{ Assignment #3: Purge the Pantry }
I knew it was coming. Tuesday. I saw it on the January Cure calendar. I was excited and dreaded it at the same time. PANTRY day. This is one major trouble spot in my house. It looks worse than it is. The pantry is like a game of Jenga, items are not packed in but placed haphazardly throughout and tossed-in, and last week something presumably from the top came crashing down.
I was unable to complete the task on Tuesday (I assisted in hosting a retirement party), and likewise on Wednesday as I had appointments in Northern Virginia and important phone calls to attend to in the evening. I’ve kept working on it little-by-little while focusing mainly on each day’s task. My kitchen may be in an uproar, but so far, so good.
My pantry shelves are deep which allow me to purchase multiples of on-sale items with my coupons. The downfall is that it’s harder to see in the back to (1) use up the items, and (2) make sure that we use what is opened prior to opening up a new box of pasta, matzo crackers, or popcorn. I’ve made a note on my January Cure inventory that I need some sort of solution for this. I got out my grandfather’s tape measure and measured out the particular space needed for the boxed pastas and like-items. I won’t look for solutions right now, but at least I have the measurements and ideas can start to roll around the back of my head.
I’ll be back with a better ‘after’ image of the panty with more functional use of space and coordination.
How do you make the best use of space while maintaining order?
Right from their website:
“Taking just one month and investing some effort (21 do-able assignments in total throughout January) toward a cleaner, more organized and more peaceful home. If you are ready to get your place back in shape (and reap the rewards for the whole rest of 2016) the very best way is one manageable step at a time, during our once-a-year-only January Cure. By the end of the month, you’ll be have a cleaner, fresher, more organized home, guaranteed!”
The best way is to sign up for the weekday emails from Apartment Therapy (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2016-895). They will send you an email each morning with the task, with a click-thru to their website for more information.
Complete the activities, gain inspiration and motivation from others in this journey, and be sure to connect with others along the way.
Apartment Therapy (www.apartmenttherapy.com) is an amazing website to find resources and ideas, especially suited for small spaces or spaces that families need to consider form and function. They share real-life situations with funky wall sizes and lack of closet space. The real deal.
Connect with others through the daily January Cure prompts, and on social media using #thejanuarycure as the hashtag. Use #districtlight so that I can more easily find you and comment too. Come back to the blog and post your insights too!