Mouse, 0. Cottager, 1

For years, a gang of highly unconstipated mice had free reign over the goodies stashed in the cupboards of Edward Shillinglaw’s rustic Lake Muskoka cottage.

“It was really a problem,” says Shillinglaw. “Almost every time we’d open up the drawer, we’d find a juicy dropping, and have to wash the dishes again before we even sat down to eat.”

Gaining control over the kitchen became an obsession for Shillinglaw, who was finally able to reclaim his turf when the penny dropped during a Bulk Barn shopping spree. “I was looking through the bins and thought to myself, ‘Why can’t I just put a hinged lid over my own cupboard drawers?’ ”

After picking up a sheet of clear acrylic from his local lumberyard, Shillinglaw pulled out his kitchen drawers to custom-fit the plastic covers. He removed the fronts and shaved 1⁄4" from the height of the drawer box to accommodate the covers and allow for smooth opening when in place. Using a fine-tooth blade on his table saw, Shillinglaw carefully cut the acrylic to fit. He also cut a second, thin strip that he screwed onto the back edge of the drawer box, which acted as a static edge, to which he glued a plastic hinge.

The mice are still on the roam but, hard as they might try, they can’t get at the goods. “Sometimes we find droppings on top of the plastic covers, but as for them getting into the drawers? This solved the problem completely.”

-Pat Lynch

Originally published in the September/October 2006  issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Copyright © 2006 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.