22 Days to Less Mess (Day 2 The Pantry)

My pantry is the former broom closet. It's still partly the broom closet, but it's been redesigned to hold more and different stuff. Mainly canned goods and other sundries. in my researching of how to become better organized, I read that one thing you could/should do is to put items where you use them -- not necessarily where they are supposed to go. Hence, you will see two large piles of beach towels. I'd thought for years that I would like them to go in this closet, but there was never room. Now I've made room. Finally the children do not have to drip through the house and up a flight of stairs across hardwood floors to get the towels that they forgot to take out to the pool in the first place. Some of us are slow learners -- and they apparently get it from their mom ;o).

I know there's nothing drastically different about this, but the Engineer had already cleaned it out on me as he was excited to stock up the basement ;o). I'm happy because he made room for my towels.

I shop sales. Big time! I have to with nine mouths to feed. We also have approximately five meals that we consistently eat every week with some minor variations which makes it simple to know what to stock up on. Since I stock up and the pantry doesn't look too particularly full, you're likely wondering where it all goes. Remember that storage room that I'm excited to put together? Well it also has a cold room. Hello, all our surplus food! Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not extreme! You won't see me on any of those crazy reality shows about food or coupons, or what have you. I can't get my head around that at all, but I do have enough in there to last many winter weeks.

Next is a set of drawers I have that I consider pantry too as they hold multiples of same items and again are bought during sales or because they're staples (eg. oatmeal).

The snack drawer. This drawer holds (most) snacks and school eats. The granola bars and puddings are for Fridays only. During the week, the kids get home baked goodies and fresh fruit. When Mom bakes regularly, the kids think granola bars and pudding cups are treats. Hehehe!

The bottom drawer is the hot cereal drawer. The kids eat hot cereal 5 days a week -- even in the summer because it is inexpensive and filling. Have you ever noticed that if you let even two kids eat cold cereal for a few days how quickly you go through a box of cereal? Well try it with seven of them. Basically we go through a large box every two days. On weekends they are allowed cold cereal if we're not having some sort of other treat like bacon and eggs or cinnamon buns. Again, I only stock up cereal that goes on sale -- with the exception of oatmeal.

Well that's it! A short quick day. Have a great day everyone!