52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Organize pantry, spices and food storage areas (Week 3)

For the third week of 52 Weeks to an Organized Home, the focus was on organizing the pantry, spices, and food storage areas.

I actually have canned goods in a couple other areas of the house, but I'm going to tackle those areas at another time during the year.

This week, I just focused on what was in the kitchen.

First, the spice cabinet:

Before (left) and after (right).

There were duplicates, expired items, and items I know I wouldn't be using. So, they were either combined with other like-items or tossed. This freed up a lot of space.

The next step was grouping the items so that all spices used for cooking are on the lowest shelf; the spices for baking on the middle shelf; the dog medicine on the middle shelf to the right; sprinkles and surplus spices on the upper left shelf; and sunscreen and insect repellent on the upper right shelf. It's nice knowing what we have and where it is located.

The next cupboard has rices and noodles.

 

Before (left) and after (right).

There's a little shelf over the stove/oven that has cornmeal, specialty flour, and gluten. There were oats and picking salt for canning. These items went into other cupboards.

Flours - before (above) and after (below).

There a two-shelf cupboard that has baking items. It's a pretty deep shelf and I end up just putting stuff in it and not organizing it...until now.

Although it does look full in the after picture, there is a lot more room and things are grouped by category (e.g., dried fruit in one area, brown sugar in another, nuts in another).

 

Baking items before (left) and after (right).

There's one more cupboard, but I included that with Week 2. That one has a lot of non-perishable food that is canned or in boxes.