A Sense of Calm

It's amazing how much more relaxed you can feel when you walk in to a room that is clean. Right now the kitchen is letting off some pretty calm and relaxing vibes because in the three weeks I've begun this cleaning revolution, the kitchen has STAYED clean!!! And as promised, I am posting my BEFORE and AFTER pics! Maybe you can get an idea or two, or get motivated just enough to tidy up your pantry. Or maybe you just like a good BEFORE and AFTER pic like me!

BEFORE AND AFTER PANTRY

BEFORE: I'll admit, I just threw things in the pantry during the week last week because I knew I'd be tackling it this week. So even though I'm sure you think my house is a wreck all the time, which usually it is, the pantry really is never this bad. It got to the point we couldn't walk in it, but not close to hoarder status.
AFTER: I decided to make the bottom shelf our breakfast shelf. Anything and everything breakfast (that doesn't need refrigerated) is on that shelf. Shelf #2 is our chips and crackers shelf. Shelf #3 has a bin for our spaghetti noodles and a bin for our taco shells and rice. Shelf #4 has our extra bottles of BBQ sauce and salsa. I'm still thinking I might add another little shelf on the bottom for tubs of icing and cake/brownie boxes. Then under everything is the boys' trays. The other wall contains all of our big appliances that we can't put in our kitchen cabinets because we are unable to adjust the shelves.

BEFORE AND AFTER CABINETS

BEFORE: As I just mentioned, we don't have the luxury of adjusting the cabinet heights in our kitchen, which is annoying and sometimes a problem. I didn't like not being able to see the cans, and because we can't adjust, we can't stack the bigger cans. So, I decided to get the tiered shelves. That seemed to do a good enough job and I just stacked the same cans one in front of the other.
I've also come to realize that I married a man that loves to cook, loves to grill, and LOVES to marinate and season. Before I married Eric, all I knew was salt and pepper. Now I have a cabinet where I could dedicate two entire shelves, if not the entire cabinet, to spices. And rarely is there a duplicate. I'm not complaining though, because his cooking is amazing!

AFTER: I threw a TON of old food away. You know, the boxes and cans that get shoved towards the back. I've also learned that a pantry/cabinet inventory sheet is probably well worth it. If I hadn't cleaned out the cabinets, how would I have known I have 12 packets of brown gravy mix?? I mean, what was I planning on making? So I used the inventory sheet that was on the website, but am going to adapt it more towards our family's needs. Then I'm going to put it in a clear sheet protector so I can use a dry erase marker to mark things off as I use them. It will also save me some time when it comes to making the dreaded grocery list.

Too bad a clean, organized, and tidy Kitchen hasn't provided a love of cooking. Maybe by week 5 when I've already cleaned out the fridge and am challenged to work on organizing my recipes.