Tackle It Tuesday: Pantry

I was never quite sure about the location of my pantry.  It is under the staircases in the wall of my kitchen.

Its size also is not what I consider ideal as a pantry.  It is deep, wide and low.  I am tall, I have to stoop down to get the items every time.  It got old fast.

But, I am thankful none the less, to have a pantry.  Many bloggers' home have hardly any storage units.  Counting my blessings again. :)

Another interesting thing I noticed with my pantry is that the contents in it have changed drastically from the time I was a coupon queen to when we started eating healthily years ago.  I have less and less canned food.  We try to eat fresh or frozen vegetables as much as we can.  I am going to look into soaking my beans, too, so that I can eliminate the canned beans as well.  Things like olives I can't do much about or some other items like tomato paste (I tried to make my own and was not successful), I buy them but not stocking them.  Since I don't use coupons much any more, I let the grocery store be my pantry.  I only shop what I need for the next 2 - 3 weeks at a time, very selectively.  Doing so has helped us avoid the trap of expired canned good and the precious space we saved and the time we spend on its maintenance.

Because of not having to stock up items like I used to, I had neglected my pantry, not to a degree that it became filthy or anything, but I just DON'T clean it.  We rearrange the pantry every now and then, but no major cleaning.  Since I am thinking about getting back to my backlog of projects and also because I have a rekindled inspirations about my home care through reading some wonderful Christian devotionals and Courtney's blog, I decided to restart my Tackle It Tuesday by first cleaning out the pantry, and all I can say is: it is about time! :)

 Interesting location isn't it?

 Before - Like I said, it does not even look like it needs a clean up job, but I know better.

I will change the lining next time.  I am not spending any money right now.  We have to be careful with our spending through this jobless winter of our life.  There are a few projects I would like to accomplish once our financial situation gets better.

After - May not seem like a big difference to the outsiders, but to me, it is much more organized and I feel like I can sleep better....

**See those two boxes of Crafts Mac & Cheese?  That's the birthday boy's lunch request on his special day - the only day he could eat "junk" in my house. LOL!

This post is linking up at Amy's AP Tuesday link parties