Order in the Pantry

The Pantry.

In our home, it is also known as the "Catch-All", the "Hiding Spot", or the 

"Place To Stash Empty Boxes Because Throwing Away An Empty Box Is Too Hard", 

if you are one of our six children.

That last one has been the cause of one too many of my gray hairs.

Though not as bad as some I've seen, if you opened the doors to the pantry on a given day, it would have looked something like this:

There's an attempt at order, but it was mostly a disorganized mess.

I decided I wanted to keep the shelves white, but the walls behind could use a pick-me-up.

They were due for a coat of paint and I had my eye on a color at 

Sherwin-Wlliams called Gray Clouds.

It was a marriage waiting to happen.

I painted the background walls, collected see-through containers from the Dollar Store and TJMaxx, and scoured Pinterest for free downloadable labels.  

Most of them were very bold or too ornate.  

I didn't want my pantry items SCREAMING their names at me.

I just wanted to subtly know the difference between corn starch, baking soda and baking powder.

So, without really knowing what I was doing, I played around with the basic tools in 

Microsoft Word and created my own! 

I have to say, they turned out exactly as I had hoped!

I love it when that happens.

As I mentioned earlier, our children regularly placed empty cereal and cracker boxes back in the pantry.

Despite regular pleas to change this routine, the habit continued. 

The new see-through containers allow me to quickly see what grocery staples we have, and what needs replenishing.  Now there is no need to lecture our children about disposing of empty boxes.

It's a win-win!

It's a fresh start.

I got rid of many items we didn't use and found a new "home" for the miscellaneous office supplies that had gathered.

Order in the pantry has been restored.

Hallelujah!

Love, live and create with intention,

Kristi