Sunday, July 15, 2012

Pantry Organization

Hello everyone.  The summer is just flying by right?  As the old saying goes, Time flies when your having fun!  My kids and I spent last week in my hometown of Brenham Tx with my mother and grandma.  We went here and there and everywhere.  It was lots of fun.  While I was there I decided to clean up and re-organize their kitchen pantry some.  Here is a look at the before:




 I had actually organized this space a few years ago and it has not been gone through since.  I took everything out first and wiped down the shelves with soap and water. 

I went through all the packaged food and canned foods to throw out anything that was expired.  I also emptied jars that had little in them and those were cleaned to place new food items inside.

I put everything that I could into groups.
1. Canned goods
2. Pastas
3.  Snacks
4.  Containers
5.  Plastic cups, utensils and plates
6.  Baking items
7.  Packaged items
8. Boxed foods

Here is the re-organized kitchen pantry:


What a difference.  This is a great space and works really well when items are visibly seen.  It does have some deep corners and things can get lost or placed behind something else.  I used larger items in the corners where I could to prevent this from happening.  I still would like to work on the floor area and those green plastic stacked shelves in the middle that sit on the floor.  It just doesn't work for the space but it will have to wait for my next long visit.



In this picture you can see the canned goods stacked and easy to see and access.  The next shelf down are condiments and sandwich spreads, crackers and a jar of snacks.  The last shelf down are bags of beans and pastas, boxes of dry mixes and two baskets with packaged items.  The pastas and beans made it into the containers that were cleaned after I had already taken pictures and then my camera went dead.  But it looks nice I promise!



The top shelf here is the plastic goods.  Next shelf boxed items and some baking goods.  Jar on the end holds coffee.  The next shelf are breakfast cereals, and more baking goods with some in jars.  The last shelf holds a basket with misc. items and a big box of my grandma's medicines.  I plan on getting something smaller and more friendly to look at soon. The big box is a BIG EYE SORE!



I wanted to point out something in this picture specifically.  The little basket with apples on it holds taco seasoning.  When I was cleaning out the pantry, I found like 7 or 8 packages of the stuff.  I found several packages of coconut  and lots of other items that had more than one duplicate.  My grandma, who is an amazing cook, tends to forget what she has bought because she cannot see what she already has in the pantry and just buys more of the same.  Do this over and over and you get lots of opened items all over the place.  Not good when it comes to storing food.  I told her what I had done in the pantry(she looked at it later on her own because I was a little nervous that I had moved her stuff) and that the way I organized it would help her to see what she had and if she needed to purchase more or not.  I told my mom I was going to go through their kitchen pantry at least twice a year just to make sure this was working for them and to make revisions if does not.

Here is another look at the before and after side by side:

                                 BEFORE                                                                          AFTER

I just wanted to say that I did not spend a dime on this re-organization.  It just needed to be cleaned out and updated.  Being organized does not always have to cost money.  Just some of your time and hard work will do.


I hope everyone has a great week.  Take a little time to organize if you can.  It will make your week that much better!


I linked up with:

Two yellow birds decor
The NY Melrose Family
Six Sisters Stuff
Chreerios and Lattes
A bowl full of lemons
Delightful Order
A Thoughtful Place
My Turn(for us)





Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Month Gone By




Hope everyone is having a great summer! I have been toting kids around and just being a big time summer bum! It was a long school year and this momma was feeling blah! We have been keeping the kids busy with swimming, parks and lots of friend time! The big guy is doing lots of camps this year and was just given his first musical instrument a guitar!!! He will start taking lessons next week. We are super excited! I mean, he is super excited! Anyway, just wanted to say hello out there and I am still here! Just in summer mode! Here are a few pics of the kids having some fun! 






Tuesday, June 5, 2012

New Entertainment Center

Hello out there!  Hope everyone is having a great week!  Last week my husband and I celebrated 7 years of marriage.  My great man knowing me like he does bought me a new entertainment center for a gift!  Plus a beautiful card and flowers!  Here is a picture of the old entertainment center:

We got this one from Crate and Barrel maybe 4 or 5 years ago.  It has two shelves on either side and glass doors that slide.  My daughter has been climbing on this since she could walk and always playing with the glass doors.  The big spot behind the TV is where our old TV got ripped off the wall when our house was broken into(not ready to post about that event yet).  As you will see in the next pictures that looks alot better now.  So here is the new entertainment center and new organizing:


Yes!  Love it!  We got this one from IKEA.  It is an Expedit shelving unit turned onto its side.  I love all the openness of it.  The file boxes on the bottom left I got at the Container Store and I have had for years.  I just found a new use for them.  I am storing school mementos inside now.  You cannot really see it in the picture but in the bottom right we have a large case full of photo and music cds.  I have a new home for my scrapbooks too.  They fit perfectly on the shelf.  We also painted this wall a lighter color and it really shows well in the picture.
 These photo books I got from Target on clearance for less than $4.00 a piece.  The boxes are from IKEA.
Well, there we have it!  I am really enjoying our new entertainment center.  The best part, my daughter cannot climb on this one!  Well, not easily at least!  Have a great week and take some time to organize.

I linked up with:
The Gunny Sack
The NY Melrose Family
Fireflies and Jellybeans
The Taylor House