surprised to find under the paper linings on the shelves – Cloves!
There were plenty of cloves under all the linens and not a silverfish to be seen and all linen’s were pristine.
Well I have done that ever since, for decades, and have never had trouble. I am not a fan of camphor, and I believe it can be very dangerous if ingested. It’s off-putting when you pass someone in the street or supermarket and they reek of camphor.
So I am sharing this wonderful idea with you all, so that you can protect your linens and fabrics.
I buy my cloves in bulk, like 500g bags, as you can find in specialist grocers like Giganis Bros, or some Indian supermarkets, so it’s very economical.
Of course, most people may not enjoy the cloves running around in their cupboards, so I created these Cupboard Keeps.
I made these little bags and filled them with cloves. I just used pre cut 10″ and 5″ squares. They can be sewn up, in literally minutes.
Fold in half, right sides together. Stitch 3/4 of the way around, backstitch at beginning and end, clip corners and turn right side out. Fill with cloves through remaining opening then stitch shut.
As a quilter I want to protect my fabrics, so I have made these to go into my fabric cupboard amongst my lovely fabrics! And because they are not running around loose it’s easy to make adjustments to the fabrics without the cloves falling out. These bags of cloves and the smell will last indefinitely!
If you enjoyed this post, i think you might like this idea!
All the best,
Susie