Decluttering the Pantry in 30 Minutes

We have a small pantry in a hallway that holds canned food, bottles, jars and a few bread mixes. It's a little annoying that we always have to crouch down to find anything in the pantry, but it's even more annoying when the pantry is a mess like it has been for the past few years.

Before decluttering

During decluttering

After decluttering

I took 30 minutes one weekend to go through the entire pantry, get rid of a few items, give some food away and even make lunch that day with a few items. Now it's clean and organized by type of food and how often we need an item.

Now what do I do with canned Malaysian rambutan fruit?

Decluttering Under the Stairs Storage

In my mother's house is a strange, but rather large cabinet under the stairs. For years it has been neglected and random items like Halloween decorations, Christmas wrapping paper and art projects have been relegated to this dark hole. It's also been the place where my husband likes to store his various beers. There was never any shelving built in the space, so over time it has become cluttered and items are just piled on top of each other. With the holidays coming up, I thought last weekend would be a good time to clean out and organize the cabinet. That meant putting on knee pads and climbing into the dark, cobwebby space. Fun.

I purchased a few plastic shelving packages from Home Depot and began to clean and toss out what was not being used. You can see below what the space used to look like. Don't ask what was going to be done with that huge gourd in the corner.

Below you can see what the space looked like after I tackled it. Since I got rid of so much junk and old boxes, I did not have to utilize the space in the very back of the cabinet. In addition, it only took me about one hour to clean out the space and reorganize it. My cabinet under the stairs project is a good example of what can be accomplished in an afternoon with only about $60 worth of shelving and some knee pads.

 

 Photos by Christina Nellemann