Finding Contentment

My pantry works hard

Now that we know we are staying where we are and not moving, I am motivated to really streamline, simplify and reorganize our home. I plan to do one room a week. Then when the weather warms up in the spring (so I can open the windows), I'll paint all the rooms and try to redecorate them on a shoestring budget.

This week I tackled my pantry. Our pantry is pretty big and stores a lot of stuff! I apologize that I forgot to take "before" pictures, but it was a pretty big mess, with a lot of things just sitting on the floor for lack of a space to put them. I added a couple of carts that were no longer needed in other rooms. This is the wall you face when you enter the louvered doors to the pantry.

Yes, the window has a black blind and a yellow curtain over it. This will be one of the things I'll need to find a solution to when I go to actually decorate. When the house was a duplex, this was a shared laundry room. This window lets in a ton of light and this room heats up fast. Not good when you're storing food in there. The black blinds help to keep the sun out, but still allow me access to look out the window if I want to.

On top of the white cart you'll see my vacuum sealer in the back and our basket of cloth napkins (we don't use paper) in the front. On the shelf is the dehydrator I bought recently at a yard sale. I haven't used it yet, but I think some dried apples may be a good first choice. The little box next to the dehydrator is my coupon box.

The cart on the right holds my Ice Beam Jr. defroster, which just arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. I need to try it out, too. This cart also holds my bread machine (which was in use on the kitchen counter when I took this picture), picnic baskets and various baskets and pails used for collecting eggs or garden vegetables.

To the left of the entrance are the pantry shelves. Yes, I am ashamed to say I still buy a lot prepackaged items. This homesteading thing is a slow process.

Under the shelves you'll see a bag of chicken feed. We don't have a shed and the basement - which is more of a cellar - tends to breed mold, so the chicken feed has to find a home indoors. You will also see a low table that my hubby made and stained. It is the perfect height for the container of dog food to fit snuggly underneath (yes, everyone's food is in the pantry). The step stool is the exact height of the table. The table gives the stool stability while I climb the steps to reach the top shelves.

   When my mother was still alive and in good health, she and I used to like to attend auctions together. I picked this cute hutch up at an auction for $20. It holds canisters of flour, sugar, cornmeal, yeast and cocoa. The bottom shelf holds snacks for the kids and inside the doors are cereal, powdered milk (for cooking), and my binder of recipes. Excuse the cleaning rag I left on the shelf - I was cleaning! The ugly, white, metal cabinet to the right of the hutch came with the house and holds our cleaning supplies and rags.

And last but not least is something you wouldn't expect to find in a pantry. This picture was taken from inside the pantry facing the doors. Above the doors, far away from the food is a rack that is temporarily holding my husband's hats until we can figure out where they should really go. The one thing this house doesn't have is a coat closet!