Pantry Clean Up
This is my first step into my journey to simplify my life. I have been doing a lot of think lately about why do we have so much "stuff". I am as bad as anyone else, if not worse, about buying useless junk. I get that paycheck and just start racking my brain on what I want to buy this week. No long term goals or planning. Just reckless spending. Where has this gotten me? A house full of junk that is collecting dust. Children who have not learned how to take care of there stuff, because they can just get new stuff. Stressful days of never getting the house anywhere close to clean. A lack of joy for my life. I know you think man you are getting way to heavy about this. But am I? I am looking around and I am not seeing anything that brings me joy. I just get anxiety about how I can't take care of all of this.
When I start thinking about what I would really want I come up with adventures. I want my children to have experiences. I want them to discover the life around them. But them seem to be stuff in pretend worlds, that never end, because why would they explore the world when they have more than enough to keep them busy. This is not the parenting I wanted. This is not how I wanted my life to look like. I don't want to teach instant gratification. I want the lesson of hard work beings great rewards embedded into them. I am raising the future generation. I would like to see it not screwed up! I personally want to explore this AMAZING world God created. I have never travel out of country. I never hardly get to travel period. Instead I am stuck in this mess that I created. So it is time for change. New beginnings! I am creating a new life for my family. It will not be an instant change. It will not be easy. But in the end will be something beautiful. I will number my posts to be able to show the progress in order. So here we go....
Post 1
To start this journey I have decided to downsize the thing that takes up way to much of my time. All of my junk! I am starting in the kitchen because that is the most used place in my house. Between me cooking 3 meals a day, 3 ten year olds whose bellys never fill, and craft clean ups, it is always a train wreck. I am not expecting it to be perfect but my goal is functional. The kitchen is also when you come into my house. So another reason to straighten it up. So I began in the back corner, which contains my pantry.
Cleaning out my pantry is super important. My house is over 100 years old. So it came with very littler storage. Newer house comes with more storage for all of that junk we think we need... So I need to make sure that my space is used efficiently. I wish I could clean out everything and live on bare necessities, but I can't do that. I live on my tiny homestead that we grow food for the year. Or as much as mother nature will let us. So I have to keep all the equipment to do all of my canning, dehydrating, and food preserving. So that takes up a good amount of space. But the rest of the stuff can go.
Here is my before picture of my pantry. I know pretty shocking right!! We couldn't find anything! So much food was expired because we couldn't find it! Like who bought all of this stuff...... Yeah it was me....
So I grabbed a trash can and dug through the mess. One of my other goals is the get rid of the junk food! My goal is to simplify my life, not just home. So I kept that in my mind while going through everything. While going through it all I came up of a list of the best steps to take to do a task like this. So maybe you can get some ideas! So enjoy!
Cleaning out the Pantry
Questions to ask yourself....
Is it expired? (Seriously you will be surprised to find out)
Will I ever use it? (Like seriously, not the maybe one day bit.)
Should I use it? (Those stocked up candy and cake mixes, yeah just get rid of them)
Really just asking those three questions will downsize you pantry significantly. So what do do with all of the junk you are ready to get rid of?
What to do with the Junk?
Donate (find a local food bank and bless them with your non expired foods)
Compost it (have a garden? wanna start a garden? here is a list of ideas of what to compost)
Garden flooring (any cardboard is a great weed suppressor. Just lay it down the cover in top soil and plant!)
Trash it (I know this is hard to see, but if it is expired then it need to go)
So after you have gone through the mess, what's next? Clean and organize! Now most of this will depend on what works for your family. But I did incorporate a couple ideas to make it more functional.
Organizing Tips
Firstly, after I wiped everything down, I put down cabinet lining. You can find it anywhere. But it is just like a big sticker! So easy to use and it will be very helpful for easier clean up. I got a 9ft roll at my local dollar store for under $4.
What about those loose spices? I had these little glass jars from when I use to make homemade yogurt when I had my raw cows milk source. But they have been sitting around for a while, so not they are cute spice jars! Use what you have!
Are kid snack taking over? Just toss them into a clear container. Then the kids know where to look, and they have their special spot!
Those loose potatoes or onions rolling everywhere? Try nice cute wooden container. Keeps them organized and contained.
Here are my after pictures!
I had so much extra room that I was able to fit my many jars of canned corn that has been sitting in my dinning room because there was no where to fit it!
Look at all that extra space!!! This will be very handy to have for this upcoming garden season, and for when I go through my kitchen!
Now how am I going to keep this up? Well I am going to put more thought into what groceries I buy. Like will I actually use them before they expire! I will focus on the food that is about to expire and find a good use for it. I will also have to set up a monthly time to go through it to make sure it stays organized. But less stuff means less work right!
So what's next? Well the rest of the kitchen. I will be going through every cabinet and drawer. Tossing, donating, and organizing my way through it all. Little by littler taking back my life and clearing up time to enjoy everything.
I would love to see your before and after pantry clean ups! Post them below! Do you have more tips or ideas please share them with me! Let's help each other tackle these messes!
When I start thinking about what I would really want I come up with adventures. I want my children to have experiences. I want them to discover the life around them. But them seem to be stuff in pretend worlds, that never end, because why would they explore the world when they have more than enough to keep them busy. This is not the parenting I wanted. This is not how I wanted my life to look like. I don't want to teach instant gratification. I want the lesson of hard work beings great rewards embedded into them. I am raising the future generation. I would like to see it not screwed up! I personally want to explore this AMAZING world God created. I have never travel out of country. I never hardly get to travel period. Instead I am stuck in this mess that I created. So it is time for change. New beginnings! I am creating a new life for my family. It will not be an instant change. It will not be easy. But in the end will be something beautiful. I will number my posts to be able to show the progress in order. So here we go....
Post 1
To start this journey I have decided to downsize the thing that takes up way to much of my time. All of my junk! I am starting in the kitchen because that is the most used place in my house. Between me cooking 3 meals a day, 3 ten year olds whose bellys never fill, and craft clean ups, it is always a train wreck. I am not expecting it to be perfect but my goal is functional. The kitchen is also when you come into my house. So another reason to straighten it up. So I began in the back corner, which contains my pantry.
Cleaning out my pantry is super important. My house is over 100 years old. So it came with very littler storage. Newer house comes with more storage for all of that junk we think we need... So I need to make sure that my space is used efficiently. I wish I could clean out everything and live on bare necessities, but I can't do that. I live on my tiny homestead that we grow food for the year. Or as much as mother nature will let us. So I have to keep all the equipment to do all of my canning, dehydrating, and food preserving. So that takes up a good amount of space. But the rest of the stuff can go.
Here is my before picture of my pantry. I know pretty shocking right!! We couldn't find anything! So much food was expired because we couldn't find it! Like who bought all of this stuff...... Yeah it was me....
So I grabbed a trash can and dug through the mess. One of my other goals is the get rid of the junk food! My goal is to simplify my life, not just home. So I kept that in my mind while going through everything. While going through it all I came up of a list of the best steps to take to do a task like this. So maybe you can get some ideas! So enjoy!
Cleaning out the Pantry
Questions to ask yourself....
Is it expired? (Seriously you will be surprised to find out)
Will I ever use it? (Like seriously, not the maybe one day bit.)
Should I use it? (Those stocked up candy and cake mixes, yeah just get rid of them)
Really just asking those three questions will downsize you pantry significantly. So what do do with all of the junk you are ready to get rid of?
What to do with the Junk?
Donate (find a local food bank and bless them with your non expired foods)
Compost it (have a garden? wanna start a garden? here is a list of ideas of what to compost)
Garden flooring (any cardboard is a great weed suppressor. Just lay it down the cover in top soil and plant!)
Trash it (I know this is hard to see, but if it is expired then it need to go)
So after you have gone through the mess, what's next? Clean and organize! Now most of this will depend on what works for your family. But I did incorporate a couple ideas to make it more functional.
Organizing Tips
Firstly, after I wiped everything down, I put down cabinet lining. You can find it anywhere. But it is just like a big sticker! So easy to use and it will be very helpful for easier clean up. I got a 9ft roll at my local dollar store for under $4.
What about those loose spices? I had these little glass jars from when I use to make homemade yogurt when I had my raw cows milk source. But they have been sitting around for a while, so not they are cute spice jars! Use what you have!
Are kid snack taking over? Just toss them into a clear container. Then the kids know where to look, and they have their special spot!
Those loose potatoes or onions rolling everywhere? Try nice cute wooden container. Keeps them organized and contained.
Here are my after pictures!
I had so much extra room that I was able to fit my many jars of canned corn that has been sitting in my dinning room because there was no where to fit it!
Look at all that extra space!!! This will be very handy to have for this upcoming garden season, and for when I go through my kitchen!
Now how am I going to keep this up? Well I am going to put more thought into what groceries I buy. Like will I actually use them before they expire! I will focus on the food that is about to expire and find a good use for it. I will also have to set up a monthly time to go through it to make sure it stays organized. But less stuff means less work right!
So what's next? Well the rest of the kitchen. I will be going through every cabinet and drawer. Tossing, donating, and organizing my way through it all. Little by littler taking back my life and clearing up time to enjoy everything.
I would love to see your before and after pantry clean ups! Post them below! Do you have more tips or ideas please share them with me! Let's help each other tackle these messes!
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