I live in the middle of nowhere in the Spanish countryside. I miss flavored crisps, decent chocolate and exotic (!) foods such as coconut milk! So as a Christmas treat, my friend and I took a 5 hour round trip to the coast to a shopping mall to stock up on some goodies.
Of course we found ourselves in a few clothes stores before finding our way to the supermarket, but we got there eventually and boy did we shop!
This was great until I got home at 10pm and realized that the kitchen cabinet was so disorganized that there was no way I could fit anything else in. So I left my new purchases on the countertop until the morning and then got down to the business of decluttering and organizing the one cabinet shelf that I needed sorted to be able to put my shopping away.
This is what I was starting with. Not a pretty sight is it!
This is what I needed to add onto this shelf:
So I emptied everything onto the countertop …
… which left a clear shelf:
I checked all the best before dates and piled up the ‘out of date’ things as I went along. What a waste.
I gasped (!) at the 3 bottles of mixed herbs I didn’t know I had and at the fact that they weren’t even in the spice cupboard. Poor show Chloe!
I grouped like items together as I put them back in the cabinet and placed the things to use up first at the front. I did have a look around for anything I could use as a tiered or helper shelf but nothing came to mind. After the declutter and organization it turned out I didn’t need anything anyway though!
I’d purposefully stocked up on stock flavorings so as these are quite small, I corraled the oldest in a plastic container with other packets and started off my ‘excess’ pantry storage in a bookcase I’d moved out of my home office the other day.
I thought I was finished but didn’t like the wall of coconut milk blocking my view of the things at the back (see above) so I moved them around a bit.
Look at all that wasted space at the top. If I’m ever short of cabinet space that will be perfect for an undershelf basket or helper shelf.
So there you have it. I’m getting organized at home – one step, shelf, drawer or space at a time. Please join me and share your successes.