All Because I Wanted to Organize My Pantry......

I came across the cutest, most organized pantry ever on the blog, "House of Smith's".  You can click here to see just how cute it is.  I looked at my very disorganized, sad pantry shoved full of various packages of who-knows-what and was determined to change mine. 

Because I wanted my pantry organized, I first had to do some serious shuffling around of dishes/small appliances, etc.  That meant that I basically had to remove EVERYTHING from all of my cupboards.  Friday night my kitchen was a little scary.  After I pulled everything out, I realized I didn't have the tools I needed to put it back together in a way that would actually be more organized.  Thus, Kennedy and I set out to fin the perfect tools.  The girl with the cutest pantry found most of her cute wire baskets at the D.I. so that was our first stop.  I found NOTHING.  We headed to Lowe's where I found cute brown baskets with a small chalkboard label.  They were not on sale, to be honest, I don't really remember how much they were, I just remember thinking that I needed them so I was buying them.   Then we headed to the Dollar Store....I again, found NOTHING.  We went to TJ Maxx and I found 2 airtight containers with the fancy button on top.....I needed a bunch of them, but was sort of glad that there were only two as they were a bit more than I wanted to spend....anyway, I bought them.   We then headed to Bed, Bath and Beyond and again found NOTHING.  I figured I had at least a few of the things I was looking for, so I headed home, eager to organized my pantry.  Oh ya, I've pulled a muscle while trying to train for my half marathon (which is coming right up......September 4th) so I'm supposed to be resting my leg.  Oops!!   I'm not really sure how to rest your leg when you have to take care of three small children, run a household and really want to organize your pantry!!

Saturday morning I woke up already not feeling too good, but I was determined to organize my pantry.  I proceeded to unload the entire pantry and I could not believe how much crap stuff was in there!!!  Stale chips that had been pushed to the very back, packages of candy that I had thrown to the very top shelf so my kids wouldn't find it, among other things.  That's when I realized that I did not have what I needed to successfully organize my pantry (and the girl with the cute pantry got quite a few containers at IKEA).   I sarcastically said, "Well, I guess I'm going to have to take a trip to IKEA to finish this pantry.  Layne, who is always up for an adventure said, "Let's go."  So, first we called my little brother so he and Layne could hook up for a motorcycle ride while we were there and we rounded up the kids and started driving.  I thought to myself, "This will be good because I really need to rest my leg and I'll just be sitting in a car most of the day."  Well, turns out that just sitting wasn't so good for my leg and we were in a truck that took some stretching to get in and out of.  Obviously my leg wasn't feeling better by Saturday night.

We got to IKEA around 1:30 on a Saturday.  That was dumb.  The place was completely packed.  I was so proud of myself for knowing exactly what I wanted to get and knew it wouldn't cost too much.  Layne fed the kids in the truck and then met me inside.  Then, he was annoyed when he saw how little I bought.  He couldn't believe I only spent $35 (which for me is quite the splurge on organizing stuff).  I don't know what he thought I was going to buy, but luckily we were headed to my brother's house for him to go motorcycling, so he got over it. 

While he and my brother rode motorcycles, the kids got to play with their cousins and I got to visit with my wonderful sister-in-law.  It was nice, however, by the end of the night, my head was pounding, my leg was bothering me and we got home at 1:00 in the morning. 

I woke up Sunday morning and my headache was gone and my leg was feeling better, so I got ready for church and got the kids ready and we headed out the door.  By the time we got to church, I felt horribly sick to my stomach.  I decided to only stay  long enough to take the sacrament, but turns out I ended up running for the door before that even happened.   I was bummed to have missed church because they called me into the Young Women (Mia Maid advisor) and I was looking forward to going for the first time.   Oh well.  I slept for 3 hours Sunday afternoon and felt good enough to try and put some of my pantry together (at this point it was sort of impossible to cook anything as I couldn't see my floor or countertop). 

Monday morning I woke up feeling all the way well.  HOORAY!!  I worked on the pantry for about an hour before we headed to swimming lessons.  When we got home, we had lunch and I worked on the pantry some more.   It was only after climbing to the shelves at the pantry that I realized this whole "pantry-organizing" project was probably not my best idea for resting my leg!!! Duh!!  So, here I sit in complete pain, I've taken IBuprofen, iced my leg (that seemed to make it worse), taken a hot bath and it is still hurting.   I am starting to get a bit frustrated, HOWEVER, my pantry is clean and organized!!! It is not as cute as the girl who gave me the idea, but it's so much better than it was.  I wish I had photos of before because it was scary.

A few friends asked me to post photos and my husband said to be sure to take pictures so we can put it back how it's supposed to go next week when it's a huge mess.......this is true, it takes no time at all for complete organization to go awry. 

So, here are the pictures of my new pantry:

Those handy wire shelves on the door of the pantry were already here when we moved in.

I found the wire basket to hold my spices at IKEA...it was actually some sort of bathroom caddy.  I hope it works, but anything has to be better than removing an entire cupboard of spices to find the one you want, right. 

The tall containers with noodles and the little short one with marshmallows are from my trip to IKEA.  I bought 6 total and used them all.  One tip I thought was good from the other blog was to remove anything out of your pantry that you don't use weekly.  I tried to do that, but I cheated on the very top shelf....I have cookie cutters, some Christmas platters, etc. that I didn't know where else to put.    I loved that she had two large wooden crates in the bottom of her pantry where she stuck big things that she wasn't sure where to put them, like a huge jug of vinegar.  You'll notice I left space on the floor.....I'm looking for one of those wooden crates.  Then I get rid of some of the stuff that is behind other containers.  It feels like a lot of wasted space, but I kept telling myself, loading a pantry is NOT like loading a car trunk where you try to completely fill up every inch of space.  You have to be able to find it and get to it without unloading the whole pantry, so there has to be some empty space.    I hope it stays somewhat organized for awhile.  It feels good to have it cleaned out and put together neatly......and it got me a trip to see my brother and his family.

P.S.  Just for the record, I let Kennedy write on my chalkboard labels........I don't know if you can see them, they look great for a 6-year-old, but you might expect more from a former teacher.