The journey of cleaning up all my crap begins in my pantry

I'm "remote blogging" from Mom and Dad's house right now. Tomorrow is the Hill Country Yarn Crawl, and by spending the night here so I'll be that much closer to my destination tomorrow morning.

But first...

Last week I was perusing the DVD collection at my local library when I came across a copy of Organizing from the Inside Out with Julie Morgenstern. I'd heard of the book, but I didn't know there was a DVD.

There was some very good stuff in the DVD. One of the biggest things that I took away was the importance of the proper storage tools. Morgenstern says she uses the model of a kindergarten classroom when she organizes. Everything has a good, accessible, fun storage place. The room can be cleaned up quickly, and there is a "visual menu" of what you can do in the room.

She also said that you should start somewhere small, so I decided start with my pantry so I can finally accomplish something.

Here is my pantry before:


You can see that it's not all that bad, but it there was some stuff from Sam's that wouldn't fit. It made putting away groceries harder.


When Jules was here in December, he started putting plastic bags in the bottom of the pantry so they wouldn't end up all over the place. I kept putting them there after he left. I also put some food down there that didn't fit on the shelves very well.

Here is everything during the process:


I found some oatmeal packets that had bugs in them, so it was probably a good thing I went through everything.


I found this in a box of Microwave popcorn. I have no idea where it came from. Is it glass or plastic? Was this some sort of prize in the box? Did this come with me from Florida?

Here's the after pictures:


I went to Walmart for organizing tools, but couldn't find stuff that was quite right. Target wasn't much better, but I bought the orange and green bins and kept the receipt. They turned out to be just right. I may buy one or two more. It'd be nice to have something like this. I may or may not spend the money for one.


I got the plastic bags off the floor. I have a bag holder for them. Somewhere. (I took all the old ones to recycling. I'm sure I'll have more for garbage soon enough.) Now all that's left on the floor is my stash of free sodas from HEB combo locos and meal deals. I don't drink these, but I keep them around so I can offer to bring soda to parties.

This morning I went to get my mandarin oranges to put in my lunch. I opened the pantry and I smiled.

Now I just need to get the rest of the apartment under control. Or maybe I'll just keep perfecting the pantry.