The Pantry: Before (And a Tiny Bit of Progress)

(Missed the first kitchen post yesterday? Click here to see it.)

Boy oh boy are y'all in for a treat today. You have the pleasure of seeing my pantry in all its disarrayed glory. Clicking the publish button on this one really makes me wince, but I keep telling myself it's part of the process. For all of you out there who fret about why your home doesn't look as clean and organized as all those homes on blogs and Pinterest, this one's for you. Real life isn't always perfectly color-coded, labeled and beautified (in fact, it's rarely like that). I know that I really appreciate blogs that show the bad with the good, so that's what I'm doing today. There is no beautiful reveal at the end of this one. Just giving you a fair warning.

Let's get down to business.

Like I've mentioned before, we don't have a proper pantry. We use half a cabinet in the kitchen and a little bit of free-standing storage in a piece of furniture in our front hall. While I do sometimes pine away for a real pantry, I really can't complain about the amount of storage, size and layout of our current kitchen. When we moved into this apartment, I just knew it would mean would couldn't stock up on many "extras" (i.e. canned foods, extra snacks, etc.). And I knew we'd survive just fine :).

So here we go. Onto some "before" shots.

Here's the cabinet part:

{ahh, the beauty of a closed door}

When you open that door, you have the pleasure of looking at this:

Yikes! No sense of order. The soup cans live with the cornstarch. The balsamic vinegar lives with the Life cereal. There are things buried back there that haven't seen daylight in months.

You might be asking yourself how in the world a cabinet that small can become that messy. Or maybe, just maybe you're actually saying, "Hey! That's exactly how my cabinet looks!" I'm hoping at least one of you out there can identify with this.

The other part of our pantry lives just around the corner. Here's what her contents look like:

This is supposed to house our extra food inventory, paper products, and baking supplies all neatly so that we can easily grab something when needed.

What, you don't see that happening? Ok, me neither. Looks like a jumbled pile miscellany.

One last thing I need show you is the corner of our kitchen by the toaster.

This used to be our breakfast area...until I ran out of space in our cabinet above and then it became the overflow area for pantry items. I deserve a slap on the wrist for that one. 

Bottom line? Clearly it's time for a clean out and reorganization.

So last night, at about 9pm, I decided it was time to start in on it and I made a little progress. I emptied both pantry spaces and the breakfast area, trashed old stuff, and grouped similar items together. I even got rid of some of the manufacturer boxes and emptied things into reusable containers. Since it was so late, I just used my iPhone and Instagram to document a little of the progress...

It's certainly not pretty, but the important thing is that it's happening. And if I ever want to be able to cook again, this stuff will have to find its way off of the counter and back into the cabinets. Nothing motivates better than covering your countertops with stuff, right?!

I'm excited about the end game here. I really think it's going to turn out great. Hope I'll be back soon with more exciting progress and details to share!