Week 3 Home Organization Challenge - The Pantry

Well once again, I'm behind a bit on the 14 Week Home Organization challenge by Bowl Full of Lemons...

I skipped week 2 as it was the garage.  So week 3 was the pantry.  I ended up doing week 3 in week 4 because I just couldn't get to it.

Last week was my last week of work at my previous job.  I have been there for 7 1/2 years and due to some changes on my contract (I work for a defense contractor), I chose to accept a severance payout and look for new opportunities.  So for the first time in 7 1/2 years, I am a housewife/stay-at-home mommy.  It's only temporary - as my husband keeps reminding me.  The last time I stayed home, Maddie was a newborn and I stayed home for 6 months.  So it is sort of exciting to have the entire day to tackle some stuff I really need to get accomplished around this house.  Being a full time working mommy, wife, grad student and part-time helper to my parents and grandmother leaves little time to do much around the house.  So I'm excited to have even a few weeks off from the working world to tackle some organizing and some painting.

So back to home organization - week 3 - the pantry.  Our pantry is pretty good size and in the shape of a U with shelves on 3 sides.  It typically becomes a huge mess.  So, being inspired by the organization challenge, I emptied out my pantry today.  I threw away expired food, 1/2 empty boxes and organized stuff into baskets.  I also found these adorable hanging tag labels by Avery and printed out the contents of the baskets.  I can't afford to buy matching baskets for the entire pantry right now, so my pantry is a mish-mash of different baskets - but hey, the tag are freaking adorable.

Here is a before picture - kind of messy and disorganized:

 

Here's the after pictures and a picture of the tags...I'm super excited...

 It's hard to tell, but the tags are designed with dark brown and ice blue stripes - one of my favorite color combinations.

So this week's challenge is the office.  I'm not sure I'll meet that one by the end of the week.  I have a ton of stuff I just brought home from my office at work.  Who knew you could accumulate so much in 7 1/2 years at an office.

Kitchen Organization

So, I'm a little behind the 14 week Home Organization 101 (link to the project at Bowl Full of Lemons is below)...  A few weeks ago it was Kitchen and Kitchen Cabinets.


I had recently cleaned out my cabinets, so I didn't really have much to do there so I hit the fridge.  I cleaned out all the food from each shelf, took the shelves out and scrubbed them clean and put it all back in nice and neat.  So I took pictures of that part of my kitchen and called the 1st week of the challenge finished.

The 2nd week of the challenge was the garage.  Our house doesn't  have a garage, as it was converted into the addition back in the late 1970s.  So I skipped that week..

The next challenge is the pantry.  I'll create a separate post for that week's challenge.

Home Organization 101

So summer is over, school is back in session (we go back early here in Arizona) and Maddie is in the 2nd grade.  My most recent Masters program class is over and I'm taking a breather.  I have so much to organize and clean out in my house and I found a great idea on one of my favorite blogs.

 

 I follow a great blog called "A Bowl Full of Lemons".  It's a great blog and one of my favorite.  So she's put together a 14 week Home Organization group and I enrolled.  Link is above...

This week is kitchen and kitchen cabinets.  I recently did this so I only have a few cabinets to go through and a few drawers.

I thought I'd post about it and then post pictures when I actually get started with each week's challenge.

More next time...