Wednesday, January 21, 2009

My dream pantry...almost!

First I have to apologize for keeping you hanging...we found out this afternoon our toddler has pneumonia (!!) so we have been dealing with doc and pharmacy visits, breathing treatments, phone calls, etc., all night. He's only got a cough and otherwise is great...we just feel so awful for him. AND I'm supposed to go on a trip out of town this weekend and now I'm not sure if it will happen...time will tell. I hope he gets better quickly! My poor baby...


Anyhoo...last year started my quest to have a GORG pantry. Don't ask me why. I obsess about the little things. I want to get a new door with glass panes...but with the seedy glass in them so you can't really see everything inside. I want a light installed at the top of the pantry (WHY don't we think of these things when we build our homes???) so when the lights are off in the kitchen, I can just turn that on and it will just glow...sigh. I see it all in my mind. I'm weird, I know.

BUT that takes lots of money...soooooo onto the new plan. I saw Melaine's new organized pantry last week and it put me into a tizzy. I HAD TO HAVE IT. So I started my thrifty sleuthing and figured out a way...

I found some big honkin' glass containers that were perfect for my quest at Hob Lob early this week. I stood in the aisle staring at them for about 15 minutes because they were $8 and not on sale. Should I?? Shouldn't I?? I decided to be patient and wait till they went on sale. But then I went to the Deals store and there they were. For $5. OK, still not a great deal, but better. And no more delayed gratification! So I grabbed one, thinking I'd see how they worked.

Got to the checkout and she says, that will be $1 something...I said WHAT HUH?? And asked about the big $5.00 tag on them and she said, nope they are ringing up at a dollar!

Good God woman, I love you!!

Before she could change her mind, I said real quick and quiet (so the manager wouldn't hear) -- can you add five more on please??? I went back (fast.) and scooped up five more, blew a kiss to the cashier on the way back out and SKIPPED OUT THE DOOR. Whew. hoo.

I went ape crazy when I got home...and turned this:



Into this:

The skies open up...birds sing...

Later that day, I went back for more. DRATS they had fixed the price!! But the kind checkout lady pointed to some huge honkin' plastic containers that were a dollar as well and the skies opened up again. They were PERFECT for the snacky foods my son eats. This way he can get to them and not have to pick up a five pound glass container. (This is good. Things happen for a reason.)

Then I went to Lowe's and got a piece of plywood cut into five shelves. Got some shelf liner and covered them and just laid them on top of the wire shelves (I. hate. wire. shelves.) and this is the result:

Do you hear singing? I hear singing. Remember my little clue? (Ummm...hilarious reading your guesses by the way...) I bought wood rulers, painted the backs with my extra chalkboard paint, and hung them with ribbon:
You know I labeled them all:



I ended up putting all of the pasta, flour, powered sugar, rice, brown sugar and three containers of crackers and two of cookies into these glorious jars/containers. (Oh, and I need to go grocery shopping in a BAD way. It is normally not this empty, I swear.)
I hear singing.
I never knew how glorious the container in the pantry idea was -- it's AWESOME. Now I can see what we have and how MUCH we have. Deals Store Heaven, help me.
This whole project was $10 for the plywood. Six dollars for glass containers. Six for plastic containers. Five for shelf liner and $2 for the rulers. Two trash bags full of old food and cardboard boxes and $29 later, a new organized pantry.
I realized last night many of you probably aren't quite as excited as I am about this...but I just had to share. Many of you are saying..."Huh. A pantry. Wow. She's lost her mind." But you know I'm a bit of a freak so you'll just have to deal.
Thanks for sharing in the madness ladies!

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