The Pantry

So today's mission was the dreaded pantry.  Mine was a disaster.  All my food was crammed into a small pantry and one upper cabinet.  Due to my very hands on toddler, I had emptied out all of my bottom cabinets rather than pick everything up off the floor several times a day. But now that she is at an age where I can keep her out of them, I have decided to spread out my food.  Now I can buy more when it is on sale and hopefully save money in the long run. I did pretty good until I realized that I needed to combine today's project with Fridays (organize the other food cabinets).  Otherwise I would be reorganizing everything again.  Very counter productive!

I came across two issues today.  The first was a need to buy containers to organize the snack foods.  I am currently using round baskets and bowls that are not using the space in a good way.  I will have to keep my eye out for something on clearance.  My other issue was what to do with the grocery bags I collect from stores.  I normally use reusable bags when shopping but on occasion forget to take them.  I use the plastic bags at home for the small trashcans and for dirty diapers, so it is necessary to keep them.  But now they are just spilling out all over the bottom of the pantry.  So after a little research, I found two possible solutions.  One is to fold them up into small bundles and put them in a container on the floor.  The other is to reuse a cleaning wipe bottle.  I like this idea, but I think I will have more bags than one of those will hold.  It would be nice to keep one of those in the mini-van and one upstairs for the bathrooms.

Since I did my task for Friday today, I have decided to tackle my junk drawer instead!  Rubber bands, paper clips and keys!  Oh My!