Thursday 16 August 2012

Simplicity Challenge #3 - Kitchen - the pantry

Oh, the pantry, the pantry.  There is no excuse for this to get overloaded, because we have a huge food storage in the basement where all unopened food is stored.  This is really only for things currently on the go.  One of the hard things I find about organizing a pantry is that it's hard to remember how long things have been there.  Sure, if I was on the ball, I'd pull out my black Sharpe and date everything as I opened it.  But that has never happened yet, so I probably shouldn't count on that happening anytime soon.

Luckily, because I was sick for 9 months, it was really easy for me to remember what I've purchased in the last 2 months since Juliette was born.  All the rest is more than nine months old.

So, here are the before and after pics:



My pantry also naturally extends up to the shelves above, so I figured I'd give them a clean out at the same time.  Other than the extra pantry shelf (bottom left), the rest is mostly storage.  I finally parted ways with all but three mugs I had been holding onto, since we never use them anyway.  The Crockpot I kept until I can get a new one that works better.  The George Foreman grill and the sandwich maker haven't been touched in years, so out they went.  Here is the before and after:



You probably can't tell, but I also put the last two cupboard doors back on.  When we moved in five years ago, I took all the doors off to paint them, but then decided I liked the open look (very French).  James was never a fan, since we have to pack them so tightly due to a lack of cupboards (we have only 3 sets in the whole kitchen).  Gradually I put them back on, the the two on the right were the last to go up.

Voila!  I'm definitely getting closer.  And I'm going to work extra hard this weekend and next week in preparation for a garage sale.  No, I'm not running one myself, just tagging onto a friend's.  I've never liked the idea of sitting all morning on my lawn with all my stuff displayed for others to pick over, but if I do it with a friend it might not be so bad.  :-)

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