Pantry Update

I thought I'd share a bit of an update in regards to my pantry.

Here's what my lunch snack section looks like after purchasing a few bins at the dollar store:

*sigh* My husband and I both love it!

Kitchen Reorg: Baking Cupboard

• For my pantry reorg post (lots of kitchen shots), see here. 
• For my serving dishes and plasticware post, see here.

Since baking is something I do a lot of (I consider pancakes and waffles baking, but I also love my desserts!), I wanted to use some of my prime kitchen real estate to make my baking supplies more accessible to me.

I had my baking supplies divided between here in the kitchen...

Before:

...and here in the pantry (top shelf as well as bottom shelf)...

Before:

I found that I was going between both places rather too frequently. The big flour bins are fine where they are (you can see my pantry after pictures here) but the rest? Rather inaccessible.

So I took over the cupboard next door to my baking cupboard, which is above where my baking cups/spoons and Kitchen Aid mixer are...

Cupboard before:

...and created a baking station!

I can't wait to get a few more Modular Mates (Tupperware)! They're so marvelous for decanting and organizing baking supplies, not to mention keeping them fresher longer!

Kitchen Reorg: Serving Dishes and Plasticware

• For my pantry reorg post (lots of kitchen pics!), please go here.

I had two lovely cupboards of wasted space. Before I took pictures, I decided to clear out my rarely used "special occasion" dishes and donate them to a friend so they don't look as bad as they used to... Actually, maybe they're worse! As soon as space opened up, everything spread! ;)

Here is cabinet 1:

Before:

And cabinet 2:

Before:

I was able to combine my frequent use items and serving dishes into one cabinet (the first one).

After:

There is plenty of space for another shelf above, though I don't have one and don't really need one at this point of time.

I did add a label for the colander since my husband never seems to know where it goes... ;)

I might have started going label-happy at that point (love it!) but I ran out of label tape!  ;)

The rest of my serving dishes are up in my pantry.

I moved the plastic bowls from my cupboards to a drawer that had previously been full of infrequently used plastic.

Here is a before of my plasticware drawer:

After:

 The white bins were purchased at a local dollar store.

I cleared out my lunch dishes and small containers and put them where my dishcloths used to be:

Before:

After:

Another dollar store bin here. This area is much more accessible to where we make lunches.

(To see how I've organized my kiddy plasticware, see here.)

All of my produce and freezer plasticware is now being stored in the laundry room (not yet completed):

Before:

After:

I did remove my vacuum for a better After pic. ;)  More handy dollar store bins. Could probably still use a little work... I am storing my reusable grocery bags and extra lunch bags in that bottom bag.

(You can find out where my table linens went here.)

Thanks for visiting!

Kitchen Reorg: The Pantry

I am participating in a kitchen organization course at Simplify 101. At this point in time, I have revamped my entire kitchen, getting rid of items I don't want or need and reorganizing areas that weren't really working for me.

The instructor, Aby, started by reorganizing her pantry and then moving onto the kitchen... I decided that I needed to do both at once! Here it is mid-process:

Yikes!

The cupboards and pantry look marvelous at this point, of course...

 

I have to stress at this point that I have not yet bought any organizing containers. Everything in use was on hand... I'm in desperate need of certain items (I will probably point these out as I go) but in the meantime I'm using boxes, etc. I will do a final post once I am able to get what I'd like. A good time to re-evaluate my maintenance... ;) I find that I'm still tweaking my organization here and there so the after pics may not be the most current reflection of how things are.

The thing that bothered me the most was the pantry. I am blessed to have a marvelous pantry right between my kitchen and laundry room (which also offers me storage options).

 This area--the floor--was the part that was driving me the most nuts...

Before:

The recycling bins were in the middle of the floor. Reusable shopping bags were constantly being kicked around because they had no real place anywhere. The area under the shelves was being taken up by items I rarely used...

Here is how it looks now:

After:

I moved my roasting pan to the laundry room along with the large stockpot. The metal bowls were donated. The cake dome/punch bowl moved to the top of the pantry. The reusable shopping bags were store in one bag and relocated to the laundry room (a project I will post soon). I also relocated the bread machine only to bring it back--it's in the right corner that didn't photograph. I intend to use it more and seeing it frequently will help to remind me. The clear space there is for a large step stool that I have yet to purchase.

You can also see that I moved all my breakfast items--cold and hot cereal, as well as instant oatmeal--to the bottom shelf. More accessible to my little ones who I encourage to get their own breakfast unless I am making pancakes or waffles. They still need an adult to access yogurt for them, of course.

Here is another before shot of this shelving area:

My organized neighbor and friend is the one who started stacking cans in my pantry. Before that, I just kept them in their messy flats or spread them around!

You can see that their was no rhyme or reason to my food storage...

Here is what this area looks like now:

After:

Above the breakfast items (discussed above) are the kids' snacks. Above those, the canned goods. The lunch items and "adult" snacks are at the top there. The very top shelf, pictured below, has large serving platters.

After:

The right side of the pantry was even worse than the left!

Before:

Baking supplies that (I thought) weren't frequently accessed were stored high up in this corner. I seemed to be rummaging through them on a regular basis. Below that was my collection of large spice containers and infrequently used spics, as well as random storage items, like bulk oil. Below that, a messy conglomerate of pastas and my hot cereals. The bottom shelf, which doesn't change much, has my large flour bins (can't recommend these enough!).

Before:

The angular wall within my pantry has this lovely rack... which is overflowing with a jumble of items.

Here is the right side of my pantry now:

After:

The top shelf holds bulk items: Ziploc bags, oils, pasta sauce, un-decanted/unopened pasta, aluminum foil, as well as cake/cookie decorating supplies. The next shelf down holds miscellaneous items that don't really fit my categories: Mr. Noodles (the kids get this every Friday for lunch), my tortilla press and Masa Harina, etc. The next shelf down is my pasta and potatoes. My quick oats are here but I'm moving them to my baking cupboard (more on that in my next post!).

The wall rack is fro smaller storage items. I've decanted some of my smaller pastas into large canning jars (the instructor's idea). I really have more space than I currently use, but I'm sure a few months will take care of that...  ;)

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my new pantry! I'll be back to show you my new kitchen!

I've linked this to:

Weekly Menu Planner

Jen just shared some awesome reader kitchen ideas!

One of the photos was a DIY menu planner. Seeing it reminded me that I had not only made my weekly menu planner, I actually use it! At least, sometimes I use it...

My pantry is one of the things on my Organizing To Do List, but it's not too bad.  ;)

Okay, so my complete ignorance of "handy" terminology is going to embarrass me here...

This menu planner is made from a board of some sort that I covered with chalkboard paint. The second coat was applied about half an hour later. Once completely dry, I applied the precut vinyl words with transfer tape. (You could use a personal electronic cutting device, such as a Cricut or Silhouette, to make these but I didn't.) I rubbed the entire board with chalk (it was so sad to  cover that perfect blackness!) and then wiped it off with a paper towel (chalkbrush would be ideal, but I don't have one).

That's it! Ready to go!

I definitely can't take credit for this idea since I made it at a church function!  ;)

Now if only I would consistently plan my menus

I linked this to the link party at A Bowl Full of Lemons One Project at a Time here.