Kitchen Cabinet Door Grocery List/Menu Chalkboard

Going shopping with a grocery list always saves me money. I still sometimes wander off of the list, but it mostly helps organize myself before going so that I don't end up with only half of the ingredients for something I intend to make and then that second or third trip to the grocery store is a doozy. Then I make sure I write down my meals that I have just bought the groceries for to keep me from forgetting why I bought ricotta cheese and letting that spoil, etc.

I have been printing out a pre-printed list of everything in my pantry and circling what I need, but I am wasting paper and ink.

So my plan is four fold:
1) Print off that pantry list and set it next to the pantry to remind me of what needs to be in there to have a final look at before heading to store
2) Have a reusable board to write the things on the list that I discover I need throughout the week to make sure they get on the grocery list when I am planning next weeks meals
3) Use the back of junk mail/used regular mail envelopes the list for the week
4) Have a reusable board to write the menu plan for the upcoming days to remind me what I have available to cook

So, I bought some chalkboard spray paint a few months back and was wondering what was going to become my chalkboard. I was fiddling between getting some lumber, somehow using a picture frame or masking taping off a square on my kitchen wall and making a permanent wall chalkboard. I actually really like that last idea, but the kitchen will be remodeled in the future and it will have to move somewhere else and I didn't feel like wasting my time on something that will be painted over later. Then I remembered that we had some cabinet doors from the last house (we replaced the doors with doors to match the rest of the cabinetry there). So, if my kitchen had any cabinets (can you believe it doesn't - hate it), I would have done it right on one of those, but here's what I did.

First I took off the door from its hinges. Then using junk mail newspaper and masking tape, I covered the area that I did not want to have painted. Be very diligent about placing the masking tape, make sure nothing is covered you want painted and all is covered that you don't want painted.

Then I painted the door per directions on the chalkboard spray paint. In retrospect, since this was an unfinished door, I probably ought to have used wood filler or paint to fill in the wood grain. I thought I would like the wood grain behind it and I kinda do, but the chalk dust fills it up and makes it stand out.

And here is my cabinet door chalkboards.

Now you need an eraser. I made mine from wool sweaters.