Pantry Organization

So I finally cleaned out my pantry this evening. As you can imagine, I have a ton of food items in the pantry, but it also doubles as storage for some of my serving platters and cookware. To say it has gotten a little out of hand would be a huge understatement. Not to mention the leftover oatmeal and spaghetti debris that landed into every hard-to-reach crevice after two separate and unfortunate events that involved me being clumsy at two very inconvenient times.

My little project started out with the intention of just cleaning out the bottom so I could vacuum up the aforementioned debris, but it somehow evolved into cleaning out every shelf and organizing them. I wish I could take a picture of the finished product to share, but with my fridge directly across from the pantry, I don't have enough room. Even more so, I wish I had a before picture to share with you.

Anyway, here is how it is now organized. Top shelf is for cereals, pastas, chips and crackers. Second shelf is my baking shelf - sugars, flour, mixes, chocolate chips, etc. Third shelf is four my canned goods and vinegars. Bottom shelf is for rice and grains. Floor is for storage.

Some interesting finds:

• Three bags of mini marshmallows - one full, unopened bag; one opened and half-empty bag and one really old, opened and half-empty bag.
• Three opened bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• A soft, travel bag for a bottle of wine with two little wine glasses. (Totally forgot that was back there.)

Really, three bags of marshmallows and chocolate chips? This is what happens when you don't clean out your pantry for awhile - things just get lost in there.