{Clutter-Free Challenge} Day 15
Pantry and Food Cabinets
Time Needed: 45 minutes - 2 hours
Physical Rating: Light-Medium
Emotional Rating: Minimal
The kitchen is one of the most clutter prone areas in a home. Getting to the root of the kitchen clutter is harder than you'd think. Most people casually blame their lack of storage space as the cause for their clutter, but in reality that's just not true. The solution to kitchen clutter is not more storage, it's smarter storage.
My Pantry HELL :)
This is our so-called pantry. (Please note the reusable bags at the bottom. A whole lot of good they do me in there!) You can't tell from the photo, but this closet is pretty deep and could store a lot more food if the unnecessary junk was removed.
This is the cabinet over my microwave. As you can see I use it to store baking supplies. Being a whopping 5'4" tall, this cabinet has become the bane of my existence over the last few years. By moving these items to the pantry, they will be within arm's reach as opposed to arm + tippy toes + wooden spoon's reach!
These are my 3 food cabinets, all of which are loathed with every fiber of my being:
I absolutely hate them! The size and shape of them, the awkward placement within the kitchen itself, ugh! My plan is to move everything I can into the pantry so that I can have open shelving for dishes only in the kitchen. (If you follow me on Pinterest you know I've been fantasizing about this for a VERY long time.)
After dumping the junk that we don't like or has expired or that we will never use, I realized that we don't even need that much storage for the items we do like and eat! (Yes that IS Halloween candy! We aren't huge on candy around these parts. Cookies? Well that's a different story!)
YAY!
From top to bottom:
- Baking supplies (within reach!!!)
- Pasta, Rice, Beans, Sauces, Eggs (Yep, NOT refrigerated... the perks of backyard chickens!)
- Snacks, Chips, Crackers, Breakfast items
- fruits and veggies in baskets (for lots of info on the best plastic-free ways to store fruits and veggies, check out Washington's Green Grocer)
- bread machine and flower bulbs
As you can see, I love glass jars. I like to use chalkboard paint on them to create labels for what's inside each jar. I have a bit of catching up to do it seems! For a how-to on that click here :)
I think my favorite part of moving everything into the pantry is the fact that my children will no longer have a reason to climb all over my counters. (It won't actually stop them from climbing on them, they just won't have a reason to do it anymore!) I used an extra paper tray from my craft room to store all their favorite breakfast items right within their reach.
Success!
Aside from our bread and cereal, I was able to relocate EVERYTHING! I plan on reworking the pantry a bit to truly maximize space so that I can finally have my open shelving! So close I can taste it :D