Happy Monday! I thought I’d start the week off on a positive, clean note. Remember what a disaster my pantry was last week?? If not, here are a few totally embarrassing pics:

Oh NO!

GRACIOUS! Again, observe rum next to protein powder next to nursery duck snow globe next to protein powder next to Terro ant killer…

The mish-mash…

So that’s really, really bad, right? Well, yesterday I couldn’t take it anymore. My friend, Sara, (bless her heart) had offered to come out and clean the pantry for me as a baby gift. (That really says how bad it was when your friend will do it for you!) I will still take her up on an assisted trip to buy multiple containers to store things in for the pantry but, I HAD to do something about the mess. I couldn’t take it anymore. I started with a good, old fashioned game of “Let’s Be Honest.” Have you ever played that game? Here’s how it goes:

1. Evaluate the project at hand. Realize you need to devote at least an hour…to get started. Hope it won’t take that long!

2. Begin going through each item in the cluttered area.

3. With each item ask yourself, “Have I used this/worn this/needed this in the last six months?” The answer is a BIG FAT NO most of the time. Sometimes you fudge because you are emotionally attached to the item in some way (a wedding coozie, the black, worn-out flip flops you wore on your Honeymoon). Well…you need to SMACK your FACE and say, “LET’S BE HONEST: I NEED TO GET RID OF THIS OR IT WILL SIT THERE FOR ANOTHER 10 YEARS.” Then, throw it out.

4. Once something is in the throw out/give away pile, that’s it. You cannot retrieve it or change your mind.

I know that sounds harsh but people like me NEED that kind of harshness in the game. Hence the name, “Let’s be honest.”

Okay so here are the beautiful results of my game with the pantry:

Everything in it’s place…the cooking gear in on a cooking shelf, the cookbooks on a cookbook shelf, canned goods on a canned goods shelf…

Pasta on the “pasta” shelf…no sign of whey protein, snow globe, Terro ant killer anywhere. Sub in “snack” shelf complete with sassy mermaid bowl for yogurt raisin boxes, goldfish packs, etc.

That’s right, the rum moved to the liquor shelf:

Please note 1/2 the coozies are there now as well as 1/2 the liquor. That’s right. I threw out booze. It was hilarious…we had four bottles of Wild Turkey in there. No one in this house drinks Wild Turkey. I may have been called that once or twice but, well, you get it. We didn’t need it in the pantry.

Oh! And, look at that beautiful space on the floor. Now we have a lovely space for our recycle bin!

I hope this inspires you with your nesting, Spring Cleaning, “lighten your load” projects! I promised you Sara’s Top Five organizing tips…she is visiting family so I’ll get back to you on that one.

Happy Monday!

Adrianne