It all began with a little Spring cleaning. Pull out all the food to clean out what is old and can be thrown away, wipe down the shelves and organize a little. Simple enough, right?!? But once I started with that then why not organize the entire space. You know, some new containers, labels, lids... all the stuff we just must have to convince ourselves we are organized. And then you see I only did what any diy designer would do...I decided to paint. OK let me explain.
Last Monday my pantry looked liked this...
...a big old mess. So I pulled everything out creating an even bigger mess.
Yup, my husband was thrilled to find all this chaos when he got home after a 16 hour day. Poor guy!
Next I took a trip to The Dollar Store and hit the jackpot, 20 containers for yup a dollar a piece. Um that equals $20 by the way. You can't beat that deal! I filled my new containers with all things baking, a few healthy items and some kiddo snacks.
I used chalkboard labels for the more permanent items and dry eraser pen for everything else. So far pretty simple. However now that the pantry was empty I noticed one yucky problem...the walls. The white walls were dirty, scratched up and really in need of some fresh paint. And who am I to pass up the opportunity to add a little color. So I pulled out the left over gray which I used in the family room and got to painting.
Now for any experienced DIY-er you already know this but if you are new to the experience let me make you aware that in every project there will be a hiccup. And this hiccup can be big, small, minor or ugly...but there will be a hiccup. And this moment is when newbies might get intimidated but veterans get giddy, cause in truth this is the fun part. Jump in and get to problem solving! So what was my hiccup? It was this...
All my shelves slipped out with a little maneuvering but one shelf was not working with me. The space between this shelf and the one above it was to small to wiggle the shelf out. And we all tried...me, my husband, the dogs, my daughters. Well OK just my husband and I but neither of us had any luck. So it was time to get to problem solving, which in this case meant a hammer and pry-bar.
Yup, I had to rip the shelf brackets off the wall but I managed to do so without any major damage which means when I was all done I luckily could just nail them back up and it was as good as new. So minor setback in the big picture of DIY setbacks.
So once the paint was dry, the shelves cleaned and touched up with some white paint, and everything was back in place I got to the fun part...putting it all back together. I picked up a few more items. This can shelf at Bed, Bath & Beyond.
And this lovely tea tray(also from BB&B).
An awesome birds nest looking basket for napkins, plates and plastic goodies from World Market.
And this little green bowl, also from World Market, to hold chip clips. (I love chip clips!)
So you put it all together and you get this...
...my newly painted, wonderfully organized and now pretty pantry.
It makes me so happy. Oh and so does this new little knob I got for the pantry door.
I bet you want to come over and grab snacks out of my kitchen pantry now! Well come on over cause for once I know where everything is!
