Deep Cleaning

I know, I know - another picture of a cat snuggled up. It's just that with the cold weather, that's all this cat does anymore!

Not that I'm jealous or anything. I mean, who would want to lay around all warm and snuggled up sleeping the day away.

Right, me neither. (I really would)

So, in an effort to keep busy and not go cuddle with Twister and sleep all day, I decided to tackle my pantry. I had let it go for way too long. I didn't really know what I had in there, because it had become so cluttered.

My pantry is an "L" shape, and it's a pretty good size. It's one of the reasons we liked this floor plan so much. I remember thinking that with all of that storage space we'd never fill it up. HA! It didn't take me long at all.

So, for the benefit of my readers, I'm going to show you my mess. I'm just keeping it real here people. This is the right side of the pantry - and the before picture.



Here's a more close up look at the clutter - this is the bottom half of the right side. The big bucket is for cat food. I didn't want you to think I was keeping chips or anything like that in there.



Did you see the hot-air pop-corn popper? Yeah, that hasn't gotten much use. You know how I know? It was covered in dust.

Here's the top half of the left side. The fabric you see on the left are my aprons. There's a hook on that wall that I hang them on.




And here's the bottom half of the left side. Like I said, things had gotten out of control. It was getting difficult to actually walk into my walk-in pantry.

The first thing I did was to take everything out. And I mean everything.

I had to put food on all of my counters,

and my kitchen island,

and I even buried my kitchen table in food.

Hey - I'm not proud of it, ok?

I will also admit I found some food that expired a while back, as in 2005. It was my own little archaeological dig. Going down memory lane with each expired food item. "Oh yeah, I remember why I bought that! I was gonna make this . . ."

Since everything was so cluttered, I would buy extras of things when I went to the store. I seriously have 4 LARGE bags of chocolate chips. Just in case I have a chocolate chip cookie emergency.

Don't laugh. It could happen.

Once everything was cleaned out of the pantry, I cleaned off each of the shelves and swept the floor. I had to make sure that it passed inspection.



Then I sorted and grouped the food by category. I now have a baking shelf, with flour, sugars, and multiple bags of chocolate chips in one area.

Because you never know when a chocolate chip cookie emergency could hit.

Also, I was able to move the cereal up a couple of shelves. When we first moved into this house, Bailey wasn't tall enough to reach the higher shelves. That's not an issue anymore.

Here's the finished right side.


And here's the finished left side.

I realize it is a subtle difference to the untrained eye, so I shall show you again.

Before:


After:

I love the feeling you get when you are organized. I hope this lasts for a while.

And see that bottle of coconut rum in the top left, I treated myself to a rum and Coke after all of that hard work.

So, if you are having to stay indoors because of the cold - make good use of your time and take a nap! Just kidding.