Exposing Myself

I am about to completely expose myself to you.  Don't worry - there's no nudity here.  It's worse.  Much worse.  I'm showing you my pantry!

EEK!  How embarrassing.  

I particularly like this shelf... crackers, protein powder, some table decor leftover from the fall, bowl, tongs, a jar of pimentos and I think I see a candle in there.  Makes perfect sense, right?  Actually, it probably does when you have young kids.

Crockpot, more crackers, bags and Syd's LSU purse.

While the kids are a major hinderance to keeping the pantry clean and organized, I can't blame it all on them.  Honestly, when we moved in I just sort of put things in there with the intent to go back and organize later.  Ha!  Almost a year later, it seemed time to finally do something about it!

It's probably a project that should be taken on at least once a year.  I can't tell you how many vitamins and drugs I threw away due to expiration.  Or partial bags of chips or crackers!  They were everywhere.

And the duplicates - oh my!  Just last week I bought a can of green chiles for chili.  Turns out I already had FOUR cans in the pantry.  Just couldn't' find them.  We also have three jars of fish oil supplements.  Seriously?

Sadly, this peanut butter collection is not due to lack of organization.  But rather an obsession.  Peter Pan Whipped is Pat's absolute favorite.  It's not always easy to find, so when he does spot it, we get a stock pile of at least 4 jars.  

One of my New Year Resolutions has been to get a bit more organized.  Now, I'm not getting too crazy.  I am not following any books or lists - although there are many great ones out there and if that's your thing, check out my friend's blog who is getting seriously organized this year!  I applaud her, am cheering her on and can't wait to see what tricks she comes up with to make her home run more smoothly.  I just wasn't ready for all that yet.  I don't need any other reasons to feel inadequate.  


I'm just tackling areas of the house that bother me.  I am not a super organized person by nature (clearly).  Everything does not have a place in my house.  I'm ok with that and I think it would make me crazy to try and be that uber-organized person.  But I can do better.  So I'm getting organized.  But in my own way.


This particular project took me almost two weeks.  But only because it wasn't my sole focus for one day or afternoon like it probably should have been.  A little purging here.  A little purging there.  Trip to the store for bins.  Not the right size.  Back to the store.  Not enough.  Back to the store.  Still need more.  Need another size.  


And viola!  Look, NOTHING on the floor!

 Beauty and peace!

This "organized" pantry isn't winning any style or creativity awards.  And I still have a few tweaks... to add labels and change out those black bins at the back (I was afraid the non-matching bins would bother me - and they do).  But by and large, it's done!  Whew.  And it feels so good.  Sometimes I open the door and just stare in wonder.  Maybe I'm taking it all in before the kids destroy it again.  Sigh.  Now to just keep it up.