Pantry revamp

So there is a project still in the works, that freed up a nice bit of room in my “pantry”. It’s a closet on the other side of the house, and half of my food is in the back storage room. So, before I organized with my new project, this is what that back room looked like. Pretty scary, huh? You could hardly get back to the food shelves, much less find what you were looking for!

After I organized, de-junked, and did a recycling run, here’s what I’m left with!! Oh, it just makes me breath a huge sigh of relief. It looks SO much better!!

So are you curious what the project was?Well, that’s coming soon, but here’s the “pantry” closet that I have all my stuff in, except for main baking staples.

That’s the after, minus a few more organizational/de-junking issues. That top shelf needs the most love and attention. It has all the sweets and treats. I store them on the top because calories are afraid of heights so they jump out when they’re up high! Here’s what’s hanging on the door:

That holds all the little yeast, dry mix, and spice packages that get lost and overwhelmed in the chaos. I still have a lot of room to put stuff in, so it’s still a work in progress.

Here’s my top shelf of my top secret project, all of my big spices, sauces, vinegars and such for cooking with, that box holds random bags, the checkbook box holds the bag closer ties from Ikea:

Over next is the pastas that are open, and then the more unique cooking items, like couscous, quinoa, rye flour, and lentils. I keep the bread there too.

Down on the bottom shelf is my main baking staples.

Don’t mind the blurriness, but the other half of the shelf holds the honey, corn meal (for homemade pizza, yum!) wheat germ, and other odds and ends, including the onions and potatoes.

Here’s the 2 shelves together:

And the other half.

Did you notice all the Tupperware containers have labels? I cut out a bunch of chalkboard vinyl with my mom’s Cricut, and put them on there, then used a chalk marker to write what’s in everything. Then I can change them as needed, or as I get different things to try from bulk foods! Before, I had no clue what half the stuff was, so now I’ll actually use it! It was so nice to bake banana bread and marinate a steak and have everything I needed in the kitchen!!! Woohoo! Hopefully I’ll have that project finished soon to show you! Have a happy Monday! I don’t know how good ours will be, my 1 year old has bitten my 4 year old twice, and pulled out a chunk of her hair already! Phew! (BTW any tips are appreciated to keep them from biting each other!)