Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed with all my “to-do” stuff so I decided I needed a break from doing what I’ve been doing and I would do something else. I thought it might be a good idea to clean the pantry and get organized. Looking into the pantry, I figured it might be a half-hour to 45 minute diversion from my crazy routine.
The first step to getting myself organized was to figure out what needed to be thrown away. That was easy. There was nothing that needed to be thrown away since my hubby and college-age son had already perused the pantry and that was why it needed to be organized. This step took me only one minute. It looked like I would have enough time to brew myself a cup of tea when I was through!
Okay, next step. I thought it would be helpful to put all the items I use for baking on one shelf, all the canned goods on another shelf in rows according to to size and dates they would expire, all of the snack foods on another shelf, and so on … and so on. I began pulling these things out of the pantry and making little stacks and piles. Some of the piles were getting a bit larger than others, but two shelves were cleaned off so I could begin putting things away. Fifteen minutes into this step I began to realize that this was not as easy as step one in my plan.
First of all, not all of the baking goods would fit on one shelf. Guess I would have a few “smaller” steps to create that perfect fit. (Now this is where I started to get into real trouble.) In my mind’s eye I had a vision of what my home, pantry and kitchen looked like when my children where very young. Everything in my kitchen was color coded with those wonderful Tupperware Modular Mates, the childrens toys all fit into the largest containers and were stacked perfectly when not in use. Even the bathroom toilet tissue, q-tips, cotton balls and feminine products were in color coded containers and organized. Oh, it was heaven!
It was time to sort the tupperware cabinet and gather my supplies. I dove in. I evaluated my options. I began to sort through the array of pieces and parts. Then I began to try to fit the pieces and parts together with the assortment of items from the pantry. Things were not going the way I had planned. In fact, I felt like I was putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle with no edge pieces and all in black and white. This might take a little longer than I had expected.
Forty-five minutes (yes, I know that was the planned time allotment, but I was on a roll!) into the moving, stacking, sorting, and piecing together of bowls, modular mates, flour, cereal, and bagged pretzels – I conceded defeat of the battle. The pantry has won for the time being while I step back and regroup my defenses.
In the meantime, I had a bit of a mess to clean up. First, the food stuffs since the cats in the household were taking a particular interest in the various bags of chips and boxes of open cereal. I must admit it did not take as long to throw (I mean, place) the food back into the pantry as it did to take it out and sort it in the first place. It was important to get everything balanced correctly though so as to not have anything fall on hubby’s head when he opens the door to rummage for his evening snack tonight. Having created a perfect balance in the pantry, I moved on to my final step in this organization project – returning the tupperware pieces and parts back into the cabinet from whence they came.
Remember the jigsaw puzzle? That was simple compared to this task!
It seems that while I was putting the pantry into perfect balance, those pieces and parts had been multiplying and rearranging themselves. Now that it was time to go back into that cabinet there were twice as much as what had come out! Although it took several minutes, let’s say, 40 minutes give or take 2, I won this battle. Everything went back into the cabinet and life is once again restored to a place of harmony and perfect balance!
Next time I think it’s a good idea to organize the pantry I think it’s the hubby’s turn to do it!
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