Pantry Pandemonium

Last week, Butch and I made a "date" to clean out the pantry. The grandkids thought that was pretty funny. But we're both busy and I wanted to get it done before our vacation so it just made sense to schedule. It reminds me of the time when the girls were little and I planned a "family clean out the pantry day." I tried to make everything an event. They didn't always buy it. I remember Stephanie complaining, "mom, we're the only family that has a "family clean out the pantry day, or family clean out the garage day." I always prefaced any work day with "family....day" to make it sound like fun. It never was. Neither was our "couple clean out the pantry day."

We started at 8 a.m. I have a problem that Butch has been putting up with for years. I ALWAYS underestimate how long something will take. I planned 2 hours for this. It took 4. We ended up having several interruptions to the day. I finished at 8 p.m.

We straighten out the pantry right after the holidays every year. But about the only time we ever take everything completely out is when we move or paint. It's been about 5 years since we last painted. It was time. Here's how it looked before:

A whole lot of chaos. No judging please!! Through the course of my organizing business, I always told clients that it doesn't matter how much space you have---you always fill it up. If you have a lot of space, you keep things you wouldn't have kept if you didn't have room for it. That's exactly what we faced.

Then we had a few surprises. I "lost" this pro boost a few months ago. I thought I had somehow thrown it out. It's a natural product that my doc recommended to help me deal with my hives. Turns out, I just forgot I put it in the pantry---really, in plain sight---just not my sight as I put it on a high shelf. I'm short, never saw it again.

I bought this for the pickles I was going to make a couple of years ago---along with the jars and pickling salt which has expired.

We were ruthless in sorting out and getting rid of stuff. We tossed a lot of expired things, The oldest was a pasta mix from 2003. Butch tried really hard to not be critical, but he just couldn't help himself. He'd say things like, "okay, give me the 3000 packs of stuffing mix that we only eat once a year." To which I replied, "you have no idea what I use that for."

Remember my stockpile issues? Then he said very calmly, "I'm not trying to be critical, but can we just buy the food we need for the week instead of stocking up?" I said, also very calmly, "yes, I've been trying to do that." In fact, I'm very proud of myself----I really am trying to stop buying "extras" just because it's on sale.

Case in point. Two weeks ago, I stopped by the liquor store to pick up some cherry vodka for our fruity pool drinks. They had some on clearance for $4.99 a bottle. I wanted to snatch up every bottle they had left which would have been about six, but I stopped myself. I only bought three. Since the recipe only calls for a cup and a half of vodka, I figure I have enough for three years!

Anyway, he made that statement, I agreed, but he didn't stop there. "We really don't need to stock up anymore. Let's just buy what we need for the week." I could feel myself starting to get a little snappy. I said, calmly, "okay, you can stop now---you're starting to get critical." Then I released him. I really only needed him to help me with the "high up" shelves. I didn't want to climb up and down the step stool a zillion times. It's just easier with two working together.

Of course the kitchen was a complete disaster as we worked:

I was so happy to "find" this casserole from Louisville Stoneware (my last remnant of our life in Louisville 35 years ago). I thought I must have gotten rid of it since it's been "lost" for at least 10 years.

And now for the results:

 The best part---NOTHING on the floor! We'll see how long that lasts.

Finally, we've gone from pantry pandemonium to pantry peace!

Do you think I would be pushing it to ask for help with this:

Really, I'm pretty lucky.  I don't know too many husbands that would agree to help with such an "unfun" task. Wait, maybe he fell for the "couple clean out the pantry day" after all!