Pantry Raid!!! Consider yourself RAIDED!!!

Join us for a Pantry Raid!!! To find out more, go here.


Post it girl -- or GUY if you are the Chief Pantry Stocker and Organizer!

Now.

No hiding your half eaten, not sealed bags of Rice-A-Roni. No pulling things from other places in the house to make your pantry look full, or moving things to make it look better. AS IS.

I have 8 people in this house, all of whom mess around with the pantry for different reasons. I buy in bulk, including big bags of granola,rice flours, etc. I cook mostly from scratch so have lots of ingredients on hand. If I can, YOU CAN.

This is for BEFORE pictures. Not the perfect ones. And if you want to do this to get you motivated, and you don't have a blog, email me your "before's" and I will post those too.

Our Pantry

Told you I was posting as is. This is the picture I took a few weeks ago, which got me to thinking about what I'd really like to do in there. It wasn't ideal, but not too bad. It's definitely been better. And, oh so definitely -- it's been much, much worse! With summer just ending, most of my cabinets and the pantry are pretty full due to produce I have canned.

This is the view as you look in and to the right.
With so many people getting things in and out, well, it changes quickly.

(Pics to come of view to left and door, upload issues)

Top Shelf: holds serving bowls too large for standard sized cabinets, sweets given to us as gifts which we haven't eaten yet, other misc. serving pieces and special shaped cake pans.

Second Shelf: Tupperware containers with bulk items such as flours, sugars, baking soda, etc. Bins with baking chips, sprinkles, etc. Spices in Tupperware on lazy susans.

Third Shelf: holds jars of bulk food items, with extra shelf to provide more area.Bin with bottles of vinegar, honey, Worchestershire Sauce and the like, corner holds extra jars of peanut butter, tahini, large jar of coconut oil, some large spice containers, then spices in smaller containers in bins. Also, an additional rack that hangs from the shelf above holds some Costco sized spice containers.

Bottom Shelf: canned goods in order (first section is bean and tomato products, second section is soups and broths, corner is canned meats, fruits, veggies and misc., such as milk and coconut milk. I don't use store bought canned produce much so there aren't a whole lot of those). Then there is a long Tupperware container made for storing celery and carrots. But it works perfectly for packets.

On The Floor: Metal racks with pull out drawers hold misc. items I use occassionally such as extra ketchup, jello and cake mixes for recipes, tapioca, plain gelatin, etc. Many of these have been in there for quite some time since I don't use those types of products much anymore. Also potatoes, pastas and crackers. Box of Cream of Mushroom soup that wouldn't fit on the shelf.

In the corner are bottles of water and juices I keep on hand for making punch for parties, as well as boxes of Ziploc bags, and other things purchased at Costco that come in multiple boxes. Gallon of vinegar (I use in both cleaning and cooking). Hansen's Organic Soda no one liked so will also use for punch.

I use the buckets with lids for bulk dried fruit and extra baking supplies that didn't fit in their containers, as well as other items we buy in bulk (25 pounds at a time) such as flours, granola, beans and rice.

So you can see I try to make the best use of the space we have for all of the items we keep on hand!

Hopefully next week we will see some improvement...

Now it's your turn. Please don't make me have the worst pantry!!!

And don't forget to come back next week and show off what you do to make it prettier, nicer, cleaner, and/or somehow improved.