Tuesday Night Project

At our previous house, I had a small closet's worth of pantry space. It is way better than none, but with the amount of food that I am used to keeping in the house at one time (which is a lot), it was fairly tight. In our current house, the pantry is ENORMOUS. It was as big as our walk-in closet; it was a nice perk. But when we moved in, for the sake of time I'm sure, we just shoved a lot of stuff on the shelves to get it done. And ever since then, it's stuck.

The other day I turned to Jarrod and said "You know, I've been thinking that the pantry needs to be rearranged..."

To my slight surprise, he agreed and said "Yeah, I think it's time we "get organized" and, you know, not go too crazy, but maybe buy some bins and tubs..."

So I went to the store and bought 6 medium basket tubs, 2 small basket tubs, and 1 long tray. I thought eight tubs seemed like a good place to start. If I didn't need all of them, I can take some of them right back to Target.

So tonight was the night, and I started by taking some 'before' pictures, which you can click on for larger versions if you'd like...

The food side. Looking at this picture, it hits me
just how much food we actually have. As you can
see, it's sort of grouped, but not really. Again, shoved away onto a shelf.

The side dedicated to "stuff." Crock pots,
small appliances, recycling, lunch bags,
grocery bags, all thrown onto shelves wherever
they may fit. Oh, and two clocks...?

So I got to work right before dinner, taking things out of the pantry in order to figure out how best to sort them, group them, or what might be best in bins. I tackled the food first, since it was the most 'pieces' by far. The crock pots and whatnots would be tough because they're big bulky items, but I figured the food would be the most challenging.

And this is what I came up with. I used up all of the baskets I bought, plus a few other bins I found in the pantry (that weren't being filled with anything.) I think it's a huge improvement! And I'm really happy with it; feeling a big sense of accomplishment for tonight. And there is so much more room now! But I'm not going to be too anxious to fill it up with even more stuff.

Starting on the left side, we have the cereals, then disposable things;
chips, sauces, oils, and vinegars, breads;
random breakfast items and snacks, coffees, teas, and other drinks, baking stuff;
starches, an entire row and bin dedicated to Easy Mac, canned goods
(now in rows according to what they are,
[veggies, soups, soups for cooking with]), baking ingredients;
crackers and cookies, and multiples from Costco.

Slightly better than before, less junky I'd say.
Cook books have moved over to this side, many items
were removed (like the random clocks), and bags were consolidated a lot.

Woo hoo!