A walk in the Park

Last week, while reading Jules' WM post, I was reminded how much I need to clean out my pantry. As if standing at the threshold and leaning over as far as I can to reach things on shelves because I literally could not see the floor wasn't enough. What a mess.


That was actually the second-to-the-last straw. The last straw was going to the grocery store, loading the back of my suburban with 2 weeks (maybe) worth of groceries and realizing when I brought it all in the house that I had no place to put it.

So on the counter they went and on to work I went. I started by pulling everything out. I couldn't do this all at once because I really had no place to put it all so I did it one shelf at a time.Pull everything off. Clean with a rag. Sort the keep from the toss. Decide on a permanent spot for the stuff I keep. Repeat.

I tried to come up with a system of sorting and organizing so it would be easy for anyone to find something in my pantry. This wasn't too hard, except for a few things that always fall into the random category. I'm not quite finished yet, as I would like to be able to store the kids drawing and coloring supplies in there. Actually, the jury's still out on that one. When I organize the school room, they might better fit in there. Sheesh. Why does every project I do lead to another, larger job?

Some things I found while cleaning out my pantry:

Empty liquor bottles. Well, almost empty. There was one bottle of tequila that had enough for one shot in the bottom. One of my pet peeves is when the person who uses the last of something puts the now empty container back where they got it. It's empty. It's useless to the next person. Throw it away.

I'm a little embarrassed about this one. I think I bought this whole bag of corn flour for one recipe that called for a tablespoon. Then I stuck it up on a high shelf and forgot about it. Apparently, I have been feeding and housing a city of weevils or something for who knows how long. Cleaning that up gave me the heebies.

This is the light fixture in my pantry. It fell from the ceiling and has been dangling by its wires since the first year we lived in our house. That was 7 years ago. It's on Mr. Park's list.

 This is mid-way through the project.

Yes, the empty liquor bottles are still there. I need to put them in my glass recycling basket but there isn't room. Maybe that's why they were up there to begin with.


Look! It's the floor! I can walk in there and spin around if I want. There are now some empty shelves, but I think once I get the other areas of my kitchen organized, I might need them. If not, I'm okay with empty shelves. I think my need to fill empty spaces with stuff if starting to wane.

I'm linking up with Jules' William Morris Project.