Ikea, Particle Boards and Florida Don't Mix

It was one of those things.

Having house guests meant we got to go shopping.  I had to restock the kitchen.  No problem there, I actually like going to the big Publix supermarket downtown.  If anything I try to restrain myself from getting all sorts of crazy goodies because I like the challenge of making new recipes and sharing them with friends and family.

In a small house, you learn quickly that cabinets and pantry space are at a premium.  There are many that would consider 1200 square feet large, and others that would consider it a rabbit hutch.  They're all not paying my mortgage so I'm inclined to tell them to have a nice day.

Among other things.

But we did get creative with storage when we moved in here.   Coming from 1900 square feet on three floors in Philadelphia, I'm still throwing things out that we moved with back in 2006.  The box of random parts gets smaller since I just don't have room to store things that can be repaired.

There is always room for food, and with the seasons being only two here, I have to store food for each.

Hurricane Season means that we store two weeks worth of food, water, and necessities for six months.
Snowbird season is easy, the weather is predictable, and we don't really expect problems.  So this is when you eat the Hurricane food.

Hopefully.

One of the things we did was throw up our hands and build up the laundry room.  It's definitely not "ADA Compliant" any longer.  In fact, I have to wonder if it is even Ramblingmoose Compliant. 

There are so many cabinets in the laundry room that my shoulders brush both sides of the path to the back of the room.   Shelves above your head, on the walls, and cabinets on the entryway.

That's where Ikea came in.

We went to the land of cheap Swedish Flat Pack Furniture a while back.  They name things by taking a phone book in Stockholm and throwing darts at a random page and saying "Billy!  I shall call a cabinet Billy!"  or "Look it's a Boj!".

Not that anyone out of Scandinavia knows what on Earth a Boj is, mind you.  I suspect it's another word for a room of convenience, and most likely flat packed so you can assemble it with a happy Allen Key and a lot of swearing.

Oh, and it's probably made with Particle Board.

Ikea doesn't make everything out of particle board.  This is a good thing because particle board is rubbish in a humid climate like South Florida.  It's rubbish in a dry climate too, but at least it won't melt there.

I had some rather nice looking dressers from Ikea that were made of particle board in Philadelphia.  By the time I moved out, I didn't have any trouble moving them out.  I simply gave it a nudge, and it collapsed. 

All the more easy to throw out.

And this was the basis of my problem.

We got back from Publix with giant bags of food.  Technicolor bottles of soda.  Cans of random condiments.  Eggs.  Lots of Eggs.

All of that food had to be stored.

I walked into the kitchen and began to fill the freezer immediately as Kevin brought in the rest of the food. 

Beginning with the frozen fish that was on a "Bogo", I began playing Freezer Tetris. 

I think somewhere in Stockholm, six weeks ago, a Butterfly flapped its wings.  That butterfly caused my pickles from Nebraska to bounce.

The pantry simply collapsed.

We hadn't actually added anything to the pantry.  What must have happened was that the rain that was approaching from a tropical system that was two days away at that point scared it.  Six feet worth of Canned Goods, boxed pasta, random glassware including two strange Star Trek promo glasses I have no idea what to do with, a stack of 5 ready made pie shells, three jars of spaghetti sauce and much more began a short trip.

The shelves gave way in the middle of the pantry.

The sheer volume of the food that hit the floor was a shock, we didn't realize that we had those 4 bottles of catsup in the extra large sized handy plastic squeeze bottle.  We also don't know what we'll do with them, considering that we don't use quite that much catsup. 

We still have the catsup by the way.  It survived the trip to the floor.  Those bottles ricocheted off of the washer, onto the stack of bottled water and onto the floor in the corner cushioning more fragile things like cereal boxes on their way down.

The pickles were a gift from my cousin Bill in Nebraska.  Good ol' Mason jars.   I never knew that a glass Mason storage jar could take the fall from chest high, bounce off of my dryer, the spaghetti jars, and some other weirdly random food and survive with only the sealing ring getting dented.  But survive they did.  Good thing because Bill has an excellent recipe for sweet and sour pickles!

Unfortunately that spaghetti sauce didn't survive.   We had four jars of the stuff.  The two that were in the Good Ol' Mason Jars bounced off of the pickles and settled on the floor back in the corner intact among the dirty towels that have been collecting waiting for Hot Wash Day.  The other two did not.  They were commercially prepared, and since glass isn't designed to take impact unless it is a Good Ol' Mason Jar, and the commercially prepared stuff is much thinner glass.  It's Just Thick Enough to get it home, but not really thick enough to survive any shock.

How did all this happen?

The side walls of the pantry were not built with any support beams across the back.  The pantry itself was built as four sides with a piece of cardboard nailed to the "box" as a backing.  It wasn't designed to hold it together.  Yes, a piece of particle board nailed across the back would hold it up much better but that wasn't to be. 

The box bulged through the successive years of humid weather and jars of pickles, and that night even before I put another can of Whole Fruit Cranberry Sauce on the shelves, it collapsed.

I never saw a cabinet burst its seams like that before.  It was a giant waterfall of crap.  It simply vomited up my stored food and Star Trek glasses into my laundry room.

My laundry room now has a slightly pink floor.   Yes, the spaghetti sauce again.  The floor is unsealed concrete and while I managed to get up almost all of the sauce with a mop and a lot of hot water, it is impossible to get all that healthy lycopene back up off the floor once it has been left there in an explosive fashion.

I'll be cleaning up spaghetti sauce for years.

So if you do get a tall and narrow Ikea Particle Board cabinet, there is a fix.  Screw your shelves in with a long drywall screw through the outside box of the cabinet.   That will give you the lateral stability you need in case your cousin Bill from Nebraska should ship you some yummy pickles again!

Pickles.  Suddenly I'm craving some pickles.   No ice cream, please, and we have quite enough spaghetti sauce that survived.

Did you know that a Mason Jar could bounce?  Neither did I!

GFS Marketplace Review

In short, I like the place.   In fact I like it a lot.   I just finished a lunch of their Manicotti and have a Cherry Pie in the oven from GFS.  You will see the pie tomorrow.

I have been a snowbird for years, and finally moved here to South Florida in 2006.   I'd be driving around and would see their location on Federal Highway just south of NE 26th Street and would be intrigued.  That link was the building, behind the 45MPH speed limit sign.   Looking at the building, I had always assumed that it was a Wholesale Club or strictly To The Trade.   I'm glad that when I moved here I had checked it out and was wrong.

GFS Marketplace is here in Florida and through the midwest.   If you are near one, stop on in.  I'm also a member at BJ's Wholesale and was a member at Sam's Club and Costco before returning to BJs Wholesale and GFS as well as filling in the cupboards at other markets like the Publix that is within 1/2 mile walking distance to the house.  These days, to get your best value you don't stick with one traditional Supermarket, you pretty much have to shop around.   I do like Publix, I'm OK with BJ's, disappointed with Costco and Sam's Club, but I'm really quite happy I wandered into GFS.

I knew well of their competition Sysco because when I'd drive down to the Florida Keys, it seems like I'd be constantly trying to pass one of their trucks.   Seems like they have a strong presence down there, to the point where all the restaurants have one of their trucks parked unloading at some time of the morning.   I even wondered why should one even bother paying the prices at the high end restaurants when "All the food comes in on the same truck".  Not exactly a ringing endorsement since I've had some truly horrid meals in the Keys, but it certainly isn't the food service distributor's fault no matter who that distributor happens to be.

I started with Wholesale Clubs back in the 80s when a friend said you can get the commercial strength cleaning supplies and large scale frozen foods that some folks like when they go out to restaurants.   To this day, you still see some people who can't qualify for a commercial account at a larger food wholesaler hauling large flat trolleys of food and drink that will be used for tomorrow's sales at a retail restaurant.

GFS Marketplace allows people like me to walk in off the street and get large flats of Manicotti, Pork, and Chicken for example and load up my freezer with the same thing that the restaurants get.   I've seen GFS trucks at loading bays through the area and I know that the quality of the food those restaurants are getting will be excellent.  The way I know is that I buy it myself and cook it myself.   The cupcake picture from yesterday was baked with GFS's Chocolate Cake mix, some of their store brand chocolate chips, GFS chopped pecans, and icing that was mostly from their store brands and BOY was it good!  I'm also particularly fond of their commercial strength cleaning supplies and their frozen foods.

Past the frozen foods, the Staff at GFS Marketplace in Ft Lauderdale has always been, frankly, Excellent.   They are always engaging, open for questions, and seem genuinely happy to help you.   All too often you walk into a shop and are grumbled at by a surly person and I have never seen anyone at that shop in a bad mood.  Bill The Manager (and ALL of the other managers) there are always going out of their way to help you out and have frequently came over to me and offered free samples (try their Macaroni Salad, its great!) and had a chat.

Prices there are normally better than the local supermarkets for the items they have.   You can shop there but they are not a full service supermarket so you'll find yourself going here and there for odds and ends if you try.

This particular store has just undergone an upgrade and I'm looking forward to seeing it all sort itself out.   I was there this week in the midst of all the insanity, uproar, and boxes lying all over the place, and the folks who were on the crew there working to upgrade were watching out for us.   In fact, one actually asked me what I was looking for from a lift station about 20 feet from the floor while he was working on pipes for the new refrigeration plant.  Now *THAT* is what I call service!

Thanks, GFS, you won me over!  If anyone at Corporate sees this, your South Florida staff is excellent, and I include the folks from the adjoining areas of Hollywood and Miami in that.

(Hello Grand Rapids Readers...)

No Complaints At All!