Tidy Tuesday – Clean the Pantry for a Move

So, once you commit to getting your kitchen remodeled, you suddenly realize that there is a lot of prep work involved. One of the biggest chores is probably sorting and packing your pantry. For this week’s Tidy Tuesday, I am involved in helping someone else do exactly that.

Photo:SXC

First up was going through every item and sorting it into one of three piles:

• Expired
• What was I thinking when I bought that?
• Keep

The keep pile was neatly boxed up and labeled and then placed in a dry area out of the way. The What was I thinking pile was sorted into “Doesn’t Alice eat refried beans?” and “Maybe someone at the mission likes canned okra.” sections.
Then, the food was packaged up to be carted off to different locations. The expired pile, which was thankfully on the small side, was tossed.

After this, we took out all the old shelf paper. Now, the pantry is ready for demolition.

A few quick tips:

• Pack things with lids right side up so the lids don’t leak.
• Use newspaper or another type of padding to keep jars and bottles from clinking against each other.
• Make liberal use of right side up arrows and clear labels on the boxes.
• Really think about whether something you bought will be used before you hold onto it. You need that valuable space for things you will eat, especially if you are planning to put together an emergency stockpile.