Those of you who've followed the Quest for a while may remember my cookie-making mania in November. Such a cookie making-and-sharing venture requires not just pounds upon pounds of butter, sugar, and flour, but a goodly quantity of cookie tins for safe and decorative transport. Once I'm in cookie-making mode, the last thing I want to do is hunt for cookie tins. There is exactly one store in a 15 mile radius that I know of that sells cookie tins, which is why I go there good and early and buy most of them up. If you live on the north side of Chicago and have ever wondered why there are no cookie tins at the WalMart in Niles after Thanksgiving, well, now you know.
Every year I have a surplus of cookie tins. Every year I consider returning the unused tins, but then I worry about what will happen if someone else beats me to the Niles WalMart the following year and buys up all the cookie tins for him- or herself because, you know, some people are like that. It doesn't help that the Niles WalMart gets only one shipment of cookie tins early in the season and doesn't put in another order when the stock runs low. And so every year I have about 20 tins--some times more, sometimes less--which are left out for months on end because who has the space to store 20 cookie tins?
My job today was to find the space. It took a little more than half an hour, which isn't much of a time investment when you consider what a relief it will be to not have to explain to guests why I have a couple dozen holiday tins stacked in the corner of the living room, months after the holidays have passed.
Above: before. The stacks of tins aren't terrible. It's just not pretty. Below: after.
(Note to the curious: the portrait is of Mau-Mau Kitty, our beloved Maine Coon with whom we shared 19 lovely years. Our friend, artist Brandon Kight, made it for us.)
Finding Homes for the Cookie Tins