Organizing the pantry

    So...with 10 days until the due date and summer school being over, I am enjoying these last few days of summer, with relaxation and organization! 

Billy and Bella are enjoying some relaxation too (here and there). 

   The first thing I wanted to tackle was our pantry, which has always been a too small space for our food and kitchen supplies. Although it's small, I knew we could be utilizing it in a better way. So, with a little time and energy throwing out all the expired items so I could see what we really had, our pantry originally looked like this: 

 

With spillover storage in one of our cabinets for cans, which never worked, because we could never tell what we had, and it was separated from the rest of the food!

To this: 

A place for all our cans, and we can see what we have! 

It is so much more neat and organized (even if it doesn't look like it). We even have empty space on that top shelf - yesss! In the future, we will put in wider shelves to accommodate more food, but for right now, we seem to have the space we need.

And, with the space we saved by putting the cans in the actual pantry, I was able to use that shelf  for all of the baby's feeding supplies. (Which aren't exactly organized right now, but I wanted to wait and see what we really need and use before taking EVERYTHING out of the boxes before she comes). This shelf is so easy to access, so hopefully it will work for baby storage. I am just so glad I found a place for it all.

I also did a quick clean up of the shelves above our laundry closet. By moving all the random stuff that was lurking in this closet and moving it to where it actually belonged, I made room for - empty space! I know it won't take long to find something to put in these empty spaces, but I like that we have room for "stuff", whatever it may end up being! (I don't have a before, but trust me - it's better than it was.)

I took all the random cleaning supplies we had haphazardly sitting on the shelves and used a shoe organizer on the pantry door to house them all. I love that it created more room, and that all the supplies can be found EASILY in one central location.

Now, every time I walk into the pantry, I have a feeling of calm come over me, as opposed to panic. Everything has a place, is consolidated, and we can see exactly where it is...I love this nesting thing! :)