The Pantry Plan: Pantry Organization



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Welcome Organizing Junkies! This week I decided to try to tackle my pantry. We only moved in 3 months ago, so at first I didn't think this was an area that needed much work.  I had put everything away in (what I thought was) an organized fashion. But three months later I noticed that things were toppling, some shelves were underutilized, and the layout of the items stored wasn't making sense for our lives.  Instead of looking organized, clutter was creeping in.  So, I made a promise to re-evaluate the space every quarter to keep it looking its best. I still have big plans in here as far as storage goes. And I would like to have a cheery pantry like some that I have seen in the blogging world with some decorative pizazz! So I plan to keep my eye out for some economical but stylish storage solutions and I plan to do some painting in here to take things for stark white to clean, bright, and out of site!

Here's where we were before:

As you can see, there really is no rhyme or reason for what goes where, hence a shelf of alcohol, baby food and candles.   It goes to show you that some planning and forethought needs to go into an organized pantry.  My previous goal was just to get everything unpacked and put away! Now I need to put it in a spot that makes sense.

And so, I took things out shelf by shelf and decided what would work better. I knew I wanted to move the snack foods onto a higher shelf so that I could eliminate the sneaky snacking that one (or more) of my girlies would do.  They would hide away in the pantry and have easy access to cookies and chips placed on a low shelf right at their eye level. Very smart mommy they have. Another thing I knew I wanted to do was reduce the eye clutter of all the plastic bags that hold diapers and wipes and paper products.  If I had a bigger budget (ahem, A budget) for the project then I would invest in containers to store all of my dry goods so I could get everything looking more uniform. So now that I know what I want, I can save up for it, or keep an eye out for deals on containers that will work!

Here's what we ended up with:

I took out the large metal garbage can and  replaced it with a small plastic one that was in the laundry room. I cleared the baby food from the boxes on the bottom shelf and relocated it to a place it will be used. And I tried to put like items on the same shelf.

I moved the alcohol to a higher shelf. I moved the easy bake ovens upstairs (technically it's a toy, right?). I moved the snacks to a higher shelf. I dedicated a shelf to the baby's food, and I put cereal and bread on the same shelf--my potato bin is there too. That bottom shelf that you can't see has my crock pot, other kitchen tools,  and there's a little section for the dog with his treats and a bin for his food.

These are my favorite parts of the project:

 When I emptied the baby food, I used the empty boxes to store diapers, pull ups and wipes. I just covered the boxes with paper and took the diapers out of their package and put them into their new home. I also removed the plastic from the cups and plates. Doing those two little things makes this shelf look much tidier!

I tried to stack the baby food neatly but after I was 75% finished I experienced a cascading avalanche of little jars. Ouch, my toes! Besides realizing that we have way too many jars of baby food I learned that stacking them was not a good idea/ So I found these pink bins that are actually wash basins from the hospital (when Ava was in) and used them to corral the baby food. I also moved the snack "up high" so now the girls are forced to ask for something instead of just helping themselves to a secret binge fest!

There's still some work to be done here but I am happy with the finished result and I'm more motivated to put things in their place!  That's the point of organizing!  Thanks for visiting!

Hampered by Hampers no More!



Check out some other great organizing stories at orgjunkie.com

I used to have a basement laundry room. Yes, it was cold down there and I had to fend off the occasional centipede or other basement bug, but I was able to sprawl out. My laundry mountain was less of a mountain and more like rolling hills of laundry. I had piles here and piles there and plenty of room to maneuver.  When we moved I traded my basement laundry for a first floor laundry room right off of my kitchen. I can see the usefulness of a first floor laundry. The convenience of having the laundry room nearer to our living space allows me to get things done and still keep an eye or ear on what the girls are up to. The convenience is nice. But the conundrum that quickly presented itself could not be ignored--what do I do about my rolling hills of laundry?

It is no longer feasible to store dirty laundry in the laundry room. First of all, in a family of six, where five of the six are females, I'm sure you can imagine that the laundry situation can quickly get out of control. Between potty accidents, and multiple outfit changes (some necessary and some unnecessary) there is no where in the new laundry room to "stage" the laundry process. Secondly, I certainly don't need my guests viewing my dirty laundry--literally.

What to do?  First I thought about placing a dirty clothes hamper in each of the bedrooms, but the idea of digging through four hampers to gather up a like-colored load of laundry seemed like too much work for me. Then I began eyeing up a closet in the master bedroom to use as the dirty laundry station.  Thankfully, there is plenty of closet space in the master. This closet is in the main part of the room, so it is easily accessible and I couldn't think of what we would need it for since there is already a his and a hers closet right outside of the master bathroom. So, I began to pile up the laundry in there.

There are a couple of problems with this set up. Because baskets must be stacked on one another it is difficult to expect the little ones to sort clothes into the proper baskets. It was even proving difficult for my husband. And it was really irking me to find one of his gray work t-shirts in with the whites or a pair of jeans in with the towels.  Plus, this picture doesn't really illustrate the depth of the disaster when the laundry would begin to take over. If I skipped a day of laundry and or the girls each had more than their usual outfit changes (like the days when they play "dress-up" with their "real" clothes instead of "dress-up" clothes and I have no idea what has been worn for the majority of a day versus what has been worn for ten minutes) the laundry would begin to spill out of the hampers and into my bedroom and the closet door wouldn't close. I would begin to feel claustrophobic, sloppy, and irritable.

So I got the bright idea to change out my laundry baskets so that everything was of similar size and would fit into the closet space.  I added (actually Jim added at my request) an additional linen shelf and I created a map of sorts so that the family could help me sort the laundry when they came to toss it in the closet. Here's what we ended up with:

I'm excited about this project! The baskets are the perfect "load" size. So when I see that one is full I can easily carry it down to the laundry room and wash it.  We used up some of the dead space in the closet by putting the baskets on the shelf.  Also, now everyone can see what goes where and put it there (hopefully?).  There's enough room in the closet that we could add another shelf if we need the space for laundry related supplies or linens or anything else.

I plan to keep up my habit of doing one load of laundry per day from start to finish so that the closet doesn't become overrun. Here's the side by side:

 

I feel less stressed about my laundry situation.  Dare I say, I'm looking forward to doing laundry?

Almost There

Well...things are running smoothly at the house, except now I can't seem to find the time to update my blog...So my schedule and routine are something I still have to work on.

We had a crazy weekend! The girls and I spent most of it at my parents house where the above video was taken...which is just TOO cute for words so I had to share it!  As I've mentioned we are preparing our house for the market, again. And I have been nesting like crazy so things are slowly but surely becoming decluttered.  The Front Steps are replaced!

Our hardwood floors are finished!  They went from ugly, dirty, stained dark green carpeting to this--after a good sanding and stripping of old stain:

 To This--an even more thorough sanding:

 To this-- Our finished project!:

I am very thankful that I have a hardworking and handy husband who takes on these projects! It's nice to have someone around who isn't afraid to "do-it-himself".  We've saved a lot of money with all the work he put into both of these projects, on top of knowing who to ask to get the job done right. And we just have a few more painting projects to finish to be ready.  The painting and decluttering may push our original May 1st deadline back, but I'm feeling okay with it.

In other news, I've agreed to co-lead the Daisy Troop at my daughter's school. I figured, I'll have three others who will most likely make their way through Daisies, so why not get involved?  We'll see how I like it come next fall.

Happy Thursday, dear readers!  I hope to not leave this blog hanging so long between posts! Off to pick up the girls from school!

Goodbye, Pepto Pink!

Would you buy a house with a room that is painted in this fashion?

Yeah...we didn't think so either. But we did try to sell it like this almost three years ago, because it is just so darn cute!  Well, really because we had other paint projects to work on at the time and this room took my husband many painstaking hours to complete before our darling first born arrived.

Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones that prompted me to say, "Hey, let's go all out and paint the room Pepto Pink, with a darker stripe of Pepto Pink bordered by a stripe of Lemon Yellow around the middle of it.  We can't leave these baseboards and doors white can we?  Let's paint them too! But let's be smart about this, border it with the Dark Pepto, Inset with regular Pepto and bevels around the edges--uh Yellow?"  The room was transformed into a cause CURE for stomach upset.  No really, it went really well with the crib sheets and bumper pads we registered for.  Now when my oldest says that her favorite color is pink, maybe you could guess why. The hours spent watching the walls as an infant have impressed upon her the warmth, comfort, and security of the color pink.  We did this to her.

This isn't how the room is usually set up, by the way...Just wanted to clarify, we know better than to shove all the beds to the center of the room and we do provide mattresses for our kids to sleep on!  I just didn't get to take a picture of the room before my husband started to patch up the holes from the HUMONGOUS "Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus" poster that the girls insisted on hanging in the room...among other things.

So we are toning this room down a bit for our preparations to ready the house for the market. We have to paint the room a feminine color, I mean...three little girls DO still live there.  But we are opting for a nice light, breezy shade of lavender. The pain in the butt trim needs to be painted again...a neutral white.  Poor Hubby.  I'll post pics when he's finished.

So where are the kids sleeping now?

The playroom has been tranformed into wall to wall beds. The girls are loving their new "sleepover room."  But what a mess.

Can't wait until everything is put back together again.  And I'd like to officially apologize to my hardworking husband, because in my present condition I can't help with any of it!

Under Construction!!

Happy Monday! This weekend had the hubs painting like a mad man. For some reason I've only painted two rooms in our home (and now, every room has been painted once...one room has been painted twice!) Funny, how all of our paint projects have coordinated with pregnancies! I like to paint. I don't mind doing that painstaking trim work, but I can't really help now. The most I did was sit on the sill of the open window for a few minutes breathing in the fresh air and keeping my dear husband company.

We painted the playroom a sunny yellow color (It was an ugly army green color from the previous owners) and I bought some new accessories for the room. It is so bright and cheerful now! I still have some work to do -- hanging said accessories, but it is coming together.

I am itching to get this house on the market. I wanted to get it on sooner rather than later so we could take advantage of the tax credit, but it looks like we won't be ready to go until May. What will be, will be.

In other news, I decided to try my hand at growing some flowers from seed. If it works, instead of spending $100+ on flats of flowers at the end of this spring, it will have only cost me $20.50! I'm excited about that. I hope I get some beautiful blooms to plant. It's only been two days but I keep peeking at my little brown peat pellets expecting to see little green shoots poking through...it feels like Christmas Morning...only warmer!

Finally, my blog is under construction. I found a cute background...but it still needs some tweaking, time and lack of html knowledge (and other computer thing a ma jiggies) are forcing me to leave it as is for now. Which, in my humble opinion, is better than it was. Everything is a process.

I didn't mind the rain this morning. On the way to take Jordan to school, everything smelled so fresh. And the birds are still singing. So I'm happy.

We are out of toilet paper, that means a trip to the grocery store is inevitable today...so what am I doing blogging!?! :) Off to make a list. Have a wonderful week every one!