Boxes and Cans

 The other day I read/listened/watched something about food waste. One of the points that surprised me was the fact that how often cereal goes to waste.  Because the boxes are often truck-sized and if you don’t have children – or their tastes change, as they tend to do – the cereal can be stale by the time the bottom of the box is reached.  Also, the fact that the waxed bags aren’t air-tight and why doesn’t cereal come in ziplock bags in this day and age.  Crackers or chips are a similar situation in the food waste category.  Then there’s the old joke about fresh vegetables and fruit bought with the best of intentions but offered to the refrigerator gods instead.

Anyway, this is about pantry organization.  Yes, it is.

The whole cereal thing prompted me to actually browse the pantry organizer options. Before I was thinking it was expensive – or shall I say Expensive TO ME – and what good does it do anyway.  Also, I didn’t want to be That Woman who has everything boxed, sorted, and labelled.  (Yes, yes I do, let’s be honest) But the alphabet brain has other plans.

This made me think about all the canisters that one sees in the vintage/antique shops to store food.  Because Grandma had a cellar or a root cellar and they stored food on the regular.  Or, if you were alive during the great depression: it was coffee cans and cookie tins.  Modern day grandmas trend toward butter containers and many times washed ziplock bags.  #askmehowIknow

Meanwhile.

I found an inexpensive set and bought it on impulse.  I figured that if it arrived and I had lost interest in this particular side quest or they weren’t as cool as on the social media, I would return them.

Color Kevin skeptical at this point but he’s learned to just let me go with these kinds of things.  Either it will work out for the better or I’ll go back to how it used to was.  Odds are 70/30.

I spent Sunday afternoon figuring out what fits in what.  It was a big 24-piece set with 6 “cereal sized” containers.  Then six of three other sizes, down to small enough I don’t know what they’re intended for in a kitchen. I need to go look at the photos.

What I didn’t think about was the now necessary restructuring of said pantry.  These containers, while nice and air-tight, take up more space that the regular boxes.  Well, of course they do; otherwise this wouldn’t be a Surely story.

Cue me taking everything off of one row of two shelves.  I’ve said it before: you often have to make a mess to clean a mess.  Achievement Unlocked.

Now, when we chose this kitchen layout we were actually excited about the pantry.  We’d never had one and we made many jokes about what else other than food we could store in it.  Now we have it and I would seriously never live in a house without one again.

Oh, pause.  On the clock app there was a woman who put her dishes, pans, etc. in the pantry then put her FOOD where the dishes etc. were.  I think that just might be crazy enough to work.  But I’m not interested in doing it.  Her reasoning was something about children and husband access and that isn’t a thing for me.

Anyway.

The pantry has builder-grade wire shelving.  I’ve been continually frustrated at playing dominoes with boxes or smaller items that don’t sit squarely on those shelves.  This container idea could help with that.  So that was a legitimate issue that could be addressed with said organization project.

BUT THEN, I thought about Monica’s Closet.  I’ve said for years that I wanted to make it into a nook of sorts and I’m nearly there.  It’s painted, organized and decorated.  I almost have room for a chair in there.  (more on that on a different bloggity post)   It has one row of that particular shelving and it’s installed ridiculously high.  I can easily walk under it so it’s almost like it’s not there.  

But it is and the alphabet brain tracks that.  My solution was to go to the dollar store and buy white, plastic placemats. They are the PERFECT size.  Now it just looks like a shelf…or a ceiling, as Kevin joked.

Cue me going to the dollar store on Monday morning to buy placemats.  This is one of those things where you just wonder and regret why you didn’t think of this sooner.  It’s such an easy and inexpensive fix.  And if people already know this, then WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME.

Now, cereal is sorted and other things are containerized that I didn’t think of until I had everything pulled apart.  Yes, I lost some real estate but this will solve the alphabet brain’s issue of object permanence.  While I can see and read the boxes, actually seeing the Cereal itself is a Whole Other Level.

During the pandemic, we added a shelf way up top for ice chests, lunchboxes, and bigger items.  We thought we were So Cool when we did that and now we’re even cooler, I must say. A while ago, I added a small baker’s shelf also that has purposefully become kind of a catch-all.  Right now it has Lotus and coffee supplies and a can of paint from Monica’s Closet.  Like people do.

One of my coping mechanisms originally in this space was to use cubbies to store fruit, bread, etc.  Mostly the bigger items, kind of. Then it branched out to smaller boxes for seasoning packets, spices, etc.  So I had already containerized the pantry, I just now took it all the way home.

I haven’t made labels, yet.  The set came with the old fashioned black labels and chalk pen but I haven’t used them yet.  I also have a label maker…because of course I do…that I could use.  Some of the bins have sticky notes on them from when someone else stayed at our house or because I didn’t want to climb the stool to remember which box had napkins and which box had junk.

All in all, it feels like this was a success.  It’s not been a week yet so jury is still out.  I know that I think about having cereal more now during the day so that’s a win.  I used to subsist on cereal back in my 20’s.

Also, it just feels more pleasant in there. I momentarily thought about painting the walls a fun color but quickly realized how not fun that would be with all the shelving.  That's not a no, but it's a pause on that particular thought.

This was the early version of the pantry

This is nearly completed, please ignore the recycling that
my brain refuses to acknowledge