In which I organize without cute labels.

This is the way my kitchen looks for a day or two when I decide my pantry needs organized.

But it looks better now.

I was going to buy all matching containers for a dramatic after but that would be silly because this is not even a real blog where people would pinterest my pantry if it looked cute. So why bother?

For similar reasons I did not use my cricut to make adorable labels for stuff that I know what it is by looking at it...

Also I have no cricut.

Shelf 1: Overly large stock of baggies from our costo membership, saran wrap and tinfoil, three kinds of vinegar and two kinds of oil.

I keep meaning to drink apple cider vinegar every day (it's actually delicious!) but I always forget.

Shelf 2: Cartons of broth, cooking wine, oatmeal, grits and dried fruit. So healthy except maybe the grits.

Oh and the fact that these are hiding in the back.

Yes, that is a container of lemonade powder the size of a canister of oatmeal.

Yes, I feel ashamed.

Shelf 3: Canned goods in a cute red basket I think I stole from mom. Plus a bowl of random hard to organize stuff I should not even own such as instant pudding and sodium-filled taco seasoning. Yum yum.

Shelf 4: Another bowl of small stuff I should not even own! Ramen and mac and cheese from my eat-like-a-college-student phase. Also bags of pasta behind that. And boxes of pasta beside that. And jiffy mix. And sodium-filled bouillon. Basically everything but the kitchen scale and maybe the rice is something I shouldn't own.

This reminds me that I may need to address my pasta addiction at some point.

Ground floor: Turkey and chicken roasting pans, thermoses and Kurt's lunchbox (which I found at a garage sale for 25 cents including the thermos that fits inside the lid!), brown paper bags, empty mason jars, potatoes, popcorn, and various unopened extras. Also a tupperware popcorn popper, which I love.

I also put all my little chip clips and clothespins on the edge of a shelf and was very impressed with my restraint in not putting them in a mason jar.

I decided my baking cupboard also needed organized.

 It was fairly impossible to get anything out or find the spices you needed.

 I found an Easter bunny in there, which must be from a year ago now.

 I decided to use my spice carousel to hold cupcake liners and kitchenaid attachments... 

just getting the spices out of there made the whole cupboard work a lot better for baking ingredients.

I  have a spice drawer now instead. 

I know you can buy little drawer inserts for spices but I don't really think it's necessary. 

If you have enough spices to fill a drawer like this they'll hold each other in place.

 

Next up to be addressed: the coffee/tea cupboard.

Also really difficult to get stuff out of without a landslide occurring.

 
We had a lot of different boxes of tea going on, so I took our different teas...

 
And a cute candy jar...

(Ok, this whole project was an excuse to buy a cute candy jar - I've wanted one for years.)

And it looks really cute by the cookie jar!


The cupboard looks a little better now too. Yay!

As a reward for organizing all my stuff, I got some fun healthy snacks at Sprouts this evening!

Basically whatever was on sale from the bulk bins. And didn't have added sugar.

All the little bitty containers I could find...

And now I have a nice stock of trail mix, dried apricots, dried apples, and almonds.

New healthy snack station in my pantry - nice and fast to grab on the way to work.

What do you guys normally keep in your pantries that I'm missing?

(Or what do I have in there that's secretly terrible for you and I should get rid of? Besides the instant pudding, I'm aware of my horribleness on that front.)