Paleo, Whole 30, Vegetarian, Vegan, Raw Food, South Beach, Zone, the list goes on and on. There are so many different diet types out there. Almost all of them have merit and have good in them, but I hate labels! Whenever someone says I am... all people really hear is what you don't eat or won't do. Labels divide people into camps or groups. Although in truth we are all after the same thing to ... continue reading...
Pantry Organization Part 2
The pantry, especially if you have a small one like I do, can be an insane mess. I found we were wasting so much food simply because I couldn’t see it, it sad but lets be honest if its not in the immediate eye level it gets forgotten. Its not that I wanted to be wasteful, I actually hate wasting money, I was just busy and when meal times rolled around I needed to find something quickly and easily.
In the first part of the pantry organization I did the kids snack bin, now its time to do the next shelf the dry goods. I searched high and low for what would work in my pantry. I wanted some type of container that would not only protect my dry goods and make it easier to find them, but I also wanted something that would not take up to much room in my pantry. There are so many cute containers out there that I fell in love with, but they didn’t really fit my needs.
That’s when I found the OXO Good Grips Pop Containers. I loved the vacuum seal top to help keep air from my dry goods but even more importantly I loved the stack-able tops. It really helped me to get the most bang for my buck in a tiny space. They come in a wide variety of sizes. I started with the 10 piece set which I bought on amazon, I believe that Bed, Bath and Beyond sells them too, but I do alot of Amazon shopping, with two little ones I don’t have the luxury of running to 10 different stores to find what I want and honestly with the free shipping and no sales tax they are generally cheaper than most stores.
After the first set of ten I did buy a few additional pieces to help round out what I needed to hold all of our dry goods. Then it was time to orginize them and label. I chose chalkboard labels, one because quite frankly I think they are cool and had to play with them, and two I loved that I could put one permanent label that could be cleaned off and re-written on whenever I needed to. For most things I would put the expiration date. For others like my flour, sugar, and pasta I would put the date it was purchased.
I then simply put my larger containers that stored my flour and sugars in the back and the containers we used my frequently like pasta in front. So far I am loving this new arrangement and I was able to fit what used to take up a shelf and a half and was a complete disaster into a clean and orderly shelf. Is it sad that this brings me so much joy? Oh well all that matters is that I am happy and quite frankly my OCD husband is loving this organization kick I have been on lately too!
In the next post I will show you what I did with my liquids and canned goods, until then…
