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.