My Pantry - 21 Days to Get Organized Challenge #7

Hello all!  I hope if you're also doing the Challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons that you're doing  and hanging in there! It's been hard trying to catch up, but I'm getting there!

First of all, I want to give an update to the Under the Kitchen Sink Challenge.  I haven't been able to get to a store since we're down to one vehicle so I finally asked my hubby to get me a roll of Contact paper that I'd like. He called to describe it first, and it sounded nice, and I love it! So, the first thing I did was put a piece under the kitchen sink.  I took everything out (which was a lot easier now!)  and scrubbed it down again and wiped it well with a microfibre cloth since stuff just kind of *sticks* to those cloths.  They're impossible to get lint off of... but anyway, I knew the paper would never stick to that damaged paneling wood stuff, so I just cut out a piece to fit and laid it down with the backing still on, then put everything back.

It sure looks a lot better. I actually don't hate cleaning stuff now since it's all organized and it even looks nice to get my supplies. I do still need to sand the cabinets and paint them, but it's good for now.

There's Kitty Again!

And now to the #7 Challenge, The Pantry!

This actually turned out to be a great one for me.  I started on it after Hubby went to bed, and my 14 yr old daughter was still awake and saw me starting to empty it and clean it, so she got inspired to clean the outside of it.  It's an old metal cabinet I found a used furniture store and it was exactly what I had hoped to find. I love how vintage and retro it is, so I don't mind the scratches and dents hehe. Anyway, she actually took all the kids' artwork, magnets and everything off of it and scrubbed it down. It looks SO much better now on the outside, I'm not putting anything back on it.

The inside was not good.  It's pretty much how it was when I got it. I'd always planned on putting new contact paper on the shelves, and I actually did organize it not too long ago, so it was WAY worse than this a few months ago. That bottom section became a catch-all for a while, but I finally stopped that. It's the perfect place for potatoes and onions.  I'm still looking for a bin container thing that will fit the space.

Finally, it's all scrubbed down and my pretty new contact paper installed. That stuff can be hard to deal with in this tight spaces and weird corners, but it's finally done and I love it!

Then I started putting stuff back. My baking shelf had been one of the things I organized not long ago.  It really needed it. I love having brown and powdered sugars in containers. I always ended up with open bags with only half being used. Any extra bags that are unopened get stored in a big bucket type container on top of the pantry.

I also love having other things in bags that used to make such a mess. No more powder all over the shelf from the corn starch and baking soda boxes.  Also, the Golden Syrup that I fell in love with in England makes a HUGE mess after you pour it and don't clean off the jar afterwards - but you can't convince kids to care about that.  So I put it in a bag which it's kind of stuck in now, so we open the bag and the lid and then pour while holding it in the bag.  So any drips stay inside the bag. Works for me.

I love my organized baking shelf.  I want to bake something! Hmm it's desperately lacking chocolate chips. Good thing I'm going shopping soon.

The fact that I have not done any shopping in 2 weeks is why it's this bare, but it made it easier to clean and organize it. I would have done my shopping today for the next 2 weeks, but the van is on its last legs and the truck is in the shop. I sure hope they have it fixed by Monday.

This canned-goods shelf is usually full to overflowing, but all the canned soups, ravioli etc, spaghetti sauce, chili fixins, etc are all gone now.  The kids have been out of school all week for snow, and they seem to eat twice as much when home. I should have packed them a lunch as normal and told them to just eat what I packed them lol! Oh well, I'm glad we had stuff for them to eat hot lunches and snacks all week. Now to get through the weekend!

This is the cereal shelf. My kids would live on cereal if I let them.  I actually buy 3 gallons of milk a time and it never goes bad. I had found amazing buy-one-get-one deals and had coupons on my last shopping trip, so this shelf had 7 boxes of cereal plus the bag of Frosted Mini Wheats. It was down to 2 boxes just a week ago, and that was when they went to school every day. Wonder if they'll finally finish off the mini wheats. Oh and they don't like porridge, as the Ready Brek never gets touched. Oh well, it was on special at the British store. I like it now and then.

This section looks SO MUCH better! I can't wait to get a couple of stacking bins to hold potatoes and onions.  I've been putting both in this bowl and getting to an onion is like trying to get an egg out from under a hen. I also need a small crate to put here to hold extra containers like empty apple juice bottles I like to keep to take a jug of tea with us on a road trip, and extra lunch boxes go here too. It's also the only place I have room to store that big roasting pan.

Oh and here's the top where I store extras.  The big bucket thing in the back can hold like 5 bags of sugar. I found several bags marked down really cheap at Save A Lot once when they had some that got sliced when opening a box and they'd wrapped them in plastic wrap and sold them half price. YAY! So, I got that to hold them without spills or anything getting into the bags. There's also a giant pickle jar(well washed out) that holds my whole wheat flour. The one marked SUGAR actually is for bags of candy like when it goes on clearance after Halloween and Valentines Day shhh don't tell my kids haha. The Flour container is for in case I have an extra bag of All Purpose Flour that won't fit in the big container inside the pantry. I never buy extra self rising until I know the bag will fit in the container as I want it to be as fresh as possible - I still don't bake enough biscuits - my husband will agree with that. Oh and yeah that's our smoke detector not attached to the wall. It needs a new battery and we always forget to get one.  I have just added it to my new shopping list as I've been blogging tonight, so that'll be fixed asap!

I love my newly cleaned and pretty and organized pantry, ready to be stuffed to the gills again - hopefully soon! I can't wait to use my new coupon organizer I'm going to post about soon!

Don't forget to stop by A Bowl Full of Lemons to see the others taking the challenge. I'm hoping to get caught up to the rest of the challenges today. The laundry room one however will have to be skipped for now. Christopher and I have some wonderful plans for the space (which is doubly great since my office is in the laundry room.) We got a big wooden shelf to install, but it has to be cut to fit and the supports have to be cut and then everything screwed to the wall and then the shelf to them. But it will be SO FABULOUS!

I'll give you a sneak peek at how bad it is... and this is just part of the room!

Hmm I seem to have bags of tortilla chips in several of my photos. They are my fave snack. :)

Ok, so have a great weekend y'all! I'll be back soon with the next challenge... and I can't even remember what it is! How exciting!