It was way past time. The pantry had once again begun to overflow it's boundaries! Every time I walked into the pantry(52 times a day), I would cringe at the horrible state it was in.
It is a very large space. It is not a normal food only pantry. It is a utilitarian space. It is food pantry, home office, art supply, butler's pantry and a myriad of other uses--all rolled up in one space.
Because it is part of the kitchen, it is so easy to be lazy and shove something in a basket instead of taking it to a bedroom or putting it in the correct place. Everyone is guilty but I am probably the biggest culprit. That one left over Christmas ornament? Shove it in the basket instead if taking 15 seconds and walk downstairs! After a year or so, all if that starts to add up!
In the thirteen years we have lived in this house I have been trying to learn how to best use this space. It has evolved and changed. A few years ago I started using the baskets for the food items. I labeled the boxes hoping that would guide us all in properly placing items. It actually does work quite well--till it doesn't. That is the point we were at. The open baskets for food work well. Rarely do non food items get put into them. Occasionally the canned goods get put with pasta. I have come to realize that we do not handle open baskets for the other items. Things like crayons, pencils, chalk, envelopes. The drawers I put into place a couple years ago have actually worked great . Each family member has a drawer. When those items that need to be saved for long term are put in there. It seems that opening a drawer makes everyone think before they put something in it. So I decided to remove all the open baskets and put in more drawers.! Only time will tell if less open space creates less mess!!
It is a very large space. It is not a normal food only pantry. It is a utilitarian space. It is food pantry, home office, art supply, butler's pantry and a myriad of other uses--all rolled up in one space.
Because it is part of the kitchen, it is so easy to be lazy and shove something in a basket instead of taking it to a bedroom or putting it in the correct place. Everyone is guilty but I am probably the biggest culprit. That one left over Christmas ornament? Shove it in the basket instead if taking 15 seconds and walk downstairs! After a year or so, all if that starts to add up!
In the thirteen years we have lived in this house I have been trying to learn how to best use this space. It has evolved and changed. A few years ago I started using the baskets for the food items. I labeled the boxes hoping that would guide us all in properly placing items. It actually does work quite well--till it doesn't. That is the point we were at. The open baskets for food work well. Rarely do non food items get put into them. Occasionally the canned goods get put with pasta. I have come to realize that we do not handle open baskets for the other items. Things like crayons, pencils, chalk, envelopes. The drawers I put into place a couple years ago have actually worked great . Each family member has a drawer. When those items that need to be saved for long term are put in there. It seems that opening a drawer makes everyone think before they put something in it. So I decided to remove all the open baskets and put in more drawers.! Only time will tell if less open space creates less mess!!
Every single basket was pulled out, emptied and washed. All dates of food was checked. Expired stuff tossed. (Jello had a date but is actually good indefinitely! I looked that up!)
In the process, I dumped at least four garbage bags of GARBAGE! Old papers, bits and pieces. Old tablets, junky this and that's!
The rule for cleaning the pantry is that I can only pull out at one time as much as my large dining table can hold. I have to completely deal with every item before I can move on! This method served me well this week. I was doing the purge along with Dr. appointments for my Mom, massive amounts of laundry, tennis and a ton of football. Oh yes, and actually taking care of and feeding the children!!
All in all it is such a great feeling to walk into the pantry and not feel like it is going to engulf me!!
I still have to sort the individual drawers that are there for each member of the family. They have helped manage all the papers, certificates,pictures etc. All those things that need to be put into plastic sleeves and binders.They are supposed to be for temporary storage! I have no idea how long that will take!
Now onto the GREAT SCRAPBOOK/CRAFT ROOM PURGE! That one scares me!
