A Place for Everything...

Fasten your seatbelts and hold onto your hats...I got organized over the weekend. I have been excited to post about this, but wanted to wait until after my parents' visit today. I wanted my mom to be completely shocked and well, she was. I can be super organized and compulsive about some things, but there are some things that I am just flat out not organized about. And my pantry was one of them.
I organized my pantry from top to bottom and I love it. I know it is a little odd to post about it. But, it's more for me and my compulsiveness to have a blog that will be fun for me and David to look back on in twenty years (I hope blogs are still around!) and say..."remember that one weekend in 2008 that we were uber- organized?"
I was completely inspired by Tommie and her pantry post. She has been posting her organizing tips and I have really been enjoying it!
So, here it is, my masterpiece....

My favorite new area is the snack food shelf, pictured below. I love that the containers are clear, it makes it easy for all of us to just glance and know what is there. Benjamin also loves this shelf-- therefore, it is now two shelves higher up than the old "snack shelf". I figured that would have been an animal cracker mess just waiting to happen.


This is our "drink central" pictured below. I was excited that these bins were clear, too. All of the containers were from DollarTree! I love that store. Almost as much as Target. Almost.


I moved my wraps and such to a basket on the floor. This is so much better than the shelf-- they were a mess constantly. I also keep the onions/potatoes and baby food in baskets down there.


I just love that my cookbooks were now able to fit into the pantry. This is so much easier than the small cabinet they were crammed in, "tandem style." Now that cabinet is full of old butter tubs and plastic containers just for Jonathan to play with while I cook! He loves it, too!


I used the clear basket containers on the rest of the shelves, grouping things like oils, vinegars, pastas, etc. This has been a breath of fresh air to our kitchen! It is also helpful when I make my grocery list because it is just a quick glance to see what staples we need.

The funniest part of this was the actual shopping trip to Dollar Tree where I mounded two buggies with containers and baskets-- hilarious to navigate, especially in the parking lot. One lady said to me, "How nice, you must be a great teacher to supply your students with all of this." She looked rather disappointed when I explained that these were indeed for kids-- mine! To keep their mom's pantry organized. I felt a little selfish after that encounter. Oh well. It was still fun.