Who knew I could get groceries delivered, and getting fresh vegetables was the least of my worries. Since then I have occasionally dipped into these two blue bins, and it was a PITA to lift them and move them around. During Christmastime I put everything "junky" into that room, so it really needed a good cleaning. At the same time I have been getting very tired of trying to store and retrieve things from the lazy susan cabinet in the kitchen. AND storing the bowls that grace my table each month was getting problematic.
I decided the best solution was to rearrange the closet into a real live pantry. Of course that meant emptying the closet, clearing the lazy susan and reorganizing one step at a time. Well, you know how it goes - when it's important enough, nothing will stand in your way. It was nice to use my cart to move the canned goods from the lazy susan.
After a couple of hours the new pantry looked like this, and it was good, but I know the upper kitchen cabinets were overfull, and since I've already fallen off the footstool once while trying to get to stuff up there I knew I needed to clear those out too. So I went to the hardware store and bought four 48" shelves. That gave me an additional fifteen inches of storage per shelf.
So this is what it looks like, and I am thrilled. Yes, I know I have a lot of stuff, but this way I can see it and I know exactly what I have. My son calls my kitchen "the kitchen of endless possibilities," because I can make pretty much anything I want.
The really good thing though, is I know what I have and I can safely reach all of it. I "almost fell" on New Year's Day as I was cleaning up and putting away the Holiday decorations, and I may have cracked a rib. (Remember I have arthritis in all my joints and bad osteoporosis.) So this is also a safer option for me.
Next up is to clear out and sort the stuff that was in the other side of that closet. It's going to be a process, but it's nice to get a big part of it done.
Oh, THIS is fabulous, you'll love it. You Can't Wrap a Baby in an iPad.
13 comments:
you did a great job.....much more organised......
Looks great. My cupboards are full, and it is time to start using up some of the items too.
Thanks for the link! I’m sure I’ll be using the “You can’t wrap a baby in an I-Pad” line……it’s perfect! Hoping your rib heals and fells better quickly!
I know we all try not to waste food, so let me share something I found out last year when I moved from SD to MI. Some food pantries can take expired food. I can't remember if it was the town's food bank or if it was one of the town's donation centers for clothing, etc. Anyway, it's worth it to do a little detective work.
Your pantry looks wonderful! Your hard work will pay off from now on!
You are SO going to love that new pantry arrangement - you'll find it also helps you NOT overbuy when you can't remember if you have something on hand or not (or when it is on sale and you are tempted to buy six when you only have shelf space for three). Good for you for making your available space work better (and more safely) for YOU!
(glad you loved that linked article by Mary Fons - so glad Audrey shared it in her post the other day - it's one I had never seen and it is SO SPOT ON!)
I don't pay attention to dates on staples. It's largely a marketing ploy.
https://foodprint.org/blog/should-you-follow-expiration-dates-and-sell-by-dates/
What a great start to the new year, except that rib thing. Heal quickly and enjoy having more of life on your terms/height, from one never in the photo back row person to another.
Good way not to overstock what you use when you can see what you have. I routinely clear my shelves of canned soup each spring and off they go to the food pantry.
Anything I donate gets date checked before it is donated. I know things get tossed otherwise.
Excellent upgrade! Eye level storage is highly underrated. Hope the ribs heal quickly!
Inspiration to get working on my organizing again! I never did care for those corner lazy susans - far too easy to loose things on them! And then when things fall off in that far back corner - grrrrr! I hope one thing on the decluttering will be that footstool you've fallen off of and replace it with something a bit safer to use!
This is great organization! I am glad you are able to place things where you can easily reach them. I need to organize my food too. I have been buying extras too just in case.
I definitely understand the "I want to be prepared" mind set. I too have expired things, like Tiger Tape, that now tests long before I am ready for it to do so. Teaching a class today i found that out as I was showing them some possibilities of what they could use to get smaller stitches. We began hand piecing a quilt block. One student's piecing stitches were big enough to be basting stitches.
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