a kinda funny story about shelf paper

I know, right?  First prize goes to Satin Joy for the most exciting topic of the day in the whole blogging world...

So well over five years ago when Luke and I were moving into our first apartment, a certain someone was helping us and told me I needed shelf paper.  It wasn't like, "Oh, have you thought about using shelf paper?"  It was like, "Oh, I'll go get you some shelf paper.  You'll need it."

Being totally clueless as this was our first home and my first time running a home (living with 4 girls in an apartment in college doesn't count), I just said, "Ok, thanks," and began my married life assuming that shelf paper was an absolute necessity and that everyone in the world uses it.  And thereafter in every home we have lived in (all 5 of them), I have used shelf paper.  It wasn't really an option.  It was a given.

Last year we were helping Luke's brother move into his house and I was putting kitchen stuff away when I asked my sister-in-law if she wanted me to put some shelf paper in the cabinets.  She said, "Nah, I never use it."  It was kind of a somewhat pivotal (and sad) moment for me as I realized I had been doing something a certain way for five years just because one person told me I needed to.

I get that there are reasons for using shelf paper... It keeps shelves cleaner, it can keep wood from staining, blah, blah, blah...  But let's face it.  It can also be a PAIN.  I don't care what kind it is, it has never totally stayed put for me, and inevitably I end up trying to put it back in perfect place whilst navigating all the dishes/mugs/whatever that are on top of it.  And of course top shelves are even more frustrating (because even with a step stool I struggle to reach them).  So once the freeing reality hit me that by golly, I DON'T have to use shelf paper, I got genuinely excited about removing it all... until I thought about the effort it would take to do it...  Take all the dishes out, remove the paper, do a thorough cleaning, put it all back in...  So I've just kind of been avoiding it the past few months while thinking, Gosh, it'll really be nice once I get the time to remove all that paper.

Well, this morning as I was getting a mug out of the cabinet my stubbornness crumbled and I realized, I don't have to do this all it once.  Why not one shelf at a time over the next several days?  And so thus it began... the liberating removal of the shelf paper that should have never been.