Yep….its the Pantry….Again.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that once again I had my pantry on the “to do” list. I guess it has been almost two years since the completion of the kitchen remodel, so I have some excuse?! Well, if you missed my first pantry post, over two years ago…here we go again. Yes that is right….its the Massive Pantry Clean Out.

I sheepishly forgot to take a before picture, and really, let your imagination go wild, and that is what the pantry looked like. I have taken every stitch of food out, and inventoried it. I’m now placing back in an orderly fashion, while also purging the old, and the candy/junk food.

Once again I am struck by the sheer amount of food that lies on these shelves. I actually have a shopping list, and planned to shop this afternoon. Now I’m rethinking that a bit, and feel challenged to cook out of my pantry.

Here are some suggestions for your own pantry clean out.

-Really do take everything out….by just rearranging without removing it all, you tend to still miss stuff.

-Make an inventory of all the food. I’m sure this sounds tedious, but if you don’t want to list it all, (I then cross off the list as I use it, therefore knowing what is left), then I would at least do the meal planning mentioned below.

-Plan meals! Make a list of every meal you could make right now with all the food you have. Then make a list of all the meals you could make if you picked up one or two things from the store. Now you have meals planned for the next week, (or maybe weeks if your pantry looks like mine), and you have the start of a shopping list for future meals.

This is a great process to apply to cleaning out the refrigerator and the freezer. By doing this process two years ago, I remember feeling so grateful on those long days when five o’clock crept up on me, I could just glance at my list (posted to the fridge) and know immediately some meals I could make, with little effort, and no need to run to the store.

Don’t Agonize…Organize. Happy Pantries to all!