Day 2 of 91-Day De-cluttering: Pantry

Confession: I like the little shreds of shredded wheat at the bottom of the bag.

The pantry. Wow. I started at 9:40 with a goal to be done by noon. At 12:30 I quit looking at the clock as well as setting goals. To be fair, I had a fuzzy stuck in my contact that I had to get out. If I hadn't had that setback I'm sure I would have finished by noon.

I always wear socks and shoes (laced up and tied) when I clean; wearing shoes not only adds an extra bounce to my step, but also protects my feet from the stuff I drop. I have three pair of Nike running socks, each with different colors of embroidered Nike swooshes and designated foot symbols "R" and "L." I couldn't find a matching pair, so I picked out one pink and one blue--which is fine, but both were embroidered with a capital R which means Thou Shalt Wear Me On Your Right Foot. Feeling like my life might be in danger, I sifted through my sock drawer one more time to no avail. This is a scary situation because the packaging doesn't come with any warning of what might happen if you disobey your sock. Luckily, once my shoes were on, other than a little bit of mental discomfort I couldn't tell the difference.

I decided I wanted to completely empty my pantry. I always say I wish I could empty my whole house and only put back in it what we really need, so my pantry was the mini version of my wish. I didn't trash anything immediately because I wanted pictures of my piles to make my before and after pictures better.

Before

Before

Before--up high

Before--down low

2 shelves into the process...

Blue basket for "donate/sell"
White basket for "relocate"

My kitchen after the pantry is empty

Some of the stuff I trashed...

I'm pretty sure I brought these with me from Rexburg, Idaho, NINE YEARS AGO.

Just in case I ran out of my other 50 packets of hot chocolate mix I had. (I threw them all away!)

To quote Scott: you never know when you're gonna need sprinkles!

What if my neighbor calls and needs 1/2 tsp. of red crystals???

Everyone knows I love hot dogs. It's only fitting that I have this petrified relic.

11 bags of cereal.
The ones on the left are for those who like to strain their cereal through a colander in order to get one spoon full.

Next, I put everything into the pantry that I was keeping so I could trash, donate, or relocate the rest.

Keep

Trash

Organized trash

donate/sell

relocate


And this was my final product
 

I took the time to post all the items I want to sell on a Facebook garage sale page, and I relocated all the things that didn't belong in the pantry or on the table. It was quite the process, but it's all done! Ty came home and said: "Woah, MOM! The floor is empty so we can set mouse traps!" Calli said: "Wow. That's amazing. You know it's not gonna last?" Ha! I think it's time to add "organize pantry" to their weekly chores. And for the record, it was really nice to clean out the pantry without the purpose of cleaning up after mice!