Comments on: Spring Cleaning Challenge: Pantry or Food Cupboard

By: Avivah @ Oceans of Joy

Avivah @ Oceans of Joy — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:48:34 +0000

I did this challenge last week but got so busy I didn’t come back here to share on it! Because I have a much larger pantry than most people thanks to my bulk shopping habits and family of 11, it took me 2 – 3 days to get it done! Part of this was because I needed to replace the flimsy metal shelving that I was using in the basement (where I store all bulk items) with heavy duty shelving. That was a huge job but so worthwhile- I now have room for everything, the shelves aren’t bowing anymore, and it looks great.

I like to use square buckets that hold about 40 lb of grains for my bulk storage. Though they don’t hold as much as the 5 gallon buckets, I find them to be more space efficient since they fit neatly on shelves without wasted space between them. I also find the lid much easier to open than the lids of most 5 gallon buckets (I have a lot of those, too!). You can sometimes get them free from restaurants – they often contain liquid eggs or frozen fruit. Otherwise they can be purchased from an online store like Lehman’s.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:16:03 +0000

Here’s a link to my blog post:
http://lifeink.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/spring-cleaning-carnival-week-2-the-pantry/

So glad I’m doing this. Thanks!

By: Heidi

Heidi — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:30:33 +0000

Got it done. I even found a gallon of raw honey that I didn’t know I had. Amazing what you find while organizing : ).

By: Erica

Erica — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:40:52 +0000

My pantry is looking much better. We’re clearing out those cans and stocking it with dried beans and bulk grains. It is looking much better. Good-bye packaged crackers..I”m making my own now!!! My hubby was a big help with this one!

By: Kay

Kay — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:59:02 +0000

Done!! I’m the proud owner of a well organized and labeled pantry cabinet. Thank you!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:58:44 +0000

I probably have over 5o spices too, and very little cabinet space. There was no way I could keep all the jars. I bought “snack” size plastic bags, labeled them, and put the spices in there. Then I bought three plastic boxes that were the right size for the snack bags and also fit in the cabinet, alphabetized the spices, and labeled the three boxes accordingly. This may be a little excessive, but it works for me. I also buy small amounts of spices from the co-op to replenish each bag; the spices stay fresher that way. (My boyfriend gets to keep 10 jars or so for the spices he uses when he cooks — since my approach doesn’t work for him!)

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:51:26 +0000

It took me all week but I finally finished! I didn’t have too much to do in the pantry other than figure out what some of it was (I’m really bad about labeling things!) and trying to remember how old some of it was. I only threw out one or two things and moved some things to the front in an effort to use them up quickly. If I don’t use them by the end of the month I’ll throw them out! I think one of the mystery jars is amaranth…guess I’ll find out when I cook it! I do store almost all my beans and lentils in mason jars.

By: AJ

AJ — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:31:13 +0000

Wow. Having been in school the last 5 years lead to a quite the accumulation of random bags of herbs and spices. Glad to finally have time to wrangle that shelf. It was encouraging to see how much better I eat now.

By: Jacinda

Jacinda — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:20:38 +0000

Once again I found items that weren’t labeled with dates and I had to throw them out. I threw away a lot of food that wasn’t so great to have in my home and it feels great having this fresh start. Here’s a link to my blog post about it:

http://thiswillbehome.blogspot.com/2010/03/spring-cleaning-carnival-pantry.html

By: Beth @ The Nurturing Mama

Beth @ The Nurturing Mama — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:17:26 +0000

It’s been fun getting my pantry and kitchen all cleaned up! Here is a link to a post I did about cleaning my pantry.

http://nurturingmama.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/kitchen-spring-cleaning-carnival-pantry-cleanup/