Absent Blogger...and a Pantry Makeover

Well, folks sorry to be absent so long I can give you a long list of reasons why I haven't blogged like I really haven't had a lot new to share with you or my husband came home after a 5 month absence or I've had a nasty cold all of which would be true.  However, I'll just leave it at sorry it's been so long I will be better next week. 

We have some exciting weather here in eastern Indiana, Spring has sprung this week!  It's so nice been in the 60's and we've been out for a walk, the kids have been riding their bikes.  It's been so nice.  I can't tell you how happy I've been having my husband back in our home.  It truly seems like a home.  He has been so great about giving me a bit of a break getting up with the kids everyday this week and making them breakfast and getting them ready for school.  I've had a nasty cold with sinus headaches so this has been great.  He's been helping me with the all the housework.  At the same time I keep telling him he is a allowed to relax and do nothing at least for a little while, LOL!  He is retired.  He's been working on on media room box that he's creating for theatre like seating.  I'll be sharing more on that later.

On the subject of cleaning and reorganizing last week I worked on my pantry it had gotten a bit out of control here's what I did to help regain control. 

1.  I went through each shelf and tossed or pitched anything old or out of date.  Then a swept off the shelves from any little spills or debris. 

2  Then I grouped like things together changed my mind about where a few things should go.  You know how you change your mind after a while of living with things a certain way.  I took duplicate items to my extra storage in the basement.  This is where I'm going to keep staples like extra condiments, sugar, flour, big paper towel packs.  

3.  I have a shelf for baking things, snacks/breakfast items, condiments and seasonal plates, napkins and cake decorating items, gourmet foods for entertaining, and canned goods.

Here's the surprising thing that I wanted to share with you I moved into my house at the very end of September and I cleaned and tossed things before I moved I still found more than one old/expired thing in my pantry.  So I just want to encourage you to periodically go through and clean it out so that you don't end up with expired food etc.  I must have missed some of the things I had when I did this before. 

Before

After

Here's some books/products that you might like about organizing I see a lot of people doing things on their blogs lately to gain control of clutter.  They're full of good ideas.  

Next week I'll be sharing my spring decor with you, I got mine up yesterday, just waiting for some sunshine so I can take pictures.  Have a great weekend and enjoy the weather wherever you may be!

Carey