Stop Me Before I Organize Again!

This is not a sponsored post, though I wish it was!

Recently I got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the state of my pantry.  Everything was disorganized, I had mini bags of this and that everywhere.  My beautiful, but oh-so-bulky canisters took up too much precious counter space and they were a pain to use, so I still ended up keeping bags of flour and sugar in the pantry as well.  Everything was a mess.

The top of my fridge was a catch-all of everything that wouldn't fit in the pantry.  All kinds of boxes, bags, junk, everywhere.

Something had to give and as I cook a lot it wasn't really an option to scale back on what I have.  I like what I have, I use what I have.  There had to be another solution.

Well, what I've done isn't perfect, and it cost more money than I wish it had, but it's workable and user-friendly and I love it.  Now, I feel like almost every time I leave the house, I come back with more containers.  Stop me before my whole house is a series of canning jars, canisters, and Pop containers

[Sidenote:  The Container Store is a very dangerous place, did you know you can do all your shopping online, place and pay for your order, then drive to the store, call and let them know you're there, and they'll bring it to your car.  Awesome!!  And a bit dangerous.  ; ) ]

 Here's my snack drawer, with a few other things.  I love that it's easy to see what we have, how much we have, and it's easy for the kids to help themselves.  No more having 4 or 5 (or 6 or 7) half-used bags of this kind of pretzel or chip or whatever open.

 Cereals on top of the fridge.  

Easy to see what there is, how much is left.

 My baking cabinet.

There are 14 jars of milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chips, bittersweet chips, peanut safe chips, butterscotch chips, Hershey kisses, M&M's, Heath chips, etc., etc.  You name it, I've probably got it, and before it was in tons and tons of opened bags making a huge mess.  I love having them in easy to see, easy to find jars.

 Some flours, 1/2 used boxes of pasta, etc.

 Ack!  I'm trying very, very hard not to look at this picture too long.

If I do, I'm simply going to have to go out and get containers for the pasta and taco shells.  *sigh*

 Rice.  *sigh*

I may have a problem.

I have long grain white, short grain white, Arborio, Jasmine white & brown, wild rice, brown rice, you name it, I've probably got it.  And I use it, I do!  Just obviously not terribly often and again, all those bags were making me crazy.  When organizing I discovered 2 partially used and 1 full box of barley.  At least with this system that won't happen again.

 Finally, sugars and flours.

I truly *heart* this.

I've got my brown sugar, which I did not realize would stay super-soft in a glass canning jar, plain white sugar, vanilla sugar, all-purpose flour and bread flour nice, easy, and within reach all the time.

It's not perfect, it's not for everyone, but I love it.

Also, much to Mark's chagrin, I'm probably not done yet.  I just can't seem to help myself, it makes my heart happy to see everything clean, sealed, and easy to find.

There's always room for improvement, but for me, I have had great luck with Ball quart-sized canning jars, Fido hermatic sealed jars in various sizes and Oxo Pop containers.  The glass canning jars and Fido jars are pretty inexpensive, sadly the Oxo Pops are not.  Still, I'm looking at it as an investment.  Hopefully they'll stay nice enough and work well enough that they'll be in my kitchen for years and years.

Check out 5 Minutes for Moms for more Tackle it Tuesday projects.