{ the pantry purge }

Here's another post to add to my mini-series:

So I have this small little closet in my kitchen. It isn't a proper pantry, but we'll call it that anyway. It was stuffed to the max with the normal things one finds in a pantry: cereal bags, canned foods, boxes of Mac & Cheese {of the Kraft persuasion}, bags of baking necessities {i.e. flour, sugar, etc.}, oil, syrup, oatmeal, rice, peanut butter, cake mixes, popcorn, paper goods, etc.

You know, the usual.

I always dreaded opening that small door. The inside never seemed to please me. I never did delight in the 'hunt' that I was about to embark on.

Here was my problem: I had a square closet with lots of round stuff.

I needed all that stuff to be square. I heard somewhere that it is 'hip' to be so... ;)

Here's my other problem: I didn't want to spend the bazillion dollars those square canisters and organizers cost.

Enter Wally World.

Have you seen these? They are about $3.00 at Walmart. They hold approx. 16 cups, and Don't have handles {those one's cost more- even the smaller ones}.

I have bought 10 over the past year. And they have made me happy. But being the label obsessed conscious-minded person that I am, I took these plastic gems a step further.

Enter Stampin' Up paraphernalia:

I used a large stamp set and the permanent ink pad and stamped labels on the sides of my containers.

After purging the unnecessary crap and some 8 year old food items {do pinto beans even last that long in bag form?}, I dumped my bagged items in the containers and created a much more flowing {and surprisingly empty} pantry. I'm sure I will change it over the next couple years, but for now, it is sooo much better and easier to find things. Here are the shelves individually:

And the whole thing:

I must admit that I have a 'food storage' place under my stairs that houses all the extra cans, 50 million boxes of Mac & Cheese, massive bags of rice, extra toothpaste/cleaner/deodorant items, etc. so I have the luxury of only housing items I use on a mostly regular basis in my kitchen. {But I won't show you the food storage area yet, because it, too, needs a major make-over}

I feel a little less frazzled when it comes to making breakfast/lunch/dinner now. I can see exactly what I have, and know exactly when I need to stock up {like on flour} so I'm not in the middle of making something and have to drop everything, or have Mr. Smith run to the store so I can finish making cookies for the children in my church.

Not that that has ever happened before...

Someday my pantry will be eye candy and functional with beautiful matchy baskets, and rows of lovely glass jars, and be larger than a doll closet:

*swoon*

But for now, this works. It's not really pretty, but it's a great place to start 'the process of evolving into that Perfect Pantry' from.

So for today,

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Operation Sanity was a success!

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xoxo

jordan

ps- do you have an awesome room, closet, or organizing system that works wonders for you? I would love to hear about it! Email me the details at jordanriverblossom@yahoo.com and I'll share your inspiration with The World. Or at least with those who read this blog. ;)

Images here, here and here.