Actually, I only lined one shelf, the one that gets the messiest, where I store all of the bottles of cooking liquids like oils, molasses, soy sauce, vinegar, and honey. The oils, molasses, and honey are the worst offenders in the pantry. They drip down the sides of the containers and make a mess of the shelf.
I had put off lining this particular shelf for literally years. I didn't have shelf paper or anything to use in place of shelf paper . . . or did I?
Remember all of that brown paper that came as packing material during the shutdowns? Okay, maybe you got lots of styrofoam pellets instead. I got reams of crumpled brown paper. I rolled up the paper and stored the rolls on end in a larger box.
I used some of the paper for creating a barrier between layers in boxes of onions, potatoes, and tomatoes harvested from my garden and stored in our cold room. I also used some directly in the garden to suppress weeds among vegetables. And I used some as gift wrap.
As I was cleaning up the "liquids" shelf in the pantry, I remembered my supply of brown paper.
I cut the paper to fit, taping down the ends.
I relined the pie tin that catches oil dribbles.
I made extra squares to go under the honey and molasses bottles so the jugs don't stick to the paper shelf lining. (The squares stick to the bottom of the bottles. As I lift a bottle or jug, the square paper comes with it, but not the shelf liner.)
And when I finished the job, this is how it looked. Nice, neat, tidy, and will be super easy to clean when the paper gets gunked up again. Bonus, I'll be able to compost the old paper and replace it with more of the free brown paper.
Yes, it would be nice if the paper had some sort of attractive pattern. But free is a pretty amazing price.
