Skeletons in the Closet

As the kids went back to school on Monday I was kind of sad.  They have finally got to a point where they can play together and also do things individually without pestering one another.  It was actually nice to wake up and not have to run them to school.  We actually had days when we didn't even leave the house.  Winter break was a welcomed change of pace, but now it's back to the norm.

On Monday after I dropped the kids off at school I didn't quite know what to do with myself, so I clean and organized my pantry.  Everyone thinks I'm an organized person, but I'm not.  I'm very particular about how I like things done so I usually put them off until I know I have enough time to do it and do it right.  I seem to never find the time, so things are left undone.  Quite silly I know, but it's me, what am I going to do? 

I started my little endeavor with camera in hand.  Here is what I was up against.

               

This is not a pantry of an organized person.  Where to start?  Well I emptied everything out and checked for expiration dates.  On somethings I couldn't find the date but a few had expired Box Tops, so you know it had to be old.  Those Box Top deals are good for like 4 or 5 years, if the Box Top is expired the food it beyond expired.  I also came across blood worms, how many people can say they had blood worms in their pantry?  I can, only because we used to have fish that ate them.  I had to move the fish food into our pantry because my darling Lana emptied the whole container into the fish tank on more than one occasion.  I also came across, not 1, not 2, but 3 jars of nutmeg.  I actually had to take a picture of that find.

It's kind of weird because I don't even know what I would put nutmeg in so why on earth do I have three containers of it.  I carry on and empty the pantry and clean the shelves. Then I realize I have flooring as a shelf liner.  I'm not so hip on that so I grab my purse and head to the store to find some new shelf liner. 

Before I left I made sure I measured.  I have a really deep pantry, 23 inches deep to be exact.  What does one do with shelves that deep?  How does it make any sense to have shelves that deep.  You can never see what's in the back.  Should I fill up the back with some old home videos we never watch but have to hold on to.  These are the thoughts running through my head as I walk around the store looking for shelf liner.  I finally find the liners and pinch and feel every one and decide I like the flooring option I have better.  While I'm in the aisle I take a gander at the kitchen organizational stuff and leave with 3 shelves and one really long bin.  I was really excited about the bin because it was actually a media storage bin, but I had another use for it.  I love when I can find another use for something.  It's like I'm saying, yes I know you told me to use this bin for my CDs but I'm going to use it for my baking supplies, so neener neener neener.  I'm still a rebellious child at heart.  It's sad, but that's about as rebellious as I get now a days.

Here is my "baking" bin filled with my special cookie cutters, food coloring, cupcake wrappers and what not.  In the end I don't know if my pantry looks any more organized but at least I feel like it is.  And I would love to meet the person that thought a 23 inch long pantry was a good idea.  With that said here is my "organized really long shelfed pantry" minus the blood worms and 2 of the 3 containers of nutmeg.