Tuesday, September 14, 2010

{Operation Reorganization: Kitchen Pantry}

Remember this post where I ranted about my pantry and told you that it was all going to change? Well, the next day I thought about how I was going to tackle the reorganization and when I got home from work, I emptied out the entire contents of my pantry, filled my dining room table and sat in the middle of my kitchen on a step stool trying to figure out how to put it back together. My first thought was that the contents in my dining room could not go back into the same cabinet they came out of so this is what happened.

Pantry-Before&After I relocated my bake ware to the pantry and moved the pantry contents to where the bake ware was. It was closer to the stove microwave so it made sense to me. Also the cabinet is not as deep as the pantry so hopefully food won’t get lost in it’s new location.  :)

Pantry-Relocation This is the contents AFTER I sifted through and pulled out the food that was expired. Forgot to take a picture of all that but I filled an entire garbage bag (and felt extremely guilty for throwing out that much food.) There were things in there that expired in 2006!! Eeewww!

Ok. So I did a little switcharoo and you would think that would be the end of it, right? Well, it wasn’t. I also had spices and ingredients for baking in the pantry and when I went to put those items in their proper places, I was again sickened by the lack of organization there too so I emptied the cabinets where I had the spices and baking stuff.

Spices-Before&After The before pic is after I sorted through my spices. I had 5 of some things! Seriously people, it was ridiculous! Those racks in the after pic pull out & down which is great because that cabinet is above our microwave that’s over the stove and I’m short so any little help I can get so I don’t have to use a step stool is wonderful!

Before I show you where the baking supplies and spices were mixed together, let’s check out the “overflow” pantry that we have in our laundry room.

Overflow-Before&After Well, it looks just as crowded but it’s a little more organized than before. My hope was to move the doggie stuff to a cabinet above our dryer but those bins didn’t fit. Plan B is to put it all in the cabinet under the sink in our laundry room but hubsy is going to have to go through that stuff because well, it’s all his crap under there. Remember how I said the paper plates, cups & stuff was suppose to be in this cabinet? Do you notice in the after pic that it all made it to it’s originally designated place? :)

Ok, now let’s go back to the kitchen and check out that cabinet with all my baking supplies. Before, all my spices, baking supplies, some random dishes & disgusting bugs were residing in this cabinet. After a thorough cleaning, I managed to put it all back together. I so wish I had taken a pic of the before when it was all in the cabinet.

Baking-IngredientsThis is, hands down, my favorite part of the reorganization project (even though I had no intention to touch this cabinet originally).  In the after pic, on the top left are all my extracts, food coloring, baking spices (like nutmeg, pumpkin spice, etc), and cupcake liners. On the right are all my oils and cooking sprays. The middle shelf is all my dry goods like sugars & flours. If I had extras, I placed it behind the jars. The bottom isn’t baking stuff, it’s pasta, beans & tea bags. All my pasta was where the spices are now so I had to relocate them somewhere.

Label ItOk, so if you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my tweet about how giddy I was that I got to use some labels from my {embellish*ology} shop! Many of you wanted to see them in action so here ya go! All I did was add the ingredient of each jar, printed & cut them out and ran them through my Xyron. Want some customized labels for your organization project? Let me know, I’d be happy to customize some for you!

So what do you think of Operation Pantry Reorganization? I hope you are inspired to use {embellish*ology} products now.  :)

XOXO,
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4 comments:

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

You soooooooooooooooooo ROCK!!! I never got to mine this weekend...bummer!! i loveeeeeeeee what you have done and loving the way you used the labels! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Cheryl said...

Looks awesome!!!

Robin Thomas said...

Good for you! That looks so great. how much better it must be to cook and operate around your kitchen. love those labels!

Laura said...

Wow! It looks great! Want to come do mine? :)