Project Pantry

About a year ago in a fit of pregnancy nesting I was inspired by The House of Smith's pantry makeover. My pantry is considerably smaller and serves a multitude of functions (read: storage of mixer, ironing board, trash can, amongst other homeless objects). I was a pregnant lady with a mission. That was a year ago and I have nary touched it since.

My pantry today- a hot mess.

Worse still is that unorganized mess seems to beget more unorganized mess and duplicate purchases (who doesn't need three large containers of mayonnaise). As I've watched my cereal boxes move from the top shelf to teetering off the side of the middle shelf to their current location on the floor (and inching closer to the trash can by the day) I have had it in my mind to tackle the pantry but its amazing what gets prioritized in a house with a 4 month old. But today it happened- Tate was napping, the rest of my house is some semblance of clean, and most importantly the cable was out.

First things first- EVERYTHING came out (sorry for the blurry picture I didn't realize it till I uploaded it)

Everything got sorted.

Pantry got throughly cleaned.

Side note: Those of you who are not blessed with solid shelving in your pantry and instead have these ridiculous wire shelves I have found that thick plastic shelf and drawer liner helps the shelving act more like a solid surface and greatly reduces the amount of items that topple over (I even use it for my shoes in the bedroom closet).

And then everything got put back in (minus the water chestnuts those got donated to the food shelf because I hate water chestnuts and I have no clue how a can ended up in my pantry). I even have room for more food!

I like to decant most items into glass see through jars. My flour, sugar, pastas, etc. are in these Anchor Hocking Canisters from Target.

I also save just about every pretty glass jar that comes my way- jams, pasta sauces, salsa. Mostly I use left over Classico pasta sauce jars. Classico uses Atlas canning jars that have squared edges and are also the perfect size for bread crumbs, chocolate chips, etc.

This Coca-Cola crate I picked up at a garage sales ages ago- it had been on a garage shelf holding junk very important car cleaning supplies until it was called to serve this higher purpose (bonus it is reminiscent of it's past purpose). 

Now it's not nearly as esthetically pleasing as The House of Smith's but it is certainly a marked improvement! What do you think?

Linking up to:

Funky Junk Interiors
Be Different...Act Normal
Sisters of the Wild West
Serenity Now
The Organized Housewife