The Kitchen Towel
When we moved into this house, it had all sorts of quirky bits of storage, and so many hooks. So. Many. Also, mirrors, nails in the walls... a lifetime of setting things just so to suit the person who lived here from 1950 until 2020. Overlaying our wants and needs on that has been... interesting. It's not bad, just slightly weird at times when I look into the hidden compartment in the pantry and think 'well, I know what I'd use it for, but what did she use it for?' And it was hilarious to show it to people and have them all chorus Lawdog's exclamation of 'Pantry Gun! Mama kept the shotgun there!" Which likely says more about me and the company I keep than the actual use that was built for.
But that's not what sparked this post. No, that would be the ring towel holder mounted on the side of a cupboard next to the sink. It keeps falling down. The first time it did this, I thought it was broken, and as I was busy washing dishes, set it aside to look at more closely later. Then, I thought I had it figured out, so I stuck it back up on the base mount, which is securely screwed to the nice solid-wood cupboards. Nope. Yesterday while I was doing my marathon kitchen cleaning, it kept falling down again.
This morning, while I was standing at the sink filling the coffee water reservoir, I was contemplating the towel holder. It's in an awkward place. I don't know where she put her dirty and clean dishes, but it sure as heck wasn't beside the sink, like I was raised doing. Yes, there's a dishwasher, and yes, I use it. Being a vintage (anything over 25 years old is vintage. Over 100 is antique. And yes, that's a pet peeve) dishwasher, it actually works. I love it. However, it's not going to wash everything. I cook with a lot of cast iron, for instance, and there's no way I'm putting that in the dishwasher, and my kids learned they would get away with that over my dead body, so while they have washed other things I wish they wouldn't, we handwash the iron. Also, big pots and pans don't fit. Or wooden utensil. You get the drift. Handwashing is part of life, and so is a kitchen towel for drying.
So why do I know the dishes didn't go next to the sink? Because there's no room. The stove is literally two inches from the sink on the left hand side, and while there is counterspace to the right, the kitchen cupboards come down too low to allow for a dish draining rack to live there. I'd bought an over-the-sink rack while in the apartment, and that's what we are using here, as well, so we have somewhere to put the daggone dishes while washing and drying. With a pot or baking sheet up there, the towel ring is occluded and becomes a pain in the patootie to reach.
Having a towel hung over the oven handle is... well, that's mostly how I've done it. The idea of a special thing for the towel is nice. It's the execution here that isn't working for me. That's where the problem comes in.
I'm standing there having an internal debate with myself. Do I take it down and toss it? It's perfectly good, well, it's annoying because it falls down but I don't think it's broken, it's user error. I'm not gentle when I grab the towel and where it's mounted, I'm pulling to the side, not straight out like it's designed for. So the base gets torqued slowly to the side until it comes off the mooring and then thud, down the dang thing comes.
I find that I have a mental struggle with throwing away something functional. It doesn't fit my needs and wants, but... I really ought to get the drill in here, unscrew the base, and just make it go away. It's a useless item to me. Why am I not ok with tossing something that irritates me?
That's the problem. So much of my life I've had to make do, or do without, that the concept of making something work for me, rather than working around what's there is weird to me. I know, in theory, that I don't need to do this any longer. Especially not with small things. The towel ring is a small thing. I should just tear it down and make it go away. I should!
I probably won't. It might be useful for something.