I organized my pantry . . .

Today's post is truly the rambling of a middle-aged mom! I was blessed to stay home with our kids all during their growing up years. I kept a pretty clean and organized house. Along with twins going away to college, came the need for me to work. I can't believe what a messy housekeeper I have become!! It seems as if I never get everything totally straightened up at the same time. There are always stacks of paper, closets that need cleaning, etc. Well, I decided to tackle our pantry today. It was so bad that I even googled "how to organize a pantry" yesterday and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a few tools . . .like turntables and stackable things! Here is the before picture.
Here is a close-up shot - isn't that unbelievable?

The "organization lady" (the one from google!) said to take everything - every single thing - out of the pantry and start from scratch . . .which I did! Look at those empty shelves.
This is where I put it all . . .the dining room table!! The "organizing lady" said to group "like things" together. That was pretty easy for most things, but there were some odd things in my pantry!!

For one thing, there were a gazillion boxes of jello pudding and jello. I didn't have to put many back though because most of them had expired . . .in 2006!!! So those ended up in the trash.

There were eight - yes, count them - eight bottles of salad dressing. None of those were out of date!! Looks like we need to eat some salad! In the right front, are two boxes of dry onion soup mix. Who knew that there was even an expiration date on those . . .there is and they were both way past their prime.

okay - this is the funniest "grouping." Those who know me well, know that when Mark and I almost 26 years ago, I couldn't bake a thing. I guess I have learned to bake along the way. One of my specialties is Brown Sugar Brownies (the very first thing my mother-in-law taught me to bake!!) I have eight - yes, once again EIGHT - what is with the 8's??? - eight bags of butterscotch chips. I can make a lot of brown sugar brownies. I also found peanut m & m's - unopened and candy bark, etc.
So here are some shots of the newly re-organized pantry. I zoomed in on my new "baking shelf." I had three things of cocoa - none expired but all open . . .and not enough used to combine any :-)

Aren't you impressed? I know that I am!! Look at those neat and clean shelves. The whole top row is breakfast stuff - cereal, oatmeal, grits, poptarts . . .
Here is a shot of the completed project! I must say that I have had a productive day. I've prepared a Sunday School lesson, walked on the treadmill, run the dishwasher, stripped the bed (haven't put the clean sheets back on yet!), done some laundry (sheets!) and organized the pantry!! Whew!

Some of you must leave compliments . . .please . . .lots of people have visited but only two people have ever commented. Maybe I need to give away a prize . . .I don't think the prize will be to come and organize your pantry!!