kitchen reorg

Over the last two days, I've been working on my kitchen cabinets, drawers and pantries.  Going through just four drawers, I was amazed at the amount of crap we've accumulated in the last year or so! I was able to get rid of a lot of stuff (old chopsticks, broken clothespins, dried-out markers, etc.), and used different-sized plastic containers to organize our utensils, barware, knives, pens/pencils, spatulas, and dishtowels.  Simply opening the drawers now makes me feel calmer - I can actually see what is in each drawer, and access everything without fear of cutting myself on a pizza cutter or paring knife!  (I put everything with a sharp or serrated edge in a narrow, open container with handles facing the front of the drawer for safe access.)

I also completely cleaned out every shelf of the pantry, scrubbed them, and re-organized the food.  It was a mess with no categorization (well it started out with one a year ago, but had since fallen apart) and things just crammed in willy-nilly.  I checked the expiration date of everything and managed to get rid of a lot of old items.  Then I re-packaged some of the stuff (brown rice, sugar, flour) into plastic containers from Ikea that easily stack and store together well.  This decreased the wasted space by a lot!  I made each shelf have a "theme" - the bottom shelf holds appliances (blender, teapot, stand mixer) and large bags of rice and potatoes.  Then I've got a shelf of tin foil, ziploc bags, parchment paper, jarred and bottled food/drinks, coffee filters and cereal.  Next is spices, sugar, flour and dried fruit.  The middle/most easily-accessed shelf  is oil, vinegar, condiments and cat food (I swear those guys eat more than we do!)  Next is pasta, pasta sauce, boxes of couscous and chicken broth, and snacks.  The top shelf is all canned goods - soup, tuna, beans, chili, tomato paste, and the like.

I created an incredible amount of space in less than 45 minutes.  Of course, I did this while my husband was shopping at Costco, and when he came home (with probably 3 months worth of food!) we were able to fit all of it very easily into the "new" pantry.

I hope we can keep up with this categorization system.  It occurred to me that putting away groceries is a great chore for kids, especially if you have one who LOVES to organize/categorize things (you know one if you have one - the kid who sorts crayons or M&Ms by color, etc.)!

I also managed to clean out the other pantry, where we keep cleaning supplies, trash bags, mops/brooms, plastic and reusable bags, etc.  That one was so crammed with stuff, one of the doors didn't even shut right.  So while it wasn't as big of a mess, it was an annoying situation!

My next goal is to get through our liquor cabinet and coffee cabinet (the fact that we have both of those seems like an interesting tidbit) to clean and organize them too.  Who knows what I'll find next!